Trumpism Without Trump? No. Trumpism-Light Without Hillary

Give a nod to Virginia Democrats. They had an exceptional get out the vote effort, were jazzed to get to the voting booth, and had a smart top of the ticket that jinked towards the center to bring in the big squishy middle.

Poor Ed Gillespie. Ed is a good guy and would have been a fine Governor. Why he picked 2017 to make a run? Who knows. It was a low-probability voyage of the damned the day a year ago that Trump won.

As I remain in many respects a Party unto myself – and not a Virginian – I’ve watched this race with a detached and neglected curiosity, mostly to see what kind of wreck it will be.

Between twitter and what few minutes of “the shows” I’ve been able to stomach, I’ve found the spin and hot takes to be less than convincing on both sides.

I do think there are some important lessons that both Democrats and Republicans should ponder.

1. Ed is about as establishment GOP (not that there is anything wrong with that) as you can get. He was never going to excite the Trump base to turn in numbers in the hinterlands as great as the pent-up frustrated Democrats within commuting distance of DC wanted to come out and rage-vote.

2. Ralph Northam is a good politician who offered an opportunity for the (D) to get a 1 in the “Win” column with style. He was always the favorite to win, and by shifting towards the right to even center-right in the general, he broadened his spread.

3. The pummeling the VA GOP got was well deserved and should be of no surprise. So much of it comes from the general confusion in the GOP establishment that is directly responsible for Trump being elected.

Let me take a bit to flesh-out that last bit, as it applies to the nation as a whole, and a bit to VA.

Exhibit A is Reince Priebus. He exercised even less control of the 2016 primary process than he did in his shambolic and abbreviated tour as Trump’s Chief of Staff. He allowed a huge clown car of Republicans to run and suck the oxygen out of the room, divide blocks, and created an opening for a neglected and scorned part of the GOP coalition to cleave almost in whole away from the rest the pack to Trump.

While Trump cultivated the part of the Republican Party that the establishment constantly took for granted – those who each election played Charlie Brown to the GOPe Lucy – those told to shut up and vote for the nominee given to them – the rest fed on each other.

Jeb! and his Alfrid Lickspittlesque partner Mike Murphy engaged over $100 million in a selfish personal vendetta against Marco Rubio from one side, while the unelectable Chris Christie came at him from the other. The professionals joined with the unelectable to eliminate the plausible, as the picayune egoists allowed to clutter the stage scampered about throwing glitter and smoke in the air. Ted Cruz? He was as confused as everyone else, and as he tried to position himself as best he could in the chaos, the table was already set.

As I mentioned as far back as 2015, Trump’s personality is exactly what he is; a New York City real estate developer. It isn’t a show, it just is. As the established coalition partners in the Republican Party were having slap fights over who was more entitled to what – Trump consolidated the neglected and scorned portions of the Republican Party together, welding them to him by constantly reassuring them he would not leave them.

How could a life-long Democrat, Clinton supporting, abrasive, womanizing, gun control supporting, single payer healthcare, crass Yankee get Evangelicals, gun owners, honor bound Southerners, nice Midwesterners and others to support him?

One person; Hillary Rodham Clinton. More and more people began to see that only one thing kept HRC away from the levers of power she lusted after. Sadly, that became DJT. Reince did not have the balls of Debbie Wasserman-Schultz to do what needed to be done – so Trump hijacked the Republican Party.

The rest, as they say, is history.

The Republicans, on paper, have never been stronger – but there is a problem. That problem is Trump. He is toxic.

Yes, he as strong support, but 1/3 does not give you 50.1%. There are a lot of people who did not vote for DJT, but against HRC. That bolt is shot.

The HRC dragon has been slain. That motivation is no longer there. Without it, there is DJT standing in the light. He is not an attractive figure for many that voted for him simply to keep HRC away from power.

Anti-HRC enthusiasm is gone.

The standard Conservative message is good – but it needs to get out from Trump’s shadow to survive.

There is no Trumpism, there is only Trump. Some of those specific issues that gained him legitimacy; anti-sanctuary cities and respect for our history for example, are issues that the Democrats adopted to win in VA.

Trumpism is Trump. The Republican Party cannot be Trump, because when he goes, so will the Party if they are yoked to him. Trumpism is a dead end.

The Democrats know this better than the Republicans, I think – or just have an easier job. They are going to continue to push (R) towards DJT to keep his stink on them. They don’t need Trumps 33.3%. They just need some of the other 16.8%+.

What they need to do is to not just capture some of that 16.8%, they need to depress and de-motivate the Trump base before the Republicans find a way to re-motivate them in a post-Trump world.

The Democrats are in the process of cutting the last strings to the Clintons. This will open all sorts of doors to them – and will remove a not insignificant motivation for Republicans that has powered many of for decades.

The Republicans need to regain the respect of the parts of their coalition that is loyal to Trump. They don’t need to be Trump – they just need to do show some respect for all parts of their Party. They also need to realize that they need to absolutely avoid the most toxic parts of Trumpism as it will kill them.

Can they do that? I don’t know. My inner-Eeyore thinks not in time. The Republicans will pay a price for having a NYC Democrat populist at the top of their ticket. How big will the price be? We’ll see.

There is great opportunity here for those who are fighting the good fight inside the Republican Party. As Trumpism takes its course, those who were steadfast yet out of the frag pattern will be able to step in and take power in the Party. Those who left or retreated from conservative principals by joining Democrats or fan-boi Trumpism? No. They will not be seen as part of the solution. There is not much time left to re-join the fight. Come back - we need 'ya.

A final note: no one born before 1963 should run for office as a Republican ever again. Those who are closest to the Reince/Mike Murphy part of the Party should be sent to lobbyist exile.

Trumpism, NeverTrumpism, and their Discontents

I haven't done much politics here over the last year - I keep that to twitter mostly. Today, I need some more space.

Indulge me a bit.

At one time, I was all about the #nevertrump hashtag army ... then faced with Hillary, I decided to stop sniping at both sides and retire from the field.

The Never Trump attitude post-election has not changed all that much, and the Trumpist base's attitude to the GOPe hasn't either. Some call it a "Republican Civil War" - but not really. This friction has existed in a variety of forms through the years. I still remember the GOPe attitude towards President Reagan during his Presidency. It was different in many ways, but only slightly.

Over at National Review, Victor Davis Hanson has put together one of the better outlines of this divide.

He picks up the "how you got Trump" track spot on;

Trump is a symptom of widespread disgust, not the head of a carefully crafted ideological movement with a checklist of issues. What created him was furor at a smug, entrenched Republican political establishment. In a bout of virtue-signaling, this cadre had deliberately conflated opposition to illegal immigration with supposedly racist resistance to legal immigration, while damning principled conservatives as “nativist” and “xenophobes” simply for wanting existing laws enforced. It had preached free-market economics without worry for the losers of globalization, while many of its megaphones cashed in on the government-corporate-media nexus. And its prior presidents and presidential candidates had been reduced to mushy punching bags, strangely bragging about their own virtue in not responding to invective while their own supporters and defenders were left to be smeared and defamed. Worse yet, they caricatured the base voters who used to defend them while they themselves went on to defend, even if indirectly, their erstwhile critics.

Trump won no more of the voters who turned out and who identified as “conservative” than did Romney. But again, Trump apparently did get Democrats, Independents, and lapsed and previously uncounted Republicans to vote in key states in a way that Romney and McCain did not. The few Republicans that Trump lost were more than made up by others who were won over. (This raises the question of whether there was a cause-and-effect relationship between the two phenomena. But I doubt that the reason working-class voters turned out to vote for Trump was that most writers at National Review and The Weekly Standard were against him.)
...
Never Trumpers now see the Trump base as prone to demagogic frenzies on immigration and trade; too monolithically white; often-angry blame-gaming losers of globalization; naïve rather than self-critical about so-called white pathologies; and in their populism too dismissive of the importance of political experience, impressive education, and the changing demography of the U.S. The far more numerous Trump base voters sees the Never Trumpers as too self-important; predictably bicoastal careerist; too quick to judge and write off their supposed ethical inferiors; too eager to get along with liberals within their own bubble; too wedded to traditional definitions of political qualifications and success; and more worried about decorum than winning. But all that said, most Republicans were in neither camp, and just voted for their party’s nominee, explaining a 90/10 percent split among Republicans on Election Day, which is proof of party unity. Do Never Trumper hold Trumpers in contempt more than vice versa? Each side counts its hate emails and claims to be the more aggrieved party and the more victimized. Each thinks voting for or against Trump revealed a darkness not noticed before in supposedly well-known colleagues and associates. Certainly friendships have been strained and lost, and invective and accusations leveled. Much on a personal level cannot be repaired. But more unites than divides. If one side is civil and respectful to the other, the other usually reciprocates — unlike what’s going on now in the streets and campuses of the progressive, Democratic left.

...the war is mostly infighting among politicos, pundits, politicians, and media people and so far does not necessarily change the realities of the voting public. We saw that reality in 2016 when the thunderous damnation Trump received from his own party had no profound effect on his candidacy.

His final call is why I walked away from my #nevertrump friends' club a bit over a year ago;

Meanwhile, the administrative state expands, the debt is headed for $21 trillion, crass identity politics tear the nation apart, the effort to restore deterrence abroad grows ever more dangerous, and the campuses, Hollywood, the NFL, and the media are reminding us that progressive politics are now our culture’s orthodoxy, vital for success in nearly all fields. And dealing with all that is the only conservative fight that counts.

Has my opinion of Trump changed all that much since I called "Peak Trump" after the McCain insult of 2015? No, but I'm ok, and so are you.

In the end, I am content with the following; I am more than happy to apologize to others for a President Trump; I could never forgive myself for a President Hillary.

We may have been hit with a baseball bat, but we missed a load of napalm. Bruises and breaks heal just fine.

So, it's Tuesday

For those who follow me on twitter, you already know in detail where I stand this election cycle - but as it is Super Tuesday, let me just outline things for you from the center chair on the Front Porch.

To keep it simple, I'll stick with the Republican side today. Perhaps some other day I'll go over the Democrat side of the ledger, but not today.

Let me start by telling you who I am voting for. I started out almost two years ago being a Scott Walker guy. I stuck with him until two weeks prior to him dropping out when all of a sudden he started talking and acting like someone else. At that time, my #2 candidate was the guy I supported the moment he announced he was going to oppose Charlie Crist for the Senate in Florida, Marco Rubio.

I knew of Rubio from his time in the Florida House where he rose to Speaker. I grew up with the sons of Cuban exiles whose fathers were barbers to heart surgeons. I understood his reference point in life. He ran as an "anti-establishment" candidate and won. Sad to say, he disappointed me once he got in office, and I still cannot get over his lack of judgement in thinking he could in any way trust Schumer. I'm still not over that, but I know in life everyone will disappoint you in some way or another. I'll take 80% good any day. Part of politics in expecting and managing disappointment. 

With my primary pick out, I am sticking with my backup. I'm voting for Rubio. 

As my ready-spare down the road, there is Ted Cruz. Again, there are things about Cruz that I don't all that much care for, but he is unquestionably the smartest man out there. He is right on most issues, and is young enough and strong enough to be able to handle the job. He is also secure enough in his own skin to survive the curve balls that come with the job.

If you don't like Rubio, you can vote for Cruz and I'll fully understand.

Kasich? No. Just no. First thing, I will never forgive him for being the deciding vote for Clinton's Assault Weapons Ban in the 1990s and the joy he takes in rubbing it in to that part of the conservative base. Also, I detect in him a kind of leader that I have worked for in the past and I have no desire to see that every day as CINC. Oh, and he will never win south of the Mason-Dixon line, so why bother.

Carson? I am for Dr. Carson as my next door neighbor and any medical issues I may have - but not as CINC.

That brings us to Trump. I will keep this as short as possible. I am firmly in the #nevertrump camp. Other nations have oligarchs as their leaders, we do not. We should not. We can not. I have a personal dislike of the man based upon my Southern sensibilities about how a man of wealth and power should comport himself in public. He is, from at least this Old Line Southerner's point of view, is as a caricature of an overbearing New Yorker as Boss Hogg is of a petty Southern criminal boss. He is a carnival barker, holds others he considers below him in contempt, and his word is worthless. He does not have the temperament to be President of the United States. I won't say more, as it is self-evident. His supporters will not listen to reason.

I can understand a lot of the anger and frustration that is driving people in to his camp - and the establishment of both parties are responsible for his rise; 75% Republican 25% Democrat. That does not excuse supporting him.

If he is the Republican nominee, I will not vote for him. I will not support him. I will not. I cannot.

I am under no illusions as to where the tide of the nation is going. I will fight it as long as I can, but I will not join it. I will stand athwart the tracks and yell, "stop" - as vain as it may be. I won't be run over by it though, and I won't hop on either. I will, as my ancestors have done in the past, step to the side and find my own way - leaving what was to what might have been.

So, vote. Vote in a way you can defend to your children and grandchildren.

Diversity Thursday

This is actually a DivThu I'm going to enjoy writing; another "macro" DivThu as a reminder why we roll this up the hill every THU.

Make no question, we are in an intellectual, political, and cultural war for the soul of our republic. Remember, the USA is not an ethnic, or really even geographic nation - we are a nation of ideas. We are an experiment in self-governance by a people united, but very different; as different as Taos, NM is to Bath, ME. Alike in interests, but very different in perspective. A work in progress and as imperfect as any human institution, but we have lasted as long as we have because of the ongoing pursuit of a fair rule of law to support individual liberty.

We are always on a journey - but can only see a destination you can never really reach; a destination that changes in place and appearance with each step forward, but still an attractive place to strive for. That should be OK. One of the best aspects of the human condition is the striving, it is what keeps you active and alive. To be sated is to be finished with the striving. That is being dead.  

There are some who don't like the journey, they don't like positive change. They are in fear of others progress and unity of purpose, they are envious of the success of one path that though is good for the whole, is bad for their own selfish reasons.

There are others who get stuck - they get stuck in a period of time and a construct that at one moment in their life helped them understand the natural chaos around them. In that flash, they found if not peace, then at least understanding. Anything that breaks the spell of that moment in time causes panic, anger, and depending on the person, dispair.

There are others who may at that one moment in time - usually an unalloyed idealism - find the messy, human reality of the now so dystopic that they look to horizons to a better place, a place more often than not the natural progression of their unalloyed idealism. They want to go to that place, but they find barriers - or what they perceive as barriers - between them and that wonderful place they want to go to. Impatient at those things that are in their way, they get angry. They lash out. They look for shortcuts. Instead of work, adjust, and move, they hack and thrash.

Those two types of people often eventually find themselves at a third place that some malevolent personalities start at on Phase 0. Hate. They find nothing in this human existence that they find good and worth refining; they simply hate.

I use that word intentionally - as I am want to say; words mean things. As a lot of people hate when I use wiki anything, I'm going to use that reference.

Two things; first from Wikipedia;

In psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud defined hate as an ego state that wishes to destroy the source of its unhappiness.[1] More recently, the Penguin Dictionary of Psychology defines hate as a "deep, enduring, intense emotion expressing animosity, anger, and hostility towards a person, group, or object."[2] Because hatred is believed to be long-lasting, many psychologists[who?] consider it to be more of an attitude or disposition than a temporary emotional state.

Now definition #2 of the verb, hate, from Wiktionary;

hate (third-person singular simple present hates, present participle hating, simple past and past participle hated)
...
2. (transitive, slang) To dislike intensely due to envy.

Perfect.

There, ground set.

This Tuesday's election has been quite nice for me because it helps those of us who are right of center. At least my wing of the party of one, the Evangelical Conservative Libertarian Anarcho-syndicalist Communalist party, I have tired of not just the "war on woman" psychoslander, but the whole sexistracisthomophobic verbal tic that otherwise sane friends left of center have been prattling over and over like some tweeking parrot towards anyone who might be now, or have ever been, a Republican.

It isn't just the anti-intellectualism of the argument, it is the inaccuracy of it all. There is never a center or nuance with these people - there is only their side and Satan.

Yes, you can find that attitude all over the place Ms. Moralequivalence, but really. Check the tape.

Keeping with the illogic of it all, after asking for actual examples of what they say that goes beyond the individual idiot you can find in any group, they cannot really give you any facts to back up their slander. Sure, they can give you a metric butt-ton of emotion and foam-flecked rage, but nothing of this world. After a bit of back and forth, they eventually ask you to prove a negative, "Show me that the Rethuglicans are not sexistracisthomophobic you teabagging $)*)#(*$)!"

Sigh. This is when I become an optimist. Why? Well, because I know something that most GenX types have known since they were about 10, not much is going to get fixed until the Baby Boomers start to leave their mortal coil and let the rest of us repair the mess they leave behind. Each year we get closer.

Sure, GenX has its issues in hurting the intellect of GenY with such prep-school poseurs like Touré, but who said we are perfect.

You see - I know that my generation is just a place holder - the last non-medicated youth generation whose sole purpose is to separate GenY (nee Millennials ) from their nemesis, The Boomers.

On DivThu, it is a time to reflect that thing are going to be just fine. If you know what you are, yet you cannot prove a negative - how do you counter a slander?

Simple - show by your actions what you are.

Republican Elise Stefanik has become the youngest woman elected to Congress in history, winning her race against Aaron Woolf in New York's 21st open district 56-32, ABC News projects.

She's the first Republican to win the district, which had been held by Democratic Rep. Bill Owens since 1993.

Stefanik, 30 ...

Build your farm team;

A West Virginia University freshman who did most of her campaigning out of her dorm room became the youngest state lawmaker in the nation Tuesday.

Republican Saira Blair, a fiscally conservative 18-year-old, will represent a small district in West Virginia’s eastern panhandle, about 1½ hours outside Washington, D.C., after defeating her Democratic opponent 63% to 30%,

From the heart of the former Confederacy, GenX's best will help where it can;

South Carolina's Tim Scott on Tuesday became the first African-American senator to win election in the South since Reconstruction.
...
Scott's win also made him the first African-American in U.S. history to be elected to both the House and the Senate

Speaking of the South, that land so fertile and rich, do I need to mention that both South Carolina and Louisiana's Republican Governors are of South Asian extraction? No, that is old news that breaks the left's narrative, I forgot.

Well ... those Republicans are still as white bread as white bread can be. Especially with those uptight religions enclaves where they are most comfortable - places like lily-white Utah where they can hide from diversity!

In Utah, Mia Love became the first black Republican woman — and first Haitian American — elected to Congress.
...
Though more than 60 percent of the state’s people identify as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the church is just 3 percent black.

Anyway, Republicans are just a bunch of old white men;

Tom Cotton would be the youngest U.S. senator. Current youngest is Chris Murphy, born in 1973.

OK, two out of three - as if there is anything wrong with that, is there?

Do I need to go any further? No, not really. Like many of you, I have tired of asking people, "Who are you talking about? What bubble do you live in? I don't see any of those attitudes predominate anywhere. This is 2014 and the Republican Party, not the 1963 Democrat Party."

There is the problem. When you found your happy spot somewhere between LBJ's first and Nixon's second administration - you really cannot relate to the world around you in the middle of the second decade of the 21st Century.

The Republican Party's future is winning over their retrograde-minded peers, like, well - you know who.

...Sandra Fluke lost her bid for a seat in the California state Senate. ... to Democrat Ben Allen in California’s 26th District. ... the Santa Monica-Malibu school board member held a 22-point lead over Fluke

So, I'm quite happy to have Tim and Tom be the "face" of the men of the Republican Party, with Mia, Elise, and Saira covering the double-X.

You see, the left is wrong about the future - they have to be wrong. In order for our republic to survive, it must strive to be inclusive and as color blind as possible. To focus on the upper-brain level ideas that bring us together, not a focus on brain-stem sectarianism that drives us apart.
  
As you face the Diversity Bullies from the Commassariat of Inclusion while being forced to endure their cancerous and sectarian presentations, feel sorry for them. They are locked in the past. If you are of a mind to do so, with a calm and slightly sad face, ask them, "Why are you so focused on separating us in to groups, to divide us? Why aren't you focused on bringing us together?"

Let the fun ensue.

Let the left soak in their slander, bask in their hate - just keep doing what you do and be who you are. In time, the truth comes out.

The left? They can have sorry Sandra and, of course, someone I consider the perfect embodiment of the Baby Boomer leftist female, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), to whom it is always 1973.

---

UPDATE: Hey;

Challenger Will Hurd has defeated incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Pete Gallego in Texas' massive 23rd District to become the state's first black Republican congressman since Reconstruction.

Hurd is a 37-year-old former CIA officer. He prevailed in one of the most hotly contested and expensive congressional races in the country. It was one of just a few of Texas' 36 U.S. House seats considered to be seriously competitive.

Hurd and Gallego fought for a district that stretches about 500 miles, from San Antonio to El Paso. The area has a Hispanic population of almost 70 percent.

The 52-year-old Gallego was elected in 2012, after a long career in the Legislature. Republicans maintained a commanding majority of Texas' seats in Congress.

Eric Cantor and the Military Professional

The huge upset we saw last night where House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) was defeated in the Republican primary by an Economics Professor from Randolph-Macon College seems to have caught most people off guard - myself included. No sitting Majority Leader has been defeated in a primary since 1899.

Stay with me you members of the, "stick to naval matters" caucus - there is a lesson here for the military side of the house. First though, I want to put this out. 

I like Cantor. Always have. His strange push towards amnesty concerned me, but I don't ask for perfection in anyone. However, for his constituency disconnect and his poorly run primary campaign combo, he now finds himself in the embarrassing position of being primaried by a neophyte and losing.

Why? Simple. He became "of DC" instead of serving "in DC." He lost touch with the people who sent him there; he broke sync with their needs, concerns, wants, and desire were. He used up his good will to the point that they looked past their selfish instincts - the Majority Leader has the power to take care of his district more than most - and decided to say, "No more. You're fired."

Only Cantor can say how he lost his way, but one can make an educated guess. The core of the problem is in DC itself. 

I make my way to DC on a regular basis - mostly for business, but as I will for my next trip - sometimes for personal reasons. I do love the town, third only to Paris and Amsterdam - but I do love the town.

I live well out in the provinces now days, back to the family responsibilities the anonymity of naval service kept me away from for a couple of decades. I do my best to keep myself well grounded in my soil - in fits and starts I think I'm achieving that goal after playing Sailor for so long.

I am always a bit humored when I visit our Imperial City. I almost feel like some minor Freiherr from Lower Silesia coming to beseech the Holy Roman Emperor ensconced in Vienna on behalf of his burdened serfs. Don't get me wrong, again I love DC like an overly educated and slightly arrogant son of Medieval Liegnitz would love that glittering city on the Danube with its society and distractions.

Alas, like the Imperial City, our city on the Potomac is absurdly disconnected from the rest of its hither lands, and that humors and troubles me. The whole concept of what makes the economy grow, what good, hard working people have to do just to try to create a better start for their children is little more than a focus grouped sound-bite that those "of DC" think that it is.

DC is a city, not unlike Rome, where the citizens publican, plebeian, and patrician go about their days served by, cleaned up by, and pampered by a suffering underclass of mostly foreigners. Most of our nation's richest counties straddle the Beltway. The Imperial City produces nothing but patronage and power. For a nation that thinks of itself as a mercantile republic, that is not healthy.

Go out to dinner one night in DC and see how many of the servant class - outside a block or so from the various Universities - where the servants do not have English as their second language. This quasi-feudal stew is not the reality of the nation.

Like the old Imperial City, the concerns in DC are mostly power, position, and privilege. They are not, with the rare exception, service or trade. The leading families marry each other, protect each other, and do their best to keep the money coming in for their use - and their power/influence going out.

In our Imperial City, you see that dynamic happen in one area that led to Cantor's downfall. On the right, you see the Chamber of Commerce desire to keep wages low by the influx of low skilled workers who will work for wages Americans won't. From the national self-loathing Left, you see a sneering desire to replace the present voting public with their frustrating ideas of self-government and individualism, with one that is more pliant and culturally comfortable with a quasi-feudal top-down system, folded in with a tendency to stay as a group - easier to control and manipulate.

Yes, we are talking about the rolling train wreck that is immigration policy. Cantor was not just out of step with his constituency here and in other places, he was pushing back against them. Well, last night they pushed back.

Hard working middle-class Americans have seen the job market shrink and wages stagnate so much that millions have simply stopped looking for work at all. Meanwhile, their elected representatives want to expend their political capital on people who are not their constituents, not even citizens, yet will put downward pressures on the lower end of the wage scale while at the same time increasing demands on an already broke social welfare system.

No one was as shocked as he was that he lost. He has no one to blame but himself. He most likely was too influenced by the Republican Beltway consultancy class, the DC media, the "proper" social circles, the intellectually inbred conferences and think tanks - flooded with the right money - to the point that his reality, that of being "of DC," made the actual reality of those he was to represent seem to him, well, unreal and unrelateable. His constituency figured that out over the last few months - disconnected DC did not.

That gets us to our Navy. I jokingly call the huge mass of USN within a commute of DC the Potomac Flotilla. There are a lot of people who, to be blunt, spend too many tours there. Some can survive, some thrive - but most have their intellect warped by the priorities of DC, which if not properly adjusted, can soon get your priorities out of phase from the priorities of the Fleet.

From ships that no one really knows what to do with, to aircraft with no range, limited armament that in the end we cannot afford in the numbers we need, to personnel policies that act like it is still 1973 - we see it all reflected in people who have become "of DC" from spending too much time "in DC."

If you want to know where the disconnect is between policy, leadership, and the Fleet - start there. Look at the Potomac Flotilla and its annex in Millington, TN.

As the problem with a dirty, poorly run ship is not the Sailors but their leadership, the problems we are having aren't with the Fleet - the problem is with the civilian and uniformed nomenclatura of the Potomac Flotilla.

The Fleet cannot vote for its leaders, but as CDR Snodgrass has been banging the drum about - it can vote with its feet.

Make no mistake - the cohort of our leadership who has spent the balance of the last decade in DC are as out of touch with the Fleet as Cantor was with the 7th Congressional District of Virginia.

From the "you can't make this stuff up" department, let's take a little peek in to what happens when the reality meets the DC make believe.

I'm not sure what the Navy version of this will look like - but odds are the only thing that would impact our ossified leadership would be a sinking of a major combatant. So laugh at Cantor in a schadenfreudeistic manner if you wish ... just not too hard.

Cantor addressed his supporters for about four minutes at a suburban Richmond hotel ballroom, then boarded an SUV without taking questions from reporters scurrying after him.

Then it got really rambunctious. In the room of downcast Cantor allies, a new energy suddenly erupted — but not the kind they wanted on election night. A group of immigration activists stormed the ballroom, screaming and waving a flag. “What do we want? Immigration reform! When do we want it? Now!”

A few Cantor supporters tried to block the protesters’ entrance into the ballroom, and pushing and shoving ensued. And before they reached the microphone, one Cantor supporter threw his glass of wine at a female protester. She swore at him in return.

A hotel employee took the microphone Cantor had used and told the protesters in Spanish that the police were on their way.
...
Another Spanish-speaking man who was with the protesters told them that they had made their point and should follow the police direction to leave.

Barack Obama - Savior of the Republican Party

I'm going to blaspheme a bit, but stick with me here.

Regulars here know that in the last two elections, I voted - reluctantly - for John McCain and Mitt Romney. Neither were my first choices, I was a Giuliani and Pawlenty guy, but as I have a natural aversion to leftists, entitled snobs, I could not even think of voting for President Obama. Oh well, such are the glories of democracies.

It wasn't long after the 2008 election - actually it started for me before the election - that it became clear that a President McCain would be the one could put the Republican Party in the bin with the Whigs.

He liked nothing more than sticking it to those who were supposed to be closest to him, and it seemed his second joy was to the the one who showed how awesome he was by being the one that let the other political side win.

That would have been what would have destroyed what little loyal Republican base he should naturally have. What would have brought the rest of the country naturally against him and further destroyed the Republican brand, would have been his desire to put American boots on the ground hither and yon.

Our nation is tired of foreign wars. Though I think Obama has been too detached - imagine the political left of this nation with a killer drone policy even more robust than it is now, along with thousands of American forces across the swath of the Maghreb and the Levant from Tripoli to Aleppo and who knows where else.

No.

Then in 2012 we have Mitt. Mitt would have been a much better leader and President than either McCain or Obama - especially in foreign policy - but he would have been the death of the Republican party, as his tendency to act in a way that delights his enemies and confounds his friends is well outlined by John Tamny at RCM;

Perhaps what's most offensive about Romney's flip flop is that he no doubt knows the minimum wage is superfluous for the majority, while harmful to a small, impoverished minority. Romney's hardly a fool, and having revived sick businesses on the way to great wealth, he surely knows wage mandates help no one, and certainly don't help businesses.

All of this is offensive because it speaks to a politician who will say anything to curry favor with voters; the real world implications of his views be damned. Looking back to 2012, Romney was no doubt similarly aware that his professed policy of getting "tough on China" was not only an economically illiterate stance, but also one that, if implemented, would bring about global economic harm, a stock market crash, and if world history is any guide, perhaps war.

When we consider Romney's overtly political utterances in a broader sense, what's increasingly apparent is that the former candidate is rather self-unaware when it comes to winning votes. This matters because despite what we hear, the electorate in total isn't stupid. Not only has the electorate historically tuned out politicians running on economy-sapping protectionist planks, but the electorate is increasingly wise to politicians so public with their lack of conviction.

Considering the Republican Party itself, members of it should view the 2012 results with relief. Not only were Romney's promises about what he would do about China easily more economically crippling than anything President Obama proposed, it should also be said that Obama's re-election was the best thing that ever happened to the freedom movement. Indeed, the electorate got to see up close the horrors of big government in the form of Obamacare's implementation, and the long-term result will be a more skeptical electorate about politicians who define themselves through promises made with the money of others.

The Republicans dodged a bullet in 2012 with Mitt Romney's aimless candidacy. This was obvious back then, but was made even more obvious last week in light of his latest utterance. The former candidate will truly "Say Anything," and because Romney's that way, the GOP would have lost ground had he won.

Part of me believes that both the Republican party and the nation are better off with McCain being elected. I have grown to think that with Romney, the nation would have been better, but the Republican party would have imploded.

Doesn't really matter - we have President Obama until early 2017.

Oh, in case you are wondering who Salamander of Lost Causes prefers at this point - Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI).

So, which States are doing best ...

I had a good snort of the USA Today article on the 5-best and 5-worst run states.

Let us see ... is there a common thread?

Top-5:
1. North Dakota: .7 million citizens; The Far West/Midlands.
- Governor: Republican since 1992
- State House: Republican
- State Senate: Republican
2. Wyoming: .6 million citizens; The Far West.
- Governor: Republican since 2011.
- State House: Republican
- State Senate: Republican
3. Iowa: 3.1 million citizens; The Far West/Midlands.
- Governor: Republican since 2011.
- State House: Republican
- State Senate: Democrat
4. Nebraska: 1.9 million citizens; The Far West/Midlands.
- Governor: Republican since 1999.
- Unicameral: Non-partisan, but 30 of 49 identify as Republican.
5. Utah: 2.9 million citizens; The Far West.
- Governor: Republican since 1985.
- State House: Republican
- State Senate: Republican

Bottom-5:
46. Nevada: 2.8 million citizens; The Far West.
- Governor: Republican since 1999.

- State House: Democrat
- State Senate: Democrat
47. Rhode Island: 1.1 million citizens; Yankeedom.
- Governor: Independent/Democrat since 2011.
- State House: Democrat
- State Senate: Democrat
48. Illinois: 12.9 million citizens; Yankeedom/Greater Appalachia.
- Governor: Democrat since 2003.
- State House: Democrat
- State Senate: Democrat
49. New Mexico: 2.1 million citizens; El Norte/Far West.
- Governor: Republican since 2011.
- State House: Democrat
- State Senate: Democrat
50. California: 38.0 million citizens; The Left Coast/El Norte.
- Governor: Democrat since 2011.
- State House: Democrat
- State Senate: Democrat

I think that tells a story quite well from a political party point of view. Nothing more for me to say than, "Bask in it."

A few sidenotes. Something I noticed in the years I lived overseas; smaller nations tended to be better governed and reflect the needs of their citizens than larger ones. That plays out here a bit.

Though a flawed book towards the end where his anti-Southern bigotry bled through, I've also included the one-to-two most dominate sub-national characters of each state as outlined in Colin Woodard's, American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America.


Hey, here is a radical concept. What if we actually followed Plan Salamander (AKA how this experiment in self-governance known as the USA is supposed to be run, I've stolen the idea from a bunch of dead white guys) to our challenges like health care - 50 experiments. If something works in one State, others will adopt it. If something is a complete Obamaesque trainwreck, then other States won't and the whole nation won't be hobbled as the State that made a bad decision tries to fix its mistake.

Crazytalk, I know.

Great call in SC

What a great, if obvious choice, by Gov. Haley in replacing Sen. DeMint (R-SC) with Rep. Scott (R-SC).

The Senate needs someone like Scott who comes from a business background and knows what it takes to create jobs and grow the civilian sector.

From his time as a candidate through his time in the House, he has been a calm, focused, clear headed professional with an exceptional temperament that should lend itself well to the Senate.

I will also show something else obvious; soon to be Senator Scott, who won Strom Thurmond’s old House seat by defeating Strom’s son, and now will hold the Senate Seat that was Thurmond’s – he represents the South that I know - not the archaic smears and bigoted assumptions from the ossified views of the chattering classes in the Blue States and the stay-too-long Mandarins in DC think.

We should all wish him well.

Good Adivce, if They Will Take It

From a national security POV, we could smell that there was something not quite right with the Romney campaign by summer.  The strange 600-ship pander-navy articles from a parallel fiscal universe; the complete lack of mention of AFG in Tampa, and the strange tone-deaf neo-con retreads giving advice and writing speeches the American people have grown tired of ... in 2007.

That was just part of a larger dysfunction.

Pat Caddell puts out in better detail what I said late election night - people need to get fired.

The Romney campaign, Caddell said, was driven be establishment consultants and was a failure of mechanics and message.

“But most of all, it was a failure of imagination,” Caddell said. ““It was the single worst campaign in modern history of a challenger who had a chance to win ... and that’s the truth and nothing can take away from that.”

He then brutally told donors in the audience that the Republican consultant-lobbyist-establishment complex took millions of dollars from them to only enrich themselves without having any meaningful impact on the election. 

“You donors and others were played for marks by groups like [Karl Rove’s American] Crossroads,” Caddell said, noting that establishment super PACs cared more about “preserving arrangements in the media.”

Too often, Caddell said the Republican consultant-lobbyist-establishment complex ignores anything that could be effective if it does not allow them to profit.

Caddell said those in the Republican consultant-lobbyist-establishment complex “do not want to hear any views from outsiders" because it threatens their racket. Caddell said this mentality will just result in more Republican losses unless this Republican consultant-lobbyist-establishment complex is eviscerated. 

“As long as the establishment wants to preserve the establishment and their special deals, you will lose,” Caddell said. 

 The Republicans have a good bench to work on, but the neo-cons need to go. No more Bushes of any type of any generation. No more Newt. Anyone who ran in 2012 needs to be shunned. Anyone over 50 should hope for VP and nothing more. 

The losers are sucking the oxygen out of the room. Most of all; stop doing the same thing over and over and expect a different result. 

Benchmark Bill Whittle as well. 


Interesting note, you can't blame conservative bloggers; they have been polling them for the last few cycles, and who did they want the least?

In 2008, the least wanted candidates for bloggers were…John McCain and Ron Paul.

In 2012, the least wanted candidates for bloggers were…Mitt Romney and Ron Paul.

Given that track record, who do you think they like the least in 2016?

3) If the list were narrowed down to the following 10 candidates, then which one would you **** LEAST LIKE **** to see as our 2016 nominee?
1) Chris Christie (NJ Governor) 32.5% (25 votes)
2) Jeb Bush (Former Fl Governor) 26% (20 votes)
3) Rand Paul (KY Senator) 14.3% (11 votes)
4) Scott Walker (WI Governor) 11.7% (9 votes)
5) Paul Ryan (WI Congressman. VP candidate) 5.2% (4 votes)
6) Susana Martinez (NM Governor) 3.9% (3 votes)
7) Brian Sandoval (NV Governor) 2.6% (2 votes)
8) Bob McDonnell (VA Governor) 1.3% (1 votes)
8) Marco Rubio (FL Senator) 1.3% (1 votes)
8) Bobby Jindal (LA Gov) 1.3% (1 votes)

There you go - Christie-Bush 2016 for the loss!

Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA); make mine a double

I want to go bowling with him and Rep. West (R-FL).

A Strong Republican Gain

I am very much from the Reagan School - someone doesn't have to agree with me on everything; just most things.

Along those lines - Artur Davis coming on over at this time is a huge loss for Democrats - and a great gain for Republicans.

Smart, independent, and a man of his own mind.

I am in the process of changing my voter registration from Alabama to Virginia, a development which likely does represent a closing of one chapter and perhaps the opening of another.

As to the horse-race question that animated parts of the blogosphere, it is true that people whose judgment I value have asked me to weigh the prospect of running in one of the Northern Virginia congressional districts in 2014 or 2016, or alternatively, for a seat in the Virginia Legislature in 2015. If that sounds imprecise, it’s a function of how uncertain political opportunities can be — and if that sounds expedient, never lose sight of the fact that politics is not wishfulness, it’s the execution of a long, draining process to win votes and help and relationships while your adversaries are working just as hard to tear down the ground you build. …

On the specifics, I have regularly criticized an agenda that would punish businesses and job creators with more taxes just as they are trying to thrive again. I have taken issue with an administration that has lapsed into a bloc by bloc appeal to group grievances when the country is already too fractured: frankly, the symbolism of Barack Obama winning has not given us the substance of a united country. You have also seen me write that faith institutions should not be compelled to violate their teachings because faith is a freedom, too. You’ve read that in my view, the law can’t continue to favor one race over another in offering hard-earned slots in colleges: America has changed, and we are now diverse enough that we don’t need to accommodate a racial spoils system. And you know from these pages that I still think the way we have gone about mending the flaws in our healthcare system is the wrong way — it goes further than we need and costs more than we can bear.

As Alexander Burns at Politico reminds us, this is the guy who gave President Obama's seconding speech at the 2008 Democrat convention.

Nice.

Our Women Beat Their Women

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rogers (R-WA) just went on my watch list as a CCOI.

She is so good, I'll sit through Mathews show just to listen to her.

Vote for the husband's haircut ...

... if nothing else.


Mia: she's full of win!

Hat tip Tina.

About right ....

Hat tip Ace.

And the all important Salamander primary ....

Just for the record - I'm going to show my hand just so you know whose stands I'm sitting in; though I won't be a cheerleader.

I've kept quite since T-Paw left the stage; but it is time. Just like 2008 when my top candidate fell out (that time Giuliani) - this time I am with my #2; Romney.

I'm not going to talk down anyone else and I will keep my reasons simple; we need a fixer. Romney is a fixer. We don't need to repeat the 2010 mistakes of Delaware and Nevada either.

I'm not going to be pushing Romney every day either. If you want to argue about it - feel free to in comments, but I won't play.

OK, maybe he is trying to do more than sell books

Since T-Paw left, I have not endorsed anyone else. I still haven't - and though earlier I poo-poo'd Gingrich, I now will grant you he needs to be looked at as a serious contender. Heck - if you are in the top-3 you have to be.

I still am not convinced that he won't be torn to shreds in a general election, but I will grant you this; he is a formidable statesman when he is on his game.

I will tip my hat to him for this reason if nothing else; I love when some MSM type gets their smug sneer wiped off.

Hey Pelley - the chubby guy from Georgia has your jock if you're looking for it.

Sorry Herman, it was fun while it lasted

I think we just saw Peak Cain.

About Last Night ...

Just a few observations:

- Romney owned the night. He is like the Soviet Army in '44-45. Nothing tactically brilliant, just slow, steady progress based on mass, logistics, and will. I don't see anything getting in his way.

- I think Perry is done. Let him go back to Texas. Again; our nation is done with Texas accents for at least one more election cycle, and as a history Geek, the 16th Century American Revolution comment was just a bit too much of a flub. Can't afford that in the general election; ask President Ford.

- Cain more than survived some very unattractive attacks. He will continue to grow as the "Not Romney."

- Gingrich is still selling books and providing oversight. Someone should give him a white vest. I think he is just the Safety guy.

- Bachmann is someone who was. Smart, attractive, but will never be on the ticket. Please go back to the House where you can do some good.

- Santorum is a nice guy and all - but will never get traction nationally. Someone put him it a/the Cabinet.

- Paul is RON PAUL.

- Huntsman in this primary season will be a never was has been. I never had anything against the guy until now - his snobby comment about pizza soured me. Coming from a family who made its money off the Big Mac clamshell - he should be careful about throwing stones.

That is all. I'm still uncommitted since T-Paw left - but all in all; I'm happy with the offerings.

Congress goes Salamander

Behold the fusillade of WIN by Rep. Kelly (R-PA).

That is the kind of Representative our founders wanted.

"The house of representatives... can make no law which will not have its full operation on themselves and their friends, as well as the great mass of society. This has always been deemed one of the strongest bonds by which human policy can connect the rulers and the people together. It creates between them that communion of interest, and sympathy of sentiments, of which few governments have furnished examples; but without which every government degenerates into tyranny." - Federalist Papers, No. 57, February 19, 1788; James Madison

Nothing more needs to be said.

Congressman-Elect West (R-FL)

Ahhhh....