Sunday, November 23, 2008

The Lost Generation

Margaret Hoover (born 1977) is an American conservative feminist, political commentator, Republican strategist, and blogger...great-granddaughter of President Herbert Hoover... B.A. in Spanish Language Literature with a minor in Political Science from Bryn Mawr College in 2001...worked for Bush-Cheney ‘04, .....Deputy-Press Secretary Mario Diaz-Balart...held a White House appointment in the Bush Administration and also served as a senior advisor to the Deputy Secretary at the Department of Homeland Security. -------------------Wikipedia.org

Dear Miss Hoover,

You are the embodiment of all that plagues the Republican Party and thwarts the conservative movement. Though what little I know of you amounts to less than a full hour of your commentary opposite Bill O'Reilly in his Fox News show, it is enough to know that if the Party's leaders are indeed taking your advice on anything more important than, say, the five-day weather forecast or what they're wearing in Amsterdam this winter, then things are indeed as bad if not worse than they seem.

Every time I see you and hear your opinions on the weeks' latest outrage or of the plight of someone caught up one liberalism's failed social experiments, I ask myself, "What IS a Margaret Hoover?" Republican Feminist, it says at the bottom of the screen. What the HELL is a Republican feminist? I ask, usually myself, over and over.

O'Reilly still finds it necessary to point out to the folks that you identify yourself as a Republican, your views notwithstanding; that the tag line at the bottom of the screen is not a mistake. But it was after your last appearance (that I saw) on O'Reilly's show that has prompted me to write. This is the appearance where you make it it clear that the Republican Party as I know it is doomed.

The subject of discussion was the passage of Proposition 8 in California and the rioting it spawned. Your position was that the view of a majority of the folks be damned, same-sex marriage is an inevitability; that opposing it is a losing proposition, politically speaking; that sooner or later those who oppose it will go the way of the dodo; and that you and people of your generation will eventually be the saviors of the GOP (by supporting gay marriage) because your generation "gets it."

I thought I had heard enough to write about when I read these lines in the Wall Street Journal soon after your appearance:

"I am a 24-year-old, idealistic, socially liberal Manhattan resident who voted for John Kerry in 2004. I should have been part of Barack Obama's base. Yet for the past four months, I worked my heart out -- 15-hour days, seven days a week -- for John McCain." So Mr. Robbie Cohen introduced is opinion piece: "Why I am Still Inspired by John McCain," or something like that.

I would pay money to see you two arguing politics for a few hours. Can you imagine a more surreal situation? A member of "the generation that gets it" lecturing a McCain campaign volunteer on why he was misguided in casting his vote for John Kerry. At least Mr. Cohen has the guts to admit he voted for Kerry. What are the odds that you, Miss Hoover, lost your "Republican" nerve on the way to the polls in 2000 and pulled the lever for Al Gore because he "gets it;" and for Kerry in 2004 for the same reason?

I wonder how you would advise the obviously confused Mr. Cohen to vote in the coming off-year elections and in 2012. I am publishing this in my Blog in hopes that my readers will find in it a new reason to fight for their values and those of their children and grandchildren; to beware of folks like you and Mr. Cohen and to redouble their efforts to instill in them true conservative principles and to support those politicians who DON'T get it.

If you are moved to respond I will publish your response. If you want to comment, keep it clean. This is FAMILY Blog.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Obama On a String

It occurred to me last night after listening to some commentary on TV and listening to my wife (yes I can do both at the same time). The commentarian said about Obama that he won't be able to raise taxes now, because even he understands that there is little to tax, and so that aspect of his administration is less frightening. My wife was listening and she concurred.

That's when it hit me.

It doesn't matter what Obama does or doesn't do or whether he "can" or can't. In fact, Obama simply doesn't matter at all, anymore.

With the 60 to 66 votes that are guaranteed Democrats in the Senate and the similarly huge margin of votes over the Republicans in the House, it really doesn't matter what the President of the United States wants.

The Democrats are already practicing their swagger, announcing that so-and-so will be Secretary of State and such-and-such Attorney General, as though the Advise and Consent clause doesn't exist. And for all practicalities, it doesn't. The Democrats will rubber stamp the administration into place and begin sending it their bidding. Sign this bill, enforce this law, make these regulations, etc.

What about the Republicans? Don't make me laugh. What about the veto? The Democrats will override any veto with the help of willing stooges in the GOP.

So, by a landslide, the public-school-indoctrinated citizens of the United States, voted to turn their President into a figurehead, and the Democrats will complete the transformation. By this time next year the United States will effectively be a one-party state with one branch of government.

To arms!

Thursday, November 13, 2008

'State Republicans Fired up'? Really?

'Fired Up for Steele,' is the headline from a recent blog post regarding Michael Steele's potential run at the Republican National Committee chairmanship. Truthfully, it really doesn't matter who chairs that moribund body. Of course we all wish Mr. Steele well. And we real Republicans (those would be the Western Shore variety who voted against SLOTS and for Andy Harris, you know, those with a functioning brain stem) will take a certain amount of pride in seeing a local pol rise to a prominent if largely figurehead position.

But the RNC is peopled by the folks who foisted upon us John McCain; by the folks who thought it was a good idea to make over Sarah Palin with designer duds and dos, then leak it to the press and watch her twist in the wind; and finally who thought the folks hired to"help" Gov. Palin debate and campaign against the slickest political duo to come down the pike since Hill and Billary Clinton were loyal Republicans instead of the self-serving charlatans they turned out to be.

And Michael Steele, you may recall, stumped for Wayne Gilchrest. Yeah. Please explain that one, Mr. Steele. What does that stand, against most Republicans in District 1, portend for a Steele chairmanship of the RNC?

So like I said, it really doesn't matter (Geeze, I sound like my father-in-law!) who runs the RNC. They will plod along, blind and deaf to the party's conservative wing who will continue to desert them in droves in search of more effective organizations. They will continue to hire "professional communicators" who will convince them that their moronic verses will "manage" the news and image of the RNC.

Unless that chair is filled by Dr. James Pelura. Dr. Pelura, no stranger to dealing with animals, will make the needed changes, will show the consultants the door and force the committee to actually work. His boldness will attract loyal people and ideas. When rumors and gossip starts flying then you'll know he is doing his job right. He shook up the MD GOP, I think for the better, and he can do the same for the national party.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

The Day After Tomorrow - Part II

I address this to members of The Public Square, activists and politicians alike. You are invited to join a new blog that I will be creating just for you. It won't be affiliated with me personally (like this one) or other members of the Netherland family. There won't be a frightening picture of moi featured prominently.

Why am I doing this? Why do I hope and pray that you will use it to benefit conservatism and the Republican Party? Because we need you to; you need you to. I have been thinking about this ever since a pre-election conversation with a state politician. He sensed as I did the coming failure of Republicans in general, and of himself, in effectively communicating the conservative message (I wrote about this four years ago, after our last defeat...see The Day after Tomorrow)

Why a blog? A blog is not just a new (to Republicans) toy or reason to play on the Internet. A blog provides an easy way to polish your message. To be able to write and re-write your message and to instantly rebut, refute and otherwise answer your critics.

Most importantly it gives you the chance to post, for all to see and read, your thoughts; to have them associated with YOUR name. This will prove to an increasingly skeptical voting public that you are not afraid to take a stand based on your principles; that you are ready to defend that stand or that you are intelligent enough to either spot a good idea or to persuade your critics that yours is the best way.

I have seen little of this on behalf of our Republican politicians. Sure, Cathy Vitale has regular column in Severna Park Voice, a monthly. But her column reads like the minutes of the County Pet Court hearings. And Mrs. Vitale is a practicing lawyer a day-job that probably depends on being as inoffensive as possible to current and potential clients. She is not the only one. There are many highly intelligent conservative thinkers in this County who would rather employ a pen name rather than risk their business or employment by being overtly conservative.

I am encouraged to discover Del. Tony McConkey's column also in the monthly Voice. Mr. McConkey has a bit more leeway with his opinions since has realised that he will never get any favorable press from, well, the press. But, Tony, it's a monthly. Your opposition to the Slots issue was on target, just not on time. And issues like this need to hammered, time after time, two or three times a day if necessary.

And we have to disabuse ourselves of the fantasy that our political campaigns need secrecy in order to score tactical victories. Mike, we don't want to tip our hand; we don't want to offend certain constituencies. Well, if back-to-back defeats doesn't put the lie to this, then I don't know what will.

I think a blog that features a robust debate between and among county Republicans will be successful, for everyone. A failure to engage to public will lead to another defeat.

Sunday, November 09, 2008

Other Stupid Party 'Victories'

We have a lot of ground to cover here. The stupidity of voters in general and Republicans in particular ranges far and wide and I could make it a full-time job listing the examples. I say this knowing full well that on the other side of the Obama yard signs is: For Sale by State. The Democrats are not going to Change. Their actions and rhetoric are completely predictable and thus not worth writing about. So examining Democrats would be similar to spending time examining why children whine and cry.

The same goes for hyperventilating over what the New York Times (The Associated Press, Time, Newsweek, People, The New Republic, The Nation, NPR, et al.) does or doesn't write. It's kind of like writing about the direction from which one is likely to see the sun rise tomorrow. Or about how the price of gasoline is lower now than it was the past summer, when, ever since the first goat was exchanged for a flint spear, the law of supply and demand has predicted this change in price.

Will I be heralded as some kind of economic shaman if I predict that next May the price of a gallon of gasoline will start to increase steadily and peak around late August? Only by those who hesitate to change the channel after hearing "But WAIT! There's MORE!"

So I prefer to write about Republicans. These are the folks who could have made a difference and didn't. They are the ones who, when faced with a field of conservatives, consciously pulled the lever for John McCain. The Who's Who of Stupid Republicans must, however, begin with Newt Gingrich. I nearly passed a cup of coffee through my nose this morning when I saw this headline on the Blogs: NEWT in 2012?

This, to me, is the interesting question. It reveals a festering conundrum in which conservatives find themselves every election cycle. We thinking conservatives never gave John McCain a second thought during the Primary. We gave him half a chance during the General only because we thought there's no way more that 49 percent of American voters are stupid enough to vote for Obama.

Why would Alaskan Republicans vote for GOP embarrassments like Don Young and Ted Stevens? Why do some Republicans think it is a good idea to split the ticket against an incumbent? Ann Coulter has concluded that John Murtha's district in Western PA is dominated by the mentally retarded and Florida by Jewish retirees from Murtha's district. I have asked since last December why Newt Gingrich would stump for Wayne Gilchrest, then go on to propose legislative initiatives that Gilchrest would vote against!

Newt in 2012? One would have thought that Newt's political career sank with every liberal Republican he supported in 2008. He inadvertently let it slip on Fox News that he attended a fundraiser for Rep. Chris Shays of Connecticut. Yeah. Another "loyal" Republican and friend of the environment. Is there a Save the Bay campaign in Connecticut? Well, it does share half the Long Island Sound with New York. I doubt seriously that Chris Shays will be co-sponsoring legislation to allow for oil exploration on the Continental shelf or ANWR or to make it easier to build additional refinery capacity, nuclear power plants and LNG terminals.

But Wait! There's More!

Saturday, November 08, 2008

The Stupid Party Rides Again

MILLERSVILLE, MD - State Sen. Janet Greenip called me on the way home election night to ask whether I might make a slight diversion and "poll-watch" at Anchor Baptist Church. Of course, I said without hesitation, then asked what does a poll-watcher do? Well you get to the poll before they lock the doors and stay until they post the vote totals. I was to get the totals and phone them in to Harris Campaign HQ.

What I saw there in the vote totals filled me with despair, anger, and resignation. I saw clearly that the good Republicans of that precinct had voted overwhelmingly for Andy Harris and for the McCain-Palin ticket. But I was curious to see how these same people voted on my favorite ballot question: SLOTS.

The Good Republicans of that precinct voted overwhelmingly to amend the State Constitution, not to make it legal to gamble in Maryland. I could understand it if Republicans favored legalizing a business enterprise that is legal in other states. But that's not what was on the ballot.

Instead the Republicans voting at the Anchor Baptist Church voted for an amendment to the state constitution making the state government a slot-machine casino franchise business.

This told me everything I needed to know about Republican voters in Anne Arundel County. I have at least suspected for sometime now that Marylanders in general were, if not stupid, then terminally ignorant. If the folks casting ballots for Harris and McCain in the Anchor Baptist Church really believe that the slot machine amendment would "pump $660 million into the state schools" then their condition is more acute than I had suspected. There is zero evidence of this (why 660? why not 650 or 600?) except a slick radio and television PR campaign designed by a PR firm whose members probably couldn't find Maryland on a map of the East Coast.

Mike, you are just overwrought because Harris lost. Maybe. But the bad news this morning served only to move me to post the thoughts formed on election night in that church in Millersville.

So this is what I conclude based on the evidence: that about 50 percent of those folks in Anne Arundel County who registered as Republicans don't have a clue as to why they registered as Republicans. They should be written off or encouraged to switch their Party affiliation to the Democrat. Any future politician who is trying to decide on whether to run for office as a Republicans or as a Democrat should just run as a Democrat. Real Republicans should simply abandon politics in this state. It is a waste of time and money to try to appeal to people whose ignorance is exceeded only by their net worth. They are collectively a hopeless case.

Real smart Republicans should abandon Maryland altogether before the Democrats and the ignorami render the state a social and economic basket case. If you have any liquid assets, they should be shifted to Swiss Bank accounts before the frenzied mob of teacher unionistas an chambers of commerce Democratic boot-lickers come after it.

Me? I'm looking for a nice piece of land in Bedford County, Pa.