A Note to the Republican Party
It has been interesting reading all of the Republican soul searching and brow beating. There's this huge scramble to try to figure out how to resurrect the Republican party after such a thorough trouncing at the polls in this 2008 election. Well, I don't know if they want to hear my opinions or not, but here goes.
Briefly, the Republican party professes to represent the conservative base in America. They won a majority in Congress in 1994 by presenting their "Contract With America" to the nation. It was a brilliant guideline for the Republican majority to staunchly support conservative principles. Like so many political promises, it wasn't worth the paper it was written on. The Republican majority went into a spending spree, pork barreling, tax raising frenzy that would be the envy of today's liberal majority in Congress.
This isn't really a Democrat or Republican thing. It's not liberal or conservative. It's Washington DC. A friend of mine, while living in Virginia, told me there was a half-hearted campaign underway to put signs at the beltway around Washington that said "Reality stop here". It doesn't seem to matter what lofty ideals they profess while campaigning, the moment they win a seat in Congress their number one priority becomes getting re-elected. They know they have the best job in town. Work only when they want, great pay, great perks, total medical coverage for life, a great retirement program, and you get to decide what your salary is going to be.
Most people in Congress, Republican or Democrat, have never really produced anything. They've never worked for one moment at a job that contributed to the Gross Domestic Product. They seem to think of the government as the source of all things rather than the actual producers. All they have to do is borrow more money from China, raise taxes, increase the national debt, to create a greater government control over the American people.
We have been moving resolutely toward socialism in this country for most of a century. Conservatives do not see this as anything but negative. Conservatism is based in self reliance, not government dole. Conservatism is based on the individual rights enumerated in the Constitution, not governmental micro-managing. Conservatism is based on individual freedom, not trying to force everyone in the country into group-think sameness.
Republicans today look at the red and blue states on the election map and beat their brow, unable to understand how there is so many blue states. Okay. Here's my suggestion. Ignore the 2008 map and instead study the 1984 map. Republicans, look at what was being done under the administration of President Reagan that made the map look like this in that year. Maybe you will get a clue of where you went wrong in the last 24 years. Just maybe you will get the conservative base behind you once again.
posted by Fish-2 at 8:48 PM
11 Comments:
I've always felt that the media (or whoever it was) that chose the colors, has it backwards. Blue should be conservative, and red socialist.
Did I say that? (:
Actually, Anonymous is right. I've wondered about that too!
I agree with you, Fish. We do need to get back to our core values, and get people in there who won't forget why they are there when they get there! They need to remember that they work for us, and when they forget they work for us they get canned. I hope 2008 will be a good wake up call for them.
This is a most excellent post!
Anon, I agree. And yes, you said that. Grin.
Gayle, thanks for the compliment. It would be great to either see the Republican party finally remember what a Republic is supposed to be, or have a third party bump them out of the line-up in future elections.
You have good reason to worry since the damage by conservatives is not likely to be fixe din your lifetime. The spending you claim would be the envy of liberals is BS. There's nothing that could possibly justify such outrageous blame shifting. It's the Republicans who spend and waste and spend and create debt. As long as Republicans distort the truth and remain in denial, the longer is takes liberals to fix the Republican mess. Calling liberals spenders and portraying Democrats as the problem is just not true and you had better come to terms with reality unless you live in lala land. You are a self proclaimed conservative, conservatives spend more but benefit only the cronies and lobbyists of powerful corporations. The Wall street mess, the mortgage mess, the war in the wrong country, the lost billions in Iraq, the human rights violations and broken laws, lying to America to start and escalate a war. That's what conservatives wanted and its who they are. The Republican party is becoming the part of the blind, deaf and dumb and damn proud of it. The core values of the Republicans are not the core values that made this country great. This country was founded by liberals fighting the tyranny of conservatives.
Bush and his Republicans have disgraced this nation and fleeced America the way no foreign aggressor could have done. The greatest threat to the health, welfare and security of America is the Republican conservative ethics of screwing America and blaming liberals. Name calling and lying have become the staple of conservative media. Rush, Bill O and other Republicanazis have more in common with the KKK than the founding fathers. America will be destroyed from within if the Republicans have their way. The rest of the world is watching the US self destruct with the rampant hate and ignorance of the people who call themselves conservatives. That's the plain and simple truth but it requires more smarts and less hate to determine the truth, so that's how we get a Republican Party. As long as the ethically challenged Republicans are around, this country will be at risk of war and attacks from aggressors who won't stand for their crimes. We all end up paying for their greed and stupidity.
Well, I read through the previous comment, started to delete it, then read through it again. I've decided, at least for now, to leave it in place. It is such a grand example of the total ignorance of the majority of liberals I've encountered over the years. Not a single fact nor logic, just pure emotion, and of course the stock in trade of liberals, name calling. I may delete it later but for now I'll leave it up for everyone's enjoyment. We all need a good laugh.
Of course you laugh. It's about all conservatives can contribute. If you think there were no facts then you are like most conservatives who can't admit the failures of the past eight years that have put this country in dire straights.
How could anyone with a brain not be emotional about the damage by the conservative nuts. I voted for getting things back on track with people who don't care to sit around laughing at their mistakes. But please leave your comments up as that's enough to turn anyone's (with an IQ above room temperature) stomach. You obviously have the education that fits your limited ability to grasp history, and the truth. Not one event in that post was false or overstated. What you perceive as laughable, is unfortunately more serious that you could understand. Check your facts but then what conservative with your mindset would ever let the truth get in the way of a good lie. Keep your site free of facts and insight. Keep your delusions and false sense of security with the perverted conservative ethic. You obviously cant' handle the truth and have no interest in reality. Just as every criminal in prison claims their innocent, so do conservatives claim to have the answers - just look at the economy damaged by the conservatives. Go ahead and laugh. It's apparently the conservative thing to do. Do you deny that conservatives have created the worst economy in more than 50 years. Check out
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=goodbye_and_good_riddance
Precisely proves my point. No facts, just a personal attack. I was very unimpressed with the website you suggest. Just another liberal rant. If you would like to check the facts you will find the banking problem (which is the source of the current financial mess) began under the administration of President Carter and was extended to it's current extreme under President Clinton. If the feds under these Democrats had not guaranteed to back the bankers while they made loans to people unable to meet the payments, no sane banker would have proceeded in that direction. Now we have these sub-prime loans all falling delinquent because of those utterly stupid rulings. One other little point you seem to miss. The Congress that sets the spending bills, passes laws, sets up the regulatory agencies and establishes regulations, has been under the control of the Democrats since 2006. If you recall the economy was perking along quite nicely back then.
Now I suggest you check - well, I can't say "check your facts" since you didn't include any. How about check the facts of todays economic reality and it's origins.
I guess it safe to say we won't be getting any solutions from the conservatives who share your views. Since you clearly have noting tangible or close to factual to offer on the issues we are facing in this country, you just gave an excellent example of why Bush and the conservatives have nothing to offer nothing and have no interest in fixing what's wrong with American. It can't be fixed by conservatives but clearly can be caused by the empty heads and hearts of some very ethically challenged folks. Conservatives will sit in a sinking boat and complain the the liberals are not bailing fast enough - completely unable to figure out their ideocentric orientation is fatal.
If that website didn't impress you then you have no capacity to grasp the nature of the problems in this country and the cause and effect relationship between the conservative doctrines and failure. Bush will be remembered as one of the worst if not the worst President in recorded history. Your inability to understand the damage conservatives have done is unfortunate. You choice to disagree is irrelevant.
America will not soon recover from Republican greed and ignorance. The longer it takes to undo the folly of conservatives the longer we all suffer. Keep in mind, criminals are not impressed with the law particularly when they are caught breaking the law and face the consequences of their actions when they break the law and get caught. If you are one of those who creates your reality to get through life you have a far worse cross to bear than most of us who at least make an effort to contribute something positive and that included voting for someone who offers something other than the failed policy of the conservatives. Fortunately you and those who agree with you are in the minority. Even conservatives voted for Obama or the election would not have turned out as it did. You have the luxury of being dead wrong and it cost you nothing.
Do you even read what you are writing. You can't believe what, by any measure is delusional. If Bush had not failed to monitor and regulate this would not have happened. He was the President who dropped the ball. If he wasn't so busy starting wars and serving as a puppet for the lobbyists and big business he might have done some enforcement using the policy protections in place. Carter and Clinton? That's the sad break from reality that exposes your inability to understand what is actually happening. How about Bush and Bush? I think your ignorance of the facts is sad, scary if America should ever have to depend upon citizens it can't depend upon - with such a clouded mindset. Who could depend on the absence of logic or facts and the ability to process the facts.
You are one of the conservatives who claims two years of Democratic control has been the source the mess, not the of eight years of conservative damage by Bush and his cronies. Apparently you find comfort in nothing but what you choose to process with a debilitating bias. What you are or aren't impressed with is hardly the issue. What you and conservatives choose to ignore, that Bush and the conservatives have done irreparably harm to America- is simply self serving denial. It's probably not a choice, at best it's more akin to an unfortunate disability or worse, it's a deliberate attempt to undermine anything, everything you can't understand. The anti-intellectual conservatives seem to have great contempt for those who have an education, common sense and concern for one's fellow Americans. If conservatives are so fed up with America, fed up with the constitution, why not leave, the sooner the better.
Yes, once again, a lot of words attacking the opposition, but not a single fact in the entire post. All it takes is a bit of research to see whether the left or the right has been the one constantly nibbling away at the Constitution, and it's obvious you've not bothered. I will admit there are Republicans in Congress that are wrong headed, and Democrats I agree with, but the problems in this country have only partial connection to the parties. It has everything to do with liberal philosophy.
You will notice I've not called you names as we've continued this discussion, but if your next post is just more attack without giving me some facts and figures to back up your stand, I will simply delete this whole string. All you've written so far has been so typically liberal, full of emotion and devoid of facts. You're becoming tiresome.
Fish says:
"Conservatism is based on the individual rights enumerated in the Constitution, not governmental micro-managing. Conservatism is based on individual freedom, not trying to force everyone in the country into group-think sameness."
No. Conservatives don't see my right to marry w/out regard to gender, or my right to empty my uterus before a baby is formed. Conservatives want force us into Jesus-talk sameness.
Your talking about Libertarians. Its Libertarians that want government out of personal life.
I've been a conservative for more than half a century now, and yes I'm against gay marriage. I have no objection to gays having a right to a legal union that is every bit as meaningful, strong and with all the legal basis as marriage, just pick a different word rather than redefining this one. Call it Pairage. The word Marriage has had a rather precise meaning for centuries, just as gay and queer did until usurped by the sillier people in this country.
As to abortion, my opinion is, if you're a woman incapable of getting pregnant, or a man, you should have no say in the laws governing it.
And yes I'm a Christian, I just don't adhere to the most fundamental interpretations of the Bible. I would also be a libertarian if they didn't go too far with some of their stances.
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