DeMint: States can lead conservative comeback
Since the 2012 election, some conservatives have blamed their losses on their message while others pointed fingers at the messengers. Truth is, both camps have a point.
That’s why Jim DeMint aims to tackle both problems from his new perch at the Heritage Foundation, which he is joining as president after eight years as a U.S. senator from South Carolina.
“I’m convinced if we have the right ideas, the right messengers, the right message, we can win,” DeMint told me Tuesday before greeting Heritage members at the Westin Buckhead.
Part of the challenge is stylistic: “We can’t just talk like a bunch of engineers” about things like budget deficits, he argued.
“We’ve got to help people see how our policies actually can make their lives better. … And the way we can do it is actually put the camera on people whose lives have been changed.”
DeMint pointed specifically to the different approaches GOP-led Pennsylvania and Democrat-controlled New York have taken to their natural-gas deposits which have been made more accessible by hydraulic-fracturing, or “fracking,” technology.
“It’s almost like a line between North and South Korea,” DeMint said. “On one side, in New York, they’re not developing the energy. And on the Pennsylvania side, we can talk to families whose lives are better” because of the jobs that have come thanks to fracking.
There will be more opportunities for making such comparisons thanks to the one area where conservatives actually made inroads last November.
“We’ve got more conservative governors and legislatures, [and] they’re doing bold things now with the states on school choice, with tax reform. … We’ve just got to showcase those ideas and show how they’re working.”
Even without a turnover of power in Washington, DeMint said there are ways for conservative state leaders to prod the feds in the right direction.
He pointed to the 26 states that sued to overturn Obamacare. While they didn’t get the entire law declared unconstitutional, they did persuade the Supreme Court to rule Congress was overly coercive in threatening to reduce the states’ existing Medicaid funding if they didn’t expand the program.
But despite their legal victory, some conservative governors have been reluctant to decline the expansion — and the federal funds that come with it, albeit at a cost of billions of dollars for the states.
“Some governors realize this is a dead-end street,” he said. “At some point, you’ve got to say, ‘Keep your money, we’re going to make it ourselves.’ That’s where we have to really work on block-grant ideas, so that states can get back the money they send up there, whether it be for transportation or education or Medicaid.
“We’re going to try to build a coalition of states that will push back against the federal government on these things. I think we’re close to having half the states who would come together to just say no.”
Banding together will become even more crucial very soon, he warned.
“What you’re going to see over the next few years, is these states that are failing, with terrible tax policy, regulatory policy, energy policy, they’re going to be in Washington needing a bailout,” he said.
“That’s why I think this coalition of states, what I might call a Coalition of Responsible States, is so important, to give each other support and push back against the federal government.”
– By Kyle Wingfield
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577 comments Add your comment
getalife
February 18th, 2013
12:19 pm
“romney in a landslide” fox news.
Bruno
February 18th, 2013
12:20 pm
I swear that rooster was alive when it left here
HD–One of my former employees had a rooster which she let run free, and she couldn’t understand why all of her neighbors were pissed. So that you understand better, they lived in a high-density neighborhood in Norcross.
md
February 18th, 2013
12:22 pm
“Keep on believing that “liberal media” myth if it helps you sleep better.”
Hmmm, it is not too difficult to watch/listen/read a media source these days and not figure out which way it is slanted. All one has to do is look at the questions being asked or the issue being covered and connect the dots. It’s a matter of logic………
Politico
February 18th, 2013
12:23 pm
Those who were going to spike the ball when they thought Romney was going to win and the Supreme Court was going to strike down Obamacare say what?
Cheesy Grits is gone but not forgotten
February 18th, 2013
12:23 pm
Rafe: None of these stats on Red States taking fed dollars include the fact that retirees move here, most federal military installations and defense plants are here, and the percentage of minority population is higher in Red States. Lies, damn lies, and statistics.
This has been debunked many times.
There are more minorities in Chicago than the entire state of Georgia.
Yet Illinois doesn’t receive nearly the Federal dollars a moocher state like Georgia receives.
You have failed.
Hillbilly D
February 18th, 2013
12:23 pm
Bruno
If I lived in a high density neighborhood, anywhere, I think a rooster would be the least of my gripes.
Of course, I have the occasional bear in the yard here, so a rooster ain’t no big deal.
td
February 18th, 2013
12:24 pm
“As I wrote in a piece last year, the news media seems to get the most consistent backlash for being liberal, more than teachers or even Hollywood. The Fox News Channel was even built in part to counteract all the “bias” out there in the news media. The same liberal media that makes up the vast majority of our war correspondence, our White House and congressional correspondence and our daily news briefings that cover every area of foreign affairs and domestic policy, and it all airs or streams twenty-four hours a day, everyday of the year. So couldn’t it be argued that it is members of the news media that are the most qualified to pick a side?
As a liberal myself, I am proud that the news media often leans left. The fact that it is their sole purpose to intricately monitor our laws, our lawmakers, our wars, our allies and enemies, our domestic and foreign policy, our current events, only makes me confident that I am leaning the right way. I would rather my ideology be in line with the reporters embedded with our troops on the battlefield, or with a veteran newsman who has covered Congress and the White House for twenty-plus years. Simplistically, I would compare this to buying a toothbrush that four out of five dentists agree is the right choice — I’ll take that one. Furthermore, is it that liberals are drawn to a career covering the news or is covering the news making them more progressive? I would more likely believe the latter. Are we to believe that it is a giant conspiracy that is sending all these liberals kids into a life of reporting the news? Not likely.
Even with all this liberal bias out there, a recent Pew Research report found that political ideology in the U.S. held steady in 2011, with 40 percent of Americans continuing to describe their views as conservative, 35 percent as moderate, and 21 percent as liberal. So while the ‘liberal media’ does not seem to be having a dramatic effect on ideology it does beg the question — shouldn’t the country be leaning in the same ideological direction as the people who cover this stuff for a living?”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-stenholm/why-paul-ryan-is-mostly-r_b_1953054.html
Centrist
February 18th, 2013
12:24 pm
getalife posted concerning the European economies: “True, austerity failed badly. Lets not do that crap here to repeat their mistake.”
Austerity?? Good grief, have you missed the European sovereign-debt crisis and the term PIIGS (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece) and France not far behind that is dooming the Euro? Are you aware Europe is back in recession?
We ARE repeating their mistake.
Dusty
February 18th, 2013
12:25 pm
Bruno
Hillbilly lives in a high density neighborhood. He’s got around 80 thousand warm bodies living right next door.
Politico
February 18th, 2013
12:26 pm
Years ago, Republican party chair Rich Bond explained that conservatives’ frequent denunciations of ‘liberal bias’ in the media were part of ‘a strategy’ (Washington Post, 8/20/92). Comparing journalists to referees in a sports match, Bond explained: ‘If you watch any great coach, what they try to do is “work the refs.” Maybe the ref will cut you a little slack next time.’”
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
February 18th, 2013
12:26 pm
Finn–Most people give up taunting around the 2nd or 3rd grade.
I seem to remember some serious taunting and ball spiking the wee hours in the morning of the SCOTUS decision on the health care bill.
How did that pan out?
Politico
February 18th, 2013
12:27 pm
” ‘I admit it,’Bill Kristol told The New Yorker. ‘The whole idea of the ‘liberal media’ was often used as an excuse by conservatives for conservative failures.’”
Cheesy Grits is gone but not forgotten
February 18th, 2013
12:28 pm
Hmmm, it is not too difficult to watch/listen/read a media source these days and not figure out which way it is slanted. All one has to do is look at the questions being asked or the issue being covered and connect the dots. It’s a matter of logic……
Yes its very telling which side is telling the truth.
Let see we have a recent example where they actually kept score ( Voted )
NY Times and Nate Silver ( Liberal and absolutely nailed it. !00 percent accurate )
Fox News and Dick Morris ( Conservative and were way way off. Not even close )
Its that way all the time too.
getalife
February 18th, 2013
12:29 pm
“Are you aware Europe is back in recession?
We ARE repeating their mistake.”
Actually, it is a triple dip recession and the gop have focused on austerity instead of job growth for four years.
DJ Sniper
February 18th, 2013
12:29 pm
TD, that was a nice try, but the “liberal media” is nothing but a battle cry from those on the right who can’t seem to figure out why the GOP continues to get a bad rap.
td
February 18th, 2013
12:30 pm
Cheesy Grits is gone but not forgotten
February 18th, 2013
12:23 pm
Rafe: None of these stats on Red States taking fed dollars include the fact that retirees move here, most federal military installations and defense plants are here, and the percentage of minority population is higher in Red States. Lies, damn lies, and statistics.
This has been debunked many times.
There are more minorities in Chicago than the entire state of Georgia.
You just make up this BS as you go. The population of Chicago is 2.6 million and 14% are African American or about 300,000 African Americans. Georgia has a population of about 3 million African Americans. Do a little math.
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/17/1714000.html
md
February 18th, 2013
12:31 pm
“True, austerity failed badly.”
You are aware that Germany was one of the first to implement some austerity and they have been carrying the entire continent….right?
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100353656/Germany_Plans_More_Austerity_Measures_Report
Hillbilly D
February 18th, 2013
12:31 pm
I’ve never seen Dick Morris as a conservative. He worked for the Clintons, for a long time, after all. In my view, he’s a hired gun who will say whatever somebody pays him to say, which means he has a whole lot in common with most talking heads on the TV.
Cheesy Grits is gone but not forgotten
February 18th, 2013
12:31 pm
” ‘I admit it,’Bill Kristol told The New Yorker. ‘The whole idea of the ‘liberal media’ was often used as an excuse by conservatives for conservative failures.’”
They have been doing this for years.
Its a strategy called ” Working the refs ”
See just like complaining to the ref they know if they whine enough about the big bad “liberal media” it will win them a few points later.
A good strategy because it works. Doesn’t make it right.
td
February 18th, 2013
12:32 pm
“The liberal bias of the mainstream media tilts so far left that any outlets not in that political lane, like the Drudge Report and Fox News Channel, look far more conservative than they really are, according to a UCLA professor’s new book out next month.
In a crushing body blow to the pushers of the so-called “Fox Effect,” which claims the conservative media is dragging the left into the center, UCLA political science professor Tim Groseclose in Left Turn claims that “all” mainstream news outlets have a liberal bias in their reporting that makes even moderate organizations appear out of the mainstream and decidedly right-wing to news consumers who are influenced by the slant. [Read Fox's Huckabee slams MSNBC's Matthews, Scarborough over bias.]
“Fox News is clearly more conservative than ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC and National Public Radio. Some will conclude that ‘therefore, this means that Fox News has a conservative bias,’” he writes in an advance copy provided to Washington Whispers. “Instead, maybe it is centrist, and possibly even left-leaning, while all the others are far left. It’s like concluding that six-three is short just because it is short compared to professional basketball players.”
What’s more, he says, “this point illustrates a common misconception about the Drudge Report. According to my analysis, the Drudge Report is approximately the most fair, balanced, and centrist news outlet in the United States. Yet, the overwhelming majority of media commentators claim that it has a conservative bias. The problem, I believe, is that such commentators mistake relative bias for absolute bias. Yes, the Drudge Report is more conservative than the average U.S. news outlet. But it is a logical mistake to use that to infer that it is based on an absolute scale.”
http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2011/06/16/book-liberal-media-distorts-news-bias
Cheesy Grits is gone but not forgotten
February 18th, 2013
12:32 pm
We ARE repeating their mistake.
If we go through with the sequester we will.
You dont cut spending during bad times. That only makes it worse.
Ask the Brits.
getalife
February 18th, 2013
12:33 pm
I think trusting Germany is another mistake.
Cheesy Grits is gone but not forgotten
February 18th, 2013
12:33 pm
According to my analysis, the Drudge Report is approximately the most fair, balanced, and centrist news outlet in the United States
All credibility lost
td
February 18th, 2013
12:34 pm
”
Wrapping up two years as public editor of The New York Times, veteran journalist Arthur Brisbane last week reflected on the liberal slant that often pervades the news coverage of what is still the most influential brand in American newspapers.
“The hive on Eighth Avenue,” he wrote, referring to the Times’s headquarters, “is powerfully shaped by a culture of like minds — a phenomenon, I believe, that is more easily recognized from without than from within.” He credited the papers’ editors and reporters with trying to enforce “fairness and balance” in their presidential campaign coverage. But by and large, what appears in the Times “virtually bleeds” with “political and cultural progressivism.” The result is that “developments like the Occupy movement and gay marriage seem almost to erupt in the Times . . . more like causes than news subjects.” (The Boston Globe is owned by The New York Times Company.)
Brisbane isn’t the first Times ombudsman to say all this. A predecessor, Daniel Okrent, was even more forceful in 2004. “Is the Times a Liberal Newspaper?” asked the headline on his final column. “Of course it is.”
Liberal media bias isn’t merely in the eyes of conservative beholders. Large pluralities of the public routinely tell pollsters that the news media are too liberal. At least some journalists concede the point. There are so many left-leaning journalists, ABC’s then-political director Mark Halperin observed in 2006, “that it tilts the coverage quite frequently, in many issues, in a liberal direction.” On C-Span last March, Politico’s executive editor Jim VandeHei said there was “no doubt” about the dominant mindset within the profession: “If you put all of the reporters that I’ve ever worked with on truth serum, most of them vote Democratic.”
Yet denial is widespread. At the Republican convention in Tampa last week, ABC’s chief political correspondent George Stephanopoulos — who first gained fame as a former aide to President Clinton — was asked whether he sees a liberal bias in the media. “I don’t,” he answered tersely. When the question was repeated, Stephanopoulos walked away.
Is this willful blindness? By my lights, the leftward tilt of the “mainstream” news broadcasters — ABC-CBS-CNN-NBC-NPR — is as self-evident as the rightward tilt of the notable exception, Fox News. But human beings have a great capacity for believing in their own objectivity. If you are “surrounded by a culture of like minds,” as Brisbane wrote of the “hive” at The New York Times, it’s easy to assume that your own political prejudices represent the neutral center. When nearly everyone in the newsroom is a liberal Democrat, casting conservatives and Republicans — and their ideas — in a negative light can become second nature.
But maybe that wouldn’t be such a problem if news organizations were more forthright about hoisting their ideological colors. For decades newspapers and broadcasters have tried to maintain a façade of impartiality. Reporters and editors cover political developments and public controversies that generate strong, even emotional, views. Yet they are expected to keep their own strong and emotional views — which everyone knows they have — entirely separate from their coverage. The ideal of objective, unbiased journalism may be admirable. But I wonder if it doesn’t cause more distortion than it prevents.
Consider the mainstream media’s fixation on the supposed racism of the Republican Party. Republicans canceled the entire first day of their convention last week in response to the threat posed by Hurricane Isaac. (They did the same thing in response to Hurricane Gustav in 2008, when their convention was in Minnesota.) Clearly the GOP was at pains to show respect for those in the storm’s path. That didn’t prevent David Chalian, Washington bureau chief of Yahoo News, from declaring heatedly that Republicans were “not concerned at all,” but were “happy to have a party with black people drowning.”
Chalian didn’t realize he was speaking into a live mike. His slander was publicly broadcast, and Yahoo fired him. I have no sympathy for Chalian, whose slur was contemptible. But is political journalism really elevated when it’s OK for reporters and editors to express such toxic prejudices among their colleagues in private, so long as they dissemble when the camera or mike comes on?
Better to have media bias than media that only pretend not to take sides. As long as news organizations don’t hide or deny their strong partisan leanings, viewers and readers can make up their own minds. Let Fox and CNN and the Times and The Wall Street Journal wear their political biases on their sleeves. We would have less sanctimony about the purity of journalism, and a more freewheeling marketplace of ideas.
“That’s the way it is,” Walter Cronkite used to say. But there never was just one way to report the news. Maybe it’s time the pretense stopped.”
http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2012/09/05/jacoby/wDrjO3kelodOSnF33wDSiK/story.html
Politico
February 18th, 2013
12:36 pm
“I’ve never seen Dick Morris as a conservative.”
he is a tired gun that will say whatever to the top payer
That td fella loves his political predictions. He was touting them all over the blogs right up until around 9 on election night.
getalife
February 18th, 2013
12:36 pm
“According to my analysis, the Drudge Report is approximately the most fair, balanced, and centrist news outlet in the United States”
Dang that is ignorant.
Dusty
February 18th, 2013
12:37 pm
Politico,
Maybe Billl Kristol tells jokes sometimes. His brother tells a lot of “funnies”.
Besides, conservatives don’t fail. They won’t accept poor liberal logic. That’s all.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
February 18th, 2013
12:37 pm
Cheesy claiming anyone’s credibility is lost is about as ironic as it can get . . . .
Cheesy Grits is gone but not forgotten
February 18th, 2013
12:38 pm
He was touting them all over the blogs right up until around 9 on election night.
I go back to those archives whenever I need a chuckle.
They really did think Romney was going to win.
But when you get your info in the Fox News bubble its understandable I guess.
Politico
February 18th, 2013
12:38 pm
hired gun, but after being let go from Fox, I guess one can say he is a tired gun as well
td
February 18th, 2013
12:39 pm
Above is three quick sources, even lib writers admit, that the MSM shows a left bias and leaning. How much more evidence do you progressives need to prove to you this point?
Jefferson
February 18th, 2013
12:39 pm
So why are the neocons mad all day ?
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
February 18th, 2013
12:41 pm
According to my analysis, the Drudge Report is approximately the most fair, balanced, and centrist news outlet in the United States.
According to my analysis, I will be spending the evening with Miranda Kerr.
getalife
February 18th, 2013
12:41 pm
td,
It is corporate media that have a corporate bias.
Cheesy Grits is gone but not forgotten
February 18th, 2013
12:42 pm
Cheesy claiming anyone’s credibility is lost is about as ironic as it can get . . . .
Meh your opinion.
I dont think much of yours either
Move along.
Politico
February 18th, 2013
12:42 pm
Dusty
Nice swing and a miss
That would be the Bill Kristol who works for Fox and the Weekly Standard
Try again
Real Athens
February 18th, 2013
12:43 pm
“Besides, conservatives don’t fail. They won’t accept poor liberal logic. That’s all.”
I knew all along Mitt Romney was a liberal. No one would listen!
Cheesy Grits is gone but not forgotten
February 18th, 2013
12:45 pm
So why are the neocons mad all day ?
That is their natural disposition.
For those who want to know the truth.
Rachael Maddow ( Yes she is very liberal ) is doing a great piece on exposing the outright lies told to the American people leading to the disaster in Iraq.
Dusty
February 18th, 2013
12:47 pm
Awww I’m leaving. This place has gone crazy.
Cheesy just said: ” You don’t cut spending during bad times. It only makes it worse.”
Like the captain of the Titanic might have said: “Don’t dodge the icebergs. It only makes it worse.”
Pure liberal logic as we see today.
md
February 18th, 2013
12:48 pm
“You dont cut spending during bad times. That only makes it worse.”
Obviously didn’t read the link on Germany or do any other research on Germany……they did it and are continuing to do it and will have a structurally balanced budget by 2014. So to say it doesn’t work is a bunch of huuuey…………
getalife
February 18th, 2013
12:51 pm
md,
Germany’s banks did not buy into the mortgage scam so they have money.
I think Germany leading the EU is a bad mistake.
Great Britain will vote to leave that union.
getalife
February 18th, 2013
12:53 pm
Dusty,
Where is @@?
Real Athens
February 18th, 2013
12:55 pm
“Like the captain of the Titanic might have said: “Don’t dodge the icebergs. It only makes it worse.”
Revisionist history, the kind proliferated by Dick Armey.
Dusty
February 18th, 2013
12:57 pm
POLITICO Put on your glasses.
I said:”Maybe Bill Kristol tells jokes sometimes. His brother tells a lot of ‘funnies’.
Get it? Probably not. .
getalife
February 18th, 2013
12:58 pm
The time to cut is at full employment but you cut too much and go back to a recession and massive layoffs..
You have to be very careful because the global economy depends on a strong US economy.
md
February 18th, 2013
12:58 pm
“It is corporate media that have a corporate bias.”
Ummmm……all media is corporate media, unless one wants to count the occasional individual blogger…….and most heads of said media have and opinion, hence an agenda.
In the old days, a good journalist was one in which the reader/viewer could not tell as to what party/view a jounalist might favor, now they wear it on their sleeves……on both “sides”.
Politico
February 18th, 2013
12:59 pm
md
I’m not saying that Germany isn’t doing right for Germany, but is there growth rate higher or lower than the US at this point in time?
DJ Sniper
February 18th, 2013
12:59 pm
I see I wasn’t the only one who got a kick out td and his polls. He was quick to post any and every poll that showed the possibility of Romney winning the election.
As for those articles he posted about the so-called “liberal media”: One of those articles was already doomed when the author actually called the Drudge Report fair and accurate. As for Fox News, it’s common knowledge that they have no problems twisting and distorting the truth for their base.
md
February 18th, 2013
1:00 pm
“I think Germany leading the EU is a bad mistake.”
I bet Germany feels the same way some days considering they are having to carry all the dead weight. That socialist utopia looks a bit different when a nation is having to carry all the slackers……..
getalife
February 18th, 2013
1:01 pm
“In the old days, a good journalist was one in which the reader/viewer could not tell as to what party/view a jounalist might favor, now they wear it on their sleeves……on both “sides””
Now, corporate media run 24/7 so they have to have something to talk about.