Take, for example, this ridiculous paragraph:

To act as if Obamacare is the same thing as “Romneycare” is just a word game, on the order of acting like a “gun” has the same properties as a “gunny sack,” or “fire” is the same thing as a “firefly.”

Question: If I impose an immoral piece of legislation on 6.5 million people, and then another imposes the same basic legislation on 310 million, does the legislation affecting “only” 6.5 million people become somehow moral because it affects less people?  Of course not.

The individual mandate is what conservatives rightfully find absolutely appalling, and it is the keystone in both Romneycare and Obamacare.

Continues Ann,

While we’re on the subject, the nation’s leading conservative think tank, The Heritage Foundation, helped draft Romneycare. Indeed, Bob Moffit, Heritage’s senior fellow on health care issues, can be seen in the picture of the bill-signing ceremony, standing proudly behind Romney.

I like the Heritage Foundation as much as anyone.  But if the Heritage Foundation woke up one day and supported abortion, would I support abortion?  No.  Would Ann?  What if Romney did, again?

The problem, Ann, is that when you lose all mooring to principle you lose the ability to think straight.  You’ve twisted yourself into so many knots you’re not sure which way is up.  Matter of fact, so low your standards have fallen that you’re now quoting the unfunny, unserious, creep Jon Stewart to attack Newt Gingrich.

Gingrich may have spent his entire life in Washington and be so much of an insider that, as Jon Stewart says, “when Washington gets its prostate checked, it tickles [Newt],” but he is deemed the rebellious outsider challenging “the Establishment” — because, again, “the Establishment” is anyone who opposes Newt.

Quoting a liberal icon to attack Romney’s opponent is as pitiful as Romney’s opponents attacking Bain Capital.  To nominate a liberal Republican to run against President Obama (a Marxist of the first order) would be dangerous, stupid, and ridiculous.

And I don’t even support Newt.  My candidate is Santorum.

Ann Coulter, Conservative.  May that career RIP.

Write Valentine’s Day Cards for Wounded Soldiers

Mark’s last book, Liberty and Tyranny, debuted in early 2009, right after the inauguration of President Obama.  It came also on the heels of September 2008’s stock market collapse, TARP, and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (i.e. the “Stimulus”).  This time marked the beginning of the Tea Party movement, concerned primarily with debt and government overreach.  A self-admitted recluse, the author and radio host only had two book signings nationally: one at Book Revue, and another in Tysons Corner, Virginia.  Many, many Mark Levin fans showed up that March day; the crowd estimate was between 6,000 and 7,000 people, making it the largest ever for a store that has hosted acclaimed authors and former presidents.  The line wrapped around the block.  I stood in line for six hours that day, surrounded by some of the nicest people I’ve met.  Mark signed every last book.

Saturday was snowy and cold, and I was prepared to be outside again.  The event was to begin at noon, and I arrived at 10:45.  Gratefully at this time the line was still contained inside the store.  Thirty minutes later dedicated fans would begin encircling the block, with gloves, hats, and umbrellas, patiently waiting their turn to shake hands with Levin, or “The Great One,” as Levin is called by fans and friends alike.  Behind me in line was a friendly man named Rich, who, like me, listens to The Mark Levin Show via podcast.

Why would so many people spend their Saturday outside a book store on Long Island in the snow?  It’s because our country is in peril, and Mark fights to win.  Or, as Jeffrey Lord recently wrote in The American Spectator, “he never ducks.”  The systemic problems can leave us regular citizens feeling daunted, overwhelmed, and powerless.  Obama and the Democrat Party threaten the American experiment in a way it has never been threatened: by suicide.  But Mark Levin reminds us that it was the American people who against all odds fought and won the Revolutionary War, carried the cause of abolitionism, and who rose up to defeat the totalitarians of the 20^th century.  We are a great and proud people.  Though our culture has been steadily eroded by decades of progressive indoctrination, it is incumbent on those who understand what is at risk to inform their families and neighbors and take the first steps to restore limited, Constitutional government.  Peace with a subversive political party is tantamount to surrender; the left must be defeated.

The line moved quickly and soon it was my turn.  I asked, tongue-in-cheek, “I have a question for you: How does a young man like me take over my state’s party?”  Mark chuckled, and said “I don’t have an answer for that.”  He thought for a second.   “You need to start small.  Put together a group of ‘Young Turks.’  Think very strategically.”  Be resolute, smart, and persistent.

I replied, “Thank you, I’m trying!” And try must we all if the Republic is to be saved from itself.

I will be reviewing Ameritopia in the weeks to come.

JOIN US FOR OUR FIRST MEETING OF 2012 

Guest Speakers:

Councilman Eric Ulrich

Noel Sloan – a Brown Brothers Harriman Senior Vice President, Oxford graduate and UK native who lived in England during the 1980′s. Come hear how the lessons of UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher can help restore the US to prosperity, too.

Mark Rosen- Candidate for Westchester Congressional District 18 (Larchmont, Mamaroneck, New Rochelle, Ossining, the Town of Pelham, Scarsdale, Tarrytown, White Plains as well as most of New City and Yonkers)

Members and Non-Members welcome, First event or coming alone? Let us know and we’ll introduce you around!

 Business attire required. No jeans, sneakers, hats, sweatshirts, etc.
Join us in the Pub afterward for drinks, food, and discussion. Cash Only

RSVP: rsvp@nyyrc.com

SATURDAY, JANUARY 21 AT NOON
Book Revue
313 New York Avenue
Huntington NY 11743

In March ’09 I attended Levin’s signing of Liberty and Tyranny at Book Revue.  It may be considered one of the first Tea Party rallies, as approx. 7,000 people unexpectedly showed up and snaked around the block.

Huntington also happens to be my hometown, and there are lots of great bars and restaurants to visit.  Book Revue is a charming book store with a great cafe.  Make a day of it, enjoy the company of fellow patriots, and after treat yourself to a evening in Huntington!

The morning of the Iowa caucus, Reuters ran an innocuously entitled “news” piece called “Factbox: Presidential candidate Mitt Romney.”

Is this a dispassionate review of his record and policy recommendations?  A biographical thumbnail sketch?  Some context of his time as Governor of Massachusetts?  Hardly.  We learn, among other things, that:

• He is a fifth-generation Mormon whose forebears were involved in the religious movement from the mid-19th century. Romney spent 30 months in France as a Mormon missionary in the 1960s, and speaks French.  Some Christian groups and voters don’t consider Mormonism a form of Christianity.
• In the 2008 campaign, Romney spent millions of dollars campaigning in Iowa only to lose to Mike Huckabee[.]
• As governor of Massachusetts, Romney instituted statewide healthcare reform that became a model for Obama’s national policy. Romney has defended the state law while calling for the repeal of Obama’s federal version, a tricky balancing act.
• Romney, a former venture capitalist, has centrist Republican proposals to cut corporate taxes, reduce federal regulations and cut spending. But he is seen by some as out of step with ordinary Americans. During one Republican debate Romney offered to bet $10,000 in a back-and-forth with Texas Governor Rick Perry.
• Multimillionaire Romney has been a strong fundraiser – with more money than any of the other Republican candidates.
• Animal rights groups criticized Romney during the 2008 campaign for an incident in 1983 when he drove 12 hours to Canada from Boston on vacation with the family dog in a crate strapped to the roof of their car.

Recap, in so many words:

Romney, a Mormon (i.e.  not a “real Christian”) multi-millionaire venture capitalist, is a wishy-washy half-hearted proto-Obama who sponsored an primitive form of Obamacare in Massachusetts and seems unlikely to advocate the repeal Obamacare if elected.  He is way out of touch with normal people, makes off-the-cuff $10,000 bets, and has spent exorbitant amounts of money campaigning in Iowa, the first time only to lose to Mike Huckabee.  And, evil of evils, he speaks French and tortures dogs.  Did we mention that Iowans are conservative Christian bigots?

Ah yes, fair reporting.  I can remember now those stories about Obama’s church and pastor, Obama’s constituents’ intolerance, Obama’s history with his pets, Obama’s non-fluency in foreign language (maybe he speaks “Austrian”?), Obama’s millions of dollars, and Obama’s off-the-cuff remark that he was going to fundamentally remake America.

Whoever ends up as the nominee better be prepared for two front war: Obama’s campaign machine, and 95% of all mainstream press outfits, including the “news only” wire services.

With nearly 90% of vote in, Rick Santorum is virtually tied with Mitt Romney for the winner of the Iowa caucus.  Drudge:

Rick 28,895
Mitt 28,841

It is appropriate to reflect on how blindsided the mainstream media and Republican establishment appear in hindsight.  It was Romney/Bachmann, then it was Romney/Cain, then Romney/Gingrich, and then… Rick Santorum?  Did that guy ever speak at the debates?

We should not let a small cabal of talking heads and political operatives pick our nominee.  Money can swing elections, but only votes count in the end.  Tonight, as Rick Santorum is poised for victory, we are reminded that the American people are far wiser than most of their elected leaders, political consultants, and would-be kingmakers.

GO RICK GO!

Like clockwork every few decades, some self-described European “visionaries” swear that the continent can either live in peace under utopian protocols or, more darkly, be united under one grand — and undemocratic — system, willingly or not. But for all the noble pretensions of the Congress of Vienna and the European Union — and the nightmarish spread of Napoleon’s Continental System and the Third Reich — and for all the promises of European-born fascism, Communism, and socialism, the result is always the same: disunion, acrimony, and infighting.

Hanson, formerly a classics professor, succinctly captures the age-old problems that define multicultural continent with a long history of war.  His unique blending of ancient and modern history give the reader a sweeping view of today’s pertinent challenges facing the Continent, and they are, in many ways, parallel to those it faced in the 9th century.

I think it is worth remembering that America’s present situation is historically unique; our financial position is perilous, and if not for the continued printing of money we’d be bankrupted by Washington’s refusal to seriously address entitlement reform.  Concurrently, Congress and the executive continue to enact and promote extraconstitutional legislation.  Thus, as Europe implodes under the sheer weight of their latest utopian scheme (i.e., the modern welfare state), America’s traditional ability to serve as a bastion for human freedom is in jeopardy.

RSVP: rsvp@nyyrc.com

Think conservative.  Think of the types of people who are, generally speaking, conservative.  Name some you know.

Now think liberal; liberal types of people; liberal people you know.  Keep both groups in mind for a few minutes.

It is only natural to grow accustomed to certain assumptions: you would never, for example, critically re-examine why it is better to have an umbrella when it rains.  Obviously, it helps to keep you dry.  But as other to ideas we hold, such as who constitutes the typical liberal or conservative, a shifting political reality demands that we apply a critical eye.

What does our news media, popular entertainment, and pop culture tell us about how we’re supposed think about liberals and conservatives?  I’ll elaborate my perspective on this question.

Who are the “liberals?”  They’re women, minorities, gays, “transient workers,” the poor, (now apparently) the “middle class,” and union workers.  If you listen to Democrats, they’ll tell you story after horror story about people in these neatly divided classes who have suffered at the hand of big business, racism, an unjust criminal code, and sexism.

And the conservatives?  The conservatives, particularly the “Republicans,” are white males, religious people, the “rich,” and a curious mix of racists and rednecks, either seething with hatred of all minorities or madly in love with their guns, if not both. If you listen to elected Republicans, too many waste precious news time explaining that they’re not really racist, that they really do care about the “middle class,” and oppose theocracy.  Fortunately for these weak “leaders,” such as Mr. Boehner, very few conservatives are listening to their weak voices.

Now think back to your initial groups.  Check it against your daily experience.  Speaking personally, I know conservative gays, conservative women, conservative union members, conservative immigrants (legal, of course), conservative teachers, etc.  I know wealthy liberals.  I know lower middle class conservatives.  You probably do too.

So what?  The groups aren’t perfect, you say, but they’re more or less accurate.  It’s true that groups typically associated with Democrats vote for them, and the same goes for Republicans.  What kind of a ridiculous article is this?

May I implore the good reader to think deeper?  Democrats, it is indisputable, seek to portray Republicans as uncaring because they are relatively more resistant to extending special privileges to (read: pandering to) certain factions of the population.  Said Speaker Pelosi in October: “Under this bill, when the Republicans vote for this bill today, they will be voting to say that women can die on the floor and health care providers do not have to intervene if this bill is passed. It’s just appalling.”  As underwhelming as Speaker Boehner is, it’s difficult to imagine that he wants any part of women dying on the floor.

Such revolting rhetoric is symptomatic of a political party that no longer represents all citizens.  Obama, Pelosi, Reid, and all of the Democrat leadership have adopted an extremely cynical and destructive agenda and campaigning tactics that divide us by race, sex, and income bracket.  On the promise of rewarding 50.1% of the population at the expense of the other 49.9%, they are staking virtually all their election prospects.  Such a campaign is guaranteed to be poisonous, angry, personal, and downright dirty.  Democrats have themselves made this explicit:

All pretense of trying to win a majority of the white working class has been effectively jettisoned in favor of cementing a center-left coalition made up, on the one hand, of voters who have gotten ahead on the basis of educational attainment — professors, artists, designers, editors, human resources managers, lawyers, librarians, social workers, teachers and therapists — and a second, substantial constituency of lower-income voters who are disproportionately African-American and Hispanic.

Democrats know, through recent experience, that their promises for a better country are lies.  The “working class,” after 3 years of Obama, is suffering with extraordinary unemployment, debt, and loss of personal freedom.  The black community is suffering especially hard.  All kinds of Americans are languishing under a vigorous and systematic statist agenda, one that proscribes private property rights and selectively applies laws, to say nothing of its dangerously inept foreign policy.  Obama and his advisers know that the economy is stalled; they admit just that each time Obama says “Pass this bill now!”

But why would they do this?  The reason is not difficult to understand, but can difficult to believe and accept.  Democrats are power hungry.  They want a permanent class of overlords, managers, intellectuals, and state-funded “scientists.”  In capitalist countries, like traditional America, a permanence of power among a small clique is exceptionally rare.  The greatest families of this nation – the Morgans, the Rockefellers, the Vanderbuilts, the Roosevelts – achieved power, sure.  But not power that spans centuries, like the aristocracy and royalty of Europe.  To achieve longevity requires the co-opting of the political system.

These ideas may sound conspiratorial, but they have a long, written history.  Plato’s Republic was “ideal,” presumably fair, and totalitarian.  Skipping the various manifestations of tyranny that spanned the Middle Ages, French philosophers revived the myth of a virtuous ruling class that could eradicate the troubles of life.  Saint-Simon imbued Auguste Comte with a false knowledge of man, Comte in turn influenced Hegel, and it was Hegel who gave Marx his famous dialectic.  (See Hayek.)  Rousseau contributed the romantic notion of a virtuous natural world beleaguered only by corrupt human institutions.  The destruction of Western political culture comes from those who always promise smarter “rule” through revolution.

Among a massive state apparatus that treats a citizen like a client there is no room for a party that represents a free people, much less a free people to elect such a party.  The people vote for Party A, because A promises to give more to more people than Party B.  It’s impossible to promise two people the same loaf of bread, but it is possible to offer them the same nebulous entitlement program.  See Canada, where neither party opposes nationalized healthcare in principle, but only in trivial detail.  See England, where Prime Minister Cameron meekly manages a dangerous decline.  See Europe, as it erupts in chaos as a result of diminishing rations.  Yet in all the turmoil and debt, do you see any political party in Canada, the U.K., or the EU standing athwart history?  Do you hear them yelling stop?

America’s unique tradition of liberty has preserved the freedom of her citizens.  Right now, our nation’s future is in danger.  Democrats are potentially one election away from cementing their agenda to remake the American government into a giant corporation, thus rendering the American people customers without any alternatives or legal recourse.  Fundamental transformation is their stated goal, and divide and conquer is their strategy for victory.

Speaker Boehner and every presidential candidate should explain to the American people what is at stake.  Explain what President Reagan meant when he said:

Since when do we in America believe that our society is made up of two diametrically opposed classes – one rich, one poor – both in a permanent state of conflict and neither able to get ahead except at the expense of the other? Since when do we in America accept this alien and discredited theory of social and class warfare? Since when do we in America endorse the politics of envy and division?

Do not let yourself be identified as your government as anything else but an American, and reject the familiar caricature of political identities.  Demand nothing more than your rights.    This staid mentality will be what saves us or won’t.