The emerging consensus among Democrats that they should ratchet back the health care stampede for now is certainly welcome, but not necessarily the corresponding view that they should focus instead on “fixing the economy.” “Fixing the economy” will mean the usual incompetent efforts to pick market winners or to bankroll pet projects like “green jobs,” rather than lowering the costs of doing business across the board through cutting taxes, regulation, and spending (pure supply-side tax cuts without commensurate spending cuts are as irresponsible as endless deficit spending). Even before the Brown upset, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa gave a preview of the typical Democratic noblesse oblige regarding “job creation”:
Whether talking about electric cars or his much-promised “Subway to the Sea,” Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has reworked his message during his second term to focus on a single overriding goal: jobs. . . . The mayor plans to target three sectors: biotechnology, clean technology companies and entertainment.
How about letting the market decide which sectors to target?
The Brown victory gives conservatives a true cause to celebrate, besides demonstrating that our democracy is still vibrant and that the world can change unpredictably with lightning speed. So maybe Republicans and conservatives can stop manufacturing pseudo-scandals regarding the opposition and start doling out criticism only for activities they don’t themselves engage in. Last night, radio host John Bachelor was deriding Obama as a big-government liberal for having voted twice as a Senator for TARP. That would be the TARP designed by the Bush Administration. Over the past several weeks, estimable conservative publications have run articles on the demonization of conservatives by the left and on Obama worship. All valid observations. But Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Mark Levin regularly announce that Obama wants to “destroy America;” the “pal-ing around with terrorists” conceit is still alive and well and has been joined by a “pal-ing around with Communists” meme; and the cult of Reagan was not just a late career phenomenon but arose almost immediately upon his entry into the political realm. Sarah Palin’s fans have not exactly been restrained in their estimation of her talents.
Yes, it annoys me to hear those in power talking about “jobs”. You can hire one person to dig a ditch and hire someone else to fill it up and you have two “jobs” but nothing getting done. Having a decade of experience dealing with the federal government, I consider any government-funded job to be a make-work sinecure unless proven otherwise. Obama and the Democrats have given me no reason to believe that their “jobs” programs will be any different.
Off the top of my head, I can think of one “jobs” program that I would wholeheartedly support. Let’s gather some posses to round up all the illegals, send them home, and defend our borders and coasts. Let’s hire an army of bureaucrats to expediently stamp DENIED on every visa application or renewal. We can call it “Jobs for Americans”.
Palin’s intent to support McCain’s re-election bid seems to have cost her the support of some of her more adoring acolytes. One false move and you get shoved right off the pedestal, nowadays.
Scott Brown has given the GOP a double-barrelled victory. One part is obvious – the Democrats no longer enjoy a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. But the other part is more subtle but much more important – the Republicans need to dump the Bush-McCain brand of pseudo-conservatism and concentrate on a more populist, more economically focused message. As the post correctly indicates, the Democrats will respond by proposing more government make-work jobs for their friends in the public employees unions, more subsidies and bailouts for their campaign contributor cronies in the private sector, and more spending on their porky special projects. This is the road to perdition that has taken us nowhere. Maybe the Republicans have finally gotten the message.
Palin’s intent to support McCain’s re-election bid seems to have cost her the support of some of her more adoring acolytes.
Good for them. Look at the monstrosity the Supreme Court struck down that was sponsored by McCain. If Palin will back him against another GOP primary competitor, the worse for her, IMO.
Also, seeing Meghan cry would be icing on the cake.
the Republicans need to dump the Bush-McCain brand of pseudo-conservatism and concentrate on a more populist, more economically focused message.
Bush and McCain both represent the populist option in their own ways. You can’t get more populist than Dubya was, with his appeals to the Evangelicals. McCain loved to demagogue Wall Street. Enough of that. Support candidates with solid records. Coakley was indeed an awful candidate, but Brown had a serious record of elective service in the state senate that allowed him to act as a suitable alternative.
Another thing about Brown is that, despite the truck that Obama obsessed over, he can’t be tarred with same yokel anti-intellectual brush that Palin was. He has a degree in history from Tufts, which although not Ivy League is certainly respected, and a J.D from Boston College Law School, which also has a good reputation. His wife is a long-time, well-regarded reporter for a Boston tv affiliate. And, thankfully, neither of his daughters has been impregnated by an imbecile. He does indeed come across as a populist, but a sophisticated one with the kind of academic/intellectual credentials that bewilder people who think that all populists are Bible-thumping morons who live in trailers.
By the way, a substantial proportion of the professors and administrators at Tufts are nearly suicidal over Coakley’s defeat. I could be wrong, but I don’t think Scott will be next year’s graduation speaker.
Black Death:
I’ve noticed lately the term “populist” used to denote policies or programs aimed at the center and at a somewhat conservative mindset favoring lower levels of government interference, taxation, redistributive progrqms, etc. What I’d point out is that this meaning is NEW (and is almost the reverse of the package characteristic of populists of the past: progressive taxation, cheaper money, more government spending and programs, etc.).
@Black Death
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/21/AR2010012103020_pf.html
Sen.-elect Brown navigated the Russell Senate Office Building on Thursday for his first appointment with Sen. John McCain.
A National Guardsman, Brown said in the interview that McCain was his senatorial model. “I have great respect for Senator McCain,” Brown said of the Arizona Republican, who was one of his first establishment backers. “I’ve known him for a while, long before this, and you know he is a war hero and kind of a maverick independent thinker.”