The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Whittle And Rachel On The Long And Short View

Posted on | December 29, 2012 | 14 Comments

by Smitty

This blog is a huge fan of these two. The ‘Zo is arguing that the Dems are lining up Hillary for 2016, and that that conservatives should be prepping now to stop throwing female conservative leaders under the bus. Even to the extent of letting Allen West go, which is mildly surprising.

He’s also touting an audio book, “Weapon of A.S.S. Destruction“, where the acronym means “American Socialist States” probably should have given it some sort of prefix to avoid confusion with other genres.

Whittle offers an important essay on the bigger picture, in sort of a “let not your heart be troubled” mode.

One major historical facet that I’d like to explore someday is to what degree the Closing of the Frontier fed into the need for Progress as a new goal to set in front of the people, along with the Industrial Revolution that Whittle cites. People who distrust liberty seem to feel the need to have some slogan to dangle in front of people.

Whittle’s point is borne out in the economics of the Information Age. Vast amounts of brick-and-mortar business have changed drastically or vanished. The government, occupying the unique position of determining the rules, has insulated itself substantially from the alterations in the landscape.

Will the GOP position itself to be more than a whipping boy in the discussion? Not clear, coming back to the Zo essay. It seems as though the GOP elite  likes Progress more than liberty, and acts more as a shock absorber for Tea Party energy than any sort of reform-minded party. If it turns out that the GOP elite is more loyal to Progress, then, ironically, the Progressive Left has some justification in being angry with the GOP, if not accuracy in calling the Tea Parties ‘astroturf’.

Comments

14 Responses to “Whittle And Rachel On The Long And Short View”

  1. K-Bob
    December 29th, 2012 @ 7:15 pm

    I’m voting West in 2012. Not “West/Palin” or “West/Santorum,” or “West/make-up-your-own-name.”

    I love Palin, crawl over broken glass, etc. But I’ve decided to back West all the way to writing in his name, if necessary. That decision is done. It’s my way of avoiding the third party problem.

    If we all vote West, we can invent the third party after he wins.

    BONUS: you wouldn’t be stuck voting for a moderate. Just back West, no matter what the Republicans do.

    Also, and this matters (in a marketing vein), the way this works is to let West pick his running mate. I’d prefer Palin, but that’s up to him.

    Just vote West, and ignore all the rest of the stupid, broke primary process, and all the other garbage that goes with it.

  2. Dana
    December 29th, 2012 @ 7:22 pm

    Hillary Clinton is 65 years old, and she could easily pass for 75 these days; in four years, she’ll be 69 . . . if she lives that long.

    We all know that the Democrats want Hillary in 2016, but they had better have a fallback plan: I’m guessing that she simply won’t be in any shape to run for President in 2016.

  3. K-Bob
    December 29th, 2012 @ 7:40 pm

    Massive Headwound Hillary 2016!

  4. Wombat_socho
    December 29th, 2012 @ 10:10 pm

    A bunch of folks did this in Minnesota with Jesse Ventura, completely forgetting that a governor needs allies in the legislature. Worked out every bit as badly as you might expect.

  5. Angry Young Fogie
    December 29th, 2012 @ 10:11 pm

    you are the most one-note blogger in the history of the universe with this Progress v. Liberty GOParesellouts mindnumbery

    i realize you guys are ideologically sympatico but it’d be nice if Mr. McCain fired you Colmes-style.

  6. smitty
    December 29th, 2012 @ 10:15 pm

    Wishful thinking; I guess it works for budgeting, too.

  7. smitty
    December 29th, 2012 @ 10:16 pm

    So, you really have no suggestions, then?

  8. K-Bob
    December 29th, 2012 @ 11:30 pm

    Sure. Back when the Republicans were a party with a future. We have to get past their demise eventually. Why not now?

  9. Bob Belvedere
    December 30th, 2012 @ 12:39 am

    He’s too busy rebelling against his Evil Grammer Overlords.

  10. SDN
    December 30th, 2012 @ 5:10 am

    Methinks I detect the distinctive stench of a Paultard…

  11. Quartermaster
    December 30th, 2012 @ 9:39 am

    Really. Other than the GOParesellouts, a fact if I’ve ever seen one, the rest is just a very short rant. We have at least 3 or 4 notes we play.

  12. Quartermaster
    December 30th, 2012 @ 9:40 am

    You don’t.

  13. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    December 30th, 2012 @ 11:18 am

    I am hoping Hillary does not want it. She may not anymore.

  14. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    December 30th, 2012 @ 11:20 am

    Of course that assumes we will have competent people in Congress to ally with…

    http://evilbloggerlady.blogspot.com/2012/12/democrats-mock-boehner-as-weeper-of.html Boehner gets no respect, no respect at all! When Nancy “Ma Jarrett” Pelosi is running rings around John “Crybaby” Boehner, we know we are in trouble.