Posted on 03/19/2009 1:22:06 PM PDT by mnehring
Failing Republican Party is leaving room for a one-party system
Conservatism is not a bad thing. It has been made so over the last 30 years by several nasty men who perverted its tenets into a marketing strategy for their party rather than a set of ideas to lead Americans and the world.
The ideas of national security, honor, justice, fiscal responsibility and small government are sound ideas to balance out competing ideas of big government. Converting them into a cynical coalition of people who live solely to thwart the efforts of anyone with ideas other than their own selfish notions is perverse.
These people, starting with the late Lee Atwater, his protégé Karl Rove and the cast of players left over from the Reagan years, hijacked conservatism for their own purposes, transmogrifying it into an empty suit which might be filled every eight years by idiots who are easily controlled by the party bosses.
And yes, I mean former President George W. Bush.
The Republican Party is in dire need of resurrection. For all intents and purposes, it is a dead beast and this is heart breaking because it destroys any semblance of balance in the governing of our land. A divisive and jingoistic idiot of a radio talk show host is its de-facto leader. A brain-dead Alaskan is its future (talk about your easily controlled idiots). A former vice president, the personification of the cancer that killed the GOP, is its cheerleader. How did it ever get this bad?
In writing my most recent book, I was called upon to revisit the U.S. Constitution, its origins and evolution. This is not my first dance with the Constitution, so this was more like paying a call on an old and dear friend. Informed as I am, I was shocked to read official government documents which show that former Vice President Dick Cheney believes, as Nixon did (Cheney cut his government service teeth under Nixon and his pack of sewer rats), that the power of the presidency is virtually without limits.
This is in complete contravention of any and every factual and legal interpretation of the U.S. Constitution.
Cheney, the mastermind behind the former Bush administration’s views on presidential power, pushed for eight years to convince every member of they executive branch that they were above the law. Don’t believe me? Cheney went on television a few days ago and unabashedly laid it all out.
CNN reports that, “According to recently released legal memos from the Bush-Cheney administration, the former vice president believes that the federal government can ignore the First Amendment and suppress free speech and freedom of the press as part of its war on terror… that the federal government can send troops to burst into the homes of American citizens without a search warrant, despite the Fourth Amendment’s protection against such unreasonable searches. He believes that the federal government has the right to arrest an American citizen on American soil and hold him in prison without charges. He believes that the federal government can listen in on your phone conversations without a court order…. Cheney believes that the federal government can ignore the Geneva Conventions…”
I have read the documents upon which Cheney justifies these views. They are legal memos from White House lawyers, two stooges named John C. Yoo and Robert J. Delahunty, clearly written from a point of view which pre-supposed the outcome of the argument and set about rationalizing it. They are legally vacant and, at best, contrived. Any law professor reading them would be compelled to fail their authors as lacking any semblance of American legal cognition. Yet Cheney, as far from a Rhodes scholar as they come, pledged his blackened soul to their veracity.
Rush Limbaugh is not, as Al Franken says, a big fat liar. He is a blowhard. He is mean-spirited. He has put his brain in park. He is an entertainer, doing all he can to garner the attention of anyone who will listen long enough for him to sell another box of soap flakes or one more Sham-wow.
Yet despite the fact that he constantly displays all of these attributes (he recently addressed a large group of conservatives and said that the Preamble to the Constitution guarantees “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” which it does not…that’s the Declaration of Independence) he is still heralded as the de-facto head of the Republican Party.
And then there is Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who is a train wreck. She allows her knot-head husband free reign over the governor’s office. She used government authority to be vindictive to an ex-family member. She does not actually read substantive material. She can see Russia from her porch. She runs a state with more back-room shady politics than Chicago squared, all the while receiving way more than its fair share of federal largesse. What more needs to be said?
If we as a nation have learned anything since the 1700s it is this: A government out of balance always leads to trouble. That is precisely why the Constitution makes the Congress, the presidency and the courts equally balanced. That is why nobody is above the law. That is why, my good reader, we had all better pray for the resurrection of the Republican Party.
They need to find their Obama, a smart, articulate and reasonable person. Someone who, win or lose, is going to work forward and not wallow in pitiful gamesmanship. They do not need a tired, rung-out life-long government hack. They do not need a face to fill the suit of party control.
Everyone, regardless of political identification, can agree that a one-party political structure is not healthy for a democracy. Without a real leader our government stands to veer too far out of whack, become too big and a burden on your future.
Brad Lord-Leutwyler is an adjunct professor of philosophy at UNLV.
Ping, more slams on Palin by this professor who thinks he is a Conservative.
The moderates are coming out of the woodwork. For a philosopher he sure is closed minded. I guess his blinders are set on DC “conservatism”, which is really liberalism is drag.
This walking ego even had his own write in for President campaign.
http://shop.cafepress.com/brad-lord-leutwyler
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Wikinews_interviews_Brad_Lord-Leutwyler,_independent_candidate_for_US_President
Here is his personal website on campus:
http://faculty.unlv.edu/blord/
Really a confusing mishmass of truths, half-trues and lies.
Some of what he says is true. But Palin and Cheney were solid conservatives and Great Americans.
The Bushes were catastrophes. The GOP should never get Bush- wacked again.
Sounds like a Slick Willardbot f*ckwit. I stopped reading here.
Worse, reading the interview I posted with him a few posts up.. he is a Colon Powell ****wit.
I don't know who yet, but hopefully someone, maybe a FReeper, will emerge in the party.
Sorry to be “witchy” about this but after what just happened in the House of Representatives today I could care less whether the entire GOP crashes and burns. They are NO BETTER than the Democrats, and in fact, are probably even WORSE — at least the Dems ADMIT they are SOCIALISTS!
Scum of the Earth - everyone in the GOP who thinks Bills of Attainder and MANDATORY servitude are legal can kiss my A**.
Every single statement here is a lie.
Every single statement here is a lie.
I should’ve added that my opinion about the GOP doesn’t mean that I agree with what this idiot has said about specific people WITHIN the GOP.
What can you say about some pinhead that would write something Asinine as this? Except get the Hell OUT!! You are Exactly what is wrong here.
This idiot baits Conservatives with the first few sentences, then goes off the deep end. If you read his interview in the other link, he is not a Conservative at all, he more resembles a Rockefeller, Country-Club Republican at best, typical Lib professor at worst.
Which means he is NOT a Republican. Powell is a racist, sexist, backstabbing liberal Democrat weasel. Biggest mistake Republicans ever made was trusting that scumbag with any position of authority.
Thank you. “Pinhead” describes this goofball quite well. He's about as conservative as Kathleen Parker.
You know I am in the old habit of Voting straight ticket But until the GOP is bought back to its Conservative roots and Real Conservative Republicans are in Charge and certify the candidates, How do you Vote for anyone?
We need people who are NOT afraid to step on toes and tell it like it is..Also Do more recruiting in the Collage engineering departments for NEW blood. Our basic format is sound and what the founding fathers wanted BUT Ole George sidetracked us and Only REAL leadership will help now. Drawing on what the Great Henry Ford said about failure we should begin anew.
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