Letters to the Editor
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The boomers didn't invent it any more than they invented sex.
The bommers din't invent sex...is tiday April First?
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William is what he is
... From your steel worker Democrat dad? Well, maybe. Odd though, considering the known source for the formulation ...
You are afraid to engage anything I wrote in that post and concentrate on some imagined "code words" as if you are looking for a spy in the cold war. What a sorry saga that is for a life.
My dad was a registered Democrat all his life, and voted that way as a Democrat. (notice the spelling)
You never comment when I use the formulation "Repugs" to describe the president's party but see hidden meaning in one instance of a sentence you do not like.
William, you are a snide little one. Snide.
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Serious People, Circe 2003
However, Garris, Raimondo, and their benefactor, Colin Hunter, consider themselves not just libertarians, but also so-called "Old Right" conservatives. In the 1980s, they dropped out of the Libertarian Party, and though they continued to hold libertarian ideals close to their hearts, they are now registered Republicans. They trace their brand of conservatism back to a group of Republican writer/activists in the 1930s and 1940s – among them, John T. Flynn and Garet Garrett – who vociferously spoke out against the big-government policies of Roosevelt's New Deal (to them it looked suspiciously like fascism) and opposed America's entry into World War II. Anti-intervention fell out of fashion for Republicans during the Cold War years, and now hardly anybody remembers a time when most Republicans weren't hawks. Garris, Raimondo, and Hunter like to think they are carrying forward the long-forgotten Old Right mantle...
Growing up in the 1960s in upstate New York, Raimondo created an identity for himself as a precocious right-winger. His middle-class, Archie Bunker-ish family didn't care about politics one way or another; it was Raimondo's own nerdy hobby. He dog-eared his high school library's subscription to the National Review and idolized its founder, William F. Buckley (whom Raimondo did not yet view as an evil neocon masquerading as a conservative libertarian). Raimondo joined the conservative youth movement group called the Young Americans for Freedom and volunteered for Barry Goldwater's 1968 presidential campaign.
Perhaps most attractive of all to Raimondo were the glamorous, egomaniacal heroes from the novels of Ayn Rand. Objectivism – Rand's personal philosophy – shares many concepts with libertarianism, including an every-man-for-himself hatred of state-funded services and a strong belief in a free market economy. Many early Randians, like Raimondo, went on to become libertarians (though later, the two camps would reject each other over minor differences)...
On the outside wall of the guesthouse, near its front door, is a bronze and dark green metal sign that reads "Randolph Bourne Institute." Bourne, a writer in the early 1900s, is now a libertarian hero because he opposed big government and entry into World War I. The institute named after him represents the highest ambitions of Garris and Raimondo.
In 2001, they incorporated the institute as a nonprofit parent company for Antiwar.com; as Garris describes it, the institute will be an "educational think tank-type thing." It will allow them to apply for grants, so they can break free of Hunter's patronage. They also have big plans for an institute summer school where "young cadre," as Raimondo says, would come to live (in Hunter's house), to lounge around the pool listening to distinguished speakers, and to do assigned reading in the evenings.
The Randolph Bourne Institute feels – on many levels – like a kid's playhouse. When Hunter, Gilmore, Garris, and Raimondo refer to their bookshelves in the downstairs part of the guesthouse as "the library" and talk importantly about having "scope," "outreach," and "symposiums," the institute seems a grown-up fantasy. You can't help but imagine the "young cadre" showing up for summer school and being surprised – and maybe even creeped out – when the imposing-sounding Randolph Bourne Institute turns out to be some rich couple's guesthouse.
Still, Garris is confident that the institute is the start of something big. "It gives us, in terms of being in the world of opinion-making, something beyond just the Web site," he says one day while Raimondo is visiting.
"But we're not really an organization, Eric," says Raimondo, more realistically. "We're a conspiracy, pushing ideas out into cyberspace."
"We're not really an organization," agrees Garris. "We're a pre-organization."
One recent afternoon, Raimondo is visiting Garris at Antiwar.com's headquarters. Gilmore has gone to pick up her daughter at karate practice, and Hunter is at work, which leaves Garris and Raimondo sitting outside by the pool, so Raimondo can smoke. They drink coffee from a matching service a maid brings out to them. A small army of groundskeepers meanders over the property, clipping hedges and blowing leaves.
Garris and Raimondo talk to each other constantly on the phone, and often they bicker. Now, reflecting on their activist history, they can't quite agree on their degree of ineffectiveness.
"Looking at, say, LROC – the amount of time we spent at the 1988 Republican Convention! And look what we got out of it! Very little," fumes Garris.
"It's not TRUE, Eric," whines Raimondo. "Because the long term ..."
"There's long term, and there's ...," interrupts Garris.
"But what we handed out at the convention ..."
"I totally understand," says Garris.
"Our platform – we predicted the END of the Soviet Union!" says Raimondo.
"That's not my point."
"The END of communism," adds Raimondo.
"I'm not saying we didn't have ANY effect," says Garris. "I'm just saying we didn't see any immediate effect. With Antiwar.com, we have ..."
Raimondo slams both hands down on the wooden table, jiggling the coffee service. "POWER!"
Garris cracks up and nods.
"POWER!" Raimondo says again. "And we're using it for good.
"Yeeeeeeaaaaaaah."
http://sfweekly.com/2003-12-10/news/intrepid-antiwarriors-of-the-libertarian-right-stake-their-rightful-claim-to-power/full
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"Facts Are Stupid Things"--Ronald Reagan
ondelette:
@Gwool
n the last NBC data I could find on line, Bush had 29% support and Congress had 23% support. It is highly unlikely there were many approving of both Bush and Congress. All told that's just half.
Back it up!
.... Personally, I don't think you can do it....
So you have no idea whether the people that approved of both Bush and the Congress overlap, and by what percentage. You assumed that people who liked how Congress is doing are Democrats. While it may be true that Republicans like how Bush is doing, you don't have the data to show that it's Democrats who are giving the Congress good marks.
It's worse than that, ondelette. From Pollingreport.com, again:
CBS News Poll. June 26-28, 2007. N=836 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3 (for all adults). LV = likely voters. RV = registered voters.
"Do you approve or disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job?"
. . . . . Approve Disapprove Unsure
ALL adults . . 27 . . . 60 . . 13
Republicans . . 22 . . . 71 . . 7
Democrats . . . 37 . . . 49 . . 14
Independents . 19 . . . 64 . . 17
Just eye-balling it, it seems like maybe 18 percent, tops of that 27 percent is anti-Bush.