Romney

Open Thread

Mark Noonan31 Comments

A good Tweet of mine might normally get a dozen or so likes – the Tweet I did suggesting we’re going to primary Romney after his witness vote is up to 429 likes. Methinks ol’ Mitt really screwed up on this one.

What was the upside for him? A kind mention or two in the MSM…but the downside is he’s revealed he’s learned nothing and forgotten nothing. A fit of pique over Trump not making him SecState and he’s placed himself in real jeopardy for re-election in Utah.

Impeachment wraps up on Wednesday – though some Democrats are saying they’ll go right back to it. It wouldn’t surprise me: kamikaze attacks seem to be all they have left. This may well allow the GOP to take back the House in November. If we’re going to re-elect Trump, and I think we will, how many Trump voters will be inclined to vote down-ballot for a Democrat who is almost certain to impeach him again in 2021?

Coronavirus: getting a little more interesting out there. What I’m wondering about is why we care so much? Tens of thousands of Americans die every year from the flu and what I haven’t heard is that this flu is particularly more deadly or infectious than any other flu. Why the big deal about it? It would be sad if an additional ten or twenty thousand Americans die this year because of the flu, but that wouldn’t be an Earth-shaking tragedy. I’d only be worried about a flu which is set to kill millions…something like the Spanish Flu 1918-1920 which killed many tens of millions (in a much smaller global population). Is this what some are expecting and only letting it slowly dribble out? Or is it just a big nothing?

Bolton’s betrayal has been rankling me – and makes me wonder if any of them, Democrat or Republican, can be trusted? I think of the way that MacArthur was slandered into political irrelevance while his much less competent former subordinate, Eisenhower, is still lauded to the skies. Has it been that for a very long time, the good people have been destroyed so that the bad people can thrive? So that, really, bad people can make themselves look good? How many of the heroes of the past 100 years have survived real scrutiny? How many supposed bad guys have, on second look, turned out to be rather heroic? LBJ was a racist pig of a man. JFK was jumping on everything in a skirt. MLK has very definite questions about his morality. Truman sent men to die in a war they weren’t allowed to win. The Elder Bush let the completely defeated Saddam survive. Meanwhile, we know Joe McCarthy was completely right; that per MacArthur there really is no substitute for victory; that Patton correctly perceived the threat of the USSR…and all of them were taken to task by the same people telling us that people like Truman and Kennedy are icons of public service. And keep in mind that I’m deeply versed in history and am only now coming to this realization…how much less will less informed people see it? We are indebted to Trump – by accident or design, he exposed the essential corruption at the core of American institutions.

Some Post-Election Thoughts

Leo Pusateri50 Comments

Let me first say that what I’m about to write probably in no way reflects the feelings of Matt, or Mark, or any other contributor to this blog.  Hell, I don’t know if it even accurately reflects how I’ll feel a week from now.  Call it a stream of consciousness as to what I’m feeling at the moment.

I understand the Democrats played a good ground game. I understand we were rope-a-doped. I understand that the Republicans could have done a better job of conveying why Conservatism affords the most people the most opportunity for prosperity.

My question is thus– how can you overcome an opponent who not only can raise as much as you do, but has the added advantage of literally hundreds of millions of dollars more in free advertising and cover, from a group of people ostensibly charged to serve as watchdogs for the people against the government? The media was clearly, demonstrably, more in the tank for the democrat side than I have seen in my entire lifetime. Fox News tried covering the other side. But they’re one network. Difficult when you’re competing against NBC, ABC, CBS, MSNBC, CNN New York Times, ad nauseum.

How do you overcome those kinds of odds? How do you get a fair shot at selling your message?

Something tells me if we ran Jesus Christ Himself as a candidate, he still would have gotten smeared in wall-to-wall negative ads.  His Sermon on the Mount would have been misquoted and taken out of context, The networks would still have dutifully covered for Obama, stating that Jesus is just a poseur Messiah. Obama would promise more largesse, will have claimed to have lowered the rising seas, and would still have won the election yesterday. Seems the kind of world we live in right now. It may take a relatively long time, perhaps a decade, perhaps a decade in a half, until we are so far in the economic gutter that the economic Pridelands will have been picked of every life-giving force by the proverbial hyenas.

Only when the world has gone full Galt and the last of other people’s fruits wrought of productive enterprise have been sucked up and dried, will people understand the damage. By that time, I fear it will be too late. The United States, along with Egypt, Rome, Mesopotamia, Greece, Spain, Great Britain, and other great civilizations, will have been relegated to the books as just another flash in History’s pan.

Call me a negative Nelly, but at least at this point in time, I find it difficult to read the tea leaves any other way. Not that I won’t keep up the good fight, but right now I feel as if I’m taking the last stand at the Alamo.

Game over?