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.
As Bev Perdue's first year in office comes to a close there's really nothing positive that can be gleaned from her poll numbers.Her approval rating is mired in the 20s, as it has been for most of the second half of 2009, and voters in the state don't think she's been improving her performance or that it will get any better in 2010.Perdue […]
Doug Clark says the problem with convicted murderers being released isn’t lenient judges, “it’s that back in the more liberal 1970s, legislators carved huge loopholes in sentencing laws.” Sounded so good in the ’70s, didn’t it? Today we have the Racial Justice Act, passed by a General Assembly that any thought given to the consequences down the road. We see […]
As anyone who pays attention to polling already knows, Public Policy Polling in Raleigh is regarded as a Democratic institution, doing a lot of work for Democrats. But they've also noticed that PPP doesn't pull punches for Democrats, either. Case in point: Gov. Bev Perdue, a Democrat and first woman to be elected either lieutenant governor (serving […]
Renee Ellmers says fear is preventing an economic recovery.Ellmers, 45, is seeking the Republican nomination to challenge U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge, a Lillington Democrat. "I'm running for Congress because I'm a mom and I'm very afraid of where our country is going and where the current administration in Washington is taking us," said […]
Secretary of State Elaine Marshall has picked up the endorsement of two national women's organization's in her bid to win the May Democratic Senate primary. She has been endorsed by the National Organization for Women and the Women's Campaign Forum, Rob Christensen reports. "We are excited about Secretary Marshall's campaign for the […]
In this week’s edition of “Monday numbers” Chris Fitzsimon looks at the state budget. The numbers emphasize the need for legislative action; it’s time to stop talking about reforms and start modernizing the state’s revenue system. When it comes to state budget debates, politicians stakeout their various positions with regard to our public education system. C […]
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