further thoughts on where we go from here
Even if McCain wins, which I find an implausible outcome at this juncture, he is damaged goods and will be unable to do anything except his amnesty in his (probably single) term. The media have pronounced him ‘worse than Bush’ (isn’t it amazing how each Republican candidate is worse/more venal/facist/dishonest/stupid, than the last? a truly amazing coincidence), and Palin is Cheney x 1,000.
(Lordy Lordy Bite! We agree on most things…….not everything, but who agrees on everything?)
But, I think we may take a hammering this time, and be out of the loop for four years. If that’s the case, we could do with revisiting our (very-easy-to-caricature) stance as the Party of Self-Righteous Christians. It’s so 1980’s.
I don’t give two hoots about gay marriage plus I cannot see Roe v Wade ever being overturned, so why not accept that and move on to becoming the party of expanding adoption and avoiding unwanted pregnancies?
You don’t have to be pro-abortion, as the Democrats are, to accept it as a reality.
We should aggressively attack wasteful and corrupt congressional appropriation - we must be whiter than white; we are held to a higher standard than Democrats which is fine with me. I wouldn’t want to be judged against Rangel, Jefferson, et al, but I also do not wish to be identified with Ted Stevens and his ilk. Washington is not a free-for-all, or at least it should not be, and we should be the party that champions that, including exposing and shunning those on our side who are tainted. I don’t care what party you’re in - if you’re taking backhanders, bribes and freebies, you’re stealing FROM ME.
Earmarks should be illegal. We should introduce bill-after-bill-after-bill outlawing the practice - let the Democrats keep them from coming to a vote.
Drill, baby, drill. That’s a winning issue, and we should coalesce around it and make it ours exclusively - Obama’s double-talk on nuclear waste typifies their view of the electorate’s intelligence. We need to educate people in clear and unpatronizing language, and win with this issue. Oil prices are not going back to 50 bucks a barrel, so we might as well run with it.
Why not become the party of minorities? Introduce legislation that rewards and encourages academic and commercial excellence. Start scholarships in Hispanic communities and schools, push for aggressive SBA activity in financing MBEs - the Democrats don’t want to assist minorities get off the federal teat, they like them just where they are. let’s talk about that, and start asking pointed questions - if Democrats are so good for the African-American community, then how come all the worst school districts in the United States have been controlled by Democrats for forty years, and they deteriorate further each and every year? What’s so good about that? (This is probably more a state and local campaign, but we need to start talking about how utterly useless and bankrupt the socialism of the other side is).
I don’t identify with Wall Street bankers. I don’t think many people do. They are not ‘of our side’; they are not entrepreneurs; they do not create wealth; they do not create jobs; they do not create products. They are parasites, for the most part, playing in a casino with a stacked deck and other people’s money. We don’t need to demonize them, we do need to realize what they have just wrought (besides a probable Obambi Presidency), and we need to make sure they can’t do it again. We need to explain what just happened - it’s actually pretty simple - and hang it around the necks of the Democrats, who own it almost exclusively.
Fannie and Freddie were Democrat piggy banks, which is why they escaped any proper oversight and control. We should never, ever tire of talking about this. Lending money to people who can’t pay it back doesn’t even pass the laugh test as a business proposition, but they forced it down everybody’s throats and put the Federal Government in the role of guarantor. This is not a complex issue, and if McCain and the Republicans think it is, then AGAIN, they underestimate the intelligence of the American public. We’ll get our message over in the end, because THE TRUTH WILL OUT, always. Even the mainstream media cannot ignore the facts, although they are going to until after November 4th, for sure.
Any thoughts from others would be gratefully received.
Chris says:
I am all for putting irrelevant things on the back burner, but I thought we did do that this year when we accepted McCain. Amnesty, free speech issues like campaign finance, opposing conservative judicial nominees, globull warmering, opposing tax cuts, opposing drilling in ANWR, etc. All these are dear to the conservative roots.
I don’t think we need to change a whole lot. We just need to drop this getting along garbage. It’s what has killed Bush and what is killing McCain. We also need to get some actual, true conservatives. Not “compassionate” ones that jack spending on perscription drugs or bad loans, but true ones that will try to cut spending and eliminate waste and cancel failed programs.
You will call me crazy, but I think that Palin, at the top of the ticket, would win this year. Obviously substance and experience are meaningless this year and she has more of both than Obama.
She drew a lot of people to her because true common sense conservatism makes a lot of sense to people. It’s why Reagan won so easily and fake conservatives like Bush 1, Bush 2 and McCain have such a hard time. Well, at least that’s my opinion and I’m sticking to it.
Lord Bitememan says:
There’s some good ideas in there for certain. I think any re-evaluation of our party, though, needs to take into account what has worked for us and what hasn’t in the past eight to sixteen years.
There’s a question a few friends of mine and I used to ask one another cynically; “where are your terrorists?” It’s a proxy for this idea; where people are motivated enough to die for a cause, that’s where your energy level is. I think it would be a mistake, in that case, to divorce the Christian right. In fact, I tend to think that the future of the Republican party may look a lot more like Mike Huckabee than it does Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich (trust me, this is no easy thing for me to say since I’m not really pro-life and don’t care to ban gay marriage). The energy level is really there with the evangelical vote so much more so than any other group. More importantly, it seems to be the social conservatism where we really seem to be winning. Dean’s 50 state strategy is really contingent on conceding, at least as far as candidates are concerned, the gun issue, the abortion issue, and many other socially conservative issues. Bob Casey of PA, for example, is pro-life. Jim Webb and John Tester are both pro-gun. And let us not forget that W. rode to town twice on social backlash, first against Clinton licentiousness, second on the backlash against gay marriage. Though it would enhance the standing of the party with the left, these issues are really winners.
So, what are we losing on? Two big issues, really; we’re losing on the Washington corruption argument that rode us into town in 1994, and we’re losing on globalization issues and their impact on the economy. Ethics was key to our 2006 defeat. The solution is simple. We need to return to the values of 1994. When your party leadership is facing corruption charges, dump him (sorry Tom, the party is bigger than the Rep. from Sugarland Texas). Economy is a thornier issue. The fact is we need to collectively get out of the see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil mode and acknowledge; outsourcing is a problem for some people and some regions of the country, the benefits of globalization we promised have not been seen by these people, and we have not addressed the problems it has caused. Yes, there has been a gutting of our manufacturing sector. Yes, the jobs that replaced this sector have been lower-paying, and this has lead to a real wage decline in our country. Yes, the American people expect us to fix it, and we had better. If we can adjust to that economic reality, we’re set. One final note on economic issues, we had better return to being the party of balanced budgets and fiscal discipline, even if it means in times of crisis we have to raise a tax or two. Economic conservatism may be the biggest casualty of our reform.
As to minority issues, it contextualizes better in a Christian charity party than it does in the current configuration. One thing we’d better lose our qualms about, though, is comprehensive immigration reform. I know, poison pill for a lot of us, but dear God we can’t afford to lose another major minority group in this country, especially one that will some day become the majority. We can declare an official language, but if we do we’d better not make it a campaign issue and we’d better allocate some funding and provisions to make it a smooth and painless transition for those who don’t speak the language.
Defense issues are good too. We win on those. They took their best shots at that issue in 2004 and 2006. It was a loser both times. 2004 simply reminded everyone of Dukakis riding in the tank. 2006 the defense issue officially died when Joe Lieberman prevailed after being booted from his own party. Subsequently, the Dems never realized their party promise of ending the Iraq war. So, defense is a winner for us.
Anyhow, those are my thoughts.
Jay Gaultieri says:
Well back in 2006 all you big-haired inbred Bible thumpers laughed hysterically at me when I said President Bush was spying on ordinary citizens.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5987804&page=1
Guess I was right after all. But since you Deliverance types can’t admit you lost the Civil War I don’t expect a response. Oh and Obama isn’t the anti-Christ like those stupid forwarded emails told you.
William Teach says:
In a perfect GOP, the elected GOP critters, the ones who want to get elected, and those in positions such as at the RNC, will get their acts together, come up with a platform, work on Conservative fundementals, and follow Sarah Palin as the GOP standard bearer. A bit more seasoning, and she could easily be the GOP nominee in 2012 (provided the voters stop the Dems from picking our candidate again.)
As far left as Barry is, I do not think Queen Nancy nor Dingy Harry will allow Barry to pursue his true agenda as far as he wants, because they both know that is a sure and quick way to lose their majority in 2010. Harry isn’t quite so liberal as people think, and Nancy isn’t quite so dumb.
But, come about March 2009, if Barry wins, quite a few people will be going “That’s not what I was voting for! WTF!” They will realize what morons they were in voting for Obama.
And we’ll see if the GOP can take advantage, or f*ck it up like they have been doing for 8 years.
doubleplusundead says:
will be unable to do anything except his amnesty in his (probably single) term.
Not. Friggin. Happening.
Chris says:
Um, sorry, Jay, but I’ll believe it when I actually see proof. Hastily called press conferences and media shows by the democrats 3 weeks before an election does not pass the smell test for reality.
Fail.
SpideyTerry says:
Four years? I really doubt Republicans will be out of the game for four whole years. I understand your point, William, but I still fully expect Obama and his legion of Democratic pinheads to screw up badly if he gets elected - so badly that Republicans will fair pretty well in the 2010 elections. That’s the only up shot of an Obama presidency, after all.
“Guess I was right after all. But since you Deliverance types can’t admit you lost the Civil War I don’t expect a response. Oh and Obama isn’t the anti-Christ like those stupid forwarded emails told you.”
First off, let me congradulate you, Jay. I knew monkeys could use sticks to get bugs out of the ground, but I had no idea one knew how to use a keyboard until I read your comment. Looks like you’re inching up the evolutionary ladder there, Jay. Maybe later you can figure out how to open bottles or how to perform some other simple task that a five-year-old can do. (I’m sorry, but he made it so easy for me.)
And the Civil War? Well, that came out of left field, didn’t it? So, which side did win? Oh yeah, the one with that Lincoln guy on it. Hmm, now which party did he belong to and which party wanted to keep people as slaves?
And, of course, Obama isn’t the anti-Christ. The anti-Christ is a lot of things, but stupid ain’t one of them.
“Um, sorry, Jay, but I’ll believe it when I actually see proof.”
Proof is a foreign concept to those with such a high level of Bush Derangement Syndrome. Those kinda people would disagree with Bush if he said, “Water is wet and the sky is blue.”
Buddy says:
“Well back in 2006 all you big-haired inbred Bible thumpers laughed hysterically at me when I said President Bush was spying on ordinary citizens.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5987804&page=1
Guess I was right after all. But since you Deliverance types can’t admit you lost the Civil War I don’t expect a response. Oh and Obama isn’t the anti-Christ like those stupid forwarded emails told you.”
Oops.
You forgot that:
1. Christians were the first people in the country to rail against slavery.
2. Democrats voted time and again against the Civil Rights Act.
3. Most conservatives said, “Until we see proof that someone misuses these powers, it’s a little early to cry foul.”
4. Big hair?
5. Louis Farrakhan recently referred to Obama as a messiah. If he is not, would that not make him an anti-christ to the Nation of Islam?
Think “cogent”. It’s a big word and means a lot, so take some time to learn the definition and how it could apply to you.
GlenF says:
http://bamapachyderm.com/archives/2008/09/21/life-at-the-hillary-clinton-sites/
Care to re-evaluate your position , Chris? I still think that Palin is a drag on the ticket, and not properly vetted.
Greg says:
In a perfect GOP, the elected GOP critters, the ones who want to get elected, and those in positions such as at the RNC, will get their acts together, come up with a platform, work on Conservative fundementals, and follow Sarah Palin as the GOP standard bearer. A bit more seasoning, and she could easily be the GOP nominee in 2012 (provided the voters stop the Dems from picking our candidate again.)
Oh please, please, PLEASE do this!
Chris says:
No, Glen, you wish. This is going to be seen as it truly is. A BS attack by her former adversaries to damage her. As soon as the trooper tasering the kid, drinking in the cruiser and all comes out, it will bring more to her than send from her. I find it hysterical how hard they are coming after her and not McCain. It shows they know she’s a major threat and will kick the crud out of them in a general election.
keep dreaming. she’s a plus to the ticket. Always has been, always will be.
Dody says:
Totally. Agree. With everything you said. I am already anticipating Brides and Brides magazine …
Kevin says:
This election isn’t over by a long shot, polls are crap, always have been. I think the October surprise for Obama is about to be unveiled. His membership in the New Party is now coming to light and I think Rezko is going to have to reveal what he knows if he wants to save his own ass in a timely manner.
No, no my friend, just because there is a loudly talking group of commie socialists doesn’t mean that is what this country on the whole wants to see in the White House, in fact I’m sure it is not.
The most dependable voting block in the country are people who lived through, and won, the cold war and will be damned if they did all that to put a communist in the White House now.
Not bloody likely!!
http://www.americanarmed.blogspot.com
PS- Quit with all the doom and gloom, the battle is won or lost in your own mind before it is ever waged on the field. Down does not mean defeated.
Lord Bitememan says:
Well, Jay, I guess a little reading does hurt. From the body of the article (you know, that part you failed to read in the midst of wiping the jizz off your pants after reading the title) was this little tidbit:
“But the accounts of the two whistleblowers, which could not be independently corroborated”
No independent corroboration = no smoking gun = media sensationalism.
But, I guess points like that are lost on you when you think conservatives have a monopoly on big hair (I guess you never saw a hippie before), are inbred (last I checked I’m a mutt by any definition), and are bible thumpers even though I’m constantly telling actual thumpers to stick their Bibles where the sun don’t shine (never mind that Euro-socialism is trumpeted as much by Christian democrats in Europe like the CDU as it is by the socialists). You reveal a depth of prejudice and an amazing lack of introspection that are both a marvel to behold.
Incidentally, with regards to the Civil War, there are at least two Michiganders on this list. Our ancestors bled for the Union. What are you, some brat in San Fran who’s ancestors never even got the call to take up the arms against the confederacy? Were they in wild battles against the weeds in Eugene? Don’t lecture us on the Civil War little boy. Republicans saved the nation in that war.
raz0r says:
The GOP is already cultivating a new crew. Jindal, Cantor, and Palin are just a few of the names. Start supporting true conservatives at the local/state level and help push them to the national stage. That’s how we right this ship.
Christine Helrigel says:
on 10/17/2004 the polls said Kerry was 10 points up from Bush, 53 to 43, in the 13 battleground states. two weeks later, Bush won. The polls are wrong. the pollsters are taking all the operation chaos democrat registrations and the registrations of the morons who registered 72 times to get the % of how many dems to repubs for the polls. also, many PUMAs are reporting they are lying to the pollsters so Obama will be lulled, and others are reporting the pollsters are now only asking questions about policy, and if one responds toward the liberal side, the pollster claims you are voting for Obama and will not take no for an answer. It is not necessary to give up.