CPAC’s big, gay headache

CPAC has a GOProud problem.

The small, but outspoken, gay conservative group just won’t go away, despite the best efforts of some of the conservative leaders behind the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

The American Conservative Union (ACU), whose board grants access to the annual summit, began barring GOProud as a co-sponsor in 2012 — after welcoming the organization in 2010 and 2011.

But why was GOProud barred from CPAC sponsorship in the first place? That depends on who you ask.

ACU Chairman Al Cardenas addressed the question in a radio interview on Friday, attributing their exclusion to “over-the-top” behavior…

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Source: Daily Caller

Former GOP Congressman advocates market-based climate change solutions

WASHINGTON — A former congressman says he has the solution to the world’s carbon emissions problem. And he’s a Republican.

With climate change back on lawmakers’ radar after President Barack Obama’s second inaugural address, former Rep. Bob Inglis is one of the few in his party willing to speak out on the issue. A victim of the tea party’s wrath in 2010, Inglis represented one of South Carolina’s most conservative districts for 12 years. Now he believes proposing a conservative answer to climate change could help the GOP rebound politically.

After he was voted out of office, Inglis established the Energy and Enterprise Initiative at George Mason University. Its plan is simple: end tax breaks for all fuels, tax carbon pollution and cut taxes elsewhere to ensure that the government collects no more revenue than it would otherwise receive.

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Source: Daily Caller

Time to Grow Up, GOP

By Jonah Goldberg

It's hard for a lot of people, particularly on the right, to recognize that the conservative movement's problems are mostly problems of success. The Republican Party's problems are much more recognizable as the problems of failure, including the failure to recognize the limits of that movement's success.

American conservatism began as a kind of intellectual hobbyist's group with little hope of changing the broader society. Albert Jay Nock, the cape-wearing libertarian intellectual -- he called himself a "philosophical anarchist" -- who inspired a very young William F. Buckley Jr., argued that political change was impossible because the masses were rubes, goons, fools or sheep, victims of the eternal tendency of the powerful to exploit the powerless.

Buckley, who rightly admired Nock for many things, rightly disagreed on this point. Buckley trusted the people more than the intellectuals. Moreover, as Buckley's friend Richard Weaver said, "ideas have consequences" and, consequently, it is possible to rally the public to your cause.

It took time. In an age when conservative books make millions, it's hard to imagine how difficult it…

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Source: Town Hall

GOP Could Use the Whiskey the Tea Party Drinks

While many of our heroes have lost their gloss, Abraham Lincoln still shines brightly for many Americans because there is so much to learn from his life.

For example, in 1858 Abraham Lincoln was defeated in his race for the United States Senate by Stephen Douglas, making it Lincoln’s third electoral defeat in a row. As Lincoln emerged from the telegraph office into the rain-soaked street in Springfield, Illinois he lost his balance when his foot slipped on the slick boardwalk. Catching himself before he tumbled into the mud Lincoln muttered to under his breath, “A slip, but not a fall.”

He then smiled brightly.

Recognizing the…

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Source: Town Hall

To Create Boom, GOP Needs to Change Tune

Obama comes out the victor in the messaging battle of the fiscal cliff negotiations. CNN contributor Ruben Navarrette Jr. said: “He is so good at the business of politics that he’s really outmaneuvered them.”

How did he do this? According to John Judis in the New Republic, “He campaigned publicly. He framed the issues. He put the Republicans on the defensive in a way that he failed to do during much of his first term.”

Even the far-right Brietbart.com agrees. In a post titled: “GOP drift losing ‘cliff’ message battle,” Mike Flynn argues: “The GOP is doing nothing to educate the public about the stakes involved. President Obama, however, convincingly acts as if he is, and the public believes him. The GOP is tending to the weeds, while Obama tends to the forest. In other words, the GOP presents positions, not principle. Obama avoids positions and presents lofty visions. It is no wonder the GOP is getting clobbered.”

Within these snippets about the “message,” is a lesson…

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Source: Town Hall

Rand Paul: I'm thinking about a presidential bid

Sen. Rand Paul, heir to his father Rep. Ron Paul's political establishment and following, said Friday that he is thinking about running for president, declaring that only a "libertarian-Republican" can unite the GOP.

Speaking on "The Andrea Tantaros Show with Jason Mattera," which debuted this week, the Kentucky Republican said that while he hasn't ruled a presidential run in 2016 in or out, the GOP is going to have to turn to somebody like him to win enough voters to beat a Democrat.

"We are going to have to have somebody a little bit different than we've had in the past," he told…

Read more and hear Senator Paul’s audioclip.

Source: Washington Examiner