The Business of Losing an Election

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Wednesday November 14, 2012 · 11:21 AM PST

2012/11/14 · 11:21

The most repudiated idea this election cycle is that money can buy quality product.

Romney’s loss last week has opened a peek into the Republican mentality and offered a great study of how they think and operate. Republicans approach elections like a business transaction. Their party operatives and their billionaire donors outsourced the campaign to vendors (Super PACs, unscrupulous pollsters). Donors with money met smooth-talking consultants with promises and sealed their own fate.

KatyaG

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Monday February 13, 2012 · 7:38 AM PST

2012/02/13 · 07:38

The average conservative head is a complete mess these days. But it’s a creative mess. They have learned so many new words and names and concepts they haven’t heard of before and are so eager to share their newfound knowledge that they remind me of a teenager who has just discovered Nietzsche. They walk around dispensing words like socialism, Marxism, Objectivism, anti-colonialism, quoting Friedrich Hayek, Ayn Rand, Milton Friedman and even Saul Alinsky. But I commend them for the mere curiosity and interest in learning new things. Why shouldn’t we celebrate when the unassuming inhabitants of Midwestern and Southern towns are now conversing in terms that you would otherwise hear at a preppy College Libertarians soiree?

KatyaG

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Saturday January 28, 2012 · 12:10 PM PST

2012/01/28 · 12:10

(X-posted to ACT NOW)

“Seek first to understand, then be understood.”
-Anonymous

Understanding Wall Street mentality is a bit like understanding military mentality. There’s something utterly profound when brothers in arms pull together in the heat of battle and persevere. Wall Street fancies itself to be like the military. The place is rich soil for military quotes and references and “war stories”. Making money in adverse conditions is viewed as an act of valor, a display of incredible courage. Many in a decision-making position have “killed” or “been killed” at least once.

KatyaG

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Saturday January 14, 2012 · 4:04 PM PST

2012/01/14 · 16:04

(X-posted to ACT NOW)

It is possible, although decreasingly so in American politics, to admire, if disagree with, your political opponents. I keep a dwindling collection of conservatives, who are not preoccupied with vengeance, destruction, pledges and sexual politics. I call them "thinking conservatives" and perhaps the matters where we disagree would come down to economics and foreign policy. David Frum is on that list. So is David Brooks. William Buckley, the lucid founder of conservative magazine National Review, whose son Christopher Buckley famously left his father's venue and voted for Obama in 2008, was a pleasure to read before he passed away, if not for agreement but for his deft command of English. I can hardly imagine a current day conservative publicly criticizing Ayn Rand, as well as denounce the John Birch Society as "far removed from common sense". Who does the Right have now to carry the torch -- Rush Limbaugh? Charles Krauthammer? It's beyond embarrassing!

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The Business of Losing an Election

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Honest Conservatives