Thomas Sowell: Republicans Deserved to Lose (A predictable end to an unhappy year)

National Review ^ | 01/01/2013 | Thomas Sowell

[Steelfish]

You beat me to it by a second. This is the best article of the New Year!

[unixfox]

Let’s just call them Republicaves from now on.

What a bunch of losers.

[Norm Lenhart]

Well Tom, a few of us played the Oracle of Delphi and were soundly mocked for it.

Perhaps they will listen to you on that whole ‘stand for something’ bit, but don’t count on it. Because there are plenty more Romneys in the GOP just waiting to be adored by modern ‘conservatives’

[TADSLOS]

Bret Stephens said, back at the beginning of 2012, that Mitt Romney was one of the “hollow men,” and that voters “usually prefer the man who stands for something.”

Yet this is not just about Mitt Romney. He is only the latest in a long series of presidential candidates backed by a Republican establishment that seems convinced that ad hoc “moderation” is where it’s at — no matter how many of their ad hoc moderates get beaten by even vulnerable, unknown, or discredited Democrats.

No one says it like Thomas Sowell can.

[Jyotishi]

The need of the times: a well-funded conservative political party.

[chris37]

They are going to cave on the 2nd amendment too.

[Finny]

Yet this is not just about Mitt Romney.

Amen. Romney is a symptom, not a cause. As long as amoral pragmatism and statism is OK by the GOP, the GOP will lose. Romney's side, as revealed by his political record, was the WRONG side regardless of what party he belonged to.

[GBA]

To me, the Republican establishment is the eighth wonder of the world. How they can keep repeating the same mistakes for decades on end is beyond my ability to explain.

Ha! Even someone as thoughtfully adept as Thomas Sowell can't understand it. That makes me feel better for some reason.

[Madame Dufarge]

Whenever I read a Thomas Sowell column, I'm overcome with the sad realization that this 82 year-old hero is almost at the end of his brilliant journey.

[TADSLOS]

Yet we have a large share of those amoral and statist “pragmatics” posting on FR every election cycle, admonishing FReepers to cast away conservatism for “the win” that never comes. Go figure.

[GOPJ]

...the Republican establishment is the eighth wonder of the world. How they can keep repeating the same mistakes for decades on end is beyond my ability to explain.

Sowell's right...it's beyond belief.

[ex-snook]

"The need of the times: a well-funded conservative political party."

What kind of a conservative party? Conserve what - exporting middle class jobs? entering a few more optional wars and nation building? conserving gay rights? sinking real income of workers? borrowing from China? Nah.

However if the idea is to make life better for Americans. The Democrats act for low income people. Republicans act for high income people. One lives off government the other on their wealth.

WHICH PARTY WILL DO THIS? People who want a job to earn money, a home for their family, able to see a doctor when sick, educate their children, and retire with enough bucks so they don't have to depend on anyone without inflation and real estate taxes ruining them.

[Manta]

Republicans can't answer Democrat smears because they agree with the smears. Both Democrats and Republicans agree that “you are your brothers keeper”. To fight the Democrats, the Republicans must reject the morality behind that evil bromide. That morality is altruism. Either you have the right to your life or you don't.

[Cringing Negativism Network]

What kind of a conservative party? Conserve what - exporting middle class jobs? entering a few more optional wars and nation building? conserving gay rights? sinking real income of workers? borrowing from China? Nah.

-

Bingo.

Conservatives must turn around and support America.

America.

Pretty darn simple.

[GBA]

In the last election we wanted/needed reality.
Instead, we were given a choice between a snowjob and a blowjob.
So, naturally we voted for what sounded better.
And now, we're gonna get screwed!

[Travis McGee]

The Great Tom Sowell: may he live to be a hundred!

We need his wisdom now more than ever.

[Gene Eric]

Sowell ping

[jazusamo]

Thanks for the ping, Gene.

The list was pinged to this piece with a different title.

[Tublecane]

The “forgotten man” argument is so easy once you’ve heard it that I have to believe Republicans haven’t publicized it because they don’t believe in it. Maybe they half-heard and half-digested it, like Romney’s butchering of Calhoun’s 51% tax-eater warning. Or maybe they’re Republicans because their fathers were, or they’re all just militarists and Fat Cat pamperers as Democrats insist, and there is no principled conservatism in Washington.