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Go Home More Craziness from the Values Voter Summit

JONATHAN CHAIT SEPTEMBER 17, 2010

More Craziness from the Values Voter Summit

BY JONATHAN CHAIT

Reporter-researcher Tiffany Stanley is still at the Values Voter Summit, where attendees just heard from the event's most talked-about guest, Christine O'Donnell. First, she trumpeted the conservative revival:

The conservative movement was told to curl up in a fetal position and just stay there for the next eight years, thankyouverymuch. Well, how things have changed. During those dark days, where commonsense, patriotic Americans were looking for some silver lining, they stumbled upon the constitution.

You see, a funny thing happened on the way to our seats on the sideline. Those who had toiled for years in the values movement suddenly found ourselves surrounded by Americans who had found the most important value of all: liberty...

The small elite don't get us. They call us wacky. They call us wingnuts. We call us "We the People." [Applause]

[...]Will they attack us? Yes. Will they smear our background…? Undoubtedly. Will they lie about us, harrass our families, name call and try to intimidate us? They will. There's nothing safe about it. But is it worth it? Yes. Are those inalienable rights worth a little alientation from the beltway popular crowd? I say yes, yes, a thousand times yes.

Then, she railed against big government:

Bureaucrats and politicians in Washington think they should decide what kind of lightbulb we should use, what kind of toilet we flush, what kind of car we should drive. They even want unelected panels of bureaucrats to decide who gets what lifesaving treatment…. They'll let your teenage daughter buy an abortion, but they won't let her buy a sugary soda in a school's vending machine.

Finally, O'Donnell connected McDonald's in Moscow to ... a comeback for the Constitution:

This is not the America my generation knew. We grew up in a time of peace and prosperity, with big dreams and bold risks. As the Berlin Wall came down, we saw in front of our televisions and saw a hunger for freedom from the heavy boot of government coming from East Europe.

The golden arches went up in Moscow and here on our own land, family businesses became national chains, Walmart, Home Depot. Only in America can that happen. My generation saw America's economic genius fully on display on store shelves. They reject the narrative that's been imposed on them by the D.C. cocktail crowd, and they are digging up pearls of wisdom from the Federalist papers. And the Constitution is making a comeback!

In related news, the latest polls have O'Donnell trailing Democrat Chris Coons by double digits.

For more choice quotes and news from the summit, read Stanley's first dispatch, featuring Mike Huckabee and Michele Bachmann.

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15 comments

"They even want unelected panels of bureaucrats to decide who gets what lifesaving treatment." So as I mentioned in another Chait post, suppose there is a new $100,000 anti-cancer drug on the market that on average extends a person's life another six weeks. Should Christine O'Donnell and the other people in her plan have to pay for this drug in the form of higher premiums and/or higher cost-sharing because the terminal cancer patient demands it? And Ms. O'Donnell, how do we in the U.S. determine who gets treatment today? We do it the same way we determine who gets a beach house, who gets their children into good public schools, etc.? By ability to pay. If you can't afford the premiums and cost-sharing, you get zero treatment -- regardless of whether it has been proven to be clinically effective or not. Then again, I'm probably just debating a dining room table. ...

- jimbomoron

September 17, 2010 at 5:40pm

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Well, at least Christine O'Donnell cleared up her anti-egalitarian views and her unwavering support for Social Darwinism. ... Enjoy your Yom Kippur, Jonathan. I'm going for my last meal.

- jimbomoron

September 17, 2010 at 5:45pm

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Here in Texas I once moderated a panel on nanotechnology, and I asked the panelists -- most of them Texas scientists -- what society should do if nanoscience invented a way for people to live for 150 or 200 years, but it cost a million dollars. They all seem nonplussed by the question, in two ways: they pretty much figured this would happen, sooner or later, AND they all assumed that it would mean that rich people would live 150 or 200 years and other people wouldn't. When I asked whether this is the kind of society we want to live in, one of them said, "Wealthy people get better health care and live longer now. Why would that be any different than what we already have?"

- gary21cp

September 17, 2010 at 6:00pm

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Most all of the Tea Baggers don't have intellects big enough to comprehend the reality that health care is rationed now. This is unavoidable at any time and in any place. We could spend our entire GDP, some $14 trillion on health care and there could still be demand elasticity in this sector of the economy.

- liberal reformer

September 17, 2010 at 7:15pm

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"They even want unelected panels of bureaucrats to decide who gets what lifesaving treatment…." Only if you're relying on "big government" to begin with. No one is stopping anyone from paying out of pocket any time they want--and wouldn't that be the preferred Tea Party way? The utter incoherence of these people continues to astound me.

- dsimon

September 17, 2010 at 7:33pm

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liberal reformer, I think many liberals also don't understand that health care -- like any scarce resource -- is rationed now. Even liberals like my wonderful paternal grandmother are adamantly opposed to basing payments to providers on comparative effectiveness research (something the current board created under the stimulus bill is not allowed to do).

- jimbomoron

September 17, 2010 at 7:35pm

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My dear late mother (d. January 2007) didn't understand any of this either, jim.

- liberal reformer

September 17, 2010 at 9:00pm

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The O'Donnells and Palins of the world basically have made the "you think you're better'n me, but you ain't!" worldview into a political movement. Sad and disturbing.

- myzaguirre

September 17, 2010 at 10:39pm

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The non government movement reminds me of something I read about organic farming to the effect that, "Sure, the principles of organic farming have value, but it would be foolish to ignore the clear benefits of technology because of those principles" Principles of laissez-faire have value, but it woudl be foolish to ignore the clear benefits of government because of those principles.

- Nusholtz

September 17, 2010 at 11:24pm

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So the people who voted for Obama aren't included in "We, the People" or what?

- ironyroad

September 17, 2010 at 11:24pm

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No, irony, only patriots like Joe Miller are "We the people."

- liberal reformer

September 18, 2010 at 3:04am

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We're lying about them? Was it just me or did Newt Gingrich just attribute Obama's rage (who knows what rage they're talking about; it seems like a stretch when we he raises his voice) to Kenyan Anti-Colonialism and not a single person on the right called him out on that? Actually, let's just list all the lies from the Tea Party: 1. Obama was not born in America 2. Obama is a Muslim 3. Obama is a socialist, communist, nazi that is going to derail the American economy due to his Kenyan Anti-Colonial leanings. 3. Health Care will leave medical care decisions to Death Panels. 4. Tax Cuts for the wealthy help the economy. 5. Deficits are all that matter, except in the case of tax cuts for the wealthy. 6. You can create a health care plan that has all the benefits of the Affordable Care Act but none of the negatives. 7. Government is bad, unless it's paying for Social Security and Medicare for seniors. 8. The 98% of Americans likely to get a tax cut next year need to go all out to protect tax cuts for the 2% of Americans who don't need it. I know there are sooooo many more but I have to go. Would anybody else like to add to this list of Tea Party right-wing lies?

- tgatz85

September 18, 2010 at 9:38am

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Messed up my numbering there but you get the idea. :)

- tgatz85

September 18, 2010 at 9:38am

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- Christine is dumb as a FOX. It doesn't matter if O'Donnell is trailing. Her life story is proof, you can win for losing. Last year she declared little income, not counting the money she pilfered from her '08 campaign account. In the past few days she attracted around a million bucks which is about a million more bucks than she had last year. She'd be foolish to accept a government salary for as long as Sarah did. FOX can outbid the senate.

- michaelg

September 18, 2010 at 10:07am

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"Will they smear our background…? Undoubtedly. Will they lie about us, harrass our families, name call and try to intimidate us? They will." Your background, Christine, your. The nerve of this woman ... one primary win, and she's already referring to herself as the royal We ...

- NR409654

September 19, 2010 at 3:18pm

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