Thomas Sowell: Is Anybody Serious? (Excellent)

Creators Syndicate ^ | January 25, 2012 | Thomas Sowell

[jazusamo]

The Republican candidates' circular firing squad now seems to be using machine guns. Whoever the eventual "last man standing" turns out to be, he may not be standing very tall or very steadily on his feet — and he may be a pushover for Barack Obama in the general election, thanks to fellow Republicans. Whether you are a Democrat, a Republican or an independent, this is a very serious and historically crucial time for the United States of America. What Mitt Romney did or did not do when he was with Bain Capital, or what Newt Gingrich did or did not say to his ex-wife, are things that should be left for the tabloids. With the economy still faltering and Iran on its way to getting nuclear bombs, surely we can get serious about the issues facing this nation. Or can we? Mitt Romney's boasts about what he did at Bain Capital are as irrelevant as Newt Gingrich's demagogic attacks on Romney's role there. Romney is not running to become head of Bain Capital. While Gingrich backed away from his demagoguery about Bain Capital, Romney is continuing to press ahead with his charges that Gingrich was a lobbyist for Freddie Mac. As someone who has been a consultant, but never a lobbyist, I know the difference. As a consultant, I have offered advice to people in government and in private organizations, both businesses and non-profit organizations. But I have never gone to a government official to urge that official to make a decision favorable to those who were paying me, or to those for whom I did free consulting. It takes two to tango, and lobbying requires not only a lobbyist but also someone who is being lobbied. With more than 500 people in Congress alone who could have been lobbied, and additional officials in the bureaucracies, if Romney cannot find even a single person to say that Gingrich lobbied him or her, then it is long past time for him to either put up or shut up. On the other hand, if Romney just wants to sling a lot of mud in Newt's direction and hope that some of it sticks, then that should tell the voters a lot about Romney's character. So much of what has been said by various Republican candidates, as well as by the media, has been in the nature of unsubstantiated, peripheral or irrelevant talking points for or against particular candidates, rather than serious statements about serious issues confronting the nation. So common has this approach become that even some conservative writers have come to the defense of John King, the CNN reporter who opened the South Carolina debate with a question about Newt Gingrich's former wife. These writers have declared that question "legitimate," in some undefined sense. If all that "legitimate" means is that John King was not doing anything that many other reporters would have done in the same circumstances, that is making common practice a substitute for our own judgments about what is and is not relevant in a given context. Neither the audience in that room nor the millions watching on television were there to find out about Newt Gingrich's marital problems. If it is a common practice for the media to focus on such things, so much the worse for the media — and for the country. "The politics of personal destruction" — as Bill Clinton called it, and as he himself practiced it — is not the way to solve the nation's problems. It has already poisoned the well of political discourse this season and claimed Herman Cain as its first victim, on the basis of unsubstantiated accusations by women with checkered pasts of their own. Whether Herman Cain was good, bad or indifferent as a candidate, and whether his chances of winning the Republican nomination were substantial or non-existent is not the issue. Nor is this the issue as regards Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney or any other candidate. Poisoning the well of political discourse may be one of the reasons why we see such unsatisfactory sets of candidates for political office in both parties, not only this year but in previous election years as well. Many able and decent people are understandably reluctant to subject themselves and their families to a mud-slinging contest or to media "gotcha" questions. The creeping acceptance of such practices is hardly a justification, but is itself part of the degeneration of our times. The time is long overdue to get serious.

[Hostage]

When Reagan pronounced his famous 11th commandment, his statement was in the context of ‘Republicans’ and not what we see today as ‘Republicans + Rat Infiltrators aka RINOs’.

If anyone should think it far-fetched that a circle of democrats would devise and execute a plan to infiltrate the GOP, such people would be naive to say the least. Just today we hear a top Romney advisor stating point blank to the media that Obamacare will not be repealed.

Was Bloomberg once a Republican? When he ran first for NYC mayor he was certainly running as a Republican but he was certainly never a ‘Republican’. He was a democrat that could not win his own party’s nomination, so to overcome his own party’s rejection of him, he ran as Republican. Shall we not say bad things of Bloomberg because he seized the Republican brand for his own purposes?

Rat infiltrators to the GOP are now legion. I am sure if RR were here today to see it that he would clearly point out that at the very least the GOP RINO establishment needs a good shakeup.

Was George H. W. Bush aka Bush Elder a Rat Infiltrator RINO? No, he was not. He was a longtime Republican with a stellar service record in the USN and a capable Executive Branch appointee (CIA), but he lacked political courage. Lacking political courage does not make one a democrat infiltrator. Lacking political courage makes one incapable of rallying one’s followers to be inspired by a conservative vision of the future. That does not a democrat make, rather it makes one a footnote to history rather than a page to it.

A Rat Infiltrator is a person that identifies themselves as a democrat but becomes a Republican for nefarious purposes or because it suits their selfish ends.

Deomcrats that ‘defect’ can only be genuine if they were part of the now near extinct species of conservative democrats aka ‘Bluedogs’. They were conservatives in a historically democrat district that had since turned liberal, and they find a need to make the crossover in order to be true to their values.

Ronald Reagan was one such democrat ‘defector’ although he ably characterized the ‘defection’ as “I did not leave the democrat party, that party left me”.

But in his time, Reagan knew there existed many conservative democrats, who were loyal to the United States, to capitalism and to the Constitution. But he also knew there were many hardcore leftists in the democrat party who had no allegiance to the United States and its Constitution. I am certain if RR saw those hard core leftists crossover into the GOP, he would have pointed them out and would have made them an exception of his 11th commandment.

[listenhillary]

I think we should give all of the candidates guns and they should shoot it out. Survival of the smartest and fittest.

(Kidding... maybe)

[dsc]

“I live in a country where 53% of the voters had no trouble pulling the lever for a jive-ass Chicago Community Organizer, whose very name is not a settled question.”

I’m not sure about that. I think we are underestimating the scope of election fraud. I very much doubt that he got more than 45% of the valid votes cast.

Even if he did get 53%, that represents what...a quarter of eligible voters, approximately?

Why the low turnout? Must have been because McLame was so inspiring.

Not all of the Walmartians are stupid or completely lacking in common sense. I think a lot of people are starting to make the connections between taxation, over-regulation, and the scarcity of jobs.

Admittedly I am living in a very red state, but I have only seen two “Obama 2012” bumper stickers so far.

On top of that, the wackadoo wing of the extreme left are miffed with the Kenyan commie for failing to display a sufficient degree of lunacy.

If the Stupid, Cowardly, Rubber-Chicken-Eating, Surrender-Sissy Party mounted a halfway adequate campaign (I know, figure the odds), they could choose a sack of leper butts for their nominee and still beat the loathesome alien.

[hawgwalker]

So far Rick can stand tall. Let the other two take each other out.

[freekitty]

Scott Walker for POTUS. The only proven conservative.

[dsc]

“So far Rick can stand tall.”

Drawing on my six decades of experience in this world, I have formed an opinion of Santorum.

He is a weak man.

[2nd Bn, 11th Mar]

The only serious person I know of is that Peggy Noonan woman.

[oldbrowser]

Fidelity to the constitution, character, passion, leadership, experience in management, organizational skills.
That's the kind of stuff we should be thinking about but, the media and the others keep dragging out the rumors, innuendo and out right lies to keep us in a state of chaos. And it works.

[jazusamo]

Please bump the Freepathon or click above and donate or become a monthly donor!

[Kenny Bunk]

I think we are underestimating the scope of election fraud Thas Raciss!.

[dsc]

“Thas Raciss!.”

Pay no attention to that metallic sound.

[Sonny M]

Deomcrats that ‘defect’ can only be genuine if they were part of the now near extinct species of conservative democrats aka ‘Bluedogs’. They were conservatives in a historically democrat district that had since turned liberal, and they find a need to make the crossover in order to be true to their values.

Ronald Reagan was one such democrat ‘defector’ although he ably characterized the ‘defection’ as “I did not leave the democrat party, that party left me”.

How would you categorize Rudy Guiliani ? He was a liberal democrat that got sick of the machinations of the party, he was not then, nor is now, a conservative. Never the less, Reagan saw fit to make him a U.S. Attorney and supported him there.

My personal opinion, is that while Rudy isn't a "Rat Infiltrator", he is absolutely a liberal who would love to turn the GOP to the left, like Chris Christie...to many people mistake partisanship with ideology.

Rudy is no conservative, but while he may be very partisan (at least now) with the GOP, he sure as hell is liberal (In NYC, he ran on not only the republican partys line, but also the now defunct Liberal party ballot line).

[Hostage]

Guiliani was a Reagan democrat, he was never a genuine Republican. He ran against Dinkins twice; the first he lost and the second time he won only because Dinkins stunk so bad that even the most ardent base democrats had a tough time supporting Dinkins.

Was Guiliani a Rat Infiltrator to the GOP? Yes and no. He went from democrat (Carter) to independent (Ford) to republican (Reagan). He went to GOP only to further his career as prosecutor and because Reagan was so appealing.

Yes he was an infiltrator because he used the GOP brand in much the same way that Bloomberg used it, for his own ends. He was never a Republican in ideology, that he believed in limited government, in strict interpretation of the Constitution.

No he was not an infiltrator because of his appeal within the GOP as adhering to a philosophy of the Rule of Law.

So he is difficult to classify but I would say that under a Conservative Revolution of the type that rolls back the New Deal, rids the USA of the LBJ Great Society, discredits the Compassionate Conservatism of George W. Bush and seeks to appoint unequivocally conservative justices, I would say that Guiliani would not participate as a GOP ideologue, so that the GOP would leave him and he would be nowhere except as a New Yorker in NYC affairs.

[Sonny M]

Rudy, to me, and as a New Yorker, was a liberal,while despised by democrats, it was more over the party then the ideology. Simply put, Rudy hates the democratic party, he doesn't hate their ideas, he just hates them (which is one of the reasons for the viceral hatred that he garners).

That said, when he ran for President, one of his campaign promises, and one he was most likely to keep, was to appoint strict constructionists to the bench, though to be frank, on economic matters, he showed alot of conservative viewpoints, and he was in the hawk camp on foreign policy, but on social issues, he was to the left of Bill Clinton, and John McCain and everyone else (I could name a dozen democrats who are more conservative then him). I wouldn't mind seeing him as a republican senator or governor (for NY, and only NY), but on the federal level, only DHS, and thats it.