Posts Tagged ‘larry hogan’

Trump Takes a Page from the Tip O’Neil Playbook

Posted: June 19, 2024 by datechguy in Uncategorized
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All Politics is Local

Tip O’Neill

I noticed this piece concerning the aftermath of the Donald Trump endorsement of Larry Hogan in Maryland.

The former Maryland governor did not seek the endorsement or know about it in advance, according to a person familiar with the campaign. And the campaign’s response to the endorsement didn’t embrace or even acknowledge it — instead saying in a statement: “Governor Hogan has been clear he is not supporting Donald Trump just as he didn’t in 2016 and 2020.”

Hogan has one of the toughest challenges of the cycle, winning a federal office as a Republican in such a blue state. He’s widely popular in Maryland and seen as essentially the only Republican who could potentially flip the Senate seat, and national Republicans are supportive of his effort to win the state without embracing Trump.

There are a few places, for example Citizen Free Press who are upset at the Hogan reaction, here is the line:

Trump endorses Larry Hogan in Maryland, then Larry disrespects Trump.

But it doesn’t seem to bother Trump all that much and I suspect the reason why is something Tip O’Neill used to tell pols back in the days where there was such a thing as conservative democrats who were practicing Christians who really believed in God and didn’t support abortion, you know in the days before the Democrats drove such working class people out of the party.

O’Neill followed Rayburn’s rule that a congressman’s first duty is to get re-elected and was very blunt in saying to his fellow democrats that if it helped them to run against him, that’s fine with him.

Trump knows that a GOP majority in the Senate will be necessary to do what he wants to do and also knows he has only four years to do it with so if it means that there will be one member of the GOP who attacks him in the senate on MSNBC while giving him the critical vote on leadership and on all those priorities he wants to get done, well that’s fine with him and if he loses him on a vote or two that he wins, he won’t care, think Pelosi on the final Obamacare vote, she let every dem she didn’t need vote against her (didn’t save them, but she let them do it).

That’s the way to do it, and Trump is not only old enough to know that way works, he, unlike Biden is still competent enough to remember that it does too.

The Best MD Has in the Barn For Now

Posted: February 16, 2024 by datechguy in election 2024
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John Cleese: It was from such an unlikely beginning as an unwanted fungus accidentally growing on a sterile plate that Sir Alexander Fleming gave the world penicillin. James Watt watched an ordinary household kettle boiling and conceived the potentiality of steam power. Would Albert Einstein ever have hit upon the theory of relativity if he hadn’t been clever? All these tremendous leaps forward have been taken in the dark. Would Rutherford ever have split the atom if he hadn’t tried? Could Marconi have invented the radio if he hadn’t by pure chance spent years working at the problem? Are these amazing breakthroughs ever achieved except by years and years of unremitting study? Of course not. What I said earlier about accidental discoveries must have been wrong. 

Monty Python’s Flying Circus A Book at Bedtime 1973

For a very long time there was basically one book on the Falklands War that existed. It was The Battle for the Falklands by Max Hastings and Simon Jenkins. It came out in 1984 only two years after the war and has sat on a bookshelf in my home for around 25 or 30 years.

One of the things that struck me from the book was a bit was something that one of the British special services officers mentioned concerning training. It seemed that various nations just wouldn’t believe that it was training and hard work that make them what they were. To paraphrase what he said the various nations militaries all think there is some kind pill they can take if only you would tell them what it is.

I thought of that when I saw the negative reaction to the former Maryland Gov Larry Hogan running for the Senate in the state and when I saw these pols indicating that he may have an easy time of it in that deep blue state:

Note the numbers. He is +7 in a state where Biden is +23 and this makes an important point that needs to be remembered.

If you want to have a strong conservative running in a state, you have to have a state where people understand that conservatism means a better life for them and their families. There will be more responsibility but not only is the potential greater but as a state becomes more successful there will actually be more actual money to build a safety net for those who can’t climb.

Maryland is not such a state, but IT CAN BE.

The problem is you don’t turn a state via a National election or even a Statewide election. In fact even a state legislature race doesn’t do the job, at least not at first.

What you have to do is get strong conservative at the school committee and city/town/ward council levels. Someone local and known who national and state parties will have trouble demonizing. Have them apply conservative solutions to local problems, from the basics in education to the broken windows theory in law enforcement.

As these solutions work such people can seek higher office with a record of success while folks inspired by said success replace them at that bottom rung.

That’s the real work of building a party and convincing people that they will have a better life.

It’s not easy, there will be pushback and of course it takes time but when you do that the end result is model schools, model neighborhoods and successful towns and cities and that is how you turn a country and then a state.

In a state like this. You would not have to settle for a Larry Hogan to carry the GOP banner. There would be a solid bench of conservatives who the public trusts who could run and win given the GOP the ability to prevent leftist judges from reaching the bench and having a reliable conservative vote when you need it.

Alas that day is not yet here. So until we have a party ready and willing to do the heavy lifting to change hearts and minds my suggestion.

Let’s get Behind Mr. Hogan, get the senate majority and be happy to get a 70-30 guy in a state where the GOP has no business having a senator and work for the day when Mr. Hogan can be upgraded to a stronger conservative.

And if we aren’t willing to do the work then let’s be grateful that we can manage even him.