Posted on 02/07/2008 2:08:04 AM PST by Witch-king of Angmar
This may just be the year when conscientious conservatives decide sit out the election.
It’s a step not to be taken lightly.
The idea of a perfect conservative candidate is a dangerous illusion. As an old Democrat ward heeler once told me: “When you’re running for public office and look in the mirror, that’s when you’ll see a candidate you agree with completely.”
Most of us are willing to compromise. I voted for Bush in 2000, knowing full well that his “compassionate conservatism” wasn’t conservative at all, but big government with a smiley face. In the expectation that he would disappoint me, I was not disappointed.
As Barry Goldwater said at the 1960 Republican convention, in urging the right to unite behind Richard Nixon, “Grow up conservatives!” It is immature, to the point of petulance, to demand purity as the price of party loyalty.
Still, many conservatives – who’ve held their noses and supported the Republican nominee, in election after bloody election -- are now literally gagging.
The prospect of John McCain as the Republican nominee caused Rush Limbaugh to declare last week, “I can see possibly not supporting the Republican nominee this election, and I never thought that I would say that in my life.”
With Hillary or Obama as the alternative, this is not an easy decision, but one dictated by both conscience and common sense.
John McCain is a conservative’s worst nightmare – I mean other than George Soros being elected president.
(Excerpt) Read more at donfeder.com ...
I’m sick of all this whining. I thought crying was for Dems. Either start your own party or shut up.
you shut up
I can’t believe I agree with Rush. SOMETHING is going to screw up bad whether it’s Hillary or McCain, I’d just assume it be Hillary that gets the blame (or Obama).
Let’s get the majority back!! That’s where the real power is (sort of)
I believe Feder (you, maybe?) may be correct, in this case. I could no more vote for McCain, than I could vote for another Bush. BUT! staying home is not the answer. There are too many meaningful races, down the ballot. Leaving the top of the ballot blank, will be enough of a message, all by itself.
I really hate it when Soros gets to pick both candidates in the race.
And this may be controversial ;-) but I made a video about the candidates, if anyone wants to check it out. (it originally was one 10 minute video but I had to divide it into 4 parts) so here are the links:
Election 08 - The Phonies and the Real Deal, Part 1 (Romney)
I haven't uploaded part 4 yet.
(sorry for any glitches, I used windows moviemaker, which is like the 'microsoft paint' version of video editing programs... in other words, as far as editing programs go, it's very primitive and limited)
As a conservative first,a McCain vs Clinton choice would make me go to the polls to vote on local contests only (gotta vote against Grahamnesty,for instance).
Now a Obama vs McCain choice?
If I vote for Obama I can never be accused of rascism again just because I’m a conservative.
I mean,I voted for a black man to be president!Al Sharpton won’t so I would be a bigger player in the civil rights “struggle” than he.
If Obama wins the White House,special rights for minorities will appear rediculous and their advocates will become moot.
This is a heck of a lot etter than reparations.
All the “Party over Principle” morons out there can drink a tall cold glass of Shut the ______ up, because I will continue to Trash Juan McLame until election day.
That pretty much sums it up for me.
“you shut up”
Thank you, alaskamomma. We have shut-up and been shut-out, for far too long. VOTE FOR PRESIDENT BLANK.
wow this guy really thinks mccain is a liberal. hehehe
Romney has the best budget argument to bring to either Democrat, who’s budgets will enslave American tax payers for another decade before they get changed.
I would prefer to leave the choice for President open, sending a very clear message to McCain and his enablers. I do not want Obama, or any other Dim candidate, getting enough votes to assume the mantle of “mandate of the people”.
working on it ... but waiting until the Republican party either gets a clue, or commits suicide at the convention. After all, there is still a chance to stop McCain before the convention.
Savor the mccain “moment”, for that is all that it will be. I will be doing everything in my power to see that the usurper does not obtain the Presidency. He is a maniac and an A...... with a capital A..
Knowing I can't vote for McCain doesn't mean I won't vote. I'll vote for every conservative on the ballot from the school board up, leave "President" blank and not feel guilty at all. An opposed Democrat is better than an unopposed RINO who will lurch left the instant his hand leaves the Bible on Inauguration Day.
I find it incredible that it looks like the nominees for both parties will be the one who is most hated by their own people. I knew we've entered political Twilight Zone when I heard Pat Caddell defending McCain to Ann Coulter while she defended Hillary to him.
Thanks for posting this.
Sam, great read, be sure and click on the link to read the entire thing.
The conservative talk-show hosts, being snarked by the blindered GOP uber alles, are still working their butts off, to push Romney over mccain. My state already gave Romney a victory, not that I’m in love with the man (though he does have nice hair), he has his faults.
I believe that Romney has a much better chance of doing at least somethings conservatively, than mccain, who is just waiting to really stick it to those disgusting conservatives.
In the words of John McCain, “**** you!”
Those who have voted for the least offensive dweeb over and over have watered the GOP down to a purposeless RINO driven world.
Go ahead. Continue and exacerbate the problem.
Same here. It makes me wonder if the whole thing isn't rigged, somehow. I rarely encounter anyone who supports McCain. And on this site, one of the biggest conservative/Republican sites on the web, McCain is one of the LEAST (if not THE least) popular candidates of all. Yet he is winning among Republicans? It also seems like Obama is more popular than Hillary, from what I've seen. So it makes zero sense, unless McCain and Hillary have been pre-selected as the nominees... (as crazy as that sounds) lol
I usually agree with Don Feder but not this time. "Compassionate conservatism" was a repackaging of the conservative/libertarian empowerment agenda. IMHO, that's still our best bet for a conservative restructuring of the welfare state.
Take education as an example. Many of us signed on willingly to Ronald Reagan's call to abolish the Department of Education, which was a fairly new (Jimmy Carter-created) creature at the time. That, by the way, would not have eliminated the federal role in education; it would presumably have simply returned most federal education programs to their previous haunts around the bureaucracy (e.g. the old dept. of health, education, and welfare, which was busted up to form HHS and Dept. of Ed.).
But leave that aside. Abolishing the Dept. of Education was a clarion call to a generation of conservatives who wanted to play rollback instead of containment against the collectivists, and many folks here still seem to be stuck on the idea. Unfortunately it ain't gonna happen. Reagan couldn't get it done, and no one since has even bothered to go through the motions. So what to do? Simple -- school choice and vouchers. Power to the parents. Give people options. Subject the educrats to consumer choice and market power. Let people vote with their feet.
This is exactly where Bush started out on No Child Left Behind. There were three pillars: accountability (testing), parental choice, and additional funding to buy out at least some of the opposition. The failure was not in concept but in execution. The democrats filibustered and rather than walk away, Bush accepted even higher funding while sacrificing choice. Big mistake. The dems banked the concessions and are now in full-throated attack against accountability. So it hasn't worked out well -- but that has been a failure of execution, not concept. School choice is still the key, and vouchers are essential to empowering middle and lower income parents in a choice regime. This can be a winning issue in the cities, and I hope John McCain carries it into every inner city precinct he has time to visit between now and November.
The same approach goes for healthcare/Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security. We need to reorient the safety net to individual choice and markets. This is exactly where Bush started on prescription drug benefits. Once again he compromised too much with the dems and got burned. It's also what he attempted to do on Social Security. Newt Gingrich articulates the empowerment agenda better than anyone else on the scene, but Bush is reading from the same playbook.
Hey, Bobby Knight isn’t doing anything. I’d sure love to hear him tell that little twit in Iran a thing of two. He does have such a way with words. He can throw a mean chair. I’m sure he could make Hillary cry. (What a farce) And full moon eyed Pelosi wouldn’t stand a chance against Mr. Knight, or would her counterpart Reid. Coach don’t mince no woids. He said if the right thing came along at the right time....Hey Coach....listen up...
I could only leave my ballot blank if it would result in there being NO president. Since that isn’t possible, not to vote IS to vote. I could not stomach thinking I had helped to elect Hillary. Just cannot do it.
Beware of the disheartening dems’ TROLL who want REPUBLICANS to slaughter each others.
At least Mc CAIN is tough on FOREIGN POLICY and it’s not a little issue.
Reason and principles but not hysterical hate must lead true conservatives.Let hate to the lunatic liberals
Why stop then? I'm not going to.
If Obama wins,he will recieve nearly three months of on-the-job training as pres-elect.The Bush people will sit him down and tell him exactly what he is in for.Obama would listen because even though he is a misguided liberal he is a lot more real than the phonies he had to beat to get there.
I pride myself as a fairly good judge of character and I seriously believe Obama will not be nearly as big a threat to America as McCain or Clinton.
McCain or Clinton would reject the OJT and tell the Bush people to not let the door slap their asses on the way out.Too arrogant and stupid they would begin to wreck America on day one.
Write in Reagan!
I, on the other hand, cannot do something that would make me an enabler of those who have hijacked the GOP.
President Bobby Knight.
Has a nice ring to it, and I would bet that would produce a winning team America in a few short years.
The President, historically, has not been the problem. It has been his advisors (Rudman advising GHWB to nominate Souter to the Supreme Court, FDR’s Communist Cabinet, whoever advised Reagan to support amnesty). When I see who would have the ear of Obama, I will know what is going to happen.
Bush left himself surrounded with Clinton people, who stabbed him repeatedly (though perhaps he was a willing victim). Perhabs Obama would do the same.
(If fences don't work, why does the White House have one?)
Y'know, maybe I will vote for McCain just for the comic relief. We could send Borat or Tom Green to interview him, just to get him all POd... it'll make great TV!
Sounding a bit like a Nazi there pal.
Many of us who are conservatives and support certain issues like stopping abortion or closing the borders and a wall or sending ILLEGALS back are not happy with the choices played by the Republican party.
But to tell those of us that are not happy to shut up?
Stick it.
Wow. You disagree with Rush that often do you?
And so speaking of Hillary.....
....let’s revisit for a moment the spectre of her possible election.
First, the woman DID vote FOR the war in Iraq no mind her speaking out of both sides of her mouth now that the Moonbat wing of her party should vote for her.
Hill knows that her previous administration played fiddle a little too long whilst Rome burned and I’m not convinced the Hill will just up and pull the troops. I think she’d make a better CIC then...well than Obama, for one. I’m not convinced McCain would be better than her because if no one’s mentioned it yet, this man has a horrific temper. He scares people, I’m serious. Yes, the Hill has a temper but McCain makes her look like a piker.
So...supreme court nominees? Well who’s going to be up to retire? Stevens? Ginsberg? Well these two are so liberal already that even if Hill should appoint liberals to replace, how is this worse? Conservative issues are squeaking through now. The Court might not get any better but I’d argue it won’t get worse. Oh, and don’t forget that the fine, even-tempered McCain said he thought Alito wore his conservatism on his sleeve. What the hell does that mean?
Social issues? What...I’ve not seen any amazing passion by McCain on the issue of abortion. Let’s not forget the man voted AGAINST tax cuts ..”for the rich”. He’s got Schwarz...Crist and a bunch of other libs in the tank for him and he’ll owe them. Any diff between the Hill and McCain on these matters is almost null.
Finally, IF Hill beats McCain, the pubbies in congress will have gotten a message. For I think the concept of conservatives across the fruited plains sitting this election out or voting for Micky Mouse will be widely known by the time McCain loses. thus the senators and reps will know the message. Conservatives in this country might not be a majority (although I think they are, far more than the lib media likes to present), we are a damn formidable group and on occasions, like the non-herding cats we are, we get it into our heads that we’ve had enough. A President Hillary would have to plow through that chastised Republican congress.
If conservatives swallow one more time and vote for this totally unpalatable John McCain, he of the fine even temper, this country will go liberal and will never go back.
John McCain and his so-called Republican enablers, helped by the libs who would rather have had the Hill but can live with McCain, will be emboldened as never before.
It’s my argument and I’m sticking to it.
I believe the electoral success of George W. Bush caused this divergence when he proved to aggressively embrace "big government" as a solution.
A lot can happen that will change the landscape between now and the election. Things are not static. One or more members of the supremes could keel over, McCain could keel over, McCain could blow it by showing everyone his a$$ publically by losing it at conservatives, a last minute al queda attack as payback to GW before he leaves office. Any of these things and others could alter the equation.
Regards
I refuse to vote for Tweedle-Bad and Tweedle-Awful this time around. No more holding my nose.
This is Free Republic...not RNC web site. We don’t have to walk lock step with the RNC and it’s candidates when they don’t support conservative values. And if we want to cry about it we will!
AMEN!!!!!!
Indeed, we do need to run a conservative candidate. McCain will lose badly, as he would anyway. However, the up side would be a demonstrative 25-30% voting block, that will force any future Republican candidate to be a conservative if they want any hope of winning.
Thanks for the suggestion. We'll get right on it.
Actually, the blank vote is a weak message because it won't be tallied as a vote against socialism.
What we need is a conservative right in. That will be tallied and send a clear message.
So who should our right in be? Newt?
At least when I voted for Bush I thought he was going to protect America and close the borders. With McCain I know he is pro-illegial/pro-amnesty.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
If he is the nominee my wife and I plan on writing in Dolly Parton.
I can’t believe I agree with Rush.
Wow. You disagree with Rush that often do you?
********************
Not really, but this is one of those things that had you told me I would think Hillary in White House would be a positive, I would have said “Hell No RUSH! No Way!” But not in this light.
Google “Council on Foreign Relations” The Adult version of Skull and Bones. It’s members include the CEOs of all the fortune 500 companies, media, both print and broadcast, News anchors, Senators and congressmen. Their policies become the law of the land within about two years. You CAN NOT become president of the United States without being a member. The media will destroy non members and promote the one that tows their line. Sorry, it’s only a conspiracy THEORY if it can’t be proven. They are so powerful now, they even brag about it.
When McCain loses, and he will lose, he will just throw another tantrum.
But who are his "enablers"?
IMO, it is the establishment Republicans and the MSM.
What will they do with that message?
IMO, absolutely nothing. They don't care about us enough to change anything about they way they think or choose a candidate.
The "message" will be gone as a f@rt in a whirlwind.
So..Now we're the RINOS? Kinda makes sense the way you wrote it.
Thanks.
I think.
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