Recommended: Jon Henke’s writings at “The Next Right.”

It would be easy to believe that Republicans have no solutions to offer our country, no understanding that things have gone terribly wrong for them, and that their anti-intellectualism has purged the party of anybody with the sense to steer them back in the right direction. I’m no slouch in keeping up with the political world, but only rarely in the past six months have I even glimpsed anything that runs counter to that. This is dangerous. Not only has it left me with the impression that Democrats are invincible, but it casts Republicans as an other, as a group with whom I cannot empathize and would not want to empathize.

That’s why I’m glad to have started reading Jon Henke’s blog at “The Next Right”. The site’s other contributors generally leave me cold, but Jon has a cleverness, a drive, and an intellect that makes it a joy to puzzle through where the Republican Party goes from here. Recent blog entries that I enjoyed include his call for actual—not superficial—change in the Republican Party and the importance of remembering that limited government and low taxes are ideals, not policies. The way Jon describes it, I can both envision and welcome a Republican resurgence.

Published by Waldo Jaquith

Waldo Jaquith (JAKE-with) is an open government technologist who lives near Char­lottes­­ville, VA, USA. more »

9 replies on “Recommended: Jon Henke’s writings at “The Next Right.””

  1. I am torn… Part of me would love to see the permanent demise of the Republican party because of the evils of the last few Republican administrations and congress-critters; but I also know we very much need an opposition party that challenges the party in power with scrutiny, intellect, and reason.

    Is it too much to wish for some new conservative party, one that would actually be conservative? That would be the best of both worlds, but would mean a horrible period of no meaningful opposition other than the ranting of lunatics… A very sobering and scary thought.

  2. It would be easy to believe all of that. But only if you believe the Moonbatosphere and the politics of ridicule currently being practiced by the Democrats. Ridicule isn’t policy, either.

  3. We haven’t had a conservative, small government Republican Party for quite some time now.

  4. For the last thirty years, the Republican Party has been successful when the big money players (Chamber of Commerce, Pharma, AHIP) managed to hold the reactionary hater base without letting them dominate the policy-making, so that it was still possible to hold independent voters. That was necessary because the reactionary base is only strong enough in the South and a few scattered rural states to dominate state politics.

    Suppose the big-money players get what they want under a Democratic administration (no employee free choice with teeth, health care “reform” that doesn’t compete with or crimp their profitable racket, no meaningful re-regulation of financial markets). What’s their incentive to go through the painful process of retaking their state parties by replacing winger leadership and forcing changes that would bring back independents?

  5. It would be easy to believe all of that. But only if you believe the Moonbatosphere and the politics of ridicule currently being practiced by the Democrats.

    You’re ridiculing people for buying into “the Moonbatosphere” and “the politics of ridicule”? You’re a caricature of the gay-bashing/closeted-homosexual tough-on-drugs/pain-med-abusing hypocrite wing of the GOP.

  6. Cheney? Gingrich? Limbaugh?, Boehner?, Cantor? Robertson? McConnell? Kyl? Palin?, Perry?, Huckabee?, Joe the Plumber?, Romney?, Giuliani?,Gilmore? – what a sea of pip-squeaks. The Republican Party is so full of rats and losers that they would be better off burning it to the ground and starting over. But they won’t because each one of these jokers has their own tribe who believe that they are just one break away from owning the franchise. And no one else has the sense to strike a match.

  7. That’s what I love about James Young – he calls Waldo a “partisan hack,” while continuing to use the Drudge Report as a information source for his own blog; he accuses “moonbats” (whatever they are) of being part of a “culture of ridicule,” completely missing the irony of what he’s doing…all in all, he’s one of the biggest jokes i’ve come across on the internet. I’m still trying to figure out who this “Barry” person is he keeps referring to.

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