Here is a question that a friend of mine who happens to be an African-American in his 20s sent me today:
“Jeff. I know that you’re a conservative and that’s cool. I like you and you have the right to be apart of any party that you want. With that being said, I would like to know your thoughts on the healthcare opposition rally that Michele Bachman and and House GOP leader John Boehner led on the capitol building the other day. Do you think that the national GOP is becoming a party of hate and bigotry?”
Lenny McAllister responds to YRNF Chair-candidate Audra Shay
Two Republicans speak out against racist rhetoric in the campaign for National YR chair. Both happen to be from North Carolina, and both happen to be black.
Both happen to be 100 percent correct.
I’ve not paid close attention to the matter, but I know Kyle Suggs and trust his perspective on the incident:
I joined the Republican Party because I believe fully in its core values and not because I was pandered to. Yet, I have brought many blacks into our party because they, in part, TRUSTED me when I told them that the party is different from the one they were brought up learning about. Now the actions by Mrs. Shay (and the like) do nothing more but to undermine this already difficult and challenging effort.
When Linda Daves announced she would not seek reelection as state party chair, there was some mention of possible candidates to replace her. Among the names mentioned was Chad Adams, who I knew through his work with the Center for Local Innovation.
Among all the candidates listed at the time, I was elated to hear that Adams was considering running for the spot. Here in Rockingham County we have a long entrenched Democratic establishment that controls every municipal board, the school board and the county commissioners. When I first moved to the area in 2002 there was a small group of conservative activist who were focused on reducing the size of the county budget. I knew a few of the men involved and had heard them speak highly of the institutions that had helped them in their fight, namely, Citizens for a Sound Economy and the John Locke Foundation. Read the rest of this entry »
A smart right-populism and a smart libertarianism have a lot of disagreements, but a lot to talk about as well. And the whole idea of a libertarianism that engages with the welfare state as it actually exists, and seeks revolutions within the form that enhance liberty and opportunity, is roughly what I want to see from the American center-right at the moment – which makes me loath to see people who have ideas along similar lines fleeing into the center-left.
Friendly disagreement on positive principles meant genuine and healthy
diversity and freedom of discussion within right-wing circles. As Thomas
Fleming noted with astonishment when researching the Old Right, there
was no party line, and there was no organ or central GHQ that excommunicated
“unrespectable” members. There was a wide spectrum of positive
views: ranging from pure libertarian decentralization to Hamilitonian
reliance on strong government within rigid limits to various wings of
monarchists. And in all this diversity and range of discourse, no one would
react in shock and horror to any “extreme” views—so long as the “extremism”
did not mean selling out the fight against the New Deal. There was also
a great deal of disagreement on specific policies that had been open questions
in the Old, pre-New Deal, Republic: tariffs vs. free trade; immigration
restrictions vs. open borders; and what constitutes a military or foreign
policy truly consistent with American national interests.
—Murray Rothbard, “Life in the Old Right”
What the Republican Party needs, above all, is a generation of politicians who can fill the “center-right” space currently occupied by time-servers like Arlen Specter and Susan Collins with a politics that’s oriented around policy, rather than process. It needs a reform caucus that’s actually interested in reform (as opposed to deal-cutting), and that’s populated with politicians who have tried something new in difficult political terrains, and proven that it might work.
In what has to be seen as a somewhat bizarre and highly questionable decision, the NC DOT has decided to continue with its plans to expand a Winston-Salem road that leads to the soon to be empty Dell manufacturing plant. From today’s W-S Journal: Even though Dell said earlier this month that it will close the plant early next year, DOT officials say they ar […]
I've been talking ad nauseam perhaps about the fact that very few Obama voters are leaving the Democratic fold but that the party's main problem right now is one of engagement and motivation.Here's a perfect example from the national generic Congressional numbers we're releasing tomorrow:Only 6% of Obama voters say they plan to vote Repub […]
UNCC professor and JLF traffic guru David Hartgen makes an appearance in this Winston-Salem Journal article on NCDOT’s plan to go ahead and widen Union Cross Road even though the Dell factory will….well, you know the story.
Political analyst and consultant John Davis always has an interesting take on North Carolina politics. Davis cut his political eyeteeth in Mississippi before settling in this state, and his savvy analysis of state legislative and other races has always brimmed with insight. Davis took note the other day that fromer Raleigh mayor Tom Fetzer, a longtime bachel […]
John Hood points out an analysis that looks at how Obamacare would affect the state of North Carolina. Because it would expand the rolls of those qualifying for assistance, North Carolina Medicaid costs would increase 44%. That does not augur well in terms of what our taxes will need to be in our state.Meanwhile, AT reports that the Baucus bill is running […]
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