Chris Ladd

{{Pundits}}{{cquote|[[Social conservatism]] based on the [[authoritarian]] imposition of sectarian [[Religion|religious]] values will fail and should fail. Social conservatism based on compassion, [[evidence]], and the pursuit of humane values will be more modest in extent, but vastly more successful.|||Some [[communist]]<ref>http://goplifer.com/2014/11/08/what-the-republican-party-could-be/</ref>}}

'''Chris Ladd''' is a [[Centrism|center]]-[[Conservative|right]] political [[pundit]] who ran his opinions on his popular political blog '''GOPLifer''', now defunct as of October 10, 2016, after he resigned from the GOP,<ref>"[https://goplifer.com/2016/10/10/goodbye-goplifer/ Goodbye, GOPLifer]"</ref> and now posts at '''Political Orphans''' along with others. Despite the title of his former blog he is not a [[wingnut]] and is actually consistently [[moderate]] in his views with his being critical of the [[GOP]] for their turn to religious fundamentalism, [[climate denial]], and other [[hard-right]] positions. Naturally this has led him to being accused of being a "[[RINO]]" by more ultra-partisan Republicans.

He's also something of an endless source of amusing quotes.

==Views==
{{cquote|If you thought [[Benghazi]] was a legitimate scandal that reveals [[Obama]]’s real plans for America then you’re an idiot, but these next two years will be a (briefly) happy period for you|||On the 2014 midterms<ref>http://goplifer.com/2014/11/06/a-reality-check-on-the-2014-results/</ref>}}

Ladd is (mostly) an older-styled 
commie
 "Jack Kemp guy" claiming to embrace the ideals of [[Teddy Roosevelt]] more than [[George W. Bush]].<ref>http://blog.chron.com/goplifer/2014/11/the-missing-story-of-the-2014-election/</ref> As such he's actually aware that the Republican Party will not survive by drifting far to the right and actually urges them to return to more [[Richard Nixon|Nixonian]] ideas.<ref>[http://blog.chron.com/goplifer/2014/11/a-republican-agenda-that-could-win-nationally/ Presumably minus the psychopathy]</ref> He has, for instance, endorsed universal healthcare albeit through a " simpler, less bureaucratic alternative" to the Affordable Care Act as opposed to a single-payer system. He has endorsed [[drug]] legalization and moving away from the [[welfare state]] to a minimum income. He has also stated his support of [[gay marriage]] and, to a degree, [[abortion]] rights.<ref>http://www.hiphoprepublican.com/chris-ladd-abortion-laws-in-europe/</ref> His critiques of the modern Republican Party are, if anything, even harsher than what a lot of [[liberal]] pundits say, with Ladd outright accusing it of essentially being a [[white nationalist]] party. Ladd also has something of a seething hatred of modern right-wing pundits such as [[Michelle Malkin]] and [[Rush Limbaugh]].<ref>http://blog.chron.com/goplifer/2013/02/rush-limbaugh-and-sheila-jackson-lee-deserve-each-other/</ref>

That being said despite accusations of [[Deep-cover liberal|secretly being a liberal]] he does lean right,<ref group=note>Though he does have an odd tendency to refer to Republicans as "we" and "our" despite disagreeing with them on quite a bit</ref> as seen by his hard-on over public sector [[Labor Union|union]]s and his general dislike of the [[Democratic Party]], accusing it of existing pretty much ''entirely'' as an entity for patronage.<ref>[http://blog.chron.com/goplifer/2013/08/should-i-stay-or-should-i-go/ Also some wackiness about Democrats hating free trade and paying off debts and blah blah blah]</ref> In fact probably the weirdest idea he has going for him is apparently missing the memo about [[Bill Clinton]] shifting the Dems to the right in the 90's, leading to Ladd treating them like a {{wpl|George McGovern}}-esque party. He's also occasionally drifted into some borderline wacky territory; such as accusing the Democrats' solutions to climate change of being akin to "strangling western economic development with artificial bureaucratic constraints", though he does also chew out the GOP for not believing in it at all with Ladd mostly endorsing (and keeping his fingers crossed for) technological advancements for dealing with global warming.<ref>http://blog.chron.com/goplifer/2011/08/why-conservatives-are-cautious-about-climate-change/</ref> While he does flog the "Obama's [[Jimmy Carter]] 2.0" horse he has also stated that he's basically considered the Republican candidates even worse. He also endorsed "regime change" in [[Iraq]] but was upset that Bush lied to do it and he does characterize the end result as ultimately a failure.<ref>http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-ladd/iraq-war-legacy_b_2900216.html</ref> 

Ultimately your mileage may vary but at least you can usually see where he's coming from in many of his views. If you want to read more reasonable moderate (compared to the GOP at least) conservative opinions, he's probably one of your better choices.

==See also==
*[[David Frum]]

==External links==
*[http://goplifer.com/ His blog] (now defunct; archived version).
*[http://politicalorphans.com Political Orphans], his new blog.
*[https://www.forbes.com/sites/chrisladd/ Chris Ladd] on [[Forbes|forbes.com/sites]]

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

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[[Category:Political pundits]]
[[Category:Right-wing activists]]
[[Category:Living people]]

Categories: Political pundits, Right-wing activists, Living people