That would work!

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-cla1.htm

Ummmm…Brian…a clap trap is a place where you’re likely to _get_ the clap. In other words, a very low class place of ill repute. A dump.

This is not so much about the presidency in 2012 as a reasoned articulation of a sound energy policy not rooted in suicide, a fiscal policy not rooted in economic slavery, a defense policy rooted in border defense first, a defense of American exceptialism, etc. by a spokesperson that has the ability to break through the fog of the media filters. It might also break the monotony of the self-flagellation by the left towards America.

That was a wonderful paragraph, BrianE!

Can you imagine if someone stood up and proudly articulated every single one of those points you just mentioned? Especially your quiet inclusion of American exceptionalism … rather than an urge to apologize endlessly to other nations, any of whom have already done worse, or if faced with our problems, would have done worse.

Maybe someday soon it will be Morning In America again.

In the aftermath of her decision to drop out and cash in, Palin’s standing in the G.O.P. actually rose in the USA Today/Gallup poll. No less than 71 percent of Republicans said they would vote for her for president. That overwhelming majority isn’t just the “base” of the Republican Party that liberals and conservatives alike tend to ghettoize as a rump backwater minority. It is the party, or pretty much what remains of it in the Barack Obama era.

That’s why Palin won’t go gently into the good night, much as some Republicans in Washington might wish. She is not just the party’s biggest star and most charismatic television performer; she is its only star and charismatic performer. Most important, she stands for a genuine movement: a dwindling white nonurban America that is aflame with grievances and awash in self-pity as the country hurtles into the 21st century and leaves it behind. Palin gives this movement a major party brand and political plausibility that its open-throated media auxiliary, exemplified by Glenn Beck, cannot.

After climbing out of the backwater swamp, putting out the fire and drying off the self-pity and greviences, I’m tuning into Beck while waiting for the next NYT installment of claptrap.

Suek,
That’s claptrap, not the clap!

I do not think that word means what you _think_ it means…!

She Broke the G.O.P. and Now She Owns It

It’s more likely that she will never get anywhere near the White House, and not just because of her own limitations. The Palinist “real America” is demographically doomed to keep shrinking. But the emotion it represents is disproportionately powerful for its numbers. It’s an anger that Palin enjoyed stoking during her “palling around with terrorists” crusade against Obama on the campaign trail. It’s an anger that’s curdled into self-martyrdom since Inauguration Day.

Its voice can be found in the postings at a Web site maintained by the fans of Mark Levin, the Obama hater who is, at this writing, the No.2 best-selling hardcover nonfiction writer in America. (Glenn Beck is No.1 in paperback nonfiction.) Politico surveyed them last week. “Bottomline, do you know of any way we can remove these idiots before this country goes down the crapper?” wrote one Levin fan. “I WILL HELP!!! Should I buy a gun?” Another called for a new American revolution, promising “there will be blood.”

In 1992, my brother-in-law, who had spent his life firmly nestled in the back pocket of the Democrat party, broke free to become a rabid Perotite. He’d had enough of the duplicity of the Democrats, but was unable to shed the propagandist fog that defined the Republican party and being drawn to the homespun populism, and the commonsense colloqualisms, he drove the stake of a Reform Party banner deeply into the firm American soil of his front yard.
Gary spent the year trying to win me over to the cause. I explained that the country wasn’t set up for third party candidates, that supporting Perot was going to do nothing but elect Bill Clinton, that it was a fool’s quest. But Gary remained firm in his support of the little general.
It wasn’t that I was so enamored of Bush senior, and I certainly identified with both the problems and solutions that Perot so matter-of-factly articulated, but I realized for all the failings of HW, Bill Clinton was manifestly worse.
Gary maintained the Reform Party ties into the ’96 elections, but the movement waned and he moved eventually to the GOP camp. As the GOP exists currently, I’m not sure whether my brother-in-law is still in that camp. But it’s not because Gary’s positions have changed.

Sarah Palin is a Republican. But anyone with eyesight better than 20-60 can see she has an independent streak approximately the width of the McKenzie River. Since the Republican establishment seems determined to follow the ‘democrat lite’ strategy into obscurity, what an interesting idea to just move to a new banner, abandoning the excess RINO baggage along the way. (Wait, it doesn’t really require moving anywhere, since the Republican establishment seems to be barely to the right of Olympia Snow).
What Barack and Howard Dean have successfully demonstrated is that a loyal following and some good HTML programmers can raise a lot of money.

Now I still have my doubts that any third party movement in the U.S. can succeed. But it would be poetic justice to leave the likes of Noonan, Frum, and others arguing over the future of a dead party to turn out the lights.

This is not so much about the presidency in 2012 as a reasoned articulation of a sound energy policy not rooted in suicide, a fiscal policy not rooted in economic slavery, a defense policy rooted in border defense first, a defense of American exceptialism, etc. by a spokesperson that has the ability to break through the fog of the media filters. It might also break the monotony of the self-flagellation by the left towards America.