I always enjoy reading Ace of Spades’ morning link roundups. There are usually around a dozen links with some catch line embedding a link to the story itself.
One day three stories sort of lined up together with a similar theme – leftists angry that the serfs do not blindly trust their views. The Jammie Wearing Fools found an interesting opinion on our Ebola problem:
Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) said that the public wouldn’t be as alarmed about Ebola if more people were “thinking critically for themselves.”
Holt, a former physicist who is retiring at the end of this year, said that Americans should familiarize themselves more with science to trust medical professionals.
“We should have a citizenry that’s more comfortable with science and better able to understand and make decisions about it,” Holt said, according to the Times of Trenton. “If people were thinking critically for themselves, there wouldn’t be this level of panic.”
Hot Air’s Jazz Shaw wrote a good post under The NYT has had enough of you bumpkins deciding elections, but the post gets interesting when it turns to Washington Monthly’s Ed Kilgore:
And of course they are deeply stupid, because (just to cite the most obvious thing) working on a farm or riding Harleys or packing heat or baking biscuits has about as much relevance to the decisions being made (or evaded) in Washington as hog-calling has to high oratory. In Ernst’s case, the ads are doubly stupid because she’s not going to be casting votes based on her own homespun farm-bred judgment, but will instead do whatever Mitch McConnell and/or the right-wing activists of Iowa tell her to do.
Shaw goes on to point out problems with these elitist bubbles:
Leon Wolf, writing at Redstate, has a fairly effective takedown of these attacks, identifying the fact that what these elite culture warriors truly hate more than anything else is having to live on a patch of land which is attached to the flyover states where the annoying, unwashed masses reside. But more to the point, it should be noted that these campaign messages are effective for a reason, and it’s not a negative one. These “bumpkins” which Leibovitch so casually dismisses as being unworthy of participating in a modern democracy are, in fact, representative of a large swath of the nation. There are still people who actually live in farm country and maintain the values he so cheerily derides. There are people working in factories and mills – at least those few who can still find jobs – and get up every day worrying about problems which probably seem quaint, if not fictional, to those who spend their lives living in Manhattan, D.C. or Hollywood.
And for our third post, The Federalists’ Robert Tracinski about how the Dems are annoyed that public opinion has turned against their views with Skewedenfreude: Why Democrats Can’t Face the Midterm 2014 Polls
Timothy Egan tells us that “Oligarchs hiding behind front groups—Citizens for Fluffy Pillows—are pulling the levers of the 2014 campaign, and overwhelmingly aiding Republicans.” While Paul Krugman sums it up as “Plutocrats Against Democracy.”
Here’s where the skewedenfreude gets a little less amusing. It’s not just about denying the accuracy of the public opinion polls. It’s about denying the legitimacy of the vote itself.
It’s one thing to let wishful thinking carry you away and make you overoptimistic about your side’s political chances. It’s quite another to impugn the legitimacy of the whole electoral process because you don’t want to admit you’re losing a political argument.
Outside of those three posts, more was written on the subject. Also from The Federalist, David Harsanyi has his own take on the subject:
Left punditry, though, frames this kind of healthy American skepticism about state power as “cynicism.” And if people lose faith in the decency of hyperactive government, the nation is plunged into “malaise.”
Parties often fool themselves after setbacks. The GOP will, as well. No doubt, we’ll soon have a barrage of post-election autopsies that will get to the heart of the matter. You know the drill. Democrats don’t lose because of policy positions, they lose because of turnout, poorly run campaigns, or GOP voter interference. Democrats win elections on the strength of the electorate’s evolution on issues. Republican wins are always “structural.”
The meltdown by the leftists in the media is entertaining, and at times like this I wish we hadn’t gotten rid of cable – on nights where the Democrats are losing badly it’s fun to watch MSNBC. It seems that Jonah Goldberg has already been doing so so we wouldn’t have to. Hot Air’s Noah Rothman offers more on how cable news is having a hard time coming to grips with a potential GOP takeover.
And after the New York Times’ published a college student’s call for dictatorship, the Free Beacon felt they did not go far enough and offered a good parody of the original Times piece.
Image appears via The People’s Cube
But to wrap things up, I’ll leave you with a piece that put a smile on my face as I was enjoying my pancake breakfast while reading this past Sunday’s Washington Post. Steven Pearlstein was lamenting that the real problem is that Democrats are running away from their winning brand:
“I’m a Democrat. In economic terms, that means I believe we need an active, competent government to ensure that prosperity is broadly shared by protecting ordinary people from the occasional excesses of markets and the undue power of businesses. That’s why Democrats are for raising the minimum wage, closing down corporate tax scams, putting tighter regulation on Wall Street and providing adequate funding for a world-class public education system from pre-K through college. And it’s why we are proud to have passed legislation to ensure that all Americans finally have a basic health insurance plan regardless of income or health or which company they work for. With oil and gas prices falling, it means I’m even willing to raise energy taxes by a few pennies per gallon so we can reinvest in the infrastructure — highways, ports, airports, subway systems, the electric grid, the Internet — on which all of us and the economy depend. Republicans are uninterested in, or unwilling to do, any of these things or in making any of these investments. Are you with them, or are you with us Democrats?”
I was tempted to address that last statement point by point but Victor David Hansen gave a this great dissection of why the rosy promises of the left and the reality that results from their ideas are two different things.
OK, I do have to pull apart one line. Pearlstein opens with “I believe we need an active, competent government”. The party of big, active government has been in power for some time now, and has proven itself to be anything but competent. I’ve written before about the danger of the bubble mentality. Maybe if our press got out of their bubbles and saw the results of their policies maybe they’d understand why so many Americans have turned against those policies along with the president who pushed them on us.
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Cross posted from Brother Bob’s Blog
You folks have to secure the border. Blanket amnesty won’t work. More will come. The US will continue handing out blankets.
The midterm elections marked a move of the GOP towards moderation — and a giant step away from the Tea Party. Tea Party candidates were squashed in the primaries. The economic message was mainly about the average American being left behind. There was endorsement of over the counter contraceptives and a decided muting of rhetoric directed against same gender marriage, abortion, and the “taker” class. Four states passed minimum wage increases by voter initiative: South Dakota, Alaska, Arkansas, and Nebraska. Mitch McConnell liked the insurance exchanges, even as he paid lip service to getting rid of ObamaCare, root and branch, and then admitted that this wasn’t going to happen. There was no anti-global warming rhetoric. The immigration language was decidedly muted. Did anyone hear anything about guns?
The Tea Party is now dead. That’s the biggest certainty of this election. The GOP has wisely decided that it’s much better to win elections than to lose them. Ted Cruz has no political future on the national scene, unless he does a Mitt Romney style political makeover.
This election showed, once and for all, the pathway to GOP success, moving forward. And it’s got absolutely nothing to do with the Tea Party.
In 2016, the electorate will be even less conservative — look for the GOP candidates to double down on their new found moderation.
– Larry Weisenthal/Huntington Beach CA
@Larry Weisenthal:
Keep telling yourself that, Larry. As a matter of fact, we conservatives are banking on it. And news flash; conservatives of this nation are tired of being offered Northeast liberal squishes like Romney. Romney was rejected twice; once when he ran against McCain the primaries and again when he took the nomination.
But hey, you keep telling yourself that your brand of liberalism is working out, in spite of the thumping you just took Tuesday. How’s that brand working out in California? Pretty soon all you will have are the Hollyweird elite, the stoners and the shoplifters, oh and yeah, the illegals who are sucking your state dry,
@Larry Weisenthal:
Wow…what an amazing example of continued leftist self-delusion, Larry. The Tea party is most certainly not dead. It recognized that the insanely stupid and anti-American policies of the extreme left have grown too great to stay at home in protest against the RINOs. Conservatives are deciding it is better to try to work from within the party rather than to start their own.
How many candidates that Hillary and Slick Willie campaigned for actually won election? How many lost? Hagan was beaten by a conservative. Pryor was beaten by a conservative. Jodi Ernst is a conservative.
29 democrat senators who voted for obamacare have now been removed from office.
SCOTUS has accepted the lawsuit that has challenges the illegal payment of taxpayer subsidies for obamacare premiums in those states that did not set up state exchanges.
How many millions did the leftist ultrawealthy flush down the toilet supporting AGW kooks and gun-control fascists, who ended up losing their elections?
Yeah – how’s that DSCC pullout of ad buys for the Louisiana runoff between Landrieu and Cassidy play into your “Tea Party Dead” mantra?
Yeah – you leftists are more than welcome to keep sucking your thumbs and rocking yourselves to sleep while muttering “The Tea Party is dead…the Tea Party is dead..” We’ll keep working to educate as many people as possible on the inherent failures and desperate fascism of collectivist ideology.
Hi Retire.
Hope to get back with you on the California-Texas debate this weekend. As I’m certain you know, California bucked the national trend.
I note that neither you nor Pete addressed the issue of the type of campaigning which proved so effective for the GOP in the present mid-terms. Are you aware of any of the competitive races (for Senate, for US representative, or for Governor) in which the successful GOP candidate ran on a Tea Party platform? Hillary Clinton could have run on the type of campaign platforms espoused by not a few of the GOP winners. I think that I described what happened quite accurately. This is a lesson which won’t be lost of the GOP establishment and GOP electorate, going forward. Look for much less fear of being “primaried” among GOP members of Congress. The contrast between the success of Tea Party candidates in competitive races in 2012 and mainstream candidates in the present election is plain to see.
– Larry Weisenthal/Huntington Beach CA
The liberals have their heart in the right place.
Desiring prosperity, good health, education, and infrastructure are all good things.
The liberals have not engaged their brains. Much of the above CANNOT be provided by government. Problem: government is not about providing solutions. Government is about making more government.
In government the employees are not rewarded for solving problems. Employees are rewarded for finding reasons to expand their responsibility. In other words, there is no incentive in Government for doing all those good things.
I lived through a massive reorganization in the U S Army, and saw this in action. It was not about getting things done. It was about jacking up the pay grades of everyone involved.
In business, if you don’t make money, you are out of business. In government, if you fail to provide services, you are rewarded with more minions under you. In business you can be fired. In government, you have permanent employment for life.
The tragedy is the evidence: look at the massive Federal Government. Look at what they were charged with doing. And look at the results. Massive funds for education; our students decline with respect to the rest of the world. 40 years of “fighting” poverty, and we are “poorer” than ever. Massive provision for “Families with Dependent Children”: we have more fatherless children now than ever in the past.
Sorry. I don’t the fault the liberals for caring. I fault them for not getting the job done!
Greg and the others will have to give me details on successful Government programs, since I don’t know of any.
@mathman:
How can you say that – while their hands are in everyone else’s pockets?
You need to fault yourself for not being able to realize and / or admit that you are being scammed – and apparently enjoying it!
@Larry+Weisenthal:
Let’s establish just one thing, Larry; what do you think is the TEA Party platform? Spell out what you are under the impression it is. Because I seriously doubt that you have ever attended a TEA Party event to know for yourself and you are simply going by what you have been told by your progressive handlers.
And what do you consider “mainstream?” And being a Californian, who seems to support all the destruction the Democratic Party has done to your state, I doubt you have a clear idea of “mainstream.
Your state is turning into the hole beneath the outhouse, and you don’t seem to be aware that it is due to progressive politics that were sounded rejected Tuesday. California is getting ready to give driver’s licenses to 1.4 million illegals, illegals that many can only take the driver’s test in Spanish because they speak no English. How safe are your streets/roads/highways going to be when someone is driving down them that can’t read the traffic signs? You have the highest rate of poverty in the country. You say that most Californians want a reduction in its population but yet Governor Moonbean has thrown out the welcome mat for even more illegals that your state can’t afford. You have a California high school choir director adding an Islamic chant to the choir’s annual performance while anything Christian is frowned upon in your state. California and New York are considered the worst states in the Union for business, and it shows with the migration out of them. You are losing your middle class, you know, the people that actually pay taxes, to the illegals and the uber rich that hires high dollar tax attorneys to off shore their money and avoid paying taxes.
So yeah, you revel in California bucking the trend as you watch your state sink deeper and deeper into the manure beneath the outhouse.
No, Larry, you were not right. You live in a progressive delusional fog and you think it will eventually get better. Stay there, Larry. The rest of the nation has awaken from the progressive nightmare.
@retire05:
Just “most” of “The rest of” as: “Most of the rest of the nation —“
I really love that art from The People’s Cube!
It depicts liberals not looking past their immediate noses.
Yes, they want noble things; everybody being healthy and well fed and enjoying perfect weather, but liberal big government policies never get them to those goals.
And yet they never see that more government is not the answer!
When governmental incompetency results from their big government policies, they ”double down.”
Dumb.
What it really Albert Einstein who said, “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” ?
Who said that first is actually up for debate, but the phrase describes big government liberals like Obama perfectly.
And seeing the consequences of 6 years of unremitting big government the VOTERS had had enough.
Who else listened to Obama the other day when he claimed he could claim a mandate based on how all the NONVOTERS were on his side?
I heard that and was reminded on disgraced pol John Edwards who made millions by standing in front of juries and pretending to speak for (even ”channel” dead children.
Lower than snakes!
No wonder Obama’s group was repudiated by this election.
Just 22 candidates backed by either Clinton won, compared with 32 who lost.
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/11/2014-elections-clinton-candidates-112559.html#ixzz3IR50KtdZ
BTW, Dems, had you noted that Obama didn’t even have a kind word for all those Dems who stood by him for years and lost their re-elections?
Not one kind word.
He threw them under the bus then pushed on the gas to distance himself from them!
Liberals want everyone to have a piece of the pie…. the problem is that their only solution is to whip out the long knives and cut the pie into smaller and smaller pieces. It never occurs to them to make more pies…. or better yet, get the hell out of the way of the folks who actually know how to make pies! It’s stuck me recently that it’s odd that leftists mock folk on the right who believe in “intelligent design”, yet they themselves believe in “central planning” of the economy and society. (I won’t call it ‘intelligent’ planning!) To be fair, it’s also odd the folk on the right can accept the social Darwinism of the free market, yet the concept of actual biological Darwinism gives them conniptions. Guess that’s why I’m a libertarian. 😉
@Larry Weisenthal:
A short list of Tea Party and Tea Party endorsed candidates:
Mia Love
Corey Gardner
Tim Scott
Tom Cotton
Plus Tea Party favorites that breezed to reelection such as:
James Inhofe
Jeff Sessions
Justin Amash
Louie Ghomert……..to name a few.