Author: Cluster

The Joys Of Obamacare

Cluster7 Comments

I just received the fabulous news that my premium has gone up another 31% on top of the 22% increase last year. When I called my provider, to inquire about the increase, I was told that due to mandates of the ACA this increase was necessary, and that I may actually lose my plan at the end of this year because my plan is not 100% ACA compliant. That is of course provided the President doesn’t change his mind again and make more unilateral changes as he is known to do.

Many of you may remember our President’s 2008 campaign promise:

“I will sign a universal health care bill into law by the end of my first term as president that will cover every American and cut the cost of a typical family’s premium by up to $2,500 a year.”

Well I can tell you from a personal experience, I am paying now more than $3,000 per year for my healthcare insurance. Not surprising, a recent poll indicated that:

Almost 9 in 10 respondents said Obamacare would be “important” in determining their vote, and 60 percent said debate on the health care law should not be over.

We need to get rid of this law, we need to get rid of this President, we need to electorally wipe out progressives, and we need bring back that “shining city on the hill”! So I don’t know, or care who the GOP candidate is in your district – vote for him or her, because any Democrat in any district in any state, only becomes a tool for the progressive agenda. It’s that simple.

I will also make one more obvious observation – the VA IS single payer Government Healthcare, so the problems we are seeing with that, is what we all have in store if we don’t shed ourselves of this cancer. No pun intended – well ok pun intended.

 

Creating More Conservatives

Cluster178 Comments

John Hawkins over at Townhall wrote an excellent piece here about conservative outreach and how badly the GOP has been at it over the last decade or so. I completely agree with his game plan which includes, but are not limited to:

1) We’re not reaching out to people who disagree with us

2) We’ve gotten lazy about making people’s lives better

3) We need to focus more on entertaining than informing

4) We get too impressed by the “more conservative than you” game

5) We refuse to challenge liberal control of cultural institutions

This dove tails nicely with my opinion I expressed the other day of “dumbing down” our message and going into precincts we usually avoid. It also speaks to the strategy of incrementalism which we need to employ, and employ now. Considering the utter economic and social disaster that progressive policies have brought about, winning the short term by taking the Senate this fall should be a no brainer, but winning the long term will require a more methodical strategy, and I think Hawkins has identified 5 good starting points. I am curious as to what other conservative have to say on this, so have at it.

 

Conflict of Vision – Part Deaux

Cluster26 Comments

Retired Spook wrote an excellent article about a week ago laying out the differences between the left and right in terms of the polarizing vision each side has for our country and while I agree with that premise completely as it relates to the elite of the left, I think our differences with the masses of current leftist voters is simply a conflict of intelligence. I honestly don’t think that the masses of LIV’s really understand what they are voting for, and have been propagandized to the point of being so misinformed that laying out the conservative position and actually having it penetrate their skulls will be a tall task, but an important one. The Democrats have been extremely effective in dumbing down their messaging and reaching the LIV in easy to understand albeit completely inane sound bite policies, ie; “the war on women”, “tax breaks for the rich”, “equality”, etc., etc.. It will be important for conservatives, and for this country, that we reach these LIV’s with a message that will resonate and I believe that will require not only going into precincts conservatives would usually stay away from, but also speaking in terms the LIV can understand.

How about pointing out the 50% unemployment rate amongst black males 18-25 years old and calling it the “war on Black Employment”? How about pointing out the $500 billion cut in Medicare to fund the ACA and calling it “the war on Seniors”? Or how about pointing out the low labor participation rate and the drop in average income and calling it “the war on prosperity”?

We have to reach the LIV’s in 2016, and we have to hold progressives accountable for screwing up this country. All ideas should be seriously considered, no stone should be left unturned, and the gloves need to come off. The future of our country depends on it.

The Anticipated Demise of the Democratic Party

Cluster12 Comments

Aside from President Obama, the second most dangerous person to the health of our country both economically and socially would without question be Harry Reid. Harry has been on a tear lately explaining how the Koch Bros. are responsible for everything wrong in the world, while at the same time, extolling the virtues of other politically engaged billionaires like Tom Steyer. Harry is quickly becoming a national joke but as conservatives, we should applaud his efforts and urge him to continue. Take for example his recent denial of the Keystone Pipeline despite bi partisan and union support:

“Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., used a parliamentary maneuver to block a bid by pipeline supporters to include the pipeline measure in an energy efficiency bill moving forward in the Senate.”

Harry will almost single handedly assure GOP victory in November, but let’s not discount past efforts by that mental giant Nancy Pelosi and of course our fearless leader, including but not limited to:

Obamacare – recent findings have discovered that many duplicate enrollees have been counted helping boost enrollment figures, and that only 80% or so of those enrollees have actually made a payment. Even still, the ACA remains as unpopular as ever, and will probably decline in popularity considering events that still have yet to unfold – namely the employer mandate:

“Local business owners might be hoping the Affordable Care Act’s insurance mandates cover sticker shock. The law’s employer coverage mandate doesn’t take effect until 2015, but early plan renewals are starting to roll in. And for some businesses, the premium jumps are positively painful. Local insurance brokers are reporting spikes ranging from 35 percent to 120 percent on policies that renew from July to December.”

Benghazi – despite the left’s very vocal efforts to stop everyone from paying attention to this, last week’s email discovery resulting in this week’s special committee is not good news for the Democrats. The fact is that Benghazi was over run by terrorists, and because of previous attacks earlier in the year on the consulate, and that other ally countries had pulled out of the area, we knew an attack was pending, we failed to protect our people, and then the administration lied about it for political reasons.

IRS – not a good week for Lois Lerner, nor the administration and it will soon become public knowledge that there was a concerted effort to deny conservative groups tax exempt status that goes very far up the chain, and when Obama tried to pin it on “just a few rogue agents in Cincinnati” making “boneheaded decisions” – he was being less than truthful, which seems to be a pattern with this administration.

Add these three major issues to the .1% first quarter GDP growth, the loss of 800K people in the labor pool, the historically low labor participation rate, high gas and food prices, and the foreign policy mess, and it’s easy to see that the demise of the current far left Democratic party is imminent and that is a funeral I look forward to.

The Conservative Media Complex

Cluster5 Comments

You will be wanting to sit down for this one, lest you sprain an ankle falling over laughing. In the CNN opinion page today, Julian Zelizer outlines why Obama just can’t seem to catch a break, and reason #3 is …… wait for it ……. the conservative media complex:

3. The conservative media complex: Conservatives have been enormously successful in building a sophisticated network of media institutions since the 1970s. During the time of the conservative revolution in American politics, the right paid close attention to building an infrastructure on radio, television and the Internet through which to promote their ideas and counteract, what they saw, as a liberal bias in the mainstream media.

The result has been that even though Obama retained control of the White House, conservatives have their own bully pulpit through which to communicate their opposition and analyze news in a way that is unfavorable to Democrats. The President confronts a constant barrage of unfavorable news, literally, regardless of what he does or does not do.

Don’t you love that last line? “The President confronts a constant barrage of unfavorable news”. Un fricking believable. I am amazed that they let this go to print, but they definitely do cater to their own echo chamber, don’t they? What’s really amazing is that NBC, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NPR, CNN, the LAT, the NYT, Newsweek, HuffPo, etc, have been unable to combat this “constant barrage of unfavorable news” coming from the conservative media complex. How incompetent does that make them?

Losing The Hearts And Minds

Cluster10 Comments

What use to be the battle cry for all progressives, is ironically becoming the albatross that will ultimately result in their demise. Progressives are losing the hearts and minds of Americans, and of people worldwide, an occurrence of which is rightfully earned. Progressives have never concerned themselves with real outcomes and actual results of their altruistic policies and self-superior attitudes. Instead, they focus purely on intent and blame others for their failures and maliciously malign and attack those who question the results. Their smug indifference to their domestic political opposition and to our foreign allies has caught up with them and sadly, their response is not to objectively critique their approach, but to double down on their stupidity. As a result, the Real Clear Politic Polls are not kind. A full 63% of respondents state that the country is headed in the wrong direction; a clear majority disapprove of Obama’s job performance; and a majority oppose the ACA, which was passed on a pure partisan vote as a result of questionable side deals. Even some progressives are starting to question the tactics of the current regime as evidenced by this article from Maureen Dowd, and this excellent piece from Leon Wieseltier of the New Republic, of which I quote:

“The tiresome futurism of Obama, his dogmatic views about what this ritualistically ballyhooed century will be like and what it will not be like, are only a part of what lowers his vision. The bigger problem is that the president feels inconvenienced by history. It refuses to follow his program for it. It regularly exasperates him and regularly disappoints him. It flows when he wants it to ebb and it ebbs when he wants it flow. Like Mr. Incredible, the president is flummoxed that the world won’t stay saved, or agree to be saved at all. After all, he came to save it. And so the world has only itself to blame if Obama is sick of it and going home.”

Obama entered the office in 2009 naïve and inexperienced, and even after 6 years, he has still yet to learn how to properly wield the power of the office. Compassionate policies are fine, but if they don’t bring positive results, they are empty and eventually lose favor. Obama’s progressive domestic policies have been an unequivocal failure, and his foreign policy is completely incoherent if not altogether absent. Our foreign adversaries take advantage of his confusion and weakness and our allies are left to forge new partnerships.

America has wandered down a very bad 6 year path here, but there is a chance to chart a new course this November. We have to shed ourselves of the vacuous progressive demagogues who are only interested in their misguided ideals and own self superiority complex, and find people who harbor a sense of humility and a passion to bring about broad positive outcomes for the people of our country and for those people who need our leadership worldwide.

A New Level Of Distrust

Cluster10 Comments

A new poll out today shows that Obama’s indifference and incompetence has shattered the dreams and expectations of many millennials who have lost much trust in him and the federal government. Although when you promise to heal the planet and cause the oceans to recede, and then wind up having trouble getting a new trade agreement with Japan almost 6 years later, it’s easy to see how one can be left a little disappointed.

trust-box-chart

Just think of what the next President will “inherit” from Obama – $18+ trillion in debt; anemic economic growth; delayed ACA regulations; a current regulatory environment that is strangling the economy; persistently high unemployment; an emboldened Russia and Iran; a mess in Syria and Egypt; a distrustful Israel; and a divided country like never before.

However, great opportunity usually can be found in difficult times, and now is the time for conservatives to speak to this generation and others who are now much more receptive to a conservative message, and let them know unequivocally that (in the famous words of Ronald Reagan), “government is not the solution to the problem, government is the problem”. In fact, this entire current social and economic situation we find ourselves in is very reminiscent of 1979 and the end of Jimmy Carter’s disastrous administration. The only question is – what is the misery index number?

Condi Rice for President

Cluster26 Comments

While it’s still pretty early in the game and a lot will unfold between now and November 2016, I can’t help but think that Condi Rice would make an outstanding candidate, and quite possibly an excellent President. She has terrific experience – Secretary of State 2005-2009; National Security Advisor 2001-2005; Provost of Stanford University 1993-1999; current Faculty Member in the School of Business at Stanford; and huge NFL fan (that last one is my favorite). She comes from humble beginnings, grew up in the segregated South, and in my opinion is a sensible, self aware, pragmatic conservative and from everything I have heard and read from Condi, she articulates the conservative message quite well. So not only is she a viable conservative candidate, she can completely disarm the Democrats emotional issues of gender, race and class.

Ted Kennedy once said, “a fight not joined, is a fight not enjoyed”, and I would love to join the fight and fight fire with fire this time around with the Progressives. Let the progressive try and play the “war on women” card against her, or the race card, and let her respond in a way that only she can, and as she did in her 2012 speech to the Republican National Convention:

“And on a personal note– a little girl grows up in Jim Crow Birmingham – the most segregated big city in America – her parents can’t take her to a movie theater or a restaurant – but they make her believe that even though she can’t have a hamburger at the Woolworth’s lunch counter – she can be President of the United States and she becomes the Secretary of State. Yes, America has a way of making the impossible seem inevitable in retrospect.  But of course it has never been inevitable – it has taken leadership, courage and an unwavering faith in our values.”

I am hoping that a ground swell of support will encourage Condi to enter the race, and small signs of that are there as she begins to attend fund raisers and give speeches to appreciative audiences. And since I am in pure speculation mode here, let me throw this name out as her VP candidate. Blue State Governor Scott Walker.

Leading From Behind – The “What Difference Does It Make” Version

Cluster7 Comments

Leave it to the foreign press to actually do the heavy lifting of investigative journalism in regards to this current Administration. A Citizens Commission on Benghazi comprised of top military officers and CIA insiders has recently released a report on their findings that are strangely absent from our MSM, and their findings are interesting to say the least:

‘The United States switched sides in the war on terror with what we did in Libya, knowingly facilitating the provision of weapons to known al-Qaeda militias and figures,’ Clare Lopez, a member of the commission and a former CIA officer, told MailOnline.

So our government knowingly allowed arm shipments to come in to the country and instead going to the Gaddafi government as intended, they were allowed to fall into the hands of the Islamist opposition. And now these weapons have found their way to Syria. Has anyone ever read this account before? In addition, Gaddafi was reportedly willing to broker a peace deal and abdicate power, but evidently our “Nobel Peace Prize” winning President chose not to pursue any deal. Again, has that ever been reported by our press?

The report goes on to state that military help for our Ambassador was just an hour away in Italy  – another account that I don’t remember reading in our press. The failure at Benghazi is epic, it needs to be more responsibly investigated, and it should preclude Hillary from ever being POTUS. When that 3 am call came in, she was AWOL.

 

The Yeomanry & The Clerisy

Cluster14 Comments

I recently stumbled upon this excellent article in The Daily Beast from last October, and have never read a better description of the emerging class structure in this country, as unfortunate as that is. You may remember the old saying – as California goes, so goes the country – well let’s hope that this one time, we don’t follow California’s lead:

The Oligarchs: The swelling number of billionaires in the state, particularly in Silicon Valley, has enhanced power that is emerging into something like the old aristocratic French second estate. Through public advocacy and philanthropy, the oligarchs have tended to embrace California’s “green” agenda, with a very negative impact on traditional industries such as manufacturing, agriculture, energy, and construction. Like the aristocrats who saw all value in land, and dismissed other commerce as unworthy, they believe all value belongs to those who own the increasingly abstracted information revolution than has made them so fabulously rich.

The  Clerisy: The Oligarchs may have the money, but by themselves they cannot control a huge state like California, much less America. Gentry domination requires allies with a broader social base and their own political power. In the Middle Ages, this role was played largely by the church; in today’s hyper-secular America, the job of shaping the masses has fallen to the government apparat, the professoriat, and the media, which together constitute our new Clerisy. The Clerisy generally defines societal priorities, defends “right-thinking” oligarchs, and chastises those, like traditional energy companies, that deviate from their theology.

The New Serfs: If current trends continue, the fastest growing class will be the permanently property-less. This group includes welfare recipients and other government dependents but also the far more numerous working poor. In the past, the working poor had reasonable aspirations for a better life, epitomized by property ownership or better prospects for their children. Now, with increasingly little prospect of advancement, California’s serfs depend on the Clerisy to produce benefits making their permanent impoverishment less gruesome. This sad result remains inevitable as long as the state’s economy bifurcates between a small high-wage, tech-oriented sector, and an expanding number of lower wage jobs in hospitality, health services, and personal service jobs. As a result, the working class, stunted in their drive to achieve the California dream, now represents the largest portion of domestic migrants out of the state.

The Yeomanry: In neo-feudalist California, the biggest losers tend to be the old private sector middle class. This includes largely small business owners, professionals, and skilled workers in traditional industries most targeted by regulatory shifts and higher taxes. Once catered to by both parties, the yeomanry have become increasingly irrelevant as California has evolved into a one-party state where the ruling Democrats have achieved a potentially permanent, sizable majority consisting largely of the clerisy and the serf class, and funded by the oligarchs. Unable to influence government and largely disdained by the clerisy, these middle income Californians are becoming a permanent outsider group, much like the old Third Estate in early medieval times, forced to pay ever higher taxes as well as soaring utility bills and required to follow regulations imposed by people who often have little use for their “middle class” suburban values.