Pete Spiliakos

The last week has been sort of depressing when it comes to intra-Republican economic politics. You had the RNC report that ignored the public’s problematic perception of the Republicans as the party of the rich while implicitly blaming social conservatives and explicitly blaming opponents of . . . . Continue Reading »

So super-commenter Caleb Verbois and I were talking about why it is that politically suicidal tax plans like Herman Cain’s nine-nine-nine plan get any traction among Republicans. We agreed that some of it had to do with the misappropriation of Reagan nostalgia, but I didn’t find that . . . . Continue Reading »

Here is a report that describes (among other things) the declining wages of lower-skilled males.  It should haunt you for a little while.  Here is the Wall Street Journal praising hero-of-the-moment Rand Paul’s proposal for an expanded guest worker program.   Paul is also in . . . . Continue Reading »

I’m under the weather and not feeling well (or at least that is the story I’m going with), 1. This is progress. Rich Lowry notes that the divide between the Republican “establishment” and the “grassroots” is going nowhere. Conservatives and the rest of America are being badly served and . . . . Continue Reading »

I’m On The Square again and I’m talking about how the RNC “autopsy” gets the balance wrong between immigration reform and economic policy it its analysis of why Republicans do so badly among nonwhites. . . . . Continue Reading »

There is much in the Republican National Committee’s “autopsy” that has merit. It is about time that the Republicans prioritized winning a larger share of non-white voters. One good thing about the 2012 election is that it killed off the illusion that Republicans can keep winning by just reassembling the 1980s Reagan demographic coalition. Unfortunately, the RNC report introduces another illusion to Republican politics… . Continue Reading »

I’ll have thoughts at length later, 1. It gets right that winning over a greater share of nonwhites is a years-long project rather than something that can be done in an election season. Minds change, but they change slowly and people have to hear from you a lot before they will trust you . . . . Continue Reading »

I’m On The Square talking about Rand Paul. . . . . Continue Reading »

This is a frustrating moment if you believe in limited government. The statist left seems to be ascendant. We are on the path to a full government takeover of healthcare as premiums rise and Obamacare unravels the system of employer-provided health insurance. The failure to implement entitlement reform means that we are on the road to sharply higher taxes… . Continue Reading »

I watched the CPAC speech from conservative donor and philanthropist Foster Friess. Friess said we have to learn from the left: They speak to the heart and the emotion. We have a tendency to speak to the brain and the intellect. I don’t think that is the problem. I think that conservatives do . . . . Continue Reading »