Amnesty Versus Bigotry

by Rossputin | 8:07 am, February 1, 2013

It has recently become fashionable in conservative circles to attack Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” for putting forward a framework of principles for reform of America’s broken immigration system. The critiques from serious thinkers such as Utah Senator Mike Lee (perhaps my single favorite member of the U.S. Senate) and my American Spectator colleague Larry Thornberry, usually revolve around the word “amnesty” and suggest that Sen. Rubio is somehow caving in to leftist ideas in the way we normally expect from RINO and “establishment” Republicans, not from Tea Party champions.

These criticisms, both of the framework and of Senator Rubio, are misguided. They represent ? but not for the reasons most people think ? a primary cause of President Obama’s winning a second term and the primary reason that the GOP will have little chance at better future results unless the party ? and the perception of the party ? change dramatically.

The importance of the immigration debate is not mostly about its impact on several million Spanish-speaking illegal aliens (a term I don’t shy away from using). It is not even mostly about the economic impacts of immigration (a debate for another day). Instead, it is about how an ever-increasing number of voters view the Republican Party even if they have little interest in the details of immigration policy.

Please read the entirety of my article for the American Spectator here:
http://spectator.org/archives/2013/02/01/amnesty-versus-bigotry

The Biggest Reasons

by Rossputin | 7:49 am, November 15, 2012

Post-election Republican introspection has begun with authors including our own Jed Babbin offering explanations why Mitt Romney lost. (One wonders whether Jed, who penned six reasons, feels outdone by Keith Koffler’s note, “Seven Reasons Why Romney Lost.”)

Both Babbin and Koffler left out a rather obvious explanation: Democrats used Republicans’ own words to make the GOP look like the very intolerant, bigoted bunch of old white guys which the left had been claiming Republicans to be for years. In short, the ignorant Todd Akin and the boneheaded Richard Mourdock, forgetting the lessons of Colorado Senate Candidate Ken Buck in 2010, allowed the transformation of a vague Democratic caricature of Republicans into a high-resolution image broadcast across the minds of the nation’s voters.

Putting this together with Mitt Romney’s desire for Hispanic “self-deportation” and increasingly out-of-touch anti-gay (or at least perceived as anti-gay) rhetoric, and you have all the ingredients necessary for those not descended from Mayflower passengers, and for young people, to abandon the GOP in droves.

Regarding immigration, and the non-lily-white more broadly, if one were to point to a single statistic that shows the degree of Republican disconnect with people who don’t look like Mitt Romney, it is this: Exit polls show Asians supporting President Obama over Romney by a nearly 3-to-1 margin. Asian-Americans, as Bloomberg News notes, “happen to be the highest-earning group in the U.S., out-earning whites, and they generally place enormous emphasis on family.” This made-to-order-for-Republicans voting block went for Obama by a higher percentage than Hispanics did.

A more significant canary in the political coalmine you will rarely find.

Please read the entirety of my article for the American Spectator here:
http://spectator.org/archives/2012/11/15/the-biggest-reasons

The Biggest Reasons

by Rossputin | 7:49 am, November 15, 2012

Post-election Republican introspection has begun with authors including our own Jed Babbin offering explanations why Mitt Romney lost. (One wonders whether Jed, who penned six reasons, feels outdone by Keith Koffler’s note, “Seven Reasons Why Romney Lost.”)

Both Babbin and Koffler left out a rather obvious explanation: Democrats used Republicans’ own words to make the GOP look like the very intolerant, bigoted bunch of old white guys which the left had been claiming Republicans to be for years. In short, the ignorant Todd Akin and the boneheaded Richard Mourdock, forgetting the lessons of Colorado Senate Candidate Ken Buck in 2010, allowed the transformation of a vague Democratic caricature of Republicans into a high-resolution image broadcast across the minds of the nation’s voters.

Putting this together with Mitt Romney’s desire for Hispanic “self-deportation” and increasingly out-of-touch anti-gay (or at least perceived as anti-gay) rhetoric, and you have all the ingredients necessary for those not descended from Mayflower passengers, and for young people, to abandon the GOP in droves.

Regarding immigration, and the non-lily-white more broadly, if one were to point to a single statistic that shows the degree of Republican disconnect with people who don’t look like Mitt Romney, it is this: Exit polls show Asians supporting President Obama over Romney by a nearly 3-to-1 margin. Asian-Americans, as Bloomberg News notes, “happen to be the highest-earning group in the U.S., out-earning whites, and they generally place enormous emphasis on family.” This made-to-order-for-Republicans voting block went for Obama by a higher percentage than Hispanics did.

A more significant canary in the political coalmine you will rarely find.

Please read the entirety of my article for the American Spectator here:
http://spectator.org/archives/2012/11/15/the-biggest-reasons

The Biggest Reasons

by Rossputin | 7:49 am, November 15, 2012

Post-election Republican introspection has begun with authors including our own Jed Babbin offering explanations why Mitt Romney lost. (One wonders whether Jed, who penned six reasons, feels outdone by Keith Koffler’s note, “Seven Reasons Why Romney Lost.”)

Both Babbin and Koffler left out a rather obvious explanation: Democrats used Republicans’ own words to make the GOP look like the very intolerant, bigoted bunch of old white guys which the left had been claiming Republicans to be for years. In short, the ignorant Todd Akin and the boneheaded Richard Mourdock, forgetting the lessons of Colorado Senate Candidate Ken Buck in 2010, allowed the transformation of a vague Democratic caricature of Republicans into a high-resolution image broadcast across the minds of the nation’s voters.

Putting this together with Mitt Romney’s desire for Hispanic “self-deportation” and increasingly out-of-touch anti-gay (or at least perceived as anti-gay) rhetoric, and you have all the ingredients necessary for those not descended from Mayflower passengers, and for young people, to abandon the GOP in droves.

Regarding immigration, and the non-lily-white more broadly, if one were to point to a single statistic that shows the degree of Republican disconnect with people who don’t look like Mitt Romney, it is this: Exit polls show Asians supporting President Obama over Romney by a nearly 3-to-1 margin. Asian-Americans, as Bloomberg News notes, “happen to be the highest-earning group in the U.S., out-earning whites, and they generally place enormous emphasis on family.” This made-to-order-for-Republicans voting block went for Obama by a higher percentage than Hispanics did.

A more significant canary in the political coalmine you will rarely find.

Please read the entirety of my article for the American Spectator here:
http://spectator.org/archives/2012/11/15/the-biggest-reasons

The Biggest Reasons

by Rossputin | 7:49 am, November 15, 2012

Post-election Republican introspection has begun with authors including our own Jed Babbin offering explanations why Mitt Romney lost. (One wonders whether Jed, who penned six reasons, feels outdone by Keith Koffler’s note, “Seven Reasons Why Romney Lost.”)

Both Babbin and Koffler left out a rather obvious explanation: Democrats used Republicans’ own words to make the GOP look like the very intolerant, bigoted bunch of old white guys which the left had been claiming Republicans to be for years. In short, the ignorant Todd Akin and the boneheaded Richard Mourdock, forgetting the lessons of Colorado Senate Candidate Ken Buck in 2010, allowed the transformation of a vague Democratic caricature of Republicans into a high-resolution image broadcast across the minds of the nation’s voters.

Putting this together with Mitt Romney’s desire for Hispanic “self-deportation” and increasingly out-of-touch anti-gay (or at least perceived as anti-gay) rhetoric, and you have all the ingredients necessary for those not descended from Mayflower passengers, and for young people, to abandon the GOP in droves.

Regarding immigration, and the non-lily-white more broadly, if one were to point to a single statistic that shows the degree of Republican disconnect with people who don’t look like Mitt Romney, it is this: Exit polls show Asians supporting President Obama over Romney by a nearly 3-to-1 margin. Asian-Americans, as Bloomberg News notes, “happen to be the highest-earning group in the U.S., out-earning whites, and they generally place enormous emphasis on family.” This made-to-order-for-Republicans voting block went for Obama by a higher percentage than Hispanics did.

A more significant canary in the political coalmine you will rarely find.

Please read the entirety of my article for the American Spectator here:
http://spectator.org/archives/2012/11/15/the-biggest-reasons

Join me on Monday evening for a lively discussion

by Rossputin | 3:07 pm, November 10, 2012

Election Day Is Just the Beginning: ?So it’s to be four more years of President Obama, with House Republicans in a blocking position if they’re willing to use it. ?Now more than ever, friends of freedom have their work cut out for them. ?Will you be on the team in 2013?

Explore what the voters said, and talk about what must now be done, at two post-election forums.

WHAT NOW, CONSERVATIVES?

Special Guest: Guy P. Benson

Syndicated Radio Host & Political Editor of Townhall.com

Commentators:?

? ? ? ? ? ??

Mike Littwin on the Left ? Ross Kaminsky on the Right?

Monday, Nov. 12, 7pm

CCU Beckman Center, 180 S. Garrison Street, Lakewood CO 80226

Join me on Monday evening for a lively discussion

by Rossputin | 3:07 pm, November 10, 2012

Election Day Is Just the Beginning: ?So it’s to be four more years of President Obama, with House Republicans in a blocking position if they’re willing to use it. ?Now more than ever, friends of freedom have their work cut out for them. ?Will you be on the team in 2013?

Explore what the voters said, and talk about what must now be done, at two post-election forums.

WHAT NOW, CONSERVATIVES?

Special Guest: Guy P. Benson

Syndicated Radio Host & Political Editor of Townhall.com

Commentators:?

? ? ? ? ? ??

Mike Littwin on the Left ? Ross Kaminsky on the Right?

Monday, Nov. 12, 7pm

CCU Beckman Center, 180 S. Garrison Street, Lakewood CO 80226

Who Are You?

by Rossputin | 7:13 am, November 5, 2012

As I await the arrival of my tickets to see The Who in concert in a few months, it is tempting in this election season, to consider a 2012 version of the gauzy wisdom of “Won’t Get Fooled Again” – to wonder whether a majority of this nation still believes, or even wants to believe, the “same as the old boss” campaign rhetoric of President Barack Obama, despite his persistent record of hyper-partisanship and failure, both foreign and domestic.

But sticking with the words of Pete Townshend (a great lyricist if not the equal of Ray Davies of The Kinks), a better question as we ponder what is accurately if too frequently called “the most important election of our lifetimes,” is “Who Are You?“

Who are you, Mr. or Mrs. Likely Voter? And what does America mean to you?

Are you a “Progressive” who believes, as Barack Obama does, that our Constitution, our society’s rulebook (even if apparently officiated by replacement referees these days), is “political witchcraft” (Woodrow Wilson) designed to create a “supremacy for the rich and powerful” (Howard Zinn) which should only be supported by a president “as he understands it” (Franklin Roosevelt)?

Or are you a proud American who believes, as I do, that the Constitution “is the only safeguard of our liberties” (Abraham Lincoln), that freedom is being taken from us “by gradual and silent encroachments” (John Marshall), that “the Constitution is colorblind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens” (John Marshall again) and that an important defense against “abuses of Constitutional power” is to “inform (Americans’) discretion by education” (Thomas Jefferson)?

Please read the entirety of my article for the American Spectator here:
http://spectator.org/archives/2012/11/06/who-are-you

Who Are You?

by Rossputin | 7:13 am, November 5, 2012

As I await the arrival of my tickets to see The Who in concert in a few months, it is tempting in this election season, to consider a 2012 version of the gauzy wisdom of “Won’t Get Fooled Again” – to wonder whether a majority of this nation still believes, or even wants to believe, the “same as the old boss” campaign rhetoric of President Barack Obama, despite his persistent record of hyper-partisanship and failure, both foreign and domestic.

But sticking with the words of Pete Townshend (a great lyricist if not the equal of Ray Davies of The Kinks), a better question as we ponder what is accurately if too frequently called “the most important election of our lifetimes,” is “Who Are You?“

Who are you, Mr. or Mrs. Likely Voter? And what does America mean to you?

Are you a “Progressive” who believes, as Barack Obama does, that our Constitution, our society’s rulebook (even if apparently officiated by replacement referees these days), is “political witchcraft” (Woodrow Wilson) designed to create a “supremacy for the rich and powerful” (Howard Zinn) which should only be supported by a president “as he understands it” (Franklin Roosevelt)?

Or are you a proud American who believes, as I do, that the Constitution “is the only safeguard of our liberties” (Abraham Lincoln), that freedom is being taken from us “by gradual and silent encroachments” (John Marshall), that “the Constitution is colorblind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens” (John Marshall again) and that an important defense against “abuses of Constitutional power” is to “inform (Americans’) discretion by education” (Thomas Jefferson)?

Please read the entirety of my article for the American Spectator here:
http://spectator.org/archives/2012/11/06/who-are-you

Obama’s lost support in Colorado

by Rossputin | 6:50 am, October 29, 2012

On Sunday morning on my radio show, I did a “lightning round” segment in which I asked callers to tell me in 30 seconds what their major issue in the election was and which candidate they were therefore voting for, and I asked a few callers follow-up questions (also giving them 30 seconds to answer those.)

I had three calls in a row (plus probably others whom I didn’t ask about 2008) from people who are voting for Mitt Romney but who voted for Barack Obama in 2008. Among these people (including one who self-identified as “a gay guy”) the overarching issues were the economy and a broader dissatisfaction with his (lack of) leadership.

I simply do not see Obama winning Colorado. And despite current polls I continue to believe that Romney will win Ohio and/or Wisconsin and win the election.

Seriously, who beside a union leader or radical leftist or radical feminist or college student, the combination of which represents a tiny percentage of the electorate, will look at his or her ballot and see “Barack Obama” and say “I want to do that again”?

In short, I think the polls are, to use a George W. Bush-ism, misunderestimating the turnout of Republicans and dissatisfied Independents – and misoverestimating turnout among Democrats.

You can listen to the hour (my show was only an hour because of the Broncos game) here. It’s actually only about 40 minutes without the news and ads. The topic I’m describing here starts 11 minutes in.

keep looking »

Featured Posts

• PPC Training for Activists

  UPDATE: Something apparently got messed up with the PayPal buttons during this past weekend’s database glitch – fixed now. Yes, it’s that time again — PPC will be conducting training classes for center-right activists on Saturday, April 20 and Saturday, April 27, at Independence Institute in Denver. The tentative class schedule is as follows: Saturday, [...]

• Holder’s First Letter to Paul Precipitates the Best Filibuster Ever
• The Lamest Twitter Argument Ever Offered?
• Return of the PPC Re-Education Camps – You Know You Want to Be There
• Supreme Courts Blesses Warrantless Surveillance of Citizens in a Kafkaesque Farce
• GOP Elite and the Ruling Class
• Do We Now Get to Call Joe Salazar a “Rapist”?