From a Litany of Defeat, comes a cascade of opportunities.
The Dems won big in the last election. The litany was; now with this power we can create the change we have always wanted, change that will make America better.
Even before the elections this litany was ever present. Give us the power and we will change things for the better. Barney Frank and his ilk forced banks to liberalize their lending practices to include those who couldn’t pay back the loans. We all saw what happened. Is that an opportunity?
We were given an opportunity to show case a failed liberal program.
In my home state of Michigan we are the poster child of failed Democrat policies. We see what happens to education, employment and individual freedom under these policies. Again we have a cascade of opportunities being served up to us on a silver plate by the Dems.
I have seen the stirring of a few to try to take advantage of this but they are few.
Steny Hoyer took the opportunity during a tribute to Ronald Reagan to quote Reagan in his regard for the IMF. He did this to try to get passage of the War Funding Bill which the Dems doubled the cost of by adding an amendment of over 100 Billion to bail out the IMF. In other words they were using the Republican loyalty to our troops as leverage to slip the IMF funding thru. Not only that but quoting one of our icons to do it.
After Hoyer quoted Reagan the Republicans didn’t say much.
What would the Dems of said if we quoted Rev. King to make our point about Affirmative Action? Ask Jen Gratz, hell as Alvida King for that matter.
Why didn’t we say, “Hell yes Reagan believed in the IMF. He believed in it enough to fund it separately and vote on it separately and not try to pass it on the back of our military and at the expense of our military when they are in harms way. I see you have less faith than Reagan. If you really believe in this do what he did and bring it up for a vote on its own. See what the people think of bailing out foreign banks on its own merit. See how many of this legislature are willing to vote for that.”
Nope that was not said, Boehner did and some other conservatives, but not directly at the time. Later in less public venues and not cohesively. Basically we as conservatives like talking to the quoir.
If we want to take advantage of all these “golden opportunities”, we have to learn how to talk not just to ourselves but to the public that Reagan reached.
He talked to those disaffected and suffering from the weight of liberal policies. There are plenty of Union workers, teachers, and Democrats out there who are looking for a place to hang their frustrations on. We have to learn to out talk the Dems. Our ideas are sound but we have to keep hammering them home. Keep showing viable alternatives to those disaffected. We will go down to defeat in most of what we do, but we should not suffer this quietly.
Newt Gingrich quoted Ronald Reagan also. "My Fellow Republicans... and Independents and Democrats Looking for a Better Future". He did this during a speech to the Republicans. Full text is linked below.
-----link-----
http://newt.org/tabid/102/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/4312/Dont-Tell-Me-It-Cant-Be-Done.aspx
---------------
The other nugget from Ron Reagan I enjoyed and thought pertinent was the following. "Better than we have ever done before, we have got to quit talking to each other and about each other and go out and communicate to the world that we may be fewer in numbers than we have ever been, but we carry the message they are waiting for."
Bottom line is that we have to minimize our differences and maximize the things we believe in. The article by Gingrich is good at talking about “First Principles”. Read the article for the list of things he says will give us a more unified message that will resonate with us, Independents and Democrats who are all looking for a better way.
Newt’s list is a cascade of opportunities for Republicans if they (we) can learn to stay away from the bickering and look for the common ground between us while keeping our “First Principles”. Try practicing; read through the list and concentrate on what you agree with; not what you don’t. Then allow others to do the same.
Regards, Live Dangerously Be A Conservative
PS all is not lost on the IMF War funding bill. The Senate I think will be open to filibuster and other tactics to get some concessions on the bill. Remember, 32 Dems voted against it even after whie house pressure and only 5 Republicans defected. That says alot right there about dissaffected Dems.
Newt says in quoting FDR, “Don’t tell me it can’t be done.”
Regards, LD
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Monday, June 15, 2009
Solutions
“Shadow Speaker of the House” John Boehner, released the following alert today about the revolt going on in some state houses towards the administration’s seeming attempt to bankrupt them.
-----link to alert-----
http://gopleader.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=132266
------------------------
At the bottom you will see this link for his State Solutions Group.
-----link-----
http://states.gopleader.gov/
---------------
I realize we are not in England with a real “Shadow Government” but I seriously think John Boehner perhaps with some advice from Newt (among others) is using the “Shadow Government” idea to form an infrastructure well before the 2010 election from which to mount an attack on the Liberal agenda flowing out of Washington.
The “Shadow Government” idea in England I really like. It gives the party out of power an infrastructure around which it can show the public what they would be doing, what policies they would enact, and what they would do if elected next time. They come up with actual alternative solutions to problems facing the country. At the same time giving the leaders and upcoming stars of the party a chance to show their stuff. Gives the voters a better sense of who to vote for.
Shadow Speaker of the House, Boehner has set up Solution Groups dealing with specific policy areas.
There is a lot of angst out there in the state governments about the Fed. seemingly trying to usurp their power. Some Democrats especially the Blue Dog Dems, are starting to grumble already about some of the Federal Intrusion.
Shadow Speaker Boehner set up a group of House Republicans to define the problem and come up with solutions. They have their own leaders and web presence and other "new media" in which to study and come up with solutions to the specific problem at hand.
Best of all the Shadow Speaker is fully behind them and highlights their findings through his “leader Alerts”, and places like http://www.gop.gov
I have blogged before about this “Shadow Government” idea and how great it appears to me.
Mr. Boehner has set up the following “biggies”, along with a lot others as the need arises.
Health Care http://blunt.house.gov/Read.aspx?ID=1059 Chaired by Roy Blunt.
Energy. http://www.gop.gov/energy This is chaired by Mike Pence.
This site is just what we needed; talking points, all kinds of video and documents, plus the entire bill. If anyone says that the Republicans don’t have a solution. Send them to the above link.
“Shadow Speaker Boehner is doing what a leader of the Minority party should do. He is uniting the party by putting the Republican leaders in the House to work on solutions in the areas in which they are expert at. This is starting to look like a more united front than just a few months ago. The Democrats are starting to splinter while the Republicans are beginning to show signs of uniting.
John Boehner is gathering the talent available to him and uniting them to show that the Republicans have real solutions to the problems we face. We are showing that Republicans have alternatives to the bankruptcy that the administration is leading us towards.
This “Solutions” platform is ideal for the members to work off of. With the active support of the “Shadow Speaker”, members are able to highlight their skills and help the country at the same time.
The Republican Leader can then leverage these efforts in things like this June 13th Weekly Republican Address. Mike Pence remember is the Chair of the Energy Solutions Group he and his solutions group was responsible through hearings, energy summits and a lot of hard work for the creation of the American Energy Act.
This is real legislation done the right way through study and deliberation and it will work.
As a case in point I’ll highlight Mike Rogers of Livingston County Michigan, who along with Rep. Kevin Nunes (R-CA) Co Chair the "State Solution group" mentioned earlier. While Mike Rogers is a frequent and powerful critic of the administration; he is in a unique position as a Representative from the state of Michigan which has been decimated by the tax and spend policies of the Democrat Gov and State House for eight years, this gives him a unique perspective on the tax and spend efforts of the Obama administration. This next video is at the start up of the State Solutions Group after he was first chosen chair.
-----link to video------
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwyR9k4MhD4
--------------------------
Remember that the State Solutions group chaired by Rogers and Nunez was responsible for the Leader alert at the top of the page.
Well there you have it. I don’t really have a clue whether House Minority Leader John Boehner is really doing what he’s doing under the mantle of the British Parliamentary “shadow government” model or not. I do think that my analogy fits and the unity and actual fruits of his labor are proof enough that what he is doing is starting to work.
I haven’t heard lately from the libs that the Republicans have no solutions. This was their mantra just a short couple months ago.
Now they are starting to act as if they are trying to hide the fact that we do have solutions. That is progress; that is getting back on the offensive after such a long wait. This is something we can work with.
I’ll do my part in getting the news out.
In fact I’ll be proud to.
Regards, Live Dangerously Be A Conservative
-----link to alert-----
http://gopleader.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=132266
------------------------
At the bottom you will see this link for his State Solutions Group.
-----link-----
http://states.gopleader.gov/
---------------
I realize we are not in England with a real “Shadow Government” but I seriously think John Boehner perhaps with some advice from Newt (among others) is using the “Shadow Government” idea to form an infrastructure well before the 2010 election from which to mount an attack on the Liberal agenda flowing out of Washington.
The “Shadow Government” idea in England I really like. It gives the party out of power an infrastructure around which it can show the public what they would be doing, what policies they would enact, and what they would do if elected next time. They come up with actual alternative solutions to problems facing the country. At the same time giving the leaders and upcoming stars of the party a chance to show their stuff. Gives the voters a better sense of who to vote for.
Shadow Speaker of the House, Boehner has set up Solution Groups dealing with specific policy areas.
There is a lot of angst out there in the state governments about the Fed. seemingly trying to usurp their power. Some Democrats especially the Blue Dog Dems, are starting to grumble already about some of the Federal Intrusion.
Shadow Speaker Boehner set up a group of House Republicans to define the problem and come up with solutions. They have their own leaders and web presence and other "new media" in which to study and come up with solutions to the specific problem at hand.
Best of all the Shadow Speaker is fully behind them and highlights their findings through his “leader Alerts”, and places like http://www.gop.gov
I have blogged before about this “Shadow Government” idea and how great it appears to me.
Mr. Boehner has set up the following “biggies”, along with a lot others as the need arises.
Health Care http://blunt.house.gov/Read.aspx?ID=1059 Chaired by Roy Blunt.
Energy. http://www.gop.gov/energy This is chaired by Mike Pence.
This site is just what we needed; talking points, all kinds of video and documents, plus the entire bill. If anyone says that the Republicans don’t have a solution. Send them to the above link.
“Shadow Speaker Boehner is doing what a leader of the Minority party should do. He is uniting the party by putting the Republican leaders in the House to work on solutions in the areas in which they are expert at. This is starting to look like a more united front than just a few months ago. The Democrats are starting to splinter while the Republicans are beginning to show signs of uniting.
John Boehner is gathering the talent available to him and uniting them to show that the Republicans have real solutions to the problems we face. We are showing that Republicans have alternatives to the bankruptcy that the administration is leading us towards.
This “Solutions” platform is ideal for the members to work off of. With the active support of the “Shadow Speaker”, members are able to highlight their skills and help the country at the same time.
The Republican Leader can then leverage these efforts in things like this June 13th Weekly Republican Address. Mike Pence remember is the Chair of the Energy Solutions Group he and his solutions group was responsible through hearings, energy summits and a lot of hard work for the creation of the American Energy Act.
This is real legislation done the right way through study and deliberation and it will work.
As a case in point I’ll highlight Mike Rogers of Livingston County Michigan, who along with Rep. Kevin Nunes (R-CA) Co Chair the "State Solution group" mentioned earlier. While Mike Rogers is a frequent and powerful critic of the administration; he is in a unique position as a Representative from the state of Michigan which has been decimated by the tax and spend policies of the Democrat Gov and State House for eight years, this gives him a unique perspective on the tax and spend efforts of the Obama administration. This next video is at the start up of the State Solutions Group after he was first chosen chair.
-----link to video------
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwyR9k4MhD4
--------------------------
Remember that the State Solutions group chaired by Rogers and Nunez was responsible for the Leader alert at the top of the page.
Well there you have it. I don’t really have a clue whether House Minority Leader John Boehner is really doing what he’s doing under the mantle of the British Parliamentary “shadow government” model or not. I do think that my analogy fits and the unity and actual fruits of his labor are proof enough that what he is doing is starting to work.
I haven’t heard lately from the libs that the Republicans have no solutions. This was their mantra just a short couple months ago.
Now they are starting to act as if they are trying to hide the fact that we do have solutions. That is progress; that is getting back on the offensive after such a long wait. This is something we can work with.
I’ll do my part in getting the news out.
In fact I’ll be proud to.
Regards, Live Dangerously Be A Conservative
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Change the Story to Toes
When fingers aren’t enough change the story to Toes.
The Obama administration must feel as if it were reliving the old story about the Dutchman plugging the dyke with his finger.
-----link-----
http://www.thehollandring.com/hans-brinker-story.shtml
--------------
The story is of a Dutch boy who due to carelessness and slothfulness was in the right place at the right time to see and stop a potentially devastating break in the levy system that protected the entire country of Holland. Picture Katrina except the flooding would be at a National level.
If we picture the economy as the water and the basic concepts of free enterprise as the dykes protecting us from the drowning effects of inflation we can see the poor little well meaning kid as he saw a problem and rushed to fix it. Fix it he did but while he was stuck there the new story shows that the dykes are springing leaks at an ever increasing pace.
What the Dutchman does next is he starts using more of his fingers to plug the holes as they spring up threatening to overwhelm his administration. What can he do except take off his clogs and start using his toes. In this case his Vice President and his phalanges are brought in. Unemployment hits record levels and Joe Biden says heck things are getting better, trying to say the stimulus bill helped unemployment. Oops there goes another dyke.
-----link-----
http://www.lonelyconservative.com/2009/06/14/the-gaffemeister-biden-claims-porkulus-kept-unemployment-low/
--------------
Now as the Washington Post and columnist Scott Wilson adroitly point out in the next link,there are several people who should be offering fingers and toes to hold back the flood of facts for their leader who are instead starting to point them in an accusing way saying that there needs to be some structural work to the dykes and that there aren’t enough fingers left to plug the damage already caused; and oh by the way we are coming up for re-election in a little over a year and we want you to fix things right.
-----link-----
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/13/AR2009061302035_pf.html
--------------
To me the most telling quote from the article came from his own man in the Senate in charge of the Budget. The guy who should know and not say. Well he’s talking.
-----quote-----
But Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said, "The second five years is where we're on a completely unsustainable course."
"People know we have an overall situation here that doesn't add up," he said.
-----------------
This is an excellent article that lays out all the evidence coming in from public opinion turning to the people the administration should be counting on who are starting to voice doubts, on up to world opinion as evidenced by what the Chinese and Euro leaders such as Germany’s Merkle are saying and doing; which is trying to talk or force some fiscal sense into the US fiscal policy.
As far as rewriting the legend, well while it may not be a very good analogy this legend was a fake to start with so why not rewrite some of it anyway?
-----quote from story above-----
The legend of the brave Dutch boy - by others thought to be named Hans Brinker - who supposedly put his finger in the dyke to prevent a flood, was actually a literary invention by the American writer Mary Elizabeth Mapes Dodge (1831-1905), who was born in New York.
--------------------------------
The scary part is once we pull out the fingers and toes will there be enough where withal left in the country to repair the dams or will we have to suffer the worst before we rebuild them right?
Those silly sign holders in Green Bay may be on to something. Probably just a bunch of Tea Party Right Wing Extremists, what do they know about rewriting history? They're too stupid, clingy bastards besides.
Regards, Live Dangerously Be A Conservative
The Obama administration must feel as if it were reliving the old story about the Dutchman plugging the dyke with his finger.
-----link-----
http://www.thehollandring.com/hans-brinker-story.shtml
--------------
The story is of a Dutch boy who due to carelessness and slothfulness was in the right place at the right time to see and stop a potentially devastating break in the levy system that protected the entire country of Holland. Picture Katrina except the flooding would be at a National level.
If we picture the economy as the water and the basic concepts of free enterprise as the dykes protecting us from the drowning effects of inflation we can see the poor little well meaning kid as he saw a problem and rushed to fix it. Fix it he did but while he was stuck there the new story shows that the dykes are springing leaks at an ever increasing pace.
What the Dutchman does next is he starts using more of his fingers to plug the holes as they spring up threatening to overwhelm his administration. What can he do except take off his clogs and start using his toes. In this case his Vice President and his phalanges are brought in. Unemployment hits record levels and Joe Biden says heck things are getting better, trying to say the stimulus bill helped unemployment. Oops there goes another dyke.
-----link-----
http://www.lonelyconservative.com/2009/06/14/the-gaffemeister-biden-claims-porkulus-kept-unemployment-low/
--------------
Now as the Washington Post and columnist Scott Wilson adroitly point out in the next link,there are several people who should be offering fingers and toes to hold back the flood of facts for their leader who are instead starting to point them in an accusing way saying that there needs to be some structural work to the dykes and that there aren’t enough fingers left to plug the damage already caused; and oh by the way we are coming up for re-election in a little over a year and we want you to fix things right.
-----link-----
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/13/AR2009061302035_pf.html
--------------
To me the most telling quote from the article came from his own man in the Senate in charge of the Budget. The guy who should know and not say. Well he’s talking.
-----quote-----
But Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said, "The second five years is where we're on a completely unsustainable course."
"People know we have an overall situation here that doesn't add up," he said.
-----------------
This is an excellent article that lays out all the evidence coming in from public opinion turning to the people the administration should be counting on who are starting to voice doubts, on up to world opinion as evidenced by what the Chinese and Euro leaders such as Germany’s Merkle are saying and doing; which is trying to talk or force some fiscal sense into the US fiscal policy.
As far as rewriting the legend, well while it may not be a very good analogy this legend was a fake to start with so why not rewrite some of it anyway?
-----quote from story above-----
The legend of the brave Dutch boy - by others thought to be named Hans Brinker - who supposedly put his finger in the dyke to prevent a flood, was actually a literary invention by the American writer Mary Elizabeth Mapes Dodge (1831-1905), who was born in New York.
--------------------------------
The scary part is once we pull out the fingers and toes will there be enough where withal left in the country to repair the dams or will we have to suffer the worst before we rebuild them right?
Those silly sign holders in Green Bay may be on to something. Probably just a bunch of Tea Party Right Wing Extremists, what do they know about rewriting history? They're too stupid, clingy bastards besides.
Regards, Live Dangerously Be A Conservative
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)