The Stone Street Press

Conservatives blame Republicans.
Republicans blame Conservatives.

CSpan televised the whole depressing C-PAC show. One panel of five young ‘tea-partiers’ hurled a high-school level of nyah-nyah-nyah invective at Occupy Wall Street –which has been extraordinarily effective (I have in the past quoted the OWS examples of getting people –650,000 of them– to move their accounts, worth $4.5 billion, from large banks to credit unions; and scaring The Bank of America and Verizon, among others, into not raising their fees.)

Yes, we are entering a new world, where the voice of the people will not be silenced.

Sad to think that so many tea-partiers could so easily discover their kinship with OWS, if they could get over that right/left divide.

Fixing the future is not a partisan issue.
It is a people issue.
A 99% issue.

[NOTE: I drafted this short piece about NJ Governor Chris Christie a short while ago. Now I will only note here --as I publish it-- that Christie, who attacks President Obama for his alleged "destruction of the nation....and his toxic effects on it" is a member of that small elite group of A-Team Republican (definitely several cuts above the Romney-Gingrich-Santorum-Paul lot) who frequently insult and degrade President Obama, BUT --who all have refused to step in and "save the country that they love above all other things".

Christie-Mitch Daniels-Jeb Bush etc etc. Put up or shut up time has gone by, and you have refused to come forward.]

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[Here now, my earlier draft:

A word of advice to New Jersey Governor, Chris Christie:

You are Obama's angriest, harshest, most derisive critic.
Obama, you say, is destroying the nation!

... Many Republicans in despair turned to you,
Default Saviour of the Nation. They implored, they beseeched you to run.

But you TURNED DOWN the chance to save us all!
Why? More important things to do? Not the best time for you right now? Spend more time with the family (--around that Christie table!)

(Or --perhaps-- afraid you wouldn't win?)

You reveal your true self in your actions --and inactions.

My advice, Mr. Christie:
Put a sock in it. And a few more notches in that belt.

[Oh, and, by the way --well done in New Jersey.]

Friedman’s column today was a strong one. Some quotes from it, just to give you the flavor.

“Watching the Republican Party struggling to agree on a presidential candidate, one wonders whether the GOP shouldn’t just sit this election out –just give 2012 a pass….”

“…the party has let itself become the captive of conflicting ideological bases: anti-abortion advocates, anti-immigration activists, social conservatives worried about the sanctity of marriage, libertarians who want to shrink government, and anti-tax advocates who want to drown government in a bathtub.”

Friedman has in the past argued for a third party. Now he writes “What we definitely need is a second party, a coherent Republican opposition that is offering constructive conservative proposals on the key issues and is ready for strategic compromises to advance its interests and those of the country.”

How many times have I talked about this in the past –the Loyal Opposition!

Friedman ends up:
“Until the GOP stops being radical and returns to being conservative, it won’t provide what the country needs most now –competition– competition with Democrats on the issues that will determine whether we thrive in the 21st century. We need to hear conservative fiscal policies, energy policies, immigration policies, and public-private partnership concepts –not radical ones. Would somebody please restore our second party?”

Friedman ends with a trenchant sentence:
“The country is starved for a grownup debate.”