Category: Yglesias Award Nominee

“We don’t want to have a litmus test. Somebody who disagrees with me on my pro-traditional marriage stance can still be just as good as a Republican as I am. It’s just that simple,” – Haley Barbour.

“Margaret Thatcher’s last years were spent coping with dementia, a terrible illness. If, like us, you were disgusted by how she treated the least well off in Britain and around the world, the old line about not wishing something on your worst enemies still applies. We can’t help but think it’s pretty lousy to celebrate or gloat over anyone’s suffering and death and we don’t want anyone else to do it either.

We just want to place front and centre people who had no place in the Thatcherite worldview. And we want to do that in a way that can actually do some good. You can help us by donating to the excellent charities we have chosen to represent a fraction of them – the homeless, miners’ families, gay teenagers, Hillsborough survivors and South African victims of the Apartheid regime,” – a quote from a British liberal group called “Don’t Hate, Donate.”

They’re afraid some of the truly horrible bile directed at Margaret Thatcher since her death may be backfiring. I sure hope so. I have every respect for those who disdain the Thatcher legacy and are now saying so forthrightly. There should be no phony squelching of debate or universal deference when someone of Thatcher’s stature dies. But there are some limits in decency. Death-parties? Misogynist placards? They remind me one reason why I was a Thatcherite in the first place. The ugly extremism of her opposition.

“Obama is very possibly a world-historical political figure, and until those who oppose him come to grips with this fact, they will get him wrong every time,” – JPod, finally getting it.

“A political party is not a church and its function is not to promulgate and support a religious doctrine,” – Ralph Reed.

(The sincerity of this statement should be viewed in exactly the same way one views anything Reed says, but, still, he said it.)

“There will be opportunities ahead. But do you want to risk the full faith and credit of the United States government over ObamaCare? That’s a very tough argument to make,” – John Boehner, in response to Hannity’s urging to leverage the debt ceiling to repeal the ACA.

“We have to, as a Republican Party, get bigger, not smaller, and we’re a party that’s becoming more regionalized and I think a smaller, less significant national party. We’re a great red state party,” – Senator Rand Paul.

Award Glossary here.

“Conservatives are trying so hard to highlight controversies, no matter how trivial, we have forgotten the basics of reporting: W5 + H as I learned in grade school, also known as who, what, where, when, why, and how. I think conservatives need to reset some of their reportorial resources to tell the stories that need to be told by focusing on the facts at hand in a world view of the right. We need to establish a baseline for integrity in reporting that then allows us to highlight the truly outrageous. That baseline must be the basics of who, what, where, when, why, and how and it must be set before taking the next step into analysis of motivation and its implications. …

Conservatives must start telling stories, not just producing white papers and peddling daily outrage.  The stories we choose to tell should have all the information we need to be informed of facts and paint a picture of those facts’ impact,” – Erick Erickson. Awards glossary here.

“Something people who complain about GOP-leaning wonks don’t seem to understand: there is a selection effect at work. Many people who might be GOP-leaning wonks in another universe are now either unaffiliated or, in some cases, D-leaning. So the current universe of GOP-leaning wonks are people who have some reason to attach themselves to the GOP coalition, e.g.: social conservatism, hawkishness, regional identity, etc. Or the GOP-leaning wonk could be unusually patient, i.e., she/he could believe that change takes decades rather than months or even years. People who don’t buy this thesis exit,” – Reihan Salam, telling the truth about the collapse of the conservative intelligentsia and its eclipse by the young left.

(The quote is composed of multiple consecutive tweets, like Reihan’s immense brain. The link is to the first tweet.)

“While serving as governor of Utah, I pushed for civil unions and expanded reciprocal benefits for gay citizens. I did so not because of political pressure—indeed, at the time 70 percent of Utahns were opposed—but because as governor my role was to work for everybody, even those who didn’t have access to a powerful lobby. Civil unions, I believed, were a practical step that would bring all citizens more fully into the fabric of a state they already were—and always had been—a part of.

That was four years ago. Today we have an opportunity to do more: conservatives should start to lead again and push their states to join the nine others that allow all their citizens to marry. I’ve been married for 29 years. My marriage has been the greatest joy of my life. There is nothing conservative about denying other Americans the ability to forge that same relationship with the person they love,” – Jon Huntsman. Award glossary here.

“We know that we’ve done and said things that hurt people. Inflicting pain on others wasn’t the goal, but it was one of the outcomes. We wish it weren’t so, and regret that hurt. We know that we dearly love our family. They now consider us betrayers, and we are cut off from their lives, but we know they are well-intentioned. We will never not love them. We know that we can’t undo our whole lives. We can’t even say we’d want to if we could; we are who we are because of all the experiences that brought us to this point. What we can do is try to find a better way to live from here on. That’s our focus,” – Megan Phelps-Roger, granddaughter of Fred Phelps, on her departure from Westboro Baptist Church.

(Hat tip: Joe My God)