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Today, after the sequester, ”the world continued” though the government was $85 billion poorer, Artur Davis, said.
His remarks were important for reminding conservatives who we haven’t reached out to.
“Cutting back, when you are spending too much, is not a radical idea, except in Washington, D.C.,” he said.
He said President Obama commented that he couldn’t cut 10 percent without hurting people.
Until now, the debate was the Democrats saying they want to spend a lot more, and Republicans want to spend … more.
NC Democrats argued that the values of the people were should be turned upside down, Davis said. “People who thought they had a home in the Democratic Party decided that home no longer exists.”
He talked about a young father, a Democrat, who had two kids in the public schools. There are good teachers, the man said, but there are some bad ones, and he was tired of being accused of hating schools because he wants the bad teachers fired. He told similar stories.
Why did conservatives lose? We lost the disaffected Democrats. Davis said conservatives stopped being a party that made its case to people who work with their hands, who are middle class. “They worry about is going on in their lives,” he said.
What about those with kids going to college? Putting parent in nursing home? Got a layoff notice? Can conservatives reach them. They don’t doubt nation. “They worry about their own security.”
“Many of these people were going to be ours,” he said. “But they slipped away.” They were not convinced conservatives speak for them or to them.
They are worried about their powerlessness, about their needs. Conservatism must speak to all people — those in gated communities and those down in the hollows. When conservatives do that, “We will take this country back.”
A coach may tell a great athlete, “Remember who you are.” That’s what Americans need: “Remember who you are.”
RON JOHNSON
Francis De Luca: Johnson is the only manufacturer in Congress, so the only one who has made things. And one of only two accountants, so he can count.
In 2009 he was asked to speak at a tea party event. Obama had assailed doctors’ supposed greed. Johnson recalls how doctors saved his daughter born with a congenital heart defect.
“We had the freedom to call …. [on] the best surgeons in the world,” he said, and in a system that came up with medical miracles.
As a manufacturer, “when you have a problem, you try to solve the root problem.” He talked about machinery leaking oil; you can add oil or change the gasket.
The root cause is the size, scope and intrusiveness of government. “As government grew, our freedoms necessarily receded,” he said.
Low information voters easily fall prey to demagogues.
Long-term strategy in DC? No, “it’s all tactics,” he said. “We also need a strategy for the conservative movement.”
Our vision statement begins “we hold these truths to be self evident,” but the right doesn’t have a strategy to reaffirm the Founders’ vision.
The left’s strategy: “Addict people to government.” It works.
On the DC priority list: ”I haven’t heard America yet.”
“Here’s the challenge for conservatives … ” ”Well, they’re giving away candy. We’re the ones, I’m sorry America, candy causes cavities. Oh, it’s worse than that, it’s caused an abcess. Oh, it’s worse than that,” the absess is infected and we’re going to die if we don’t operate.
One advantage: “The truth is on our side.”
How did you we get into a time when corporations are demonized? When you control the colleges of law, education, economics, “you utterly control our culture.”
“The only way we get this country back is information,” Johnson said. “It’s a war of ideas.”
In business, you find out what you agree on. “We have got to tap into the network” of those who understand the free-market system.
“It’s up to us,” he said. Business owners can carry this message.
Then he stuns us with a clear picture of our debt.
His most shocking statistic: the real federal liabilities are equaled by total assets.
Except: it’s that “good” only because interest rates are so low.
If interest rates went back to historical levels, that adds hundreds of billions to burden.
Then the rate of out of wedlock births, from 4 percent in Sixties, then 8 percent in 1966. Then 41 percent now.
He notes the $16T war on poverty, and $16T rate.
Once again the devastation caused by unintended consequences.
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People don’t know the Senate hasn’t done a budget in nearly four years, PLUS Obama’s last three budget got zero votes.
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“The American spirit is alive,” he said, recalling visits to soldiers undergoing rehab.
