Last night was bad. The law passed by the Senate and House really is that horrible.
But it’s the morning after, and your mourning should be over.
The mainstream media and the nutroots will try to demoralize you, and there will be plenty of gloat to go around.
But remember how we got to last night.
November 4, 2008, was the culmination of multiple generations of journalistic and educational malpractice and liberal guilt, malfeasance by Republicans who lost their way while in power, and a mass delusion on par with the tulipomania of 17th century Holland.
On November 5, 2008, did any one of you think that over 16 months later Obama would barely be able to pass a truncated version of his dream of single payer, and that dozens of Democrats would join Republicans in opposition?
As the mainstream media celebrated the permanent Democratic majority in the weeks after the 2008 election, did any of you think that in March 2010 we would be talking about the Democratic majority being in danger?
On January 20, 2009, when Obama took office, and then again in April when Arlen Specter jumped ship, did any one of you think we could hold off Obamacare beyond July?
In August and September, did you think we would make it to the end of the year, and then in early January 2010, did any of you (other than me) think Scott Brown could win and we could prevent a Democratic super-majority?
Your hard work has paid off, even if the end result was not what we wanted. But trust me, without you it would have been much, much worse.
For over a year Obama has not been able to push through other destructive aspects of his agenda, and the clock is running out before the mid-term elections.
The hard work must continue through the November elections because Democrats know they have just a few more months.
So shake off the gloom, get your asses in gear, get over it, and get to work continuing to fight the worst government policies “since the Great Depression.”
We have no other choice.
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Comments
Well said Professor. And well needed words this morning. Now let's get out there and FIGHT back!
Thank you Professor, I, we, needed that.
I have followed your Blog for some time and I enjoy it. I am a Conservative who lives quite near you, in Schenectady.
Thank you for the pep talk. It is what we are getting from all the conservative writings today. While I agree with what you said, I sometimes feel as though the war goes on for us like it did the Japanese. Slowly being pushed back towards the Homeland, offering stiff resistance all the way, but with inevitable hot breath of defeat on our backs. What's the way
SamHenry reporting for duty Sir.
Remember the Alamo? It took all the strength they could muster and we still held out much longer than expected. They've wasted all of their strength while we're just beginning to gather ours. This is NOT the end!
Hey, my last name is Pepper, so I'm all about, "Pep Talks." I too view this as a long term victory for the libertarian-conservative cause, because if Obama care had failed, a lot of the TEA Party people would have declared victory and gone home. With this result – purely partisan support to pass and bipartisan support to block – they will be angrier than ever.
Just look at Stupak's challenger's Facebook page. As of last night, he was getting new Friends at the rate of one every two seconds. Stupak is a political dead man walking now, as are many if not most of the Democrats who voted for this atrocity.
Another plus? These political maneuvers the Democrats pulled out of their hats are now fair game for reforming or repealing anything the Republicans want next time they have a majority (After this fall), like Social Security. Ha!
The problem, as I see it, is that we conservatives are likely to attack the problem superficially. Getting Democrats out of office is a stopgap, not a solution,repealing HCR would simply result in an attack on another front, and even a Constitutional amendment denying the Government the power to regulate health care would be a band-aid on a gangrenous limb.
Our Government has gotten too far away from where we live, and its members have begun to consider themselves an aristocracy. That's what needs to be fixed, otherwise we have no place to stand for a counterattack on individual units of the Progressive forces.
My own remedy comes in three parts:
1) term limits
2) increasing the size of the House
3) eliminating or reducing gerrymandering.
Since I don't think any of that will ever be implemented, I have little hope.
Regards,
Ric
I agree absolutely. Next, we work our rear-ends off to 1)get Conservatives into power. 2) Get this thing or as much of it as possible repealed 3) fight against the Dems using this tactic for any other legislation they may try to ram through before November. Did you all see that Doctor Beneshek who is running against Stupak in Michigan? As soon as Stupak caved, his facebook site took off with friends and promises of donations. Pass the word on this guy, he could easily pull 100K in donations in just a few days. AND, as a bonus, we rid ourselves of the dirty traitor Stupak if he wins.
Sorry, Hucbald, just noticed you posted about Beneshek too. Oh well, never hurts to reinforce! 🙂
Thanks, I do feel better.
Let's get to the ultimate entitlement…an internet accessed pc in every household, disbanded Congress and an electorate that votes on all legislation directly, once a month. Then lobbiests and misguided elected executives would have to pander to millions of us instead of a few hundred.
#slap!!!#
Thanks! I needed that !
Prof and commenters, thank you! Much needed. It's hard to even get past making animalistic noises this morning, especially without saying things that could get us into trouble.
Fight well and fight true, Fellow Patriots!
The roll call vote is here: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2010/roll165.xml.
Stupak the Strong wilted into Stupak the Doormat.
I agree with Prof. Jacobson. If we get depressed now, they will just pass more awful legislation. We have to keep telling Congress that we don't want what Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama want.
In addition, assuming that the SC does not repeal this statute, we have to stay committed – change truly begins this November, and culminates in November 2012. In 2.5 years, Republicans will control the Executive branch, the House and the Senate, and will be able to repeal this latest entitlement program that hurts the average working American.
Conservative theme song for the day: "Don't send me no flowers (I ain't dead yet)" by an unknown and forgotten 1960s band, The Breakers. Thanks for the pep talk, Professor Jacobson. You rock!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dv_lz6VanbQ
"Wars are not won by evacuations."
Yes, we must continue the struggle. But it was a loss, and one that hurts us. If the Dems can ram through a bill as problematic as this one, if they can bribe, cajole, threaten, and browbeat enough of their own on something as unpopular as this, then we need to recognize that opposition will be long and hard.
If ever there was a need and a time for "men of valor," this may be it—not against a foreign foe, but against a domestic opposition which will do whatever it takes to win.
Are the Tea Party movement, the GOP, those who value their freedoms whatever the political stripe ready for this kind of long-term fight?
ric:
The solution is to repeal the 17th Amendment. The root of the problem is money flowing from the states to the Congress without any check. Congress has money to burn (and bribe), while the states are rooting around in the sofa cushions looking for quarters. Make Senators answerable to their state legislatures again and the Senate will approach a host of issues differently, including the budget and qualifications of Supreme Court nominees.
Repeal the 17th Amendment, and in the repealing amendment make it clear that the States, and only the States, set the rules for both the election and recall of Senators. The Founders intended that the Senate represent the States, not the people. It's not a left or right, liberal or conservative thing – sheer naked self interest prevails. The states in the most trouble, like California, New York, and Michigan, should be the most eager to hang on to their money and not see it hoovered up to DC. and can make common cause with Oklahoma, Texas and others who are already on the state sovereignty, 10th Amendment bandwagon. Repeal of the 17th will open the door to dealing with other problems, like the 16th.
OK, this is not as the headlines read: "Landmark Health Care Legislation." For all we know this will be "Landmine Health Care Legislation."
You just can't throw a car together and take it out for a ride. You can't throw a bunch of ingredients in a bowl and bake a cake. This is a pile of dirty laundry waiting for a washing machine to take it for a spin. Just love that centrifugal force. Stand by. Over.
Thanks for the reminder that this isn't a game where the outcome is final. Things change constantly. Basically, things could be worse.
I don't think we will be able to repeal this one. Obama has been smart enough to spread the entitlements around to large, growing sectors of our population (future voters), to children and to …wait a minute.
As an older American on Medicare – here is our chance. The Democrats have hit on the weakest link of the population after children. I will be watching to see just HOW and WHERE they will reform this medical area.
As a retiree of a large pharma company with free pills in any therapeutic area they have that I need and backup BlueCross/BlueShield I can tell you that their official stance is to throw us all to the mercy of whatever medical assistance the government can provide.
If the Administration was lame enough to think this would not put insurance companies under and more people out of work, think again.
SamHenry will keep a bag packed and an air ticket handy toward the day a DOG can go under the dome on the hill, sit in the rotunda and bark like hell.
Oh, and all of you oldies out there – better head over to your local medical equipment store and load up now. Let's bankrupt them before they can bankrupt us. LOL
But remember how we got to last night.
Karl Rove
GWB
need I say more?
Professor,
Thank you for the pep talk – i went back home to India 6 weeks ago -and even though i am not going to be affected by it directly, I was devastated by what happened yesterday.
I have never had such utter contempt for ANY politician than i do for Obama, right now – and that's pretty amazing given the fact that politicians in India are routinely disgusting. But Obama, Pelosi and Reid make them all look like angels in comparision.
Good luck to all those who want to take the Republic back.
Not to be all negative, but this seems like short-term political thinking. Yes, Congress' bad numbers virtually assure a massive pickup by Republicans in November, but there is little chance that they will be able to undo the damage that has just been done in a meaningful way.
Continuing to play these political games is akin to boasting about who gets control of the matches after one party sets the house on fire.
I've noticed that, over the past eight years, my level of participation in the political process — whatever that means anymore — has been on the rise. Last night I reached my "activist" tipping point. To borrow a phrase from my grandchild, "it's on like Donkey Kong." Attending Tea Parties showed my support; now I am committing myself to actively getting out there and working to turn this country back to its foundational roots. I am embarrassed it took last night to mobilize me to this degree. But, better late than never at all.
Thanks for the pep talk — it's appreciated this morning.
If there's a silver lining in this, it's that Obamacare represents a sufficiently large step toward a completely state-run society to cause the average person to take notice and recoil in horror. Another ten or twenty years of merely creeping socialism might not have ever stirred the kind of citizen's revolt that is now taking root. The Dems were also helpful in putting their anti-democratic impulses on full display throughout this debacle.
I think it's hilarious that Obama thinks he can go out on a public relations "road trip" and get people to support the new "reforms". The Dems are cackling that the Republicans have "overshot" the runway in demoninzing healthcare and that "we've been backed into a corner". Find out where he's going and show up in protest!! Let all of them know on Capitol Hill that the backlash is building. Educate your friends on Facebook, Twitter whatever about the oppressive elements in this bill. Believe, me I've already started posting comments, articles — let em think I'm crazy, but if I can turn just ONE mind.
More important than the 2010 elections (which are crucial) is winning back the White House in 2012 with a CONSERVATIVE (Palin, Santorum, Huckabee) candidate! If we nominate a wishy-washy moderate (Romney aka "Romneycare", Pawlenty, etc) we lose again. Plain and simple!
I completely agree with your pep talk post.
The energy created in the last year must not stop. It must merely be redirected. Didn't this glorious country suffer more battle losses than wins during its very beginning, the Revolutionary War?
As I look forward, I'm confident Obama's approval ratings have bottomed…at least through the next 12-18 months.
We're going to start seeing job growth, and every Democrat will be in front of cameras talking about how well the stimulus and Democratic policies are working for average Americans (even though it is simply the business cycle FINALLY turning).
Some of us are deeply committed to freedom and liberty. Obama represents big government socialism, and I vehemently despise EVERYTHING he represents. But I don't think the average American feels the same way. I think that as long as jobs are being created in the short term, many of them will look beyond this unprecedneted government power grab and future intrusion into our lives, and believe the lies spewed by the Democrats that it is their policies that are responsible for the job growth and give Obama a pass.
Then when Obama starts to bring the troops home from Iraq in August, he'll get another bump in his approval ratings as he takes full credit for ending the war, even though both he and Biden wanted to surrender and both opposed the surge as senators. I anticipate at that time, he will also suddenly be concerned about his out of control spending, and announce a gigunda reduction in military spending (which will make the world infinately less safe, but that's a minor detail). His elevated approval ratings from the job growth and bringing troops home means the GOP will not have the blowout many people currently anticipate in November.
So if the job growth contnues into 2011, as I believe it will, fewer people will be sucking the government tit, which will reduce the deficit in and of itself. Throw in the huge cut in the military budget that I anticipate, and the deficit starts to materially shrink by mid 2011. By then, the MSM will be slobbering again about his messianic characteristics and his approval ratings will really be on the move higher and his chances for re-election in 2012 are high.
I hate this roadmap but it's what I see ahead.
Don't believe the Democrats that sided with the Republicans. We need to vote out every Democrat. I encourage all to ignore the morals or other side issues of pending candidates. At this point the only thing that matters is whether they are socialist or not. Set aside emotional issues such as abortion, that is what the Democrats are using to divide the conservative vote.
One of my senators is Vitter. I will personally pay his way to any house of ill repute in order to keep his conservative vote in play. His other challengers are definitely Obama's men.
People, don't be dispirited. Think for a minute how you would have felt waking up on the morning of December 7, 1941. THAT was tough. And we beat it. WE CAN join together and stop the evil that is Liberalism. START NOW! Donate to Conservative candidates. Demand they repeal this horror. STAND STRONG AND NEVER EVER EVER GIVE UP!
"That's what elections are for," as the Bamster said. Now that he's exposed himself for what he truly is and not the lies of post partisan, racial, moderate, etc., it's time to fight for the Republic and send a message of permanence to Washington in November.
The pain has to be so bad as to cripple Obama and turn the Democrat Party on its ear.
That's the only way now. They pulled off the fools gambit. Now it's our turn.
You might be correct in assuming that his approval ratings will go up, but nothing this President has done has bouyed his popularity. He and the Dems are simply too radically left. It's also a huge gambit that they took figuring the American people will forget about the disgusting tactics that went on to cobble this bill together. Medicare and Medicaid cuts will enrage seniors and can't be put off until 2014. People HATE this bill and the Prez and the Speaker for pulling this off against their wishes. I don't believe that there will be an upturn in their fortunes. The disasters, both at home and abroad will torpedo the dems for a long time.
Quoted from and Linked to at:
DEFCON 1: 'What Comes Next? We Fight.'
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It's Time To ROC 'N' ROLL:
Restore Our Constitution & Restore Our Lost Liberties
WOLVERINES!
Is there a good reason why the thought process of this post (and, incidentally, the Republican strategy) is simply to kill, kill, kill the bill? How about an alternative? Why the hesitation to make a useful proposal that will fix the problem? It's easier to bash something than to provide a constructive answer of your own.
The final bill is not as radical as Republicans say it is–so why the unified opposition? The public will notice the lack of constructiveness from them during the course of this debate. Dems will surely pay for their own mistakes in November, but Republicans certainly are not off the hook. Some cooperation would have led to a better bill.