Posted on 02/12/2008 6:01:28 PM PST by rmlew
Doesn’t wash. Have you looked at exit polling? Do you realise how many people think that McCain and the Huckster are conservative?
Joining the Cult of Ayn Rand will bring me no more joy than the cult of L. Ron Hubbard.
He's wrong. Those weren't conservatives. They were RINOS! He should be saying that Republicans are responsible, not conservatives! They are greedy, power hungry globalists who have sold America/Americans down the river to the highest bidders!!
ping
I would also add that many folks consider infighting and clobbering others within this forum a form of armchair activism. Rather than using the opportunity to hone persuasive argument skills, Giuliani and Romney supporters were kicked under and off the bus last year. Allegedly mature adults resort to childish name-calling and shoot-from-the-hip attacks to what end?
Historically, the odds of a party holding onto the Presidency following two four-year terms are slim. As Gingrich pointed out during CPAC, don't focus on POTUS as though it is the only race in 2008. Use this precious time to support and elect conservatives to local, state, and U.S. Congressional races.
Yes, I agree. I do think the Puritan basis injected America with a little more capacity for self-denial and spiritual ideals than Australia, but I do think they are just about the only other country worth a damn.
For the most part, however, individuality is doomed, as far as I can tell. Sorry to be so gloomy, but I teach in a public school in Los Angeles, and the only real differences between Islamic cultures and Hispanic cultures, as far as I can see, are surface. One is more militant, the other more easy-going, but they are both ultimately collectivist, fecund, and unashamedly avaricious. They can't wait to swallow up other cultures and claim their accomplishments and accoutrements for their own.
I can imagine a not-too-distant future where the wars are between these two cultures, once they've killed the goose that laid the golden eggs (us.) One side battling for the right to have pictures of Jesus and do those awful butt-grinding dances to hip-hop, the other side trying to impose sharia, but both united in governmentally bestowed largess that will quickly devolve to fascism as the few remaining producers hunt desperately for some Galt's gulch to shelter them.
Sorry, but the liberal/moderates and independents that have been trying to brow-beat conservatives into supporting the unsupportable have failed America.
It’s really quite sad that the liberal wing of the republican party cannot accept responsibility for what they have wrought.
My principles are not for sale.
I compromised on W and can see the spending record we have compiled since then. McCain was left of W in 2000, and has drifted further left since then.
The only conservative failure is having allowed the primary system to stack against conservatism.
WRONG, WRONG, WRONG
I have to keep repeating that conservatism is a movement, NOT a political party. Some like Newt Gingritch are finally realizing it. Most Americans legal immigrants included hold conservative values. It is the rule NOT the exception. The problem in the paradigm is party loyalty. When we ran Paul Rodriguez for congress against Nydia Velasquez we asked ten questions of most of the constituents we met. They were issues questions regarding family values vouchers etc. most agreed with 9 out of 10 questions. Positions that were supported by conservatives, yet they were too tied to their party identity to vote for a conservative candidate. Most people respond to cliches rather than reasoned arguments and that is dilemma we are facing. The elites in this country have figured that out and are playing the public like a fiddle.
Conservatives must realize they belong to a movement. They have invested emotionally in political parties and that is the paradigm that we must deal with. There are conservatives in the democratic party, as independents and the vast bulk in the republican party. The republican party was NEVER a conservative party. It was just a party where most conservatives found themselves. We need to learn the lessons of this experience. Our problem in the political landscape arose when political office changed from a civic duty and obligation and became a career.
Knowing this paradigm I always advise conservatives stuck in heavily democratic districts to run as democrats and in republican districts to run as republicans. Conservatism is a values based ideological system not as socialism and other isms a strict theoretical construct guided by a dogma. Once conservatives realize this they will begin winning again. We need to start an organized movement rather than a third party as we have no Reagan at the moment to bring together conservatives in the democrat, independent and republican camps as he could. We can only appeal to all three elements outside of the party.
Our obligation this coming election is to take back the house and senate. We have to show up at the polls in droves. If every conservative shows up at the polls we can have an impact. I will NOT stay home. Sitting out the election is not an option. I will however, not vote for president and chose conservative candidates on the rest of the roster on election day. If we elect a president, whoever that is , we must put him/her on a leash, a very short leash.
WEll, they are FAR more conservative than either Hitlery or Obama.
Yes, it will be lost under the vines. My generation has no hope. As Baby Boomers, we were nurtured with the ideals of our history and the pride we took in reinforcing those concepts in our children. Well, they have grown and their children have become entangled in a society which values retreat in the face of any adversity and self-indulgence on a scale never before witnessed. Poor America. The Left has transformed this country into a nation of soulless sheep, not the NeoCons who lament what once was and what is fast disappearing. Their numbers have dwindled and they are powerless to reverse the course.
They know that no matter what, they can count on people to vote for anything that has an ~R~ after the name. Even Satan himself could get support with an ~R~.
It is time to take it one the chin and fight back. I am never throwing my vote away again.
The slacker generation is now of voting age and will put their bongs down and turn off their Playstations just long enough to cast a vote for Obama. Then off to their part-time job at Starbucks and McDs. Then back home to their mommys basement.
&&&&
Hey, the ones that actually have those PT jobs are in the minority among that set. Otherwise, your scenario is sadly accurate.
It is not an accident that conservatives don’t have a candidate. This is by design.
***
You are correct.
Predicted by Daniel Webster:
“Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution and to the Republic for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster, and what has happened once in 6000 years, may not happen again. Hold on to the Constitution, for if the American Constitution should fail, there will be anarchy throughout the world.”
If Fred was on McCain's side the whole time, why didn't he stay in until Super Tuesday? His decision to drop out when he did almost cost McCain the election; indeed, even in retrospect, it's surprising that McCain won in spite of Fred's having dropped out.
If Fred was on McCain's side the whole time, why didn't he stay in until Super Tuesday? His decision to drop out when he did almost cost McCain the election; indeed, even in retrospect, it's surprising that McCain won in spite of Fred's having dropped out.
Thompson may not have entered the race until relatively late, but if you recall, he was toying with entry for quite some time - precisely the time when the voters he attracted would have been most valuable to conservative candidates. Google “will thompson run” and you’ll get articles from early last year already complaining how long he was dragging out an official decision, which will no doubt refresh your memory.
So for nearly a year before the first primary, he was sucking up that support, only to drop out on Jan. 22... and support McCain, which you recall was the absolute last thing conservatives wanted to do - quite odd for the great conservative hope to pitch in with a man we all detest, no? Super Tuesday was Feb. 5, only two weeks later.
The point Thompson dropped out was also the most important rallying time for conservatives opposed to McCain... who then instead of focused on Thompson, went some to Romney, some to Huckabee, some to Paul, others sticking with Thompson even still.... You could not set up a more perfect scenario for McCain on a day full of winner-take-all delegates.
Fred did well for his longtime friend. He may well just have cleared for McCain the latter’s biggest hurdle on the way to being President.
I'm not quite clear where you get that Fred Thompson supported McCain prior to Romney's departure. A bunch of posters here kept claiming it, but I saw no evidence. After Romney's departure, I suspect Fred saw his endorsement of McCain as being essentially a formality. I doubt he was expecting Huckabee to still be a meaningful factor in the race.
One thing any aspiring politician has to learn is not to needlessly make people dislike you. Having people like you can be very rewarding, and so it's often worth making small concessions to achieve that. Of course, there are limits to what concessions one should make. Only a political whore would make the types of concessions McCain does.
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