MY Vast Right Wing Conspiracy

Quit yer bitching already!

• Posted by Beth on April 22nd, 2005 filed in General, Politics    

First, have a look at the pretty picture HERE. (Nice work, by the way. :wink: )

Get it?

Look who’s there– “libertarian” Republicans, Christian conservatives…what? In the same picture?

Yes. Do call it a Big Tent. Maybe that’s not how you see it, but think about it, and bear with me for a little lecture (ok, a rant). Better grab yourself a beer.

I’ve been thinking about this for a couple of months, and thinking of writing this for a few days. I don’t know how to start this other than just getting right to it–Republicans (yes, you who isn’t a registered Republican but votes that way, you too), quit your bitching!

Excuse me, but didn’t we just WIN a solid majority in the November elections? What are you, a bunch of spoiled children? Oh, so sorry, we got a Republican majority and it’s just AWFUL that they can’t do everything you and you alone want! Take your marbles and go home now to political powerlessness, that’ll teach those meanie politicians to not listen to YOU!

Guess what, I say good riddance. Leave the party to people who know how to choose our battles wisely and WIN. I don’t take it personally that I can’t have every single pet issue of mine go my way. Yes, I KNOW judicial appointments are important, too…duh. That’s exactly my point. Take your marbles and go home, turn over the reins to the Democrats and let THEM make the nominations, since apparently they’re more politically mature than we are. That’ll teach those meanies like Frist and Santorum and Specter and Hagel… Hey, wait! They’re not all “Bible-bangers”! They’re not all RINOs!

Obviously, I’m just trying to make a point with that. Don’t you see what’s going on? You’ve got damning rhetoric coming from one side (anti-Christian, anyone?) and shrieking about theocrats, of all idiotic things, from the other–and that’s from just within our own party! Uh, what the hell are you people thinking?

Libertarian/independent Republicans: there is NO effing theocracy coming. Why do religious conservatives make you so paranoid? NO ONE in the Republican Party is trying to force anything on you; be realistic, fer Chrissakes (no pun intended). I have virtually identical political views as a lot of these “theocrats,” and obviously, I can’t be accused of being one. Why does it bother you that their political views are guided by their faith rather than (as in my case) other reasons? Why are you threatened by it?

“Christian Right”: When are you going to learn how to speak to others to build a coalition instead of alienating EVERYONE? You’re starting to really piss me off, you know? I want the same things you do, but your rhetoric and nonsensical battles over crap like “no Kid Rock at the inaugural party” (and that’s just where my aggravation started to boil).

Both sides: You blew it during the Terri Schiavo crisis. All the extreme rhetoric within our own party disgusted me, and disgusted everyone else. You know what you said, and there’s no need to re-hash it because I’m still disgusted by it. Guess who I spent the majority of my time communicating with when I was campaigning, if you will, on behalf of the Schindlers? Liberals for Terri, because they acted reasonably about it–they didn’t call the other side “murderers” or “atheists” and they damn sure didn’t condone the Randall Terry element by remaining silent when the wackos started making vicious threats. THEY didn’t call me ignorant, theocrat, fundie, extremist, any of that shi’ite that some of you others said, either. They just GOT it. Obviously, there were plenty of people on both sides of the issue who were perfectly reasonable, but you sure didn’t hear them much because their voices were drowned out by the screaming.

What the hell ever happened to agreeing to disagree? Don’t you people understand that by condemning your opponent you completely shut off all possibility of making your case? Why is it now–particularly since the Schiavo debacle–no one has a clue how to move an issue without getting their delicate feelings hurt or by verbally assaulting their opponents? Guess what else happened during the Schiavo thing–I actually picked up a few liberal readers here who will actually LISTEN to my point of view, and vice versa. That doesn’t mean anyone will change their mind; it does mean that we can see that all liberals (real liberals, not left-wing fascists) aren’t crazy or evil, and they can see we aren’t all crazy or evil either. Is that NOT a good thing?

This isn’t just about Republicans vs. Democrats, not by a long shot. For example, Matt Margolis and I disagreed on the Schiavo issue, but we could agree to disagree and understand there was no evil behind one another’s opinion. We and others doing the same understand the big picture–we are a coalition, a big tent. You have to choose your battles wisely in the interest of keeping the coalition together, so we can succeed with the big picture.

Yes, I know I’m bitching and being harsh while saying quit bitching and being harsh. Tough. That seems to be the only way some of you know how to communicate lately, and I’m sick and farkin’ tired of it. I’m sick of these dumbass “blog wars” on our own side, sick of people threatening to abandon the party because they don’t get their way or because Senator So-and-so isn’t being as harsh or extreme as some want, sick of people getting their feathers ruffled about everything and taking disagreement on issues so personally. I’m sick of bloggers making disagreements personal attacks with grand statements of “de-linking,” for example, and all of the other silliness. I WANT my echo chamber. Yeah, I said it–but what I mean by that is I want Republicans/Republican voters to work together.

Don’t mistake my determination to keep a coalition as being a moderate, or weak in my convictions, either, because that couldn’t be further from the truth. I just think in-fighting is a big fat waste of time and energy that can be used more wisely in furthering our overall agenda. Face it, we’re NOT going to get our way all the time, not unless all Americans agree on all the same issues. We have a majority, not a monopoly, and so we can and should succeed on a majority of the issues–but there’s no way we’re going to win ALL of them.

So quit your bitching and quit sabotaging that which we have earned, with your pouting and threats of quitting. It’s one thing if you have decided the Democrats are right on the issues–then by all means, you should ditch the party, although I wish you wouldn’t. But unless you’ve made that ideological shift, you’re going to be a lot more disillusioned if you quit and find that none of your political views are represented. (And don’t even try to tell me that the Libertarian or Constitution parties can do that–you might find a social network there, but you might as well forget your political goals with them.) Make up your mind, do you want to be on the side that wants to advance the agenda, or not? They sure aren’t able to do it right now in Congress with everyone on our side beating the hell out of one another.

Says Lance at Red State Rant:

I do not need nor do I want Republicans pandering to me on issues they think I care about. I want them pushing for meaningful legislation on Social Security and Senate Procedures they know are right. I want them to take action with the mandate they have been given and push their agenda. Stop letting the liberals frame the arguments.

Isn’t that what we all want?

OK, rant over.

Now, go here. :mrgreen:

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UPDATE: A few points of clarification (please note the time I published this, so I probably need to do this)–

* Fighting for what you believe in is one thing. I’m all FOR that, and I fight these battles as well. Threatening to bolt and attacking the libertarians or conservatives in the party is quite another.
* For anyone who thinks I’m saying to get in lock-step with what the party leadership does, regardless of what that is, you’re wrong. Again, I’m saying the attacks from conservatives on the libertarians (and vice versa, of course), are counter-productive.
* Just in case anyone thinks that I tracked back to the Commissar because I’m attacking his Ark post or him, it’s precisely the opposite. (He knows this.) In fact, I was going to link to this and T/B it as well (because of the silly Frist rhetoric), but I just couldn’t get past the title or the “baby Jesus” thing. Just sayin’.

Any other misconceptions will be addressed in the comments.

UPDATE 2: Linked at the Beltway Traffic Jam.