Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Saturday, November 8, 2014
The Midterm Miracles
Perhaps because I define myself as a optimistic pessimist or a pessimistic optimist, I was blindsided by the election results. As much time as I devoted to poring over the Senate races, I just couldn't see how the GOP could wind up with more than 51. Perhaps, best of all, the liberals can't carry off their narrative, which was that they lost the Senate only because of the map. Anticipating defeat, they wanted to pretend it was simply because they happened to have so many Senate seats at risk in certain Republican-leaning states. But, thanks to God and in good part to Barack Obama, who has done so very much to destroy the Democratic brand, we even won gubernatorial races in Illinois, Maryland and Massachusetts.
From The Comedy Store
White House officials say they discovered hacking activity into the computers in the Oval Office. Nothing was taken. The hackers were identity thieves who peeked at the president's Oval Office laptop and saw his approval ratings and decided they were better off as themselves.
Obama: Irrelevant, Incompetent or Intentional?
"Remember," said Ronald Reagan, "we have opponents; we don't have enemies." That's why President Reagan was so successful in gaining the respect and affection of the American people. Even people who did not like his policies liked him. President Obama's troubles in office stem in no small part from is willingness to treat American opponents as enemies. (He treats America's true enemies as friends, but that's another matter.)
Friday, November 7, 2014
Riding the Wave
A beautiful red tsunami swept across America Tuesday night. Liberal pollsters and liberal pundits on TV refused to see the Republican wave coming and still can't believe it came. But the S.S. Obama and its cargo of bad ideas sank like a rock, dragging Captain Harry Reid and a motley crew of hopeful Democrat office seekers with it to the bottom. Republican candidates won from sea to shining sea. By January, the GOP could hold a 54-seat majority in the Senate.
Voters to GOP: Don't Falter at the Alter
Republican voters don't just support natural marriage -- they expect their candidates to! That was abundantly clear Tuesday, when local exit polls starting streaming in. For conservatives, the data was a gold mine on social issues that will help debunk the Left's tall tales about the popularity of same-sex "marriage." In state after state, voters refused to give an inch on marriage -- and instead exposed how exaggerated the cultural shift has been. Despite what the media would have you believe, the public opinion battle has been a bigger one than the Left bargained for -- with most Americans' views barely budging on an institution the courts are so anxious to redefine. A month after a Pew poll showed support for same-sex "marriage" dipping, the issue was front and center in a few key Senate races -- including North Carolina, Iowa, and Arkansas.
GOP Victory Was Easy, Now the Hard Part
The GOP victory Election Night was the easy part. Now comes the real work: forging an agenda that will solidify Republican gains over the next two years. Exit polls make clear that dissatisfaction with President Obama drove this election. As the president famously said in October, "I am not on the ballot this fall. ... But make no mistake: These policies are on the ballot. Every single one of them." The president's words came true, but not quite in the way he intended. Come 2016, however, Republicans will have to run on what they've accomplished legislatively and what a different agenda a Republican would bring to the White House. But the electorate will be significantly broader than the one that went to the polls on Tuesday.
Make D.C. Listen: Voters Reject Illegal Alien Rewards
Enough is enough. An important bloc of voters made their voices heard on Tuesday. Their message: Quit rewarding people who violate our immigration laws. They chose a sovereign nation over an illegal alien sanctuary nation, and they told politicians in both parties loud and clear: Put Americans first. Will D.C. listen? These voters are tired of politicians creating magnets for illegal immigrants. They're tired of preferential treatment for defiant border-crossers, visa overstayers and deportation fugitives. They're tired of the heavy costs and consequences of the government's systemic refusal to protect its borders and fully implement interior enforcement.
The Triumph of De-Demonizing
A prayer has been answered -- not for a massive Republican victory at the polls, though that, too. No, I'm thinking of the perennial prayer of losers: "Oh Lord, let my enemies go too far." The results of the 2014 midterms will be chewed over for weeks and months. One datum that hasn't received much attention so far is the exit poll result showing that 71 percent of voters are somewhat or very worried about another major terrorist attack in the United States. Such is the Republican reputation for hardheadedness on national security that the party benefits from this concern without breaking a sweat.
Seize the Day, Control the Agenda
Memo to the GOP. You had a great night on Tuesday. But remember: You didn't win it. The Democrats lost it. This is not to say that you didn't show discipline in making the election a referendum on six years of Barack Obama. You exercised adult supervision over the choice of candidates. You didn't allow yourself to go down the byways of gender and other identity politics. It showed: A gain of probably nine Senate seats, the largest Republican House majority in more than 80 years, and astonishing gubernatorial victories, including Massachusetts, Maryland and Illinois, the bluest of the blue, giving lie to the Democrats' excuse that they lost because the game was played on Republican turf.
Punching the Duggars
While so much of reality television dwells on catty "Real Housewives" and Snooki-style party-hearty debauchery, it's interesting to note that a small fraction of this ever-expanding genre is celebrating evangelical Christianity and values like chastity. This drives the libertines crazy. Washington Post TV critic Hank Stuever recently raged on the Internet against the Duggar family of TLC's "19 Kids & Counting" and how they are no more worthy of attention than the Kardashians. Their children are denied "freedom of choice." "My thoughts on the Duggars are few and far between because I think the show treats its viewers like they're learning-disabled," he wrote. Then he doubled down. "The viewers, not the Duggars. Although ... "
The Shrinkage of the Obama Majority
Some observations on the election: (1) This was a wave, folks. It will be a benchmark for judging waves, for either party, for years. (2) In seriously contested races, Republican candidates were generally younger, more vigorous, more sunny and optimistic than Democrats. The contrast was sharpest in Colorado and Iowa, which voted twice for President Obama. Cory Gardner and Joni Ernst seemed to be looking forward to the future. Their opponents grimly championed the stale causes of feminists and trial lawyers of the past.
The Republican Wave Debunked Big Myths About the Obama Era
Guess what. Voters don't really hate "obstructionism." They hate the other party. If we're to believe the media-authored account of the past six years, the GOP has made rigid obstructionism of Barack Obama's policies its sole agendum. In victory and in concession speeches, candidates of both parties still claim that "dysfunction" has been the biggest problem in Washington. Where exactly have Republicans suffered for their stubbornness? The reality is that Republicans have been generously rewarded for their tenacity in stopping post-Obamacare progressive policy. Since 2010, the Republicans have pulled together a historic string of victories -- with scores of seats changing hands in the House. If anything, what we learned is that politicians are far likelier to be penalized by the electorate for passing unworkable and overreaching legislation than they are for stopping it.
Maybe Big Data Should Play Smaller Role in Our Politics
"To everyone who voted," President Obama said in his press conference on Wednesday, "I hear you. To the two-thirds of voters who chose not to participate yesterday, I hear you, too." Let me begin with a bit of a rant. In a sense, this is the last piece of the puzzle to click into place for the president's Nixonian transformation. Spy on reporters? Check. Bomb a country (or two) without authorization from Congress? Check. Issue dubious claims of executive privilege to conceal embarrassments or prevent scandals? Check. Withdraw from -- and lose -- an unpopular war he didn't start? Check. Corrupt IRS? Check. Imperial presidency? Check.
How the GOP Should Deal With Obama's Incorrigibility
President Obama's remarks at his postelection news conference were instructive on his attitude about the election results and his approach going forward. He always pays lip service to hearing the voters' message when his side loses but then reveals he hears only what he chooses to hear. He said that what stood out to him was that the American people had sent the same message they had sent for the past several elections. How can that be?
Thursday, November 6, 2014
A Tough Night at MSNBC
After Tuesday night, Republicans' main objective is clear: Convince Oregon Measure 88 to run for president. Measure 88 won more votes than anything else on the Oregon ballot. More votes than pot legalization. More than the incumbent governor, the incumbent senator or any of the six other ballot measures. The widely popular, landslide vote on Measure 88 prohibits illegal immigrants from getting drivers licenses. In the nightmare scenario for MSNBC, by midnight Tuesday night, Republicans won 52 senate seats -- 53 with their probable win in the Louisiana runoff in December, 54 if they win Alaska and 55 if they win Virginia. And I'm not even counting Democratic flips.
Lessons for the GOP for 2016
On Tuesday, Republicans won a historic electoral victory, sweeping away a Democratic Senate, replacing Democratic governors in blue states like Massachusetts, Maryland and Illinois, and reversing Democratic state legislatures in Nevada, Colorado, Minnesota, New Mexico, Maine, West Virginia and New Hampshire. Republicans now control more state legislatures than they have at any point since the 1920s, and a bigger House majority than they have since 1928. The celebratory mood for Republicans pervaded the country -- a feeling of hope, lost since President Obama revealed himself to be just as radical as the right suspected, has returned. That hope isn't vain -- when a landslide of such proportion takes place, there is something to it. The question is whether Republicans can capitalize on their newfound opportunity and finally make a strong move toward winning the White House.
Iran Nuclear Talks Like Bargaining With the Devil
Having missed a July deadline for reaching an agreement with Iran over its nuclear program, the six world powers party to the talks -- the United States, Russia, China, France, United Kingdom and Germany -- have set November 24 as their new deadline. Iran says there will be no extension if a deal isn't reached. Given the Obama administration's horrible record in the Middle East -- treating Israel as an enemy and Islamic dictatorships as potential friends -- things don't look good for an agreement that will curtail or reverse Iran's pursuit of a nuclear weapon.
Jay Carney to GOP: Your Party Is Racist -- and 'You Know It'
Former Obama White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, now a political commentator for CNN, casually admitted that, yes, his party uses race to convince minorities that Republicans seek to oppress them. Before the midterm election, Carney said: "Republicans are going to pick up seats in the Senate and the House, and they may win control of the Senate. So (Democrats) need to mobilize their base voters, and that is especially true of minority voters." Carney also admitted that the use of the race card is cynical: "Equating support for stand-your-ground law ... doesn't mean you supported the action that took Trayvon Martin's life. So that's the kind of, you know, rough ad -- similar to the one we saw from the Republican. I think we've come to expect that, and hopefully a lot of voters ... kind of tune it out."
The Elections and the Last Racists
So what did you think of the 2014 election? Do I hear talk of a wave election? Is 2014 another 2010 election? I think it is, and that makes it more significant than any other recent election, as I shall explain in due course. First, review the outcome. Republicans have increased their margin in the House of Representatives. That was deemed unlikely a couple of days ago. They have captured the Senate, again a very questionable outcome according to the polls only a few days ago. They have won a majority of governorships, including in one-party Illinois, Maryland and Massachusetts. Moreover, they probably have a majority of state legislatures. And one thing more -- the Democrats' leading campaigners continue, as has been true for years, to be the kiss of death to almost anyone they endorse. I am speaking of my friends, the Clintons.
What Republicans Must Do Now
Unlike the dog that chased the car until, to its consternation, he caught it, Republicans know what do with what they have caught. Having completed their capture of control of the legislative branch, they should start with the following six measures concerning practical governance and constitutional equilibrium: -- Abolish the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. This creature of the labyrinthine Dodd-Frank law violates John Locke's dictum: "The legislative cannot transfer the power of making laws to any other hands. ... The power of the legislative ... [is] only to make laws, and not to make legislators." The CFPB is empowered to "declare," with no legislative guidance or institutional inhibitions, that certain business practices are "abusive." It also embodies progressivism's authoritarianism by being, unlike any entity Congress has created since 1789, untethered from all oversight mechanisms: Its funding, "determined by the director," comes from the Federal Reserve.