Ah, blogging.

A quick life lesson in the blogosphere:

Last night I start reading this article on salon.com, about how the recession is changing the gender breakdown of the workforce.

In the second paragraph I realize the whole article/blog is referencing another article, on salon.com.

So I'm like, why not just read the original? And I start to read that article.

But then in the second paragraph of THAT article (i.e. the first substantive graph after the lead) it quotes ANOTHER BLOG on the NYtimes site as its source of inspiration.

So I plod off to read the nytimes blog.

And what do you know, in the second paragraph (okay, the first paragraph is one sentence - but still) it says: 

As my colleague Catherine Rampell noted on the front page last week, the most recent calculations, from November of last year, showed women holding 49.1 percent of the nation’s jobs.

And so then I finally click over to the front page NY times article: "As Layoffs Surge,  Women May Pass Men in Job Force".

Meanwhile, 33 U.S. Newspapers are filing for bankruptcy because everyone gets their news and analysis for free online now.  Oh, irony!

I Feel Bad: Tips for Republicans

I love reading conservative blogs.  Or at least I did.  During the election it was fun, there was a lot of back and forth - nobody knew what was gonna happen or how people would react to the daily talking points, and on the blogs it was an all out spin-war that was pretty exciting.

I mean, remember when Sarah Palin was announced?!  Man that was awesome!  I got off a plane, checked the news and was like "Who?  The governor of Alaska?  That's clever!"  And conservative blogs were all "Oho! Who's laughing now?! We got your number America!"

And for a time there was drama, there was tension, conservative bloggers had real meaty material to attack and defend, giving it their all!  Then as the wheels fell off the there were other great emotions - anxiety, despair, anger!  Conservatives formed a circular firing squad and for a while the bickering was fun, with fingers pointing, people putting each other on lists, etc.

After that we kinda got distracted with all the hope and change for a while, and that was fun.  But now when I have a pang of nostalgia for those heady campaign days where two ideologies battled for supremacy in the minds of Americans I wonder "Hey, what are the conservatives up to out there in the wilderness?"  In those moments I click over to see what the buzz is and my heart sinks a little.  Because it's this kind of stuff.

Oh dear...part II an argument against giving Washington D.C. a voting member of the House of Representatives...and the central thesis is "doing something is never the right answer."

And I feel bad.  But that's just one story.  How about...this?

Hmm.  Bashing liberal media - that could go somewhere...but I guess in the end I don't get what someone is supposed to be outraged about - that the media is failing to portray this guy murdering his wife as an indictment of his culture?

So I still feel bad.

To make myself feel better, I am going to sincerely and earnestly brainstorm some ideas for conservatives to get behind that aren't just reactions to liberal positions (i.e. being the 'party of no').  But I'll give myself the leeway to say that these ideas may not be classic conservative positions and may require the party to change some of its old ways.

1) Economic Policy: Embrace the Buy Local Movement

It's kind of crunchy on the surface, but Buy Local is like Buy American on steroids!  It's the kind of "fear of outsiders" + "fiscal nostalgia" formula that would be conservative gold if they can nab it before the progressives make it theirs through policy.  Going local in your philosophy is also a good way to rebuild your horrible horrible representation in state governments.

2) Foreign Policy: Economic Invasion!

Military invasion of other countries is expensive and unpopular.  But selling them Cokes and Escalades not only combats their hatred of our freedom but also makes money!  Come up with some policy that encourages American companies to export to our enemies.  Cuba, Iran and North Korea should be buying our shit!  This would totally one-up those elitist Dems who everybody thinks are so smart for wanting to use diplomacy.

3) Social Policy: More Immigrants!

I never got why conservatives would complain about illegal immigrants who have lots of kids, while simultaneously hating on gays and abortion.  Illegal immigrants are totally your buds guys, you're on the same page! Get over the English-only thing, be the party that makes them legal and sell them a credit card, they will be your friends forever.

4) Bonus Points: Legalize Pot

Liberal New England just doesn't have the climate to grow marijuana outdoors - but the deep south?  You could clean up!  Drive a wedge between those lazy potheads who voted Obama because he was "cool" and their progressive overlords by embracing the herb and totally commercializing it.

Don't blame me if the Republicans adopt any or all of these and make a roaring comeback in the next election cycle.  I only did it because I feel bad.

The Best Defense

How does an American industry under siege respond when public opinion turns against them? With advertising! It cures everything.

I mean, the woman from America's Oil and Natural Gas has me convinced that a) I own the industry, b) they don't make THAT much money and c) that fixing the economic crisis is a no-brainer! (hint: the solution involves drilling for oil)

You kind of had to know that things were bad when during the most watched political season ever, the only people with enough money to advertise during the Sunday morning political shows were oil companies, and their message was: "Please stop hating us, it's bad for business."

Which of course is the message behind any Trade Association.  Trade Association advertising is fun to spot since it's a commercial, but it's like the most feel good of all commercials because it doesn't care which brand of the product you buy, as long as you buy SOMETHING.  Beef - it's what's for dinner!  And if beef is too specific for your tastes, the American Meat Institute doesn't play favorites.  (How can you not appreciate the man who reminds you that having a ham sandwich with a hot dog chaser is healthier than the spinach salad and pomengranate juice?)

It is fortunate that we have institutes such as these to provide us, the public, with the latest reliable information to inform our consumer choices.  Without the Resilient Floor Covering Institute, how would we know that Resilient Floor Coverings like vinyl are "green" building materials?   (Except when they aren't.)

Should we be worried that organizations exist whose sole purpose is to make you eat high fructose corn syrup and hot dogs while surrounded by as much vinyl as possible, irrespective of each product's actual positive or negative qualities?  Does it not run counter to the meritocracy of a capitalist society to use advertising to obscure the deficiencies of a product or service?  Shouldn't we be kind of pissed off that the money we spend on these things is turned around and used to make sure we never realize we've bought a lemon?

Damn, I think that was the premise of that Mac ad.

At least I know that the National Frozen Pizza Institute would never steer me wrong.

Whither Do They Wander?

The question on my mind recently is: Is the Republican party in a death spiral, or poised for a comeback?

Oddly, one might ask the same question of the U.S. economy as well.  But I digress.

"Death spiral" is Nate Silver's phrase, and he makes the case for it here.  He argues that recent incidences of the GOP doubling down on their most conservative positions (monolithic opposition to the stimulus bill, siding with Rush Limbaugh, voting against the...delay of digital television?) are among the signs that moderate elements are no longer influencing the party because they've jumped ship, leaving only the most conservative base behind.

In the electoral sense, this can be measured.  Silver provides a graph of how the House of Representatives has changed and in what districts.  There you can see that the districts Republicans lost were the ones that fell in the middle of the spectrum (the spectrum being how that District voted in the Presidential election).  That ends up meaning that Moderate Republicans have left office, while conservative Republicans are the ones who held their seats in highly conservative districts.  This, in theory, leads to minority echo chamber effect in which the Party as a whole drifts rightward, further turning off the remaining moderate voters and prompting them to bail.

In the conservative blogosphere, the argument has been raging over how best to make a comeback, and in the days after the election posters and commentors on blogs like Redstate argued that the real problem for Republicans was that they weren't conservative enough, and in one instance that Republicans who bad-mouthed Sarah Palin should be metaphorically tranquilized, tagged and released back into the wild so that future Republican candidates who hire them can be readily shunned.  Formations of circular firing squads are generally not good signs for an organization.

On the other hand, this past week the RNC elected Michael Steele as its new chairman.  Although in his bid to become chairman Steele argued in favor of a return to conservative roots, he is generally thought of as a moderate and came across that way on his recent appearance on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, where he signaled that social issues like abortion and gay rights may not be the foundations on which to rebuild the party.

On the other other hand, Steele remains as unapologetic as more rightward leaning Republicans about the state of Conservative ideas.  His Blueprint for Tomorrow on which he campaigned maintains that America is a conservative nation and that the Republican party's message failure was one of strategy and packaging, not one of content - essentially saying, "We just need to Twitter more."

My feeling is that the Republican party of the past 20 years had made a deal with the devil by leaning so heavily on social conservatism.  Lee Atwater's racial politics has been played out and using gay rights as a wedge issue will eventually go the same way.  Abortion may continue to divide Americans, but Democrats have learned to argue not in favor of abortions, but against outlawing them and that blunts the issue's power for conservatives.  People whose vote is influenced by conservative social issues are becoming an ever-shrinking minority, and Republicans are flailing because they have relied so heavily on those issues for nearly a generation.

Without the social issues, Republicans are left with Lower Taxes/Smaller Government and...Bueller?  Take a peek through the 2008 GOP Party Platform and see what stands out.  Without a strong economy the argument that education, health care and environmental issues should be left for the market to resolve are incredibly weak.  Everything is basically a variation on the theme that the Government itself is the problem - which is kind of a hard sell when you have been the Government for the past 8 years.

So with time, it is true that Republican ideals can come back into vogue.  They can rebuild their 'watchdog' brand through being the dissenting minority party, and can capitalize on any future slip-ups by the Democrat-led government.  Then they can return to power on the promise of reform and the shrinking of the Government.

That, I think, is the cycle of partisan politics.  Although Democrats have it within their power to blunt the future Republican attack simply by governing well.  It is kind of nice that we have a political system that encourages that sort of thing.