It’s been an exciting day here at the ‘Defending the American Dream’ summit in Washington, DC. A rally on Capitol Hill, training sessions for new media and bloggers, and then the main event of the evening… a huge dinner with numerous major speakers.
There’s an interesting mixture of high-energy power ties, rank and file grassroots activists, and scruffy new media types in here. I’m not sure what group I fall into. But I do know that is smells a bit like feet and B.O. in the hallway outside the main hallway.
I’ve encountered bloggers from huge sites like Townhall.com and RedState, all the way down to local bloggers who write for their University’s College Republicans website. But the mix includes quite a few mid-sized state and national blogs, the “meat and potatoes” of conservative new media.
I had the chance to meet George Will for a second as he was leaving the “Radio Row” conference room. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen many bigwigs in the “Bloggers Row” room… most of the folks in here seem to be networking and posting stories about voter fraud and the election. While the networking is excellent, as fellow blogger The Republic of Dave points out, most of this blogging could be taking place at home. So I’ve come to believe that the main reason we’re here is to network and build community. And I think that’s been wildly successful.
The music selections are vastly superior to the Republican National Convention. A collection of soaring balads and optimistic modern rock songs greet each speaker as they make their way onto the stage. AFP’s president Tim Phillips makes his way to the stage as U2’s ‘Beautiful Day’ echos in the ballroom. Matchbox Twenty’s ‘How Far We’ve Come’ is used to introduce a slick video recap of the day’s rally on Capitol Hill.
We’ve eaten our slightly stale salads and are waiting for George Will to speak while our chicken dinners are being delivered by a team of ninja waiters.
UPDATE: The highlight of tonight’s Americans for Prosperity dinner dedicated to Ronald Reagan was an extended speech by conservative columnist George Will.
Will used his time to speak about the current economic crisis facing America. He described the root cause as an “excess of consumption” and the “democratization of credit” in our nation. At one time, it was said that the government should model their budget the same way an average family does. That is, reducing spending to match available income.
But instead, American families have adopted the government’s model of budgeting. When expenses outpace income… seek credit.
A lack of personal responsibility is, Will agrues, to blame for almost all of the difficulties we are currently seeking. If left unregulated, the free market would take care of itself.
16 responses so far ↓
1 G.E. // Oct 11, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Still want to be in a “coalition” with the Kochsuckers, Trent?
2 Deran // Oct 11, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Honor Reagan for what? Setting off the turn of policy that has led straight to this current economic debacle? I’d imagine, were The Gipper alive, he’d be run out of town on a rail, tarred and feathered.
3 G.E. // Oct 11, 2008 at 4:55 pm
Even the socialist knows the cause of the crisis!
4 Darcy Richardson // Oct 11, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Great comment, Deran.
Reagan’s finest moment, of course, was the Savings & Loan scandal. “I think we just hit the jackpot,” Reagan chuckled gleefully when signing the legislation that deregulated the S&L industry — legislation, incidentally, that not only enriched a couple of the Bush brothers, but eventually cost the U.S. taxpayers more than $160 billion.
Funny how self-described “conservatives” gloss over things like that.
5 G.E. // Oct 11, 2008 at 5:07 pm
Deregulation wasn’t the cause of the S&L scandal. It was the moral hazard of the fiat-money banking system. Even still, it didn’t have to cost taxpayers ANYTHING — the bankrupt should have been left as such, not bailed out.
6 darolew // Oct 11, 2008 at 6:13 pm
“Even the socialist knows the cause of the crisis!”
Kinda. Socialists think deregulation and low taxes caused the crisis. Deran has the right culprit but is charging him with the wrong crime.
7 Mike Gillis // Oct 11, 2008 at 6:35 pm
We have our disagreements and I dislike alot of your absolutism recently, GE, but I really have to admit that “Kochsuckers” is wonderfully clever.
8 TheOriginalAndy // Oct 11, 2008 at 8:02 pm
“G.E. // Oct 11, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Still want to be in a “coalition†with the Kochsuckers, Trent?”
LOL @ Kocksuckers!
9 TheOriginalAndy // Oct 11, 2008 at 8:02 pm
“LOL @ Kocksuckers!”
Opps, I meant Kochsuckers.
10 JimDavidson // Oct 12, 2008 at 4:27 am
Murray Rothbard’s indictments of Ronald Reagan were many and varied and deserve to prevail.
I joined the Committee Against Registration and the Draft when I was 17 in 1979. Ronald Reagan promised to end Selective Service. He lied. He also promised to end the departments of energy and education. I don’t think these promises had ever been sincere.
11 Gregg Jocoy // Oct 12, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Almost every politician I have ever met believes that the problem is that the “wrong” people are running the government or this or that agency/plan/approach.
Reagan was a totalitarian.
This is, in my mind, one of the biggest areas where we Greens need to learn and grow. Sunset provisions are a GOOD thing. I have met very damn few Greens who want their local schools run from Washington. Most of us would prefer to see even our local school board play a smaller role, with students, teachers and parents running things.
Instead of focusing on the decentralization aspect of the Green Party’s Ten Key Values, we Greens allow the corporate media and parties to define us as “big government” types. I’m not saying there are no such Greens, but they are not the only voices to be heard in the GP.
12 paulie cannoli // Oct 12, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Almost every politician I have ever met believes that the problem is that the “wrong†people are running the government or this or that agency/plan/approach.
Exactly the problem. The problem with monopoly government is institutional, not particular.
Instead of focusing on the decentralization aspect of the Green Party’s Ten Key Values, we Greens allow the corporate media and parties to define us as “big government†types. I’m not saying there are no such Greens, but they are not the only voices to be heard in the GP.
I think the original Greens were more decentralist, and there are still some around, but they are themselves decentrally organized and thus vulnerable to takeover-in-effect by dedicated enviro-Marxist cadres. Decentralist, power game hating libertarians are similarly under attack by Machiavellian New Rightists.
Here is where true greens and true libertarians are one and the same:
http://praxeology.net/blog/2006/11/24/greensleeves-was-all-my-joy/
13 paulie cannoli // Oct 12, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Honor Reagan for what?
Perhaps for ratcheting up the drug war and the military industrial congressional complex, or the “moral” bolshevik agenda (Meese commission, etc). Maybe for raising FICA taxes? The S&L bailout? Proposing budgets even higher than Tip O’Neill’s some years? Joking about nuking Russia in five minutes? Announcing his 1980 campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi (see Mississippi Burning) while talking about states rights? Honoring SS soldiers at Bitburg? Maybe Iran-Contra-Cocaine? Why, there is so much Reagan legacy to be proud of, I hardly know where to start.
14 paulie cannoli // Oct 12, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Opps, I meant Kochsuckers.
It’s pronounced like coke, not like cock. So, perhaps kochheads.
Or you can call them stawberries.
NWA “Dopeman” lyrics:
There’s a another girl in tha dopeman’s life
Not quite a bitch but far from a wife
she’s called strawberry and everybody know
strawberry strawberry iz tha neighborhood ho
do any thing for a hit or2,
give tha bitch a rock
and she will fuck your whole damn crew
it might be yo wife and it might make u sick
come home and see her mouth on
tha dopeman’s dick
strawberry just look around you’ll see her
But don’t fuck around she’ll give you gonnorhea
if people out there ain’t hip to the fact
strawberry iz a girl selling pussy 4 crack
15 G.E. // Oct 12, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Kudos to Mr. Jocoy. Unfortunately, it certainly seems that the loudest voices are of a Marxist bent, and not of the traditional decentralist variety. I think the lack of a strong national Socialist (and I don’t mean National Socialist) party funnels centralists into the Greens, and has eroded too much of the good things that Mr. Jocoy and others like him stand for.
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