 |
|
December 2, 2014
The Kosher Gourmet by Megan Gordon With its colorful cache of purples and oranges and reds, COLLARD GREEN SLAW is a marvelous mood booster --- not to mention just downright delish
April 18, 2014
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Clarifying one of the greatest philosophical conundrums in theology
John Ericson: Trying hard to be 'positive' but never succeeding? Blame Your Brain
The Kosher Gourmet by Julie Rothman Almondy, flourless torta del re (Italian king's cake), has royal roots, is simple to make, . . . but devour it because it's simply delicious
April 14, 2014
Rabbi Dr Naftali Brawer: Passover frees us from the tyranny of time
Eric Schulzke: First degree: How America really recovered from a murder epidemic
Georgia Lee: When love is not enough: Teaching your kids about the realities of adult relationships
Gordon Pape: How you can tell if your financial adviser is setting you up for potential ruin
Dana Dovey: Up to 500,000 people die each year from hepatitis C-related liver disease. New Treatment Has Over 90% Success Rate
Justin Caba: Eating Watermelon Can Help Control High Blood Pressure
April 11, 2014
Rabbi Hillel Goldberg: Silence is much more than golden
Susan Swann: How to value a child for who he is, not just what he does
Susan Scutti: A Simple Blood Test Might Soon Diagnose Cancer
Chris Weller: Have A Slow Metabolism? Let Science Speed It Up For You
April 9, 2014
Jonathan Tobin: Why Did Kerry Lie About Israeli Blame?
Samuel G. Freedman: A resolution 70 years later for a father's unsettling legacy of ashes from Dachau
Jessica Ivins: A resolution 70 years later for a father's unsettling legacy of ashes from Dachau
Matthew Mientka: How Beans, Peas, And Chickpeas Cleanse Bad Cholesterol and Lowers Risk of Heart Disease
April 8, 2014
Dana Dovey: Coffee Drinkers Rejoice! Your Cup Of Joe Can Prevent Death From Liver Disease
Chris Weller: Electric 'Thinking Cap' Puts Your Brain Power Into High Gear
April 4, 2014
Amy Peterson: A life of love: How to build lasting relationships with your children
John Ericson: Older Women: Save Your Heart, Prevent Stroke Don't Drink Diet
John Ericson: Why 50 million Americans will still have spring allergies after taking meds
Sarah Boesveld: Teacher keeps promise to mail thousands of former students letters written by their past selves
April 2, 2014
Dan Barry: Should South Carolina Jews be forced to maintain this chimney built by Germans serving the Nazis?
Frank Clayton: Get happy: 20 scientifically proven happiness activities
Susan Scutti: It's Genetic! Obesity and the 'Carb Breakdown' Gene
|
| |
Jewish World Review
August 1, 2013 / 25 Menachem-Av, 5773
The problem with conservatives
By
Michael Reagan
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Rush Limbaugh fielded a phone call the other day that even he couldn't answer.
"What's happened to the country I live in?" asked the frustrated woman. "And what do we do now?"
The Great Rushbo was understandably flustered.
Coming up with a cure for what ails America after five years of Barack Obama and decades of bigger and stupider and meaner Big Government in D.C. is not something you can do off the top of your head.
The woman's question reminded me of a question Newt Gingrich posed to me about five years ago.
"Mike," he said, "how is it that our side can elect great conservatives like your father and Margaret Thatcher but then after we win those elections everything seems to fall apart?"
What Newt said about conservatives squandering their biggest victories is true. My father's glorious conservative revolution of 1980 is largely undone today, washed away by 30 years of higher taxes, more regulations and a weak-kneed foreign policy.
Even Newt himself is an example of the problem conservatives have had in not being able to take full advantage of their greatest victories.
He was able to foment his own mini-revolution in Congress in 1994. For a while, as Republicans took control of the House for the first time since the Korean War, it looked like half a century of executive power and federal over-reach were finally going to be checked, if not rolled back. But then Newt's historic and inspiring conservative resurrection fizzled.
The 54 new Republican rebels who helped Newt "take over" the House, as the liberal media liked to say, forced Clinton to reform welfare and kept federal spending in check -- at least until Congress let Bush II and Obama open the floodgates and drown us and our grandchildren's grandchildren in debt.
I think I've figured out what the problem with conservatives is. We don't understand the rules of the political power game. We think after we win big elections or defeat the Soviet Union, we can go home and savor our victories.
We think after we win our big fights, it's the end of the game. Welfare reform passes -- game over. Berlin Wall falls -- game over. We won, you lost -- game over.
But liberals and progressives understand the power game. They know it never really ends. What conservatives see as a victorious ending -- the takeover of the House or the election of George W. Bush -- liberals and progressives see as just the beginning.
The other side never stops fighting. When Scott Brown won that special U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts to fill Ted Kennedy's seat in 2010, conservatives were dancing in the streets because they had won their 60th vote to stop Obamacare.
Conservatives thought Brown's shocking win was the end and went home. The liberals knew it was just the beginning of a tough fight. What did we get in the end? Obamacare. Plus U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
If we conservatives want to win the day and prevent liberals and progressives from undermining our way of life, sinking us in a sea of debt and turning us into a socialist Banana Republic, we have to never stop fighting.
Evil never sleeps. Nor do its practitioners in Washington and in our state capitals. If we want good to triumph over evil in the long run, we have to learn to see our big victories not as the end of the fight but the beginning of the rest of the battle.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan, a political consultant, and the author of "The New Reagan Revolution" (St. Martin's Press). He is the founder of the email service reagan.com and president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation.
Comment by clicking here.
Previously:
• 07/25/13 Time for black leaders to actually lead
• 07/18/13 All wrong in the Zimmerman Soap Opera
• 07/11/13 Preying for race riots
• 07/04/13 A Nation of Dummies
• 06/27/13 BO, spare us the BS
• 06/20/13 The mess that is Mexico: What few have the cojones to say
• 06/13/13 Obama, the role model. Seriously
• 06/06/13 Don't whine about the IRS, kill it!
© 2013, Michael Reagan
|
|
Columnists
Toons
Lifestyles
|
