Category Archives: Politics

Marco Rubio, Not Quite Revolting, But Close

Media, Neoconservatism, Politics, Republicans, War

Neoconservative Marco Rubio is right about Democrat candidates having a Super PAC all their own in mainstream media.

But so does he. Fox News, which leans mainstream Republican, is also trending toward Rubio as their 2016 Republican presidential nominee. Sean Hannity is Rubio’s biggest booster, chiefly because, as far as I can tell, Rubio sounds fluent, says he’ll put Putin in his place, and has a both/and approach to Assad: No need to choose Assad over ISIS, says Rubio; eliminate both.

More war is just what the doctor ordered for flush-with funds America, whose working-class whites are dying off in middle-age. We’ve all seen men like this one in our communities:

A recent softball conversation Gretta van Susteren conducted with fast talker Rubio was particularly cringe-making, during which Rubio used a lot of hedge words.

There’s no decisive speech in Rubio’s vocabulary to speak of; no principled passion, just naked ambition. Rubio greases his speech with bureaucratic babble about overhauling “bad” practices, instituting “systemic reforms,” “modernizing” and trailblazing those well-trodden “paths” to non-amnesty, but only as soon as those borders without walls become a reality.

Decentralizing and Deregulating Republican Politics

Conservatism, Elections, Media, Politics, Regulation, Republicans

Even a hint of the dreaded GOP establishment creeping back into their midst has some in the Republican campaigns screaming for an exorcist.

Via Breitbart:

Several 2016 GOP presidential campaigns are now revolting, not just against the Republican National Committee (RNC) controlling the debate process, but against controversial GOP establishment lawyer Ben Ginsberg’s efforts to insert himself into the process.
Aides to four top campaigns—those of billionaire Donald Trump, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich—have all confirmed they will not sign onto a letter organized by Ginsberg after the GOP presidential campaigns all broke from the RNC on Sunday night.

For some candidates it’s all for show: Kasich is establishment. Ditto Christie. Others are for real. But it’s all good. Any challenge to the existing political order is good. The Republican campaigns have begun divesting the Republican National Committee (RNC) of its overweening powers. Why should a central command apparatus control the political process? When it comes to libertarian candidates, we know how the RNC has behaved. The campaigns are also firing a media organ that, together with party apparatchiks, has generally been a bad-faith broker between the public, on the one hand, and any Republican, libertarian or constitutionally minded political candidate.

At this point, in this magnificent upheaval in American party politics, Fox News fans should take a moment to consider why it is that most of the network’s anchors were almost as livid as the liberal media over the ongoing revolt among the ranks of the candidates. The reason is that Fox News is mainstream media. Fox even set the tone of the debates, with a performance almost as odious as that of CNBC. Come to think of it, only little Andy Cooper of CNN did his journalistic due diligence as debate moderator, this year.

Fox News’ Political Insiders Reject Their Insider Status

Democrats, Elections, Politics, Republicans

The Fox News show Political Insiders may have to change its name since the term political insider has, at long last, become a pejorative. Regular Doug Schoen appeared on November 1, right away protesting too much about being no an insider. The pollster declared himself an OUTSIDER. The former “long-time Clinton insider” may no longer be a Clinton insider, but he is the consummate insider in Republican circles; a Democrat house-trained by Republicans insiders.

Pat Caddell, on the other hand, is a different kind of animal. Caddell was perhaps the only Democrat (other that Dennis Kucinich) to express righteous indignation, in 2013, over the treatment of the tea party by no other than “establishment Republicans.” They “wanted the IRS to go after Tea-Party groups,” contended Caddell. These groups “are an outside threat to their power hold, the lobbying-consulting class of the Republican party.

In the wonderful chaos initiated by the Republican campaign of Donald Trump, it’s good to see the insider honorific become a liability.

GOP Establishment Big Guns (‘The Kochtopus’) To Tackle Trump

Classical Liberalism, libertarianism, Media, Politics, Republicans

Megyn Kelly was first to galvanize the Koch Brothers, the big GOP guns, in her crusade against the one anti-establishment Republican candidate. Her love-in with Charles Koch exemplified the Barbara Walters school of “journalism,” so admired by Kelly. Kelly’s clucking and cooing over Koch was truly a disgraceful bit of journalism.

This libertarian’s curiosity was piqued when Kelly, who hates Trump, solicited comments from Koch about his ideological bent. Koch called himself a classical liberal, then scratched his nose in discomfort and went on to mischaracterize classical liberalism. Kelly was clueless, so she was unable to quiz Koch further.

In any case, it was obvious that Kelly was bringing out the GOP’s biggest ammunition against Trump. The Trump guy is doing something right if he’s angering the Koch kingmakers.

Although late in the day, the Wall Street Journal is hard on Kelly’s Jimmy Choo heels, featuring an article about Koch complaining about Trump:

… Asked whether he thinks the rise, and media coverage, of Donald Trump in the GOP field has distracted from serious policy discussions, he said, “Well, yeah. I mean, critical for a free society is tolerance,” an apparent reference to Mr. Trump’s comments about immigrants and women that some have called insensitive. …

“Talk to the hand,” the American people seem to be telling the establishment.