Topic: The GOP's present to Obama

[charlesoakwood]

Mitt Romney is a made man and it will be a miracle if
any other is the Republican candidate much less a con-
servative.

Erick has devoted much thought to our Romney dilemma. 
Here is a scant sentance and some pictures.

[blockquote]The closest equivalent to Campaign 2012 with Barack Obama running against Mitt Romney won’t be found in the recent era. You’ll have to go all the way back to France, 1793, and the campaign of Robespierre against Marie Antoinette.

his house in Utah
his stone cottage
and his Belmont home
 [/blockquote]
Hey, no class warfare king could pass this up, and then the videos, and the punch line - - - .
Teddy Kennedy prepared Barry's attack ads

Why can't those fools see they are backing a looser?  Why do we keep voting for these fools? It's as if we are on a plantation controlled by Democrats and have swallowed the illusion of hope they feed us.  We the comfortable North Koreans.


Well, you can't say he doesn't have good taste.

[charlesoakwood]

Paul Rahe: The Soft Despotism Of Mitt Romney And Newt Gingrich

Over at Ricochet, Paul Rahe effectively destroys any argument that either Newt, or Mitt are genuinely conservative thinkers.

 [blockquote]  If I am right in my fears in this regard, the Tea Party impulse will dissipate; the Republican party will split; the Democrats will return in 2016; and 2012 will be seen in retrospect as just another bump in the long, gentle road leading us to soft despotism.
[/blockquote] 
Even with their allegedly changed positions, they don't get it. As I've said, instinctually, they are big government progressives, failing to comprehend how their grand designs for alleged good government infringe upon individual liberty in new and unique ways. Paging Ann Coulter, who now appears to be as clueless and Mitt and Newt. More at link above.

Paul A. Rahe holds The Charles O. Lee and Louise K. Lee Chair in the Western Heritage at Hillsdale College, where he is Professor of History.

 [blockquote]

  The money left in our possession, however, is our own -- to do with as we please. It is in this that our liberty largely lies. Romneycare and Obamacare, with the individual mandate, changes radically our relationship vis-a-vis the government. The former presupposes that state governments have the right to tell us how we are to spend our own money, and the latter presupposes that the federal government has that right as well. Both measures are tyrannical. They blur the distinction between public and private and extend the authority of the public over the disposition of that which is primordially private. Once this principle is accepted as legitimate, there is no limit to the authority of the government over us, and mandates of this sort will multiply -- as do-gooders interested in improving our lives by directing them encroach further and further into the one sphere in which we have been left free hitherto.

    Managerial progressives see only the end -- preventing free-riders from riding for free. And they ignore the collateral damage done by way of the means selected. Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich have no understanding of first principles. For both of these social engineers, citizens are subjects to be worked-over by the government for their own good. Both men are inclined to treat us as children subject to the authority of a paternalistic state under the direction of a benevolent and omniscient managerial class.
    There is, however, this difference between Romney and Gingrich. The latter may or may not fully grasp why the Tea Party rose up against the individual mandate, but he recognizes that they did so, and he knows what is good for him -- so he has now backed away from the fierce advocacy of this despotic measure that once characterized his posture. The former is more stubborn. Politically, he is tone deaf. He seems constitutionally incapable of grasping the argument, he insists that the individual mandate is consistent with conservative principle, and he will not back off.

[/blockquote]   

http://www.riehlworldview.com/carnivorous_conservative/2011/12/paul-rahe-the-soft-despotism-of-mitt-romney-and-newt-gingrich.html

http://ricochet.com/main-feed/What-is-Wrong-With-the-Individual-Mandate

[Pandora]

Managerial progressives see only the end -- preventing free-riders from riding for free.

Both Romney and Gingrich have decided, in order to prevent the free-riding and keep everything fair, that every person must be forced to buy medical insurance.

But how did we get here, to a place where free-riding is possible, hmmm?

Because other men, just like Romney and Gingrich, decided in the past that, since nobody should go without medical care when needed, the medicos and their institutions must provide it (and I've no doubt whatsoever that if either man was asked if this mandate should continue, both would answer in the affirmative) despite the patient having no means with which to pay.

[radioman]

The "no one should be without healthcare" will do to the medical industry what "no one should be without a home" did to the housing/banking industry.

We're stuck with a democrat party that is evil and a republican party of MOrons.

[Glock32]

It doesn't matter. The ship is already taking on water, and just like the Titanic will inevitably end up 12,000 feet down at the bottom of the Atlantic.

The 2012 election well and truly is the election to decide who gets to be the fall guy.  I know it's a gloomy proposition, but it's also liberating. It's liberating to know that the tapestry of UNreality perpetuated by the Ruling Class and the media -- that narrative that so frustrates and confounds us -- will not survive its encounter with external, indifferent reality.  All the stuff that passes for news and public discourse has taken on an air of absurd theater. It could not be more meaningless or inconsequential in the face of what's coming.

[Pandora]

It doesn't matter. The ship is already taking on water, and just like the Titanic will inevitably end up 12,000 feet down at the bottom of the Atlantic.

The 2012 election well and truly is the election to decide who gets to be the fall guy.  I know it's a gloomy proposition, but it's also liberating. It's liberating to know that the tapestry of UNreality perpetuated by the Ruling Class and the media -- that narrative that so frustrates and confounds us -- will not survive its encounter with external, indifferent reality.  All the stuff that passes for news and public discourse has taken on an air of absurd theater. It could not be more meaningless or inconsequential in the face of what's coming.

Absurd theater, precisely.  If one can detach from the accompanying outrage, that is, "the stuff" is merely what will be historical footnotes; this is how sanity dies.

[Libertas]

Once more my thoughts turn toward what latter day Romans felt as they descended into anarchy.  Most had to see what was coming and were powerless to prevent it.  Like then, when most lose courage, the end is near.  See anybody courageous here?  Any magnetic personality speaking bold truths and gathering scores of supporters capable of turning this ship 180 degrees?  Nope, nowhere.  And those who are bold (like Paul Ryan this past summer) are punished for their boldness and abandoned by their so-called friends.  No courage, no hope, no chance.  Now, an anti-Romney, somebody who could turn the class warfare types on their head, could use such a battle to define this socialist bastard in the White House, but Romney cannot do it and will only make Obama's job easier.  gNewt has his own elitist nature as an anchor and provides Obama cover on several fronts as well.  At a moment in time when an outsider is needed, all we have for an outsider is Ron Paul.

We're screwed.