Whar a crass oversimplification as well as a straw man.

We have many, many ´deeply held views´ Mr. Podhoretz, but every election we are shouted down by our own political party and our candidates run scared from such views.

The problem is not conservatives, fiscal or otherwise. The problem is the GOP establishment constantly seeking favor from those that despise them.

Boehner´s proposed revenue enhancers by elimination of deductions is actually worse than the 3% rate increase on the rich. One of them is reducing seniors COLAS which are already being ate up by higher medicare premiums.

I still say the republicans should simply extend the middle class tax cuts and say Obama´s stimulus is off the table.That´l shut the barkers up and deprive Obama of election reward funds.If they go along with unemployment extensions,the base will explode.All these do is increase laziness.

Boehner is the problem. This man can not communicate. I would get up in front of everyone and keep yelling that no matter what we do Obama will go off the cliff....it´s his plan.

There’s no light at the end of the tunnel in the Republican message, no promise of better things to come.

I disagree. The promise of the message is the same one I give my twelve year old son. I understand that you don´t want to do your chores and help around the house, that you would rather spend your day playing video games than studying, that it sometimes it seems to you like the people who get ahead fastest are the ones who cheat and lie their way there.

But when we don´t do the chores, we don´t have clean clothes to wear or dishes to cook and eat with. There is no place to sit down and relax and you can´t even find the controllers for the video games. If we play all day instead of studying, we don´t learn things like how to write our own computer games or why mixing baking soda and vinegar is cool but mixing bleach and ammonia isn´t.

And when we cheat and lie to get what we want, not only will we find it hard to keep or maintain what we´ve gotten (it is difficult to live a lie) but people won´t trust us anymore, and trust is a valuable commodity.

He doesn´t always like it (who does?) but he understands it just fine.

The real problem is that we have a bunch of scoundrels claiming that you can get something for nothing and offering ´free´ samples to get people hooked. Blackguards, telling all who will listen that ´they will not surely die´.

It is, literally, the oldest trick in the book.

#4 that is the post of the week! Now if we could find some Republicans who would stand up, on TV, and hammer these points - exactly the way you´ve stated them. The electorate is not that far removed from your 12 yr old son - except that I suspect he´s smarter and more responsible. Thanks for the adult advice!

Let the tax rates rise on the wealthy; a lot of wealthy morons vote for Obama, let them pay up. Then the GOP becomes the party of no more spending. It´s the only good move they can make.

The problem is Obama and his fellow travellers in the msm.

That we are blaming republicans is ludicrous.

No wonder we are known as the stupid party.

The fact is that we have no public voice that is promoted unfiltered.

FNC is nothing more than CNN lite. In their schtick to be fair and ´balanced´ they give precious time to the likes of Beckel, Williams, Colmes, and other enemies of America.

Kick Beck to the curb and promote five (well, four,) idiots.

So we attack Boehner??????

I will add one point to #1 above. Our message is clear and it is a positive and uplifting one. To use Podhertzes amnalogy, my Mom made me eat spinach a nd Zucchini but I still love her deeply. The problem is that unlike the left we on the right do not get to define our message. That is done by the MSM, the de facto propaganda wing of the its Americas fault, eat the rich party.

I believe it was Heinlein who wrote a wonderful short story about a chance meeting on the sidewalk. One of the men is a pleasant and genial but somewhat forlorn man who asks the question "What if you were a good and decent man who angers an organization who controls the advertising, the education, the messaging, the very center of all around you? What chance does that man have to find peace in the world, or to even get the chance to explain?

I´ll leave it to your imagination who the forlorn man was but you get the point, if you are denied the ability to get your message out against a relentless flood of negative propaganda what chance do you have?

We MUST find a way to break the lefts death grip on the media, entertainment and the education of our youth. Otherwise we will be that forlorn mann on the street.

Boehner needs to take some time off and see the movie "Sophie´s Choice".

It´s what he´s being offered.

If we cannot hold Boehner responsible, then who can we pin the blame on? He is the majority leader, the Speaker of the House, and he should have a clear message about how money should be spent, or in this case, not spent. Yet, all he does is dissemble and cave to the Marxists. It is disheartening to say the least.

A central belief, that used to characterize the Republican Party, is that of self-reliance. In contrast, examine the contemporary system: a crypto-Muslim-Marxist dictator is forcing---with the threat of ruinous penalties or even imprisonment!---the hard-working, tax-paying class to subsidize the bone-idle, grifting, parasite class that (together with the academe, the MSM, liberal elite and the uninformed) is his power base. This is no longer a free country; it is a dictatorship where the tyrant hussein picks the givers and takers. It is reparations under a different name; or to use its abbreviation: revenge.

#8 nails it. But right now the media battle is like watching the Spanish conquer the Aztecs.

It´s not the GOP´s job to convince the takers to give up their Free Stuff. Their job is to convince the people who won´t vote for socialists that they offer an alternative. As much as I hate everything the Democrat party stands for, at least I know what they stand for. Except for lower taxes, I have no idea what the GOP stands for, and they can "message" all they want, talk is cheap. I want to see social programs eliminated, departments abolished, commissions de-commissioned, government employees terminated, offices closed, regulations de-regulated, judges disbarred, crooked politicians jailed. I want Washington DC returned to swampland. Get busy, GOP, or get gone.