Washington Times: U.S. Senator Rand Paul: 'Ron Paul Revolution: GOP’s Last Best Hope, How To Save The GOP'

Source:The Washington Times- U.S. Representative Ron Paul (Libertarian, Texas) is retiring from the House, at the end of this Congress.

"Some argue that Ron Paul was never relevant, that he was simply a gadfly who never accomplished anything legislatively. Others, myself included, argue that maybe, just maybe, the Ron Paul Revolution is the last best hope for saving the GOP from oblivion.

As I walk through airports, ride in taxis and meet people in large cities — people of color, working-class people, people with tattoos, people in overalls, people with piercings and even, at times, people in suits — I am amazed at the diversity of folks who come up and say how much they admire Ron Paul.

At rallies around the country, from the liberal bastion of Berkeley, Calif., where 8,000 students came to an event, to Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University, kids from all over the political spectrum came to listen to Ron Paul." 

The naysayers will point out: “He didn’t even win a primary.” This is true, but when polled directly against President Obama, Ron Paul ran neck-and-neck with an interesting demographic. In the heat of the campaign, a Feb. 28 Rasmussen poll showed him leading Mr. Obama, winning the independent vote, taking a significant part of the Democratic vote and losing a significant part of the Republican vote. He truly attracted voters across the political divide from both parties and from independents.

His colleagues in Congress would ask with envy, “How do you raise so much money from the youth? From the Internet?” The truth was much more revealing. College students, welders, carpenters, maids, blacks, whites and Hispanics latched onto Ron Paul’s unique message of fiscal conservatism, personal privacy and liberty and a less bellicose foreign policy, one of taking care of things at home before sending our soldiers and our money abroad. It is and was the message that attracted the youth, the message that combined the fiscal conservatism and limited constitutional government of Republicans and a more restrained foreign policy sometimes exhibited by Democrats." 

You can read the rest of Senator Rand Paul's column, at The Washington Times

Seth Mandel: 'What Mitt Romney Calls “Gifts,” Voters Call Solutions'

Source:Commentary Magazine- columnist Seth Mandel.

"Obama reelection campaign’s impressive turnout and get-out-the-vote strategy took the president’s Republican opponents by surprise. But it appears to also be teaching Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan an incomplete, if not totally wrong, lesson about their loss to President Obama. Earlier this week, Ryan told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that “urban” turnout was key [...]/p" 

From Commentary Magazine

Right Coast: 'A Changing America'

"Our blog founder wrote this , recently, only to be met with Obama voters crying that it's not fair or right to call them stupid. Of course t...

From Right Coast

Governor Bobby Jindal: 'End 'Dumbed-Down Conservatism'

Source:POLITICO- Governor Bobby Jindal (Republican, Louisiana)

"Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal on Monday called on Republicans to “stop being the stupid party” and make a concerted effort to reach a broader swath of voters with an inclusive economic message that pre-empts efforts to caricature the GOP as the party of the rich.

In his first interview since his party’s electoral thumping last week, Jindal urged Republicans to both reject anti-intellectualism and embrace a populist-tinged reform approach that he said would mitigate what exit polls show was one of President Barack Obama’s most effective lines of attack against Mitt Romney. 

“We’ve got to make sure that we are not the party of big business, big banks, big Wall Street bailouts, big corporate loopholes, big anything,” Jindal told POLITICO in a 45-minute telephone interview. “We cannot be, we must not be, the party that simply protects the rich so they get to keep their toys.”

He was just as blunt on how the GOP should speak to voters, criticizing his party for offending and speaking down to much of the electorate.

“It is no secret we had a number of Republicans damage our brand this year with offensive, bizarre comments — enough of that,” Jindal said. “It’s not going to be the last time anyone says something stupid within our party, but it can’t be tolerated within our party. We’ve also had enough of this dumbed-down conservatism. We need to stop being simplistic, we need to trust the intelligence of the American people and we need to stop insulting the intelligence of the voters.” 

From POLITICO

At least from what I read from Jonathan Martin's piece at POLITICO, sounds like what Governor Jindal is talking when he says that the Republican Party shouldn't be the, "stupid party" he means that they shouldn't be or just be the party of the rich and big business. Then apparently Governor Jindal made references to anti-intellectualism and science as well. 

But if you want to look at the modern Republican Party, they're essentially a right-wing, populist, Protestant-Anglo-Saxon, blue-collar, rural and southern political party. With a lot of these folks looking down at people from big cities and metros, who not just have college educations, but multiples degrees, from multiple schools. They see the modern America, the diverse America, (I would argue the real America) as a threat to their way of life and culture. 

Not every Republican obviously is an Anglo-Saxon-Protestant-fundamentalist, from either the deep south or from a very small town. Just look at who they nominated for President this year, but that by-in-large is who the Republican Party is today. Look at who they send to the U.S. House of Representatives and in many case to the U.S. Senate as well, who wins their governors races and serves in their state legislatures. 

I agree with Bobby Jindal that for the Republican Party to remain competitive in the future, that it has to broaden its base. I don't now how you do that and keep the most loyal Republicans in the party today, which is it's populist, southern and rural, blue-collar base.

Solid Principles: 'The Divided States of America'

This is easily the funniest story I've seen today and saw for the first time on a blog I'm subscribe to called Right Coast, if these people want to leave the United States, they are welcome to as far as I'm concern. Hell, America already has way too many ignorant Americans but their states are staying. This is all about the Far-Right in America who hasn't accepted the fact that we have an African-American President. Thats where this is coming from.

Channel 4 News UK: 'Lord Patten Says BBC News Needs Radical Overhaul'

Source:Channel 4 News UK- U.K. House of Commons member Harriet Herman.

"The Chairman of the BBC Trust, Lord Patten insists he won't be quitting but admitted it was his task to ensure the corporation "got a grip". 

From Channel 4 News UK

"Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network. Its headquarters are in London, with a National HQ[clarification needed] in Leeds, and creative hubs in Glasgow and Bristol.[1] It began its transmission on 2 November 1982, the day after Welsh language broadcaster S4C's launch. The channel was established to provide a fourth television service in the United Kingdom; at the time the only other channels were the licence-funded BBC One and BBC Two, and a single commercial broadcasting network ITV.

It is publicly owned and advertising-funded; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA),[2] the station is now owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation, a public corporation of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport,[3] which was established in 1990 and came into operation in 1993. In 2010, Channel 4 extended service into Wales and became a UK-wide television channel." 

From Wikipedia

As someone whose not British, I see the problems with BBC News again from 3000 miles away, as being too close to the UK Government and they need to be separated so the British know they are getting what's actually news. Rather than what the Conservative Government or whoever is in charge of the United Kingdom, telling the British what they want the British to know. Freedom of speech and an independent media is critical for any democracy, whether it's a liberal democracy or a social democracy like in Britain, so the people in the country are as well informed as possible.

Jack Hunter: 'Constitutional Conservatism'

Source:The Daily Caller- conservative blogger Jack Hunter.

"This is the third installment in Jack Hunter’s new Daily Caller video commentary series, “The Deal with Jack Hunter.” In this week’s installment, Jack argues that Rick Santorum’s insistence that the federal government should set national social policies threatens both our constitutional and moral values.

Jack Hunter (also known by his radio moniker the “Southern Avenger”) is a frequent guest on Fox Business, Michael Savage’s nationally syndicated radio program “The Savage Nation” and a frequent guest host on The Mike Church Show on Sirius XM. Hunter is the co-author of “The Tea Party Goes to Washington” by Sen. Rand Paul, assisted Sen. Jim DeMint with his book “Now or Never: How to Save America from Economic Collapse” and writes the Paulitical Ticker blog for the Ron Paul 2012 Campaign." 

From The Daily Caller

"Jack Hunter, radio personality & columnist, weighs in on today's definition of Conservatism. Liberty Political Action Conference (LPAC) in Reno, NV

Brought to you by Liberty News Network - a project of The John Birch Society." 

Source:The New American- conservative blogger Jack Hunter.

From The New American 

"In a heavily Democratic state, Goldwater became a conservative Republican and a friend of Herbert Hoover. He was outspoken against New Deal liberalism, especially its close ties to labor unions. A pilot, amateur radio operator, outdoorsman and photographer, he criss-crossed Arizona and developed a deep interest in both the natural and the human history of the state. He entered Phoenix politics in 1949, when he was elected to the City Council as part of a nonpartisan team of candidates pledged to clean up widespread prostitution and gambling. The team won every mayoral and council election for the next two decades. Goldwater rebuilt the weak Republican party and was instrumental in electing Howard Pyle as Governor in 1950. 

Goldwater's maverick and direct style had made him extremely popular with Republican Party's suburban conservative voters, based on the South and the senator's native West. Following the success of Conscience of a Conservative, Goldwater became the frontrunner for the GOP Presidential nomination to run against his close friend John F. Kennedy.[69] Despite their disagreements on politics, Goldwater and Kennedy had grown to become close friends during the eight years they served alongside each other in the Senate. With Goldwater the clear GOP frontrunner, he and Kennedy began planning to campaign together, holding Lincoln-Douglas style debates across the country and avoiding a race defined by the kind of negative attacks that were increasingly coming to define American politics." 

Source:Wikipedia- Mr. Conservative U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater (Republican, Arizona)

From Wikipedia

Jack Hunter's brand of conservatism, is the same conservatism as Barry Goldwater's or Calvin Coolidge's or Warren Harding's conservatism, from the 1920s, perhaps even Robert Taft's conservatism from the 1940s, Gerald Ford's from the 1960s and 70s. 

This conservatism is known as classical or constitutional conservatism, conservative libertarianism, that's based on limited government and that the government that works the best, does the least, meaning only what we actually need it do to and is the government that's closest to home. Instead of having a Federal solution to deal with every social and right-wing cultural war issue that the country is debating. 

So when you have right-wing Christian populists like Rick Santorum or Michele Bachmann stand up and run for high office, promising to fight and win the Cultural War with big government, Federal programs and policies, the Jack Hunter's of the world stand up and say, no. There isn't a Federal solution to solve every issue that the Christian-Right in America sees as problems that country faces.