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Why Republicans disgust me
World Net Daily ^ | April 29, 2004 | Joseph Farah

Posted on 04/29/2004 5:43:41 AM PDT by Mikey

Do you want to know why the Republican Party disgusts me?

Just take a look at the Pennsylvania Republican primary for the U.S. Senate seat held by Arlen Specter.

Specter is a disgusting old political hack who doesn't deserve to be dogcatcher of Bucks County. Yet, he has served four terms in the Senate.

He claims to be a Republican, but he supports few positions in the Republican platform. He is pro-abortion. He is pro-homosexual. He is a big spender. He is a big-government liberal by any standard you want to use.

Finally, this year, someone within the party decided to challenge Specter – a young congressman named Pat Toomey.

Toomey, 42, didn't have much of an organization. He didn't have a lot of money. But he did have grass-roots support from conservatives – people who actually believe in Republican Party principles, not just politicians who call themselves Republicans.

But the party establishment rushed to Specter's defense. Not only did President Bush weigh in to support the 74-year-old Specter, who is on the wrong side of nearly every issue under the sun, but so did the usually reliable junior senator from Pennsylvania, Rick Santorum.

Despite the money advantages, the endorsements and the party establishment firmly behind him, Specter managed to squeak out a victory of less than 20,000 votes in a contest where more than 1 million were cast.

The Republican leadership's way of thinking about this race focuses on Specter being in line for the chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee next year. But that should be reason for opposing him, not supporting him.

In 1987, Specter opposed President Reagan's appointment of Judge Robert Bork to the Supreme Court. He betrayed his own Republican president and a very good jurist. Why the Republican establishment would remain loyal to this unprincipled liberal is beyond me.

(Excerpt) Read more at worldnetdaily.com ...


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This is one of the reasons I refer to the republican party of today as the republicrats.
They haven't been standing true to the republican party platform for many years.



Republican Party Platform.

Adopted at St. Louis, June 16, 1896.

The Republicans of the United States, assembled by their representatives in National Convention, appealing for the popular and historical justification of their claims to the matchless achievements of thirty years of Republican rule, earnestly and confidently address themselves to the awakened intelligence, experience, and conscience of their countrymen in the following declaration of facts and principles:

For the first time since the Civil War the American people have witnessed the calamitous consequences of full and unrestricted Democratic control of the Government. It has been a record of unparalleled incapacity, dishonor and disaster. In administrative management it has ruthlessly sacrificed indispensable revenue, entailed an unceasing deficit, eked out ordinary current expenses with borrowed money, piled up the public debt by $262,000,000 in time of peace, forced an adverse balance of trade, kept a perpetual menace hanging over the redemption fund, pawned American credit to alien syndicates, and reversed all the measures and results of successful Republican rule. In the broad effect of its policy it has precipitated panic, blighted industry and trade with prolonged depression, closed factories, reduced work and wages, halted enterprise and crippled American production, while stimulating foreign production for the American market. Every consideration of public safety and individual interest demands that the Government shall be rescued from the hands of those who have shown themselves incapable of conducting it without disaster at home and dishonor abroad, and shall be restored to the party which for thirty years administered it with unequaled success and prosperity. And in this connection we heartily endorse the wisdom, patriotism and the success of the Administration of President Harrison.

Allegiance to Protection Renewed.

We renew and emphasize our allegiance to the policy of Protection as the bulwark of American industrial independence and the foundation of American development and prosperity. This true American policy taxes foreign products and encourages home industry; it puts the burden of revenue on foreign goods; it secures the American market for the American producer; it upholds the American standard of wages for the American workingman; it puts the factory by the side of the farm, and makes the American farmer less dependent on foreign demand and prices; it diffuses general thrift and founds the strength of all on the strength of each. In its reasonable application it is just, far and impartial, equally opposed to foreign control and domestic monopoly, to sectional discrimination and individual favoritism. [Emphasis mine]

We denounce the present Democratic tariff as sectional, injurious to the public credit and destructive to business enterprise. We demand such an equitable tariff on foreign imports which come into competition with American products, as will not only furnish adequate revenue for the necessary expenses of the Government, but will protect American labor from degradation to the wage level of other lands. We are not pledged to any particular schedules. The question of rates is a practical question, to be governed by the conditions of the time and of production; the ruling and uncompromising principle is the protection and development of American labor and industry. The country demands a right settlement, and then it wants rest.

Reciprocity Demanded.

We believe the repeal of the reciprocity arrangements negotiated by the last Republican Administration was a national calamity, and we demand their renewal and extension on such terms as will equalize our trade with other nations, remove the restrictions which now obstruct the sale of American products in the ports of other countries, and secure enlarged markets for the products of our farms, forests and factories. Protection and reciprocity are twin measures of Republican policy and go hand in hand. Democratic rule has recklessly struck down both, and both must be re-established. Protection for what we produce; free admission for the necessaries of life which we do not produce; reciprocal agreements of mutual interest which gain open markets for us in return for our open market to others. Protection builds up domestic industry and trade and secures our own market for ourselves; reciprocity builds up foreign trade and finds an outlet for our surplus. We condemn the present Administration for not keeping faith with the sugar producers of this country; the Republican party favors such protection as will lead to the production on American soil of all the sugar which the American people use and for which they pay other countries more than $100,000,000 annually. To all our products--to those of the mine and the field, as well as those of the shop and the factory--to hemp, to wool, the product of the great industry of sheep husbandry, as well as to the finished woolens of the mill-- we promise the most ample protection. [Emphasis mine]

Merchant Marine.

We favor restoring the early American policy of discriminating duties for the up building of our merchant marine and the protection of our shipping in the foreign carrying trade, so that American ships--the product of American labor, employed in American shipyards, sailing under the Stars and Stripes, and manned, officered and owned by Americans--can regain the carrying of our foreign commerce.

The Currency Plank.

The Republican party is unreservedly for sound money. It caused the enactment of the law providing for the resumption of specie payment in 1879; since then every dollar has been as good as gold. [Emphasis mine]

We are unalterably opposed to every measure calculated to debase our currency or impair the credit of our country. We are, therefore, opposed to the free coinage of silver, except by international agreement with the leading commercial nations of the world, which we pledge ourselves to promote; and, until such agreement can be obtained, the existing gold standard must be preserved. All our silver and paper currency must be maintained at parity with gold, and we favor all measures designed to maintain inviolable the obligations of the United States and all our money, whether coin or paper, at the present standard, the standard of the most enlightened nations of the earth. [Emphasis mine]

[The republican party used to be for sound money, but not anymore. Used to be a money supply backed by specie. Now its run by a private for profit bank (FEDERAL RESERVE. Which is no more federal then federal express) and the "money" is backed by an ever increasing debt]

Justice to Veterans.

The veterans of the Union armies deserve and should receive fair treatment and generous recognition. Whenever practicable, they should be given the preference in the matter of employment, and they are entitled to the enactment of such laws as are best calculated to secure the fulfillment of the pledges made to them in the dark days of the country's peril. We denounce the practice in the Pension Bureau, so recklessly and unjustly carried on by the present administration, of reducing pensions and arbitrarily dropping names from the rolls, as deserving the severest condemnation of the American people. [Emphasis mine]

Foreign Relations.

Our foreign policy should be at all times firm, vigorous and dignified, and all our interests in the Western hemisphere carefully watched and guarded. The Hawaiian Islands should be controlled by the United States, and no foreign Power should be permitted to interfere with them; the Nicaragua Canal should be built, owned, and operated by the United States, and, by the purchase of the Danish Islands, we should secure a property and much-needed naval station in the West Indies. [Emphasis mine]

The massacres in Armenia have aroused the deep sympathy and just indignation of the American people, and we believe that the United States should exercise all the influence it can properly exert to bring these atrocities to an end. In Turkey, American residents have been exposed to the gravest dangers, and American property destroyed. There, and everywhere, American citizens and American property must be absolutely protected at all hazards and at any cost.

We reassert the Monroe Doctrine in its full extent, and we reaffirm the right of the United States to give the doctrine effect by responding to the appeals of any American State for friendly intervention in case of European encroachment. We have not interfered, and shall not interfere , with the existing possessions of any European Power in this hemisphere, but those possessions must not, on any pretext, be extended. We hopefully look forward to the eventual withdrawal of the European Powers from this hemisphere, and to the ultimate union of all the English-speaking part of the continent by the free consent of its inhabitants.

Suffering Cuba.

From the hour of achieving their own independence, the people of the United States have regarded with sympathy the struggles of other American peoples to free themselves from European domination. We watch with deep and abiding interest the heroic battle of the Cuban patriots against cruelty and oppression, and our best hopes go out for the full success of their determined contest for liberty. The Government of Spain, having lost control of Cuba, and being unable to protect the property or lives of resident American citizens, or to comply with its treaty obligations, we believe that the Government of the United States should actively use its influence and good offices to restore peace and give independence to the island.

The Navy.

The peace and security of the Republic , and the maintenance of its rightful influence among the nations of the earth, demand a naval power commensurate with its position and responsibility. We therefore favor the continued enlargement of the navy and a complete system of harbor and seacoast defenses. [Emphasis mine]

[How many republicans do you hear on TV, radio, etc state "our democracy" all the time. Go to Article 4, section 4 of the Constitution for the United States and see what it says]

Foreign Immigration.

For the protection of the equality of our American citizenship and of the wages of our workingmen against the fatal competition of low-priced labor , we demand that the immigration laws be thoroughly enforced and so extended as to exclude from entrance to the United States those who can neither read nor write. [Emphasis mine]

Civil Service.

The Civil Service law was placed on the statute book by the Republican party, which has always sustained it, and we renew our repeated declarations that it shall be thoroughly and honestly enforced and extended wherever practicable.

Free Ballot.

We demand that every citizen of the United States shall be allowed to cast one free and unrestricted ballot, and that such ballot shall be counted and returned as cast.

Lynchings.

We proclaim our unqualified condemnation of the uncivilized and barbarous practices well known as lynching and killing of human beings, suspected or charged with crime, without process of law . [Emphasis mine]

National Arbitration.

We favor the creation of a National Board of Arbitration to settle and adjust differences which may arise between employers and employed engaged in inter-State commerce.

Homesteads.

We believe in an immediate return to the free homestead policy of the Republican party, and urge the passage by Congress of the satisfactory free homestead measure which has already passed the House and is now pending in the Senate.

Territories.

We favor the admission of the remaining Territories at the earliest practicable date, having due regard to the interests of the people of the Territories and of the United States. All the Federal officers appointed for the Territories should be selected from bona fide residents thereof, and the right of self-government should be accorded as far as practicable. We believe the citizens of Alaska should have representation in the Congress of the United States, to the end that needful legislation may be intelligently enacted.

Temperance and the Rights of Women.

We sympathize with all wise and legitimate efforts to lessen and prevent the evils of intemperance and promote morality.

The Republican party is mindful of the rights and interests of women. Protection of American industries includes equal opportunities, equal pay for equal work, and protection to the home. We favor the admission of women to wider spheres of usefulness, and welcome their co-operation in rescuing the country from Democratic and Populistic mismanagement and misrule.

Such are the principles and policies of the Republican party. By these principles we will abide, and these policies we will put into execution. We ask for them the considerate judgment of the American people. Confident alike in the history of our great party and in the justice of our cause, we present our platform and our candidates in the full assurance that the election will bring victory to the Republican party and prosperity to the people of the United States

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

1 posted on 04/29/2004 5:43:42 AM PDT by Mikey
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To: Mikey
It's a political Party, not a League of Starry-eyed ideologues.

The failure of the "conservatives" within the GOP, is obtaining sufficient votes from the people who cast them to win elections, but it's easier to always blame others for their failures than to accept fault.
2 posted on 04/29/2004 5:48:25 AM PDT by Luis Gonzalez (Sin Pátria, pero sin amo.)
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To: Mikey
I'm a Republican and I disgust myself. I don't knoe how I go on.
3 posted on 04/29/2004 5:49:54 AM PDT by Conspiracy Guy (Believe nothing you hear and half of what you see.)
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To: Mikey
Well there is one very tiny payback for Bush, I am one vote that he had last time, that will not be present in Nov. Are there others? More than a few perhaps.

Republicans do not need conservatives. They give us the back of their hand and then whine they may lose if we don't support them. So be it. Live with it.

4 posted on 04/29/2004 5:51:15 AM PDT by cynicom
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To: Mikey
Figures Joe Farah would omit the fact Specter was one of the biggest factors in getting Clarence Thomas on the bench, and helped push Bush's tax cut through the Senate, but nah, Joe don't want to focus on those issues, just the negative aspects of it. Joe's commentaries have rung hollow as of late.
5 posted on 04/29/2004 5:52:08 AM PDT by BigSkyFreeper (<a href="http://www.johnkerry.com/">Waffles</a>)
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To: Mikey
I'm guessing it's all about the judicial appointments and the power Specter possesses....can't be anything else. Hold your nose while you vote..:)
6 posted on 04/29/2004 5:52:16 AM PDT by smiley
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To: cynicom
I'm probably with you, I just wish someone had a chance besides Kerry and Bush.
7 posted on 04/29/2004 5:54:28 AM PDT by stuartcr
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To: cynicom
My kid used to threaten to hold his breath until he died. It was a very "mature" way of handling things when he didn't get his way. (end/sarcasm)
8 posted on 04/29/2004 5:55:25 AM PDT by dawn53
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To: Luis Gonzalez
It's a political Party, not a League of Starry-eyed ideologues.

Good point, Luis. I hope we arent going to see a revival of the Im-not-voting-for-Bush-because-he-didnt-do-what-I-wanted-him-to-do crowd..

9 posted on 04/29/2004 5:56:59 AM PDT by cardinal4 (Terrence Maculiffe-Ariolimax columbianus (hint- its a gastropod.....)
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To: Mikey
The reality is that both major parties are less about principle and more about getting elected and protecting their own. That is why the GOP establishment come out to protect their own like Arlen Specter. The only consolation is that the GOP are not near as bad as the largest political party in this country, the Democratic Party. No politician can get elected on principle alone anymore. Everything now is about flash over substance and fighting the cancer known as modern liberalism.
10 posted on 04/29/2004 5:57:53 AM PDT by miloklancy (The biggest problem with the Democrats is that they are in office.)
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To: dawn53
Dawn...

True indication of a lack of basic political understanding is to issue personal attacks.

11 posted on 04/29/2004 5:59:27 AM PDT by cynicom
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To: newgeezer
Interesting.
12 posted on 04/29/2004 6:00:02 AM PDT by biblewonk (The only book worth reading, and reading, and reading.)
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To: stuartcr
vote Aaron Russo, Libertarian for President.

*ducking, covering head*

:-)
13 posted on 04/29/2004 6:00:05 AM PDT by bc2 ("Stay well - Stay safe - Stay armed - Yorktown" - harpseal)
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To: BigSkyFreeper
Figures Joe Farah would omit the fact Specter was one of the biggest factors in getting Clarence Thomas on the bench

Because his ass was on the line next year for reelection. Specter always morph into a conservative when reelection rolls around.

helped push Bush's tax cut through the Senate, but nah

Specter pared over $250 billion off the tax cuts.

14 posted on 04/29/2004 6:01:05 AM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist (Extremer than any Extremist!!!)
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To: smiley
Republicans or Democrats, the main point is the power of incumbents to raise money, deliver favors, extract support under pressure, name recognition,...

the Newt Gingrich revolution was correct to impose term limits. But the corrupt politicians, especially on the Republican side kept criticizing this reform, and now it is dead.

15 posted on 04/29/2004 6:01:52 AM PDT by philosofy123
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To: BigSkyFreeper
Joe Farah had every reason to omit those facts, because they were not typical of Specter's tenure in the Senate. In fact, you'll note that Specter's support of Clarence Thomas was due entirely to the fact that he was running for re-election that year. Since then, he has returned to form and made numerous comments about how "disappointing" Thomas has been.

I didn't really have a horse in this race, as I do not live in Pennsylvania. If I did live there, I would have voted for Toomey no matter what Specter's voting record was -- 24 years in the U.S. Senate is at least 12 years too long for ANYONE.

16 posted on 04/29/2004 6:02:06 AM PDT by Alberta's Child
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist
Because his ass was on the line next year for reelection. Specter always morph into a conservative when reelection rolls around.

They all do. Montana has a senior Senator that is a Democrat, Max Baucus, turns into a Conservative when election time rolls around, and spends the rest of his time rubbing elbows with Hitlery's crowd.

17 posted on 04/29/2004 6:02:43 AM PDT by BigSkyFreeper (<a href="http://www.johnkerry.com/">Waffles</a>)
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To: cardinal4
I hope we arent going to see a revival of the Im-not-voting-for-Bush-because-he-didnt-do-what-I-wanted-him-to-do crowd..

They're still here. In fact, they never left. Just brace yourself for the onslaught of these sayings over the next few months.


A.K.A. Sleepy Brown

18 posted on 04/29/2004 6:03:10 AM PDT by rdb3 (Let others praise ancient times; I am glad I was born in these.)
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To: cynicom
What A freaking crybaby. You see thats what I tell my kids, if you try hard and still don't win, give up. Throw a fit and hold your breath.

Keep your ass at home then because you do not give a rats ass about what we need to do in this country. We are at war with a group of psychos that want to kill you! We have a President that is fighting tooth and nail against not only terrorists but Democrats that are hoping to turn Iraq into a defeat and Vietnam.

You bunch of sissys wont stay and fight within your party for your guys? Please, please do not change your mind and vote! Please stay home on election day and show us all!

19 posted on 04/29/2004 6:04:44 AM PDT by normy ("I also want the Americans out of Iraq." John Kerry)
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To: BigSkyFreeper
"Figures Joe Farah would omit the fact Specter was one of the biggest factors in getting Clarence Thomas on the bench, and helped push Bush's tax cut through the Senate, but nah, Joe don't want to focus on those issues, just the negative aspects of it. Joe's commentaries have rung hollow as of late."

1) Arlen Specter tried to destroy Bush's tax cuts. I don't know what fantasy world you live in, but in the real world, Arlen Specter voted for every Democrat amendment meant to cut the size and effectiveness of the tax cut, and in fact he was the one who proposed putting triggers on the tax cut--abolishing them if revenues dropped--that would have rendered it meaningless.

2) Arlen Specter has since vowed to never again vote for a Clarence Thomas, has assured pro-abortion groups that he would have a pro-abortion litmus test on all future nominees, and that if he could do it over again he would have voted against Thomas.

Get a clue and stop spreading idiotic propaganda.
20 posted on 04/29/2004 6:06:18 AM PDT by Formoore04
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