My wife and I spent a week on the National Review post election cruise.
That is Half Moon Cay and the ship did offer a lot of eating. However, that wasn’t all we did. Cindy had a ball driving a jet ski around the island for an hour.
We went ashore and did sight seeing. This is Grand Turk Island, which got flattened by Hurricane Ike on September 7. There were repairs going on all over the island.
Then, of course, there were other people on the cruise.
The program was put on by National Review and two full days plus most evenings were filled with seminars. Guests included Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson plus a number of well known writers such as Bernard Lewis and Bing West. I read West’s book, The Strongest Tribe, which I think is the best book on Iraq thus far. I have read several of Bernard Lewis’s books and he has another currently available that is a primer on Islam. Additionally, there were National Review writers and other well known writers, such as Mark Steyn who is as colorful in person as in print and on the radio, and John O’Sullivan, a Margaret Thatcher intimate. O’Sullivan joined us even if his luggage didn’t, and his enthusiasm for Sarah Palin was reciprocated by the cruisers.
The theme was a review of the election and a discussion of where the GOP goes now. There were some very frank discussions and assessments of the Bush administration and the McCain-Palin campaign. The first day was mostly devoted to the election results and Fred Thompson was interviewed by Kathryn Lopez from NRO. Fred was a McCain supporter and is a likable and engaging speaker. He also has a gorgeous wife and cute kids. The afternoon session the first day was a discussion of the GOP future. I drew some conclusions that were not necessarily those of the panel. We need a better “ground game” and Brent Bozell addressed this but there should have been more talk about it. This pertains to reaching the young voters through avenues like “Facebook.” The discussion of a possible reimposition of the “Fairness Doctrine” by Obama should prompt a serious discussion of satellite radio and its role in the future of talk radio. I think Obama will appoint an FCC that will impose it since it will thrill his base and there is not much else he can offer them given current economic conditions.
There is a debate going on in the party that will continue for some time. This concerns health care and other policies that might appeal to part of the Obama coalition, such as Hispanics.
Scott Johnson, from Powerline, was also on the cruise and here is his take on what went on. I didn’t get a chance to meet him but he did contribute quite a bit on a couple of panels. More of his thoughts are here. Victor Davis Hanson was there and he has a nice assessment this morning of the Obama future.
The Monday afternoon session (After a tour of Grand Turk Island that had been flattened by Hurricane Ike in September) concerned external threats in the Middle East. Anne Bayefsky was the most pessimistic of the commenters, possibly because she is an expert on the UN.
Tuesday and Wednesday had day-long shore excursions (during one of which Cindy and I toured Morro Castle) with late night sessions by some of the speakers. Thursday was another all-day session as the ship was returning north to The Bahamas. The morning session was on “America’s Enemies” which began with an interview of Bernard Lewis by Jay Nordlinger. Professor Lewis does not look or sound 92 years old. The afternoon session was on the GOP future. The Friday afternoon session was an assessment of the Bush Administration and Deroy Murdock’s column above was previewed during the discussion.
We met some interesting people and listened to some interesting talk. Whether the Republican Party returns to power in any degree in 2010 will probably depend on outside influence far more than it depends on these ideas. However, the distant future will be determined by the long range concepts at meetings like this one.
One more outstanding guy we met is a Catholic priest from Michigan named Robert Sirico. His brother is a star on the TV series “The Sopranos.” He runs a free enterprise think tank named The Acton Institute, which is intended to teach the topic to Catholic clergy who have shifted far left politically in the past 50 years. Today, Michelle Malkin posts an excerpt from a speech given before the cruise but he gave some similar talks we attended. She includes his speech as part of a call to reverse the bailout.
The institution of government—what many view as the first resort of charity—is the very thing that unleashed and encouraged those vices of greed and avarice and reckless use of money that got us into the current financial imbroglio. It did so by first placing a policy priority on a worthy goal, increased home ownership, but pursued it with a fanaticism that neglected other goods such as prudence, personal responsibility and rational risk assessment.
Moreover, its official banking centers enjoyed subsidies which distorted that most sensitive of price signals—the price of money—to delude both investors and consumers into believing that capital existed to support vast and extravagant consumerism when in fact no such capital and savings existed.
It’s an obvious point but one the mainstream media appears intent on missing: The financial crisis did not occur within a free market, a market permitted to work within its own indigenous mechanism of risk and reward, overseen by a juridical framework marked by clarity, consistency and right judgment. Quite the contrary. The crisis occurred within a market deluged and deluded by interventionism.
Today we find institution after institution “in the tank” for unrestrained government intervention. One is reminded of Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci’s call for the left to begin a long march through the institutions of Western Civilization. The left, it seems, got the memo. How will we respond to this disheartening situation? Now is no time to retreat in disarray. Now is no time to stumble. There remains a remnant … a potent remnant who has not bowed the knee to big government. My call to you tonight is a transparent one: strengthen the soldiers of that remnant. In particular—strengthen that band of brothers gathered with you tonight, the Acton Institute.
Tags: Caribbean, politics, Republicans
And here I was, yakking at you to post photos, and you did!
I enjoyed your report!
“Vortwarts!” as Bismarck said!
I hope a new “ground game” means going back to old fashioned conservatism which includes small government, cutting taxes and spending, states rights over federal imposition, and never ever agreeing to pay for a whole generations prescription medicine again!
Thanks for the update, Mike K. If you have time, I’ d sure like to hear more of what Professor Bayefsky had to say.
And ditto, Brett.
Anne Bayefsky believes that Iran is truly a irrational state that does not obey the usual rules of self preservation (I doubt Obama knows enough to have an opinion). She expects a good possibility of a nuclear exchange between Israel and Iran in the next decade and does not believe Obama is prepared to do anything but wring his hands. One of his advisors made another faux pas about Arabic language this weekend. These people do not understand the middle east. Here is a recent column of hers.
The “ground game” I was referring to is the nuts and bolts of running a campaign. It is pretty well accepted that the Obama campaign was far better organized and able to mobilize its supporters. His weakness was his message. The campaign sold him like a new brand of soap.
We need a better “ground game” and Brent Bozell addressed this but there should have been more talk about it. This pertains to reaching the young voters through avenues like “Facebook.”
This seems to be the common wisdom at all levels in the party. Well, except for the old farts on central committees who don’t even use email. But whatever, we need to do more of that changey internetty facebooky stuff.
But I suppose this is how it always is: you see what the other side did successfully and copy it the next time around. But I don’t see any of this coming off at a genuinely grassroots level without a compelling candidate or message (or both).
Mike, this news is disturbing. Republicans still don’t get it. It’s the product not the packaging. If they don’t return to true conservative principles it doesn’t matter how they “sell” it, it will still suck!
I posted a bit more from another participant. Yes, the principles matter and John McCain did not embody many of them but he did represent the basic core of the Republican Party. He has consistently opposed spending and bigger government. Sarah Palin cut spending in Alaska. Obama ran on a platform of cutting taxes. What could be better proof that Reagan still determines the agenda? We know Obama lied and is a leftist. Surveys show that many Obama voters did not agree.
I wrote above that much of what was said I did not agree with. A lot was tactics and we did not do a good enough job with young people. The basic message of Republicans is capitalism and free markets. Part of that is smaller government where it can safely be made smaller. I think that health care is going to have to become a government-run entity for a number of reasons I have outlined here.
That may look like a contradiction but health care has become something like fire and police protection. There is a Republican approach that retains free choice for both patent and physician. We are losing that right now. My son is diabetic. He is in the hospital right now in danger of losing his foot. He is going to a private medical group were he has seen the physician once in the past year. His treatment has been by a nurse practitioner and, when he expressed frustration at his care, he was fired as a patient. Two weeks later, he was in the hospital with sepsis due to an infection that they probably missed. When he became diabetic ten years ago (he is 39), his new diabetic education program (the single most important part of diabetic care) consisted of a videotape. He was an HMO member. I paid for him to go to a good endocrinologist’s office to attend classes with a dietitian. He has private care that is no better than the county hospital, in my opinion. I just don’t think the present course is worth the money it costs. The French do better and have more freedom.
There is a Byron York column today that addresses your question I think. The principles haven’t changed; the people did.
Not being able to effectively utilize such powerful tools of communication like Facebook, Email, and even MySpace reinforces the image of the GOP as being a party older, out of touch boomers who just aren’t even *in touch* and therefore can’t even begin to grasp that its a new day…(while actually being same ‘ol, same ‘ol). The point being if we cannot even do the simple stuff, how on earth are we going to do the hard stuff – re-establishing conservative principles and coming to a concensus on just how big the tent should be?
Mike,
I’m sorry to hear about your son’s troubles. Maybe the doctor’s office should be held accountable if they failed to treat your son properly. I admit I know very little about how to fix the health care system so I read your opinions on that with interest.
My point about my son, who is to have another surgery in a few minutes, was that he is a private patient in a system that is no better now than the county hospitals I trained in, and probably worse. I think we did a better job for those illegal immigrants.