Do make Grand New Party part of your reading list for the near future (as previewed earlier). While not perfect, it is a thought provoking read.
The authors lay out a compelling case of how and why working class - or less affluent middle class - voters have become the true swing bloc in the last seventy-five years of our politics. The why is important, because it leaves these voters leaning Republican on a number of issues but not in the full embrace of any of the major camps of the party's coalition: social, economic, and national security conservatives.
The book is fair to all sides, with both Republicans and Democrats coming in for critique. George W. Bush takes some serious heat, but also receives much more credit in key respects than many critics on either side of the aisle are likely to grant for quite some time.
Agree or disagree - and even friend of the author Matthew Continetti finds some key points of differentiation - it is worth the read. The policy proposals in the latter part of the book are not exceptionally well thought out and there is much for small government conservatives in particular to pushback against.
Nonetheless, the core of the book's message is spot on: Republicans need to take care to craft an agenda that understands, respects, and meets the political needs of working class voters. Candidates in competitive races failing to do so will not like the result.
**Sidenote: Related to working class voters, Jim Webb's "Born Fighting" was one of my favorite reads in quite some time. I had the chance to plow through it on my recently completed family vacation and have to say that while I disagree with Webb on much politically, it is a very good thing that a man of his character and fortitude is part of the U.S. Senate.
Posted by Eric Earling at July 09, 2008 08:17 AM | Email ThisThe truth is that Obama will be elected. If not him, someone as radical if not worse.
What do I mean? Look at who the Democrats have chosen over the years for their presidential nominee. Win or lose, the candidate the next time around has gotten progressively (pun intended) worse. Each Presidential election the Democratic candidate is more Leftist than the election before.
So say somehow McCain does win this year. In four years from now the candidate the Democrat will put up might not be Obama but he or she will be as liberal as Obama if not more liberal.
And by that time the economy will be so bad that the Democrats could put up Lenin and he would win.
So, the only question is would it be better to go through the pain of such a Presidency as Obama's sooner, or later?
Given that whichever party wins the Presidency will be forever tarnished by the bad economy that is ahead of us, I would say it is better that Obama wins so we can gather our strength and focus on 2012 which is sure to be a Republican year.
It will be a Republican year if Obama wins this year, otherwise all that you fear about Obama will come to pass. It will just come to past four years later.
Posted by: Theodore on July 9, 2008 08:31 AMFunny then that CNN/Money recently came out with a top 100 list of the best places for news businesses to launch - when also factoring in quality of life.
#1 on the list? Bellevue, WA! Three other Washington cities on the list too (Bellingham [27], Olympia [40], Spokane [77]) - with notes about the attractiveness of business tax situations for startups.
That's 4 of the top 100 including NUMBER 1 -- not too shabby for the horrible business climate folks here claim all the time!
Link: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fsb/bestplaces/2008/top100/index.html
Posted by: Best for Business on July 9, 2008 09:12 AMYou guys don't drive do you.
PS. How do you two wizards thinks stuff get's to stores along with shoppers.
Dude, grow up. That type of talk is so dang old and very tiresome.
Speak like an adult.
Posted by: Army Medic/Vet on July 9, 2008 09:54 AM
According to a CNBC study, Washington ranks 22 (middle of the pack) overall and scores in the bottom third for "Cost of Doing Business" and "Business Friendliness" (http://www.cnbc.com/id/19552467). A recent survey of CEOs ranked Washington #30 for doing business(http://www.durhamchamber.org/resources/pdfs/beststatebusiness01222008.pdf). Not ideal by any standards...
According to a CNBC study, Washington ranks 22 (middle of the pack) overall and scores in the bottom third for "Cost of Doing Business" and "Business Friendliness" (http://www.cnbc.com/id/19552467). A recent survey of CEOs ranked Washington #30 for doing business(http://www.durhamchamber.org/resources/pdfs/beststatebusiness01222008.pdf). Not ideal by any standards...
Service and high-tech companies may consider Washington because of availability of qualified employees. However this one time strong advantage is quickly dwindling in face of taxes, cost of living and other economic factors.
In spite of the many natural resources available in Washington, businesses rather locate in other areas of the country or in other countries.
The continued increases in taxes and regulations on all levels of government assure that Washington will continue mediocre performance in the manufacturing sectors.
Posted by: Snuffy on July 9, 2008 10:56 AMIf McCain wins this year it would show that we are on the wrong beat as McCain, Republicans, and even ironically conservatism will be blamed for how bad the economy will be in four years.
I rather Obama, Democrats, and liberals be blamed for the bad economy and then we can elect a true conservative in 2012 instead of losing that election due to McCain's liberalism (which for those who really aren't sophisticated and helped along by the media will be will be seen as conservatism failing).
Oh, I would also really like the Republicans to change their position on so called "Free Trade", you know NAFTA and the like. it is not really free trade and it is really harming working class - or less affluent middle class Americans.
Posted by: Theodore on July 9, 2008 11:07 AMWhat do I mean? There is an old allegory about how to boil a frog. It is said that if you drop a frog into a pot of boiling water it will immediately jump out.
But if you drop a frog in water that is slightly warm and turn up the heat gradually then the frog just sits there and lets itself be boiled alive, without attempting to jump out of the pot, without even knowing that it is indeed being boiled alive.
This allegory has been applied again, and again regarding the American people's reaction to liberalism/socialism. And it is pretty clear who is who if you apply this allegory to this year's election.
So let's vote for the candidate who will make the frog jump out of the pot so we can have a true conservative in 2012. Otherwise we will all get gradually boiled alive.
After all it took Carter to get us Reagan.
Posted by: Steve on July 9, 2008 11:17 AMGovernment employees presumably mean teachers and doctors too. If Seattle didn't have Harborview, and the UW, would the ratio be less?
Is there a higher government employment rate in Seattle because of this concentration of institutions that serve a wider geography?
I wonder if Pullman has an even higher rate of government employees to resident ratio...
Posted by: BA on July 9, 2008 12:43 PMNo thanks, this country couldn't survive two years of his social spending, even with a 9% approval rating in Congress.
Smart Move, idiot.
Posted by: Theodore on July 9, 2008 01:57 PMBut Conservatives WILL NOT survive Four Years of Juan McCain.
I'd consider Carter a conservative compared to Juan McCain.
Posted by: Steve on July 9, 2008 02:01 PMAnd he lost FIVE JETS in his time in the military.
McCain III lost jet number one in 1958 when he plunged into Corpus Christi Bay while practicing landings. He was knocked unconscious by the impact coming to as the plane settled to the bottom.
McCain's second crash occurred while he was deployed in the Mediterranean. "Flying too low over the Iberian Peninsula," Timberg wrote, "he took out some power lines [reminiscent of the 1998 incident in which a Marine Corps jet sliced through the cables of a gondola at an Italian ski resort, killing 20] which led to a spate of newspaper stories in which he was predictably identified as the son of an admiral."
McCain's third crash three occurred when he was returning from flying a Navy trainer solo to Philadelphia for an Army-Navy football game.
McCain's fourth aircraft loss occurred July 29, 1967, soon after he was assigned to the USS Forrestal as an A-4 Skyhawk pilot. While seated in the cockpit of his aircraft waiting his turn for takeoff, an accidently fired rocket slammed into McCain's plane. He escaped from the burning aircraft, but the explosions that followed killed 134 sailors, destroyed at least 20 aircraft, and threatened to sink the ship.
McCain's fifth loss happened during his 23rd mission over North Vietnam on Oct. 26, 1967, when McCain's A-4 Skyhawk was shot down by a surface-to-air missile. McCain ejected from the plane breaking both arms and a leg in the process and subsequently parachuted into Truc Bach Lake near Hanoi.
In November of 1991, when Tracy Usry, the former chief investigator of the Minority Staff of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, testified before the Select Committee, he revealed that the Soviets interrogated U.S. prisoners of war in Vietnam. Sen. McCain became outraged interrupting Usry several times, arguing that "none of the returned U.S. prisoners of war released by Vietnam were ever interrogated by the Soviets." However, this was simply not true and Sen. McCain knows that from firsthand experience.
Col. Bui Tin, a former Senior Colonel in the North Vietnamese Army, testified on the same day, but after Usry, that because of his high position in the Communist Party during the war, he had the authority to "read all documents and secret telegrams from the politburo" pertaining to American prisoners of war. He said that not only did the Soviets interrogate some American prisoners of war, but that they treated the Americans very badly.
Bui Tin, who indicated he favored a normalization of relations between the U.S. and Vietnam, also offered the committee his records concerning his personal interrogations of American POWs.
A WARM HUG FOR THE ENEMY
Sen. McCain stunned onlookers at the hearing when he moved forward to the witness table and warmly embraced Bui Tin as if he was a long, lost brother.
"Was that hug for Bui Tin, a Vietnamese official responsible for the torture of some American prisoners of war, a message 'please don't give them my records?'"
Posted by: Ken on July 9, 2008 02:14 PM"McCain has failed to mention in public what he has confided to another U.S. prisoner privately, that since the Vietnamese felt they had in their hands such a "special prisoner", a propaganda bonanza, a Soviet surgeon was called in to treat him.
Posted by: Ken on July 9, 2008 02:21 PMSo I'm Voting for McCain!
Posted by: gs on July 9, 2008 03:07 PMThe real number is for every 43.8 Seattle residents there is one Seattle government employee. Harborview is a county hospital and doesn't count. The U of W is a state organization and doesn't count either. Seattle Public School teachers, I'm not 100% sure but let's assume they are Seattle hires. Seattle hires are expanding so the ratio will be hitting 42 or 41 residents per employee pretty soon if not smaller.
For comparison, Redmond is 100 to 1, Indianapolis maintains a ratio of about 203-to-1, Detroit is 48 to 1. So I guess Seattle residents get to choose: Be like Redmond and Indianapolis or . . . Detroit. I've said many times that Seattle is heading the way of Detroit and this is just one measure.
Republicans have to get away from the $35000 a plate dinner and start over with the $35 a plate bar-b-q !!!
Posted by: John Bailo on July 9, 2008 07:53 PMThese are certainly interesting statistics, but I wonder if they're apples to apples. My own city here has a separate fire district (as I believe Redmond does) which places firefighters outside the government employment statistic - whereas Seattle's fire department is part of the City government.
I think an even finer point is probably necessary here.
Posted by: BA on July 10, 2008 07:08 AM