We're the Military and Airpower Guys of Jonah Goldberg of National Review Online + a stray we found wandering around looking lost. All original material JHD, BHD, JR, WT, and KA 2003-2007 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/05/peggy_noonan_to.html Sun, 03 Aug 2008 15:55:01 Z Movable Type 4.12 en Copyright 2008 http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification From the WSJ: The Bush White House, faced with the series of losses from 2005 through '08, has long claimed the problem is Republicans on the Hill and running for office. They have scandals, bad personalities, don't stand for anything. That's why Republicans are losing: because they're losers. All true enough! But this week a House Republican said publicly what many say privately, that there is another truth. "Members and pundits . . . fail to understand the deep seated antipathy toward the president, the war, gas prices, the economy, foreclosures," said Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia in a 20-page... http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/05/peggy_noonan_to.html http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/05/peggy_noonan_to.html Fri, 16 May 2008 10:16:32 -0600 "They fell in love with the job, and failed to understand - it isn't *supposed* to be a job." A mission for a while, and then go home? That much Noonan was right about. They never go home. The fat is too thick. Almost never. Zell Miller did. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/05/peggy_noonan_to.html#comment-73181 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/05/peggy_noonan_to.html#comment-73181 Sat, 17 May 2008 17:07:09 -0600 Strategic Citizens? What we are talking about is creating a movement in which people are inspired by the ideals and a vision of the American Experiment to take action on their own, independent of any centralized control and guided by their ideals and values. The specific kinds of non-violent action available to us are many and varied. Any type of media, technology, activism, rhetorical technique and organizational form is there in the tool box. What I would like to see is a proliferation of dozens perhaps hundreds of organizations all promoting pro-liberty, pro-American ideals and working to counter the postmodernist left and Islamic fundamentalism.]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/05/peggy_noonan_to.html#comment-73156 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/05/peggy_noonan_to.html#comment-73156 Fri, 16 May 2008 18:01:22 -0600 "...bullet train to Abilene." John, I've been trying to explain the bus to people for years and have not been able to find those darn videos anywhere. Any suggestions? Hunter http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/05/peggy_noonan_to.html#comment-73155 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/05/peggy_noonan_to.html#comment-73155 Fri, 16 May 2008 17:18:14 -0600 Bring back Bobby Walpole! Cheers http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/05/peggy_noonan_to.html#comment-73147 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/05/peggy_noonan_to.html#comment-73147 Fri, 16 May 2008 16:16:40 -0600 Which is why I don't vote the 3rd Party candidate, despite the carp I get from my old buddy Kevin, the Libertarian. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/05/peggy_noonan_to.html#comment-73144 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/05/peggy_noonan_to.html#comment-73144 Fri, 16 May 2008 15:27:49 -0600 " ... Give up on the idea of political parties. Build Coalitions of the Like-minded instead. ..." Do you know what happens when you do this? You just get a bunch of smaller, single issue and special interest groups and their candidates - or really, just more and smaller parties narrowly focused on specific interests and issues. And with these multiple, smaller parties without the clout of larger national party organizations, you wind up with the need to build coalitions to gain majorities to pass or block legislation. These multiparty & coalition governments are inherently weak and unstable, especially where you have proportional representation electoral systems. We know this from watching multiparty, coalition governments in Europe like Italy, Belgium, Finald, France, and others. I think our system has proved to be much more stable. We may grumble from time to time when we don't feel that either of the 2 national parties is really representing our interests, but basically the political pendulum stays somewhere in the middle because of the greater numbers of people who are more "moderate" and "independent", and cross over to vote for the other national party in major elections whenever the other party pulls too far to one side. However, these people in the middle are usually less politically active than the more partisan ideologues on either side, usually fat and happy and not interested in being active in political issues. This is why, IMHO, the concept of a strong 3rd party composed of these voters is doomed from the start. We usually only see a strong 3rd party when we see a major realignment, as we did when the Whigs died out and was supplanted by the Republican Party. These are usually temporary, thank goodness. Why? Because as we see each time we have a strong 3rd party candidate, as in 1992 with Perot and with Nader in 2000, the vote of the electorate usually gets divided so much that no candidate gets a simple majority of the vote. Without this simple majority, there isn't a "national consensus", and these candidates usually wind up being very weak and ineffective. This may be okay in some instances, under the philosophy that a weak leader or government can't intrude too much, but at other times it can render a them too weak to do what's necessary when crises occur or when legislation and action is sorely needed. It may be time to have a realignment, but we are better with 2 strong national parties. In a country of 300 million with such a diverse and varied electorate, it's really the only way to aggregate, assimilate, and articulate the interests of this large polity. No single party or coalition is going to satisfy each of the interests and goals of an individual, and there will be times when we find ourselves in conflict with specific items in a party platform. But by and large, I think most of us find that we identify and associate ourselves with the core ideology of one party or the other. Oh sure, there are exceptions to every rule, and some people are more neutral than others. But I think most of us either believe in Big Governnment or Individual Responsibility; Capitalism or Socialism; American Exceptionalism or We're Just Another Country; American Sovereignty/Military Strength or Subjugation to the UN Now!; America is generally a force for good or America is the root of the world's problems; etc etc. Personally, I think this is because of "Right Brain vs Left Brain" dominance in thought processing, which I think heavily influences our core political beliefs, and the fact that these 2 national parties mirror and oppose each other on most of these major issues, although because of the need to compromise there's often very little daylight between the actual policies that are implemented. Overall, even though it's imperfect and there's always room for improvement, I think our system has served us well for more than 200 years.]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/05/peggy_noonan_to.html#comment-73142 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/05/peggy_noonan_to.html#comment-73142 Fri, 16 May 2008 15:22:51 -0600 This is why I'd dearly love the following Constitutional Amendment: "No member of the Federal Government, except the President and Vice-President, shall serve two consequitive terms in the same office. This Amendment places no further restrictions on term of service." If someone's good enough they'll get the job back when the person who replaced them's term expires. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/05/peggy_noonan_to.html#comment-73140 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/05/peggy_noonan_to.html#comment-73140 Fri, 16 May 2008 15:09:42 -0600 Well, if Nancy wins the district this time around (I don't see Ryun unseating her, thus far) with more than 1% of margin, we'll see if she holds true to her record thus far. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/05/peggy_noonan_to.html#comment-73138 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/05/peggy_noonan_to.html#comment-73138 Fri, 16 May 2008 14:56:24 -0600 Yesterday, the House passed new GI Bill legislation that was supported by virtually every Veterans organization in the country. Nancy Boyda, John's Rep (ACU rating 28.00), voted Yea Mike Pence, my Rep(ACU rating 99.43) voted Nay I wonder if Kansas would be interested in trading Rep Boyda for Rep Pence....and a Vice Presidential Candidate to be named later? What frosts me is that I sat across the breakfast table on 1 April when Rep Pence promised his support........and I paid for the freaking breakfast......oh well, so much for my career as a lobyist. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/05/peggy_noonan_to.html#comment-73129 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/05/peggy_noonan_to.html#comment-73129 Fri, 16 May 2008 12:53:48 -0600 "and Jesus said, 'will you leave me also." Simon Peter said, 'Lord, where shall we go? You alone have words of life." The Republican Party has lost its center. When given the opportunity to cling to words of life, we chose to leave, because it was too hard and too unpopular to stay and fight. We won't win another election in the next 20 years - Democrats will simply lose them. We have gone from victories being won on executable platforms to the nation growing tired of the incumbent and giving the other guys a turn. Not very encouraging. ML ]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/05/peggy_noonan_to.html#comment-73124 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/05/peggy_noonan_to.html#comment-73124 Fri, 16 May 2008 11:03:57 -0600 But my very favorite incumbent is a rugged Constitutionalist! And she's *cute*... Wish she was running for Mayor instead of Town Council. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/05/peggy_noonan_to.html#comment-73123 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/05/peggy_noonan_to.html#comment-73123 Fri, 16 May 2008 11:02:03 -0600 Give up on the idea of political parties. Build Coalitions of the Like-minded instead. Become a non-hiearchical, entrepreneurial, distributed swarm of attacking Irregular Culture Warriors, making life miserable for Cultural Marxists, and multi-culti carbon dispensationalist tranzies while providing aid and comfort to American Exceptionalists, rugged individualists, Constitutionalists, and the rest of the bitter clingers who have turned their backs on the Republican party but yet cannot abide what the Democrat Party has become. Don’t vote for incumbents. Period. ]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/05/peggy_noonan_to.html#comment-73122 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/05/peggy_noonan_to.html#comment-73122 Fri, 16 May 2008 11:01:40 -0600 Give up on the idea of political parties. Build Coalitions of the Like-minded instead. Become a non-hiearchical, entrepreneurial, distributed swarm of attacking Irregular Culture Warriors, making life miserable for Cultural Marxists, and multi-culti carbon dispensationalist tranzies while providing aid and comfort to American Exceptionalists, rugged individualists, Constitutionalists, and the rest of the bitter clingers who have turned their backs on the Republican party but yet cannot abide what the Democrat Party has become. Don’t vote for incumbents. Period. ]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/05/peggy_noonan_to.html#comment-73118 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/05/peggy_noonan_to.html#comment-73118 Fri, 16 May 2008 10:55:37 -0600 Well said wise one. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/05/peggy_noonan_to.html#comment-73114 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/05/peggy_noonan_to.html#comment-73114 Fri, 16 May 2008 10:44:49 -0600