Millennials have heads full of mush and an almost infantile view of government . . . but we can work with that . . .
Our Southern Command Correspondent and polling guru Doug Kelly forwarded this article from Forbes online: Why Millennials Love The Federal Government, But Loathe President Obama. The author, Rachel Burger, herself a Millennial, initiates her article with reference to the recent Harvard University sponsored poll indicating 52% of Millennials would vote to recall Obama from office. We made reference to the poll in our December 6th Veritas Salad. Her analysis as to why that is so:
. . . Millennials were taught from an early age that if they wanted to remain safe—from bullying to a secure future via education—they should trust people in positions of power to take care of and guide them . . . Millennials see individuals as fallible and institutions as far more secure, needing strengthening from visionary leadership.
. . . As Millennials became adults, they started to seek out an authority who would help secure themselves for the future through the institution of government, as they had been conditioned to do their entire lives . . .That person was supposed to be Barack Obama.
Transparency and honesty proved to be a farce. The issues that Millennials largely care about–ending the drug war, gay marriage, and immigration rights–were escalated, put off, and ignored, respectively.
But what’s worse than all this is that he did little to fix the economy—and now Millennials, stuck at home in hourly jobs with a useless college degree—are paying for it. Millennials, in being closer to their parents than ever, are watching how Obama is hurting their original guardians.
What does this mean for the future? While Millennials still want the government to protect and serve, they are drifting away from both political parties . . . Millennials will increasingly distrust individual politicians and continue to opt for third-party candidates and “outsiders.” Perhaps, with time, they will find someone who will truly protect them (eeesh) . . .But today, Millennials are done with Barack Obama.
Our take, in order to win elections for conservatives, we should leverage the Mellennials slide away from Democrat Party identification not try to adjust the Party to their often foolish way of thinking. To do that, use ridicule and contemporary humor exposing and grinding salt into the wounds of Democrat failures. We should begin now to inoculate Mellennials from the Democrat Pollyannas, not presume we can get through the din of the general election season.
A Republican of any worth to conservatives will never be able outdo Democrats on issues like drug legalization, or gay marriage or any cultural issues of profound importance. The Democrats will out degenerate us in a heartbeat.
We should concentrate on Democrat failures as regards pocket book issues, and our enlightened path to a vibrant economy. Polling helps identify pressure points but that is fundamentally different from abandoning principled positions to accommodate error. Internet privacy is an example of something consistent with established Republican principles that appeals to Millennials and could be used to castigate Democrats based on Obama’s policies. Reducing Millennials readiness to vote Democrat is the key while educating them about conservative small government solutions to social problems.
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The latest budget deal — pathetic desperation and manipulation
The Ryan – Murray Budget deal passed in the U.S. House handily. Speaker Boehner took the opportunity to castigate conservative groups for opposing it. Those groups include Heritage Action, Americans for Prosperity and Club for Growth and numerous influential publications such as RedState. The matter moves to the Senate where at this time there is no announced Republican support for it although that would be unlikely to hold. Freedom Works is asking for calls into the Senate to shore up opposition. You can do so by visiting their advocacy page here. Go figure Boehner.
Daniel Horowitz writing at RedState expressed the following about the deal:
This bill was such a no-brainer for Republicans to oppose. Unlike the shutdown bill, which passed with majority Democrat support, Republicans weren’t called upon to ask for something tough, such as defunding Obamacare. All they had to do was pass a clean CR and let the status quo stand, something they have already done earlier this year. Instead they agreed to raise taxes and repeal part of the sequester for two years with promises of a hodgepodge of notional and intangible spending offsets over 10 years. . . .
Additionally, this bill takes away a procedural block to passing tax increases in the Senate with a simple majority. It obviates our leverage to fight Obamacare for another two years. And it clears the agenda to focus on other important issues, such as passing Obama’s immigration bill.
Chris McDaniel also writing at RedState had this comment:
But if you look at Washington, you have to wonder if our representatives live in a fantasy world. This week, Republican Rep. Paul Ryan and Democratic Senator Patty Murray agreed to a budget deal for 2014 that increases federal discretionary spending to over a trillion dollars from the $967 billion spent in 2013 and obliterates the modest budget cuts agreed to under sequestration.
Republicans are trying to spin this deal as a good thing by pointing to new revenue increases and entitlement changes that will reduce the deficit over the next 10 years. But this is a classic Washington spin game: Increase spending now in exchange for the promise of deficit reduction later. We have seen this movie time and again and we all know how it ends. Washington is very good at making promises and even better at breaking them.
A London Daily Mail Report on the budget deal quoted a Republican congressional aid:
‘We’re doing what we always do,’ said the aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity. ‘We set out a ten-year plan while knowing full well that we have a decade to undo it and shift gears again.’
So we understand that Speaker Boehner and or Ryan insist that passing the particular Ryan – Murray agreement was important in order to get defense hawks on board with a deal to fund the government otherwise Republicans would be blamed for shutting down the Government. All Democrats ever have to do to bamboozle Boehner and others of his towering cowering demeanor is to raise that specter and he/they start sucking their thumbs and praying for mercy. And besides, defense hawks are not uniform in their appreciation of the budget “compromise” anyway.
Interestingly, other defenders of the proposal insist the numbers involved are no big deal in the scheme of things and not to get upset. But if that is the case then the other side of the coin is true as well, and the question becomes why adversely impact a winning Republican brand in order to make a deal for small potatoes (and rotten potatoes).
A status quo budget extension that continues the sequester achieves important goals of stopping the growth of government and maintains a bargaining chip. If the Democrats want something loosened up that is now sequestered, then they should have to provide some serious budget and entitlement reforms now, not later. We do not see how the Dems compromised on anything they could have actually achieved except at risk to their reelection efforts.
Erik Erikson editor of RedState had this take as to what Boehner was trying to achieve by going overboard in his condemnation of groups that are important to achieving a conservative Congress.
Superficially, it is a very odd fight. But Speaker Boehner’s crocodile tears in his attacks and cries against the conservative movement are really about the next fight. Speaker Boehner intends to pursue immigration reform, with an amnesty component. Before he gets there, he needs to shape battle lines.
There are a number of fence sitters on the right. Speaker Boehner needs them on his team. By castigating the conservative movement now and making them the unpopular crowd, the Speaker and Republican leaders intend to draw the fence sitters to them. Once they have done so, they can move on to a primary season where they can fight against the unpopular crowd intent on driving some incumbents from office.
Then the real fight will begin — immigration reform. The Speaker assumes he can marginalize conservatives through primary season, make conservatives unpopular, then push through an amnesty based immigration reform plan daring his tenuous coalition to move over to the unpopular kids’ table.
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Speaker Boehner violates pledge made to America on behalf of Republicans
The “crocodile tears” of Speaker Boehner complaining about conservative groups opposing the latest budget deal, now moving to the Senate, included a faux expression of contempt by him alleging the groups complained when they “had never seen” the bill. The fatuousness of that charge is plain enough in that conservative complaints were verified by the contents of the bill. Of course the truth is the essential provisions of the bill were leaked and known, resulting in those valid criticisms. We are not aware of anything substantive that the groups got wrong.
Of course details of a bill must await publication. There could very well be much devilishness in those details. That is the ostensible reason for the pledge made by Boehner to America in 2010 that if Republicans were elected bills would be posted for 72 hours prior to being voted on. It was a response to many Tea Party complaints, especially as regards Obamacare, that the House under Speaker Pelosi was voting on legislation no one had read. Recall the infamous statement from Pelosi “We have to pass the bill to find out what’s in it beyond the fog of the controversy.”
It was a scandalous situation and an important political issue that Republicans were able to make much hay with. And now Boehner has undermined Republican honor. First by implying that those conservative watchdog groups did anything untoward, then by violating his pledge in fact to the American people and calling the vote on the budget bill in 48 hours, no doubt in an effort to gavel down the rabble. He compounded that injury to Republican trust by using the most Clintonian of obfuscations to justify it.
Read all about it in Terrance P Jeffrey’s CNS article titled Republican ‘Pledge’ Depends on What the Meaning of ‘3 Days’ Is. Also reflect on Boehner’s statement this week: “all the things we’ve done in the three years I’ve been Speaker have not violated any conservative principles, not once.”
R Mall
