Like many conservatives, National Review columnist Mark Steyn has been working overtime trying to figure out What Went Wrong on November 6. While filling in on Rush Limbaugh's radio show Monday, Mr. Steyn shared these insights, starting with GOP success in the midterms:
“Republicans can have good years then because essentially they’re low-turnout elections — people who are engaged in politics vote. In the presidential years, people voted — a broader pool of voters comes in, and they’re basically people who swim in the broader culture. They’re not people who know the name of their congressmen or governor, and [they] aren’t terribly interested.”
And?
“The left tells the same stories — there are no bad people out there on the planet. ’There are just friends whose grievances we haven’t yet sufficiently accommodated. That’s what the left tells you. … It’s so easy, because it means you don’t have to think about anything. You just can sit on your porch, strum your guitar, do a little dope, or whatever they do these days. And the world goes on its way.”
Furthermore:
“If you just say we’re going to retreat, and we’re just going to discuss getting this or that congressman elected, then the sea that your children swim in and the sea your grandchildren swim in will be liberal, and it will be impossible to elect genuinely conservative candidates."
And as for the Republican Presidential candidate:
“Mitt Romney, who is a good man, an honorable man … fought a small, shriveled campaign. … What was the point of picking Paul Ryan as your running mate and not fighting a big-picture election on where America is? At least then, if we had fought a big picture campaign, we could have at least say we had lost with honor. … The next time, we deserve a candidate who fights a big national campaign on the existential questions facing the United States.”
So, to recap: 1) Republicans win low-turnout midterm elections because Democrats are too lazy and bored and dumb to vote for someone who isn't, ya know, president and famous and stuff.
2) The lesson liberals took away from 9/11 and eight years of Bush/Cheney is that there are no bad people on the planet. This dangerous lethargy is caused by a combination of guitars, dope, porches and presumably customized Chevy vans, shag carpeting and Led Zeppelin.
3) In the future, the sea will be liberal. Our children and grandchildren will swim in it and get liberal all over them.
4) This part seems exactly right.
Leave a Comment:
I'll gladly swim in a liberal sea and then sit on my porch and watch the conservatives regress back to their caves and 9,000 yr old dinosaurs.
It is interesting to watch both liberals and conservatives indulge in the Marxist idea of "false consciousness."
I mean, yes, I know it's not supposed to be "false consciousness" unless it involves the proletariat deluded into not rising up, etc. et. al.
So maybe I'm talking more about Critical Theory than Marxism, since Critical Theory has taken on false consciousness in terms of all kinds of hegemonies (even the kinds of liberal hegemonies that oppress poor deluded conservatives?).
Here's a handy quote from the bounty of the Internet, on good ol' Jurgen Habermas, someone Chris L. Hayes is a fan of (I got to argue with him once, but nobody could understand what he was saying, Habermas, that is, not Hayes, tho I did argue with Hayes once too. Habermas is quite elderly and appears to have a hairlip or something):
I dig on Paulo Freire, so that gave me a good excuse to post this quotation. FREIRE RULES! (emphasis above is mine)
See, ANY TIME ANY presumed ELITE (deep in Twilight or not) dispairs because the rank and file is not acting in ITS OWN BEST INTEREST, it invokes false consciousness, even if not by name.
We, here on high (wherever we are) can SEE you lowly whoever is in a state of false consciousness about your fate in life. You need to be liberated from your DELUSIONS. Here, let us HELP you, let us LIFT you, let us CONDESCEND to you and liberate you from your false beliefs and consciousness.
Yeah, that would be why I never made a very good Marxist. Theory takes it way past this, which is an overly simplified rendering.
But it's when a group scratches its collective heads, as their clueless masses, whoever the masses are, fail to REALIZE something that, to the group, is just obvious. How can they not SEE?
That's the shortsightedness of the very idea of false consciousness. That somehow _I— know better than you, which elevates me and takes agency away from you in your total wrongness.
I'm not saying relativism is better. Nooooo, never would say that. Am not a relativist either. That's a form of intellectual retreat, a failure to engage or persuade another with full respect for the other's agency, with full reciprocity.
But isn't it a funny idea, to try out? That the conservative "elite" can also sit around and bemoan the "false consciousness" of the poor deluded people who didn't vote their way?
My liberal sea is large enough for the conservatives too. It is when they decide to $hit in my sea or zone it as a private wealthy enclave that I object. A fancy theory can explain a lot but I am a liberal because I like people.
Well...living in Washington State where we got out the gay stoner vote (I dunno about the guitars) I take this as a compliment.
I live out in rural Indiana and lots of folks around here have Poaches and Guitars...I don't know about the dope but they have plenty of moonshine and there aren't more than a dozen Democrats within about 30 miles....
Must be the Poaches that keeps them away!
How about this...
Conservative political ideology: Not actually as popular as portrayed on FOX News...
Or, and more accurately I believe:
"[...after the election, Republican] B.S. piled-up so fast you needed wings just to stay above it."
(as adapted from a famous movie by Francis Ford Coppola)
A party is defined not by what it says but by what it does -- and in the case of a political party, that means by the way they pursue the power to rule.
I look at the Republican Party that Mr. Steyn and the strategy his party is evolving (can I say that?) and I wish him the best of luck in communicating it, and the values it implies, to the American people.
They have no trouble communicating it; it's accepting that Americans in the majority don't want what they're selling that is their problem. It's not the sales job, it's the product.
grumpyliberalbastard [1], are you telling us that if the American people clearly understand the Party of Mr. Steyn, they will reject it?
Oh, snap!
[1] May I call you "grumpy" for short? I always did like him better than the other dwarves.
That is precisely what I'm saying. If you take the behaviors, strip them of identification of where they come from or who is responsible, and posit them to your average American, they reject them the majority of the time. It's like when you break the ACA down into its parts and ask if people like each of them, they say yes; the negative attaches to the whole because of fear-mongering and lies. The only reason the GOP have a "market share" is that they spin convincing lies based on slanted data through a few major media outlets who present them as news and information rather than the propaganda that they are.
Yeah, sure, Grumpy is fine by me. It's usually that or GLB... it's hard to know if people calling me "bastard" is shorthand, or an attempt at insult. ;)
Well guys, being the party of "free stuff" is going to be a winner when half the country doesn't have to pay for it. Obama voters come in two varieties. People that want free stuff, and people that want to give it to them.
Once again shooter doesn't know what he's talking about. I don't know anybody asking for "free stuff" and neither do most rational people. Only right wing nut jobs repeating Fox Lies talking points.
You forgot about people who think shooter is a moron.
Rusty, some do think Bull is a moron. Most, however, are less generous.
The main people who want things for free are millionaires who don't want to pay taxes for the infrastructure that makes their prosperity possible. Also, the last person in the White House who did stuff "for free" was Bush, in that he kept the wars he started off the budget and pretended it didn't cost anything. He was also the one who brought in giant giveaways to the rich and corporations. So, Shooter, why don't you take your Fox talking points and shove them somewhere uncomfortable?
"The next time, we deserve a candidate who fights a big national campaign on the existential questions facing the United States.”
I'm sure Mr. Sweater Vest will be happy to oblige. Would you just go the hell away then, if you got your political teeth kicked down your throat in public? If he lost worse than he did in Pennsylvania?
so Steyn would have been happier if Frothy Santorum had managed to RUN (and gotten his sorry WORTHLESS A$S kicked by 65-35?)
You forgot Medicare Part D, Mr. Bastard
I'm not Mr. Bastard; that's my father... ;) And yes, Part D is a worthy example, and a very direct giveaway to a traditional conservative voting group.
Oh for @!$%#s sake. Are we still on the free stuff bull @!$%#? My husband voted for Obama, works 6 days a week many weeks, we don't get hand outs except medicaid for my kids. As for giving people free stuff, well hell yes I'm ALL FOR EVERYONE having let's say...health care and food if they need it. If you want to see hand outs, look to Washington DC and the coroporate world. Again, for @!$%#'s sake.
He's a perfect fill-in for Rush; just as dumb, just as wrong, just as out of touch with reality, and just as ready to slander others without fact or basis other than they don't vote as he likes.
Only JUST as DUMB? This guy makes rushie look like a goddamm GENIUS
Wow, something/someone can make Rushie look like a genius!
Wow, something or someone can make rushie look like a genius? Katy hold onto them donkeys!
I say just as dumb because you can't get lower than the bottom. It's like absolute zero. Maybe we should call it absolute idiocy.
And Republicans don't sit on the porch and strum their guitars and smoke dope? That is an illusion. What liberals do is live and let live. They don't try to tell women to do with their bodies and they don't try to tell people who to love.
Banjos, my dear Morgan, banjos.
(Apologies -- I'd have used an honorific except that "Alma" both a masculine and a feminine name and I'd rather not guess wrong.)
Whew, Pshaw, & I'm so glad I don't support such tripe through hidden taxes! Or, do I?
Oh, and by the way, the last time I checked the Sea, (any of them), it wasn't necessarily liberal nor conservative - just polluted and creeping toward untolled high water marks! -Kevo
Hey - I'm a leftie and I can name a few bad people. How about starting with Mark Steyn and Rush Limbaugh?
LOL
Great. Just great. I can't play any instrument — not even spoons — and don't smoke dope or do ANY drugs.
But here's what I can do, Mark Steyn:
• I can make phone calls to Ohio and Wisconsin to get out the vote
• I can travel to Nevada in a 15-passenger van with a bunch of strangers to get out the vote for democrat candidates and come back in a van full of new friends and a new network of progressives contacts.
• I can take a letter to U.S. Rep. Pete Campbell's office tomorow that asks him not to vote to amend social security, medicare or medicaid, and I can leave him with pics of people who will be impacted by cuts.
What can YOU do, Mark Steyn? You can continue harping the same old Republican/Tea Party/Neo-Con/RWNJ talking points so that your listeners can nod their heads and think that someone — thank God, SOMEONE — understands them and speaks for them. And you keep on thinking that, sir, and the next election will slip away from you, too.
@madabip
I think that's called kicking the old elephant's butt down the road!
What is your suggestion to keep social security, and medicare solvent? What exactly do the dems propose? There is no answer. There is silence from them when you talk about the sacred cows. You can't be serious about doing nothing and just letting them run their course and end with a whimper. I am amazed at either the lack of caring about the programs or the stupidity of the left. They are totally ignorant about the situation or don't care. Which is it? Prove that there is a workable, sane plan to keep them solvent and a will to implement the plan. Where is the proof?
There's a great plan: increase the limit on wages which are subject to taxation for SS and Medicare. It's been proposed, and frozen out by the GOP, because it might make their rich friends pay a little more. As it stands, someone who makes millions a year contributes no more than someone making just over $100k a year. Now, if modern payrolls were less top-heavy, and wages were higher for workers who make the business function rather than for executives who do nothing but take meetings and decide which color their next Jaguar will be, the wages taxable would already be sufficient.
Grumpy...so let me make sure I have this straight....your idea for solving the SS and Medicare problem is to take money away from one group of people and give it to another? and now instead of that being the "millionaires and billionaires" (which the left consider to be anyone making more than $250,000, you want to lower that threshold down to people making from just over $100,000 to basicially infinity. Is that right?
So..hard working people who have strived to create a good living for themselves and worked hard making $175,000 a year are now going to lose a $6,000 a year in increased contributions to FICA and Medicare...and you think that is fair? And if that person happens to be self employed, the figure will actually be double that or close to $12,000. For a person in their 30's, that means by the time he retires, he will have put in over $200,000 PLUS compounded lost interest in the money.
And your justification for taking that money away from one person just to give it to another person is what?
just saying...
increase the limit on wages which are subject to taxation for SS and Medicare.
Exactly! What is so hard about this?
The justification is that THAT IS HOW SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE HAVE ALWAYS WORKED! Look it up, educate yourself, and stop drinking Drano.
Actually, it has not always worked like that. People who made in excess of the "ceiling" for FICA earnings did not pay additional tax on that money. At least there seemed to be some sort of "fairness" to that...but if you tax all earnings, you are only showing the greed and envy of people like yourself.
just saying..
If you'd look it up, you'd see. http://www.ssa.gov/history/
People just hate it because it has the word "social" and "security".
The idea of means testing would not be fair if you raised the cap, which has been done multiple times. Fairness? Is it fair to have a family member work 35-40 years paying into FICA and they died before they collect anything they paid? I know some of those people, family members.
Is it fair to have saved in a private account (401K) for decades and you retire, then Wall Street crashes and sets you back a decade or more? We have these programs for a good reason. People were suffering and could not get any job.
http://www.ssa.gov/history/acoffee.html
http://www.socialsecurity.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v66n1/v66n1p1.html
http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/depression/about.htm
One way to help Social Security, the economy and revenues would be raising wages, but the RW don't like that either.
/snark
Why, you'd think the Rs only represent the business owners, banks, stockholders and nobody else. But tax cuts across the board and we can't be picking and choosing whose tax rates go up. That would be "unequal" or something.
snark/
just saying...
So...you like the idea of personal accounts for Social Security that would allow the money deposited by an individual be passed along to their heirs at the time of their passing? That is a rather RW idea...next thing you will know you will support people being able to make their own decisions on how to make the contributions to their account in regards to the investments. You are beginning to see the light....
the choice on where to put the money is one of personal responsibility. There are lots of places to put the money which will not provide you enormous returns, but will provide you a very safe environment for your money.
Why is it that the left is all for a woman's right to choose what to do with her body (which I support as well), yet I am not allowed to choose what to do with my money?
Raising wages will contribute to inflation which in turn will minimize the gain anyone receives from increased monthly SS payments.
just saying...
Stormguy,
You are making assumptions that are not correct. I do not see it like that at all. I give you no brownie points for trying to put words in my mouth and adding a question mark.
I support private accounts of the owners choice (not necessarily Wall St.'s choice as they pumped up a huge bubble that exploded all over us), providing they have any leftover money. Many youth need to begin early putting money into their own account (not buy a motorcycle or a car) when young. Again, that assumes they have extra money, we can hope. But young folks are not known for thinking about retirement, but buying stuff they want. Not all young people are this way, but I will be glad when I receive my SS and Medicare that I will be automatically eligible when I do.
If you do not like the system we have here, you can choose to move elsewhere. Because we will not punish elderly, sick and poor for not having saved money after working for decades or if they lost their savings due to unscrupulous "investment brokers" (which happened to my parents and their friends). There's a man in Columbia living large on my parents' and friends' money they had hoped to leave to their children and grandchildren.
just saying...
or I can choose to stay here and try to change the system...
so, I will get punished because of someone else's mistakes....that sounds fair.
just saying...
Well they did win elections in California by holding special elections and during off season elections but it's the only way they could win. Until recently. They pissed in everybody's water supply so now they're unwelcome. Except for the Central Valley where they control too much of the economy but that's changing too.
Except for the Central Valley where they control too much of the economy
They're being deported back to Oklahoma where grandpap came from.
What about that Ted Nugent fella? Oh, he carries a gun and a guitar.
What about Rush's drug bust?
I will concede to one point though. We do not take mid-term elections serious enough , but once we do the state by state republican take over will end. So thanks for reminding us of how important every election is.
Now excuse me as I put on a little Black Sabbath and make some brownies. Remember no knocking if its a rocking.
Although it's discernible from their campaign rhetoric, it's still quite stunning when one of these wingnut thought leaders makes their scorn for "the people" so nakedly explicit. I've gotta say one thing for these guys, though: they do know how to win friends.
So basically, it you're not a control freak or ditto head like them, then you must be on dope and totally worthless?
This what is so astonishing to me. The insistence on labeling everyone that does not salute whatever b.s. thing they run up the flagpole as unworthy.
There are people that have different ways of thinking and those people say that about themselves, but they do not accept those unlike themselves, either.
So they insist we all just accept their authority. That is how I see it, the denial that the "other people" voted, so they are defective and must be overridden by those of us that know what's best for all.
Obviously they want to discount some people as people/voters that don't deserve to have any say about any thing.
They still don't get that their agenda and tactics are not democratic. They view themselves as imperial leaders, just like those that did not want to have independence from the royal throne. They believe only certain people can vote. Those folks are only for serving the folks at the top of the ladder, also keep stepping on the fingers of those trying to climb up the ladder.
The saddest thing is those at the bottom getting stepped upon keep standing up and say "please, may I have some more" (getting fingers stepped on and worse). People do not see that they are getting manipulated and sacrificed like pawns in a chess game.
Ah, ladders. Or trees. Bureaucracys and economys.
There is a tree full of monkeys. On the lower branches there are many monkeys. On the higher branches there are fewer monkeys. At the top there is only one monkey. When the monkeys on the higher branches look down, all they see are smiling faces. When the monkeys on the lower branches look up, all they see are @!$%#s.
Steyn was too busy getting chased home from school every day for being a squealer to ever get offered any sex or drugs and his mommy told him rock 'm' roll was the devil's music.
Sandy @#13: May have something to do with how low their standards have become.
Rush's fill-in was at least equal to (or possibly more) the level of moronic rhetoric than Limbaugh. Where do they find these guys???????
Role up your pant legs, the sewers over flowing again! The Republicans lost, due to the fact that they are the party of the rich, and not of all the people in this country! Now due to this fact, they are trying (again) to hinder America from recovery, of G.W.Bush era. The people did not forget the wars, fought on credit, and the tax package he sent through that, forgot to pay for his wars, and did not wwant the rich to pay for.
All these so-called reasons for their lost is just a waist to time, money and air time ! look deep and see that it's the republicans, who disregarded 47% of America. If you really want to know why they lost, just look and how a lot of americans are living today! it's a shame to call this republican party, Americans!
Talk about your sore losers. In fact, she got the whole scenario quite wrong, which again just shows how out of touch our government is with The American people. They walk around as if they're worried a lightning bolt, was going to come down from the sky and zap them.
Zeus isn't vindictive like that....
@16.1 - Zeus is more likely to be pissed that his image has been stolen by Christianity... not to mention his holy days.
Well then, He had better Purchase some brand-new Garments - then !!
1) Oh yeah the ignorant voting masses. What ever shall we do with the common rabble? Why can't they all be straight white men with nice hair?
2) It's John Lennon's fault.
3) So the world far below the ramparts of your ivory towers is fraught with peril. The main problem with that distanced point of view is the peril is, in fact, the real world. A world which is no longer safe, being a sea. A sea that presumably you could drown in. Or maybe get eaten by a shark.
4) Absolutely. Only problem is that the pool of arch-conservative candidates has dwindled down to pathetically few viable candidates - Ted Cruz for one - is he ready to be the man in 2016?
But the circus that was the Republican presidential primary clearly showed that their brand is fading fast.
Yep, their solution is another Bush! Wow, as if the last one wasn't enough to spoil the milk!
Please leave John the baptist out of this, he was just paving the way. I get pretty defensive when it comes to John. He missed his mother and now he's back home with her.
What went wrong is that Romney/Ryan lost!
I disagree.
Well-Then , I Dis-agree with YOU ~ Gomer !
I'm sorry, but Led Zeppelin, the greatest band EVER, is anything but lethargic.
Customized Chevy vans, on the hand....
I agree with #1. If more Democrat's turned out in 2010 we wouldn't have had the complete mess that we've had and the House would be under Democratic control.
But hey, don't tell me what I can or can't do in my Chevy Van. I like the shag carpet.
And that eagle is so frickin' cool! Now that's something you customize your Chevy van with, along with some mag wheels and side pipes.
full back doors (windowless, of course) for the eagle. with a ribbon banner saying "coming for you t-party."
of course, an Obama/Biden bumper sticker. and maybe an Elizabeth Warren one too.
mags, definitely. side-pipes, maybe as long as they don't interfere with the neon underneath.
Gotta start with a wild custom paint job.
Somebody has to break their bubble!
I could care less what this clown says..
let him stay stuck on stupid.
Yeah...well like thats just your opinion...man! Same old party saying the same old s**t about me they been saying since....forever...man...EFF it...lets go bowling!