The UNTHINKABLE -- "Chat session - with Jim Robinson (FR)" -- at Liberty Post?

LP | March 18th, 2004 | Jim Robinson

[Senator Pardek]

I created the Opus List, so I can never leave...

[Texasforever]

Even when we had a real conservative in McClintock, I seem to recall the mantra on FR was to vote for Schwarzenegger because he's better than Bustamante.

Wasn't McClintock on the ballot?

[Texasforever]

That's right ! Keyes was shown the door and told to shut his mouth.

When was that?

[Kuksool]

The Biker Bar malcontents crack me up. I am amazed that they would devoted so much time bashing President Bush and this site. They have the gift of obsession. LPers (Or Free Press Freepers as they like to call themselves) clearly need to find new hobbies.

[Bob J]

The have more animus towards Jim Robinson than John Kerry.

That's because 90% of the posters over there are Libertarians. They screech like hell because Jim took away the ONLY avenue they had to execute their agenda...destroying the Republican party. Now all they got is Watchtower.

[Amelia]

so I can never leave...

Gee thanks. Now I have "Hotel California" playing a continuous loop inside my head.

[Amelia]

IIRC, it was Atlanta GA in 1996.

[Texasforever]

Oh ok,I sure don't remember Alan being muzzeld in 2000.

[Kuksool]

{Its hilarious to see that he wastes valuable hours of his life to making graphs and pretty fonts to display his madness to the world.}

Sentry sure has a lot of free time to be posting on LP for a guy who claims to be a high level employee at a financial institution. His latest endeavor is creating a memorial of banned Freepers. Some LPers need to get a life.

[Bob J]

My strategy? Vote my principles.

Principles and ideology have little to do with politics. If you truly vote your principles as you state, you would need to abstain completely from the voting process because there are no candidates that agree with your positions 100% of the time.

That leaves all of us with finding and supporting the candidate that most closely reflects our sensibilities. That is a compromise and that is politics.

[Texasforever]

I will make this a general statement so no one feels they are being "swarmed". There is a lot of talk about strong Bush supporters that are never seem to be capable of " holding his feet to the fire when he betrays conservatives". Now, that would be a very valid criticism if there were actual betrayals to hold against him. The fact is that none of his actions to date should have been a surprise to any conservative that actually followed his campaign. The most prominent "conservative betrayals" voiced about Bush on FR seem to be the following

Education spending

Education was Bush’s signiture issue in the 2000 campaign. He laid out his program that later came to be known as “No Child left Behind” from the start in his campaign speeches and issue papers. He did not get vouchers but he did get school choice in the form of magnet schools and the ability for parents to transfer their kids from a “failing school” to another that met the testing requirements of the program passed. He did increase spending but it was minuscule in relationship to the overall budget and it included accountability in individual school district performance. Now it is not a “conservative” program” but it is also not a “betrayal” it is just enacting a policy he campaigned on.

Illegal Immigration

Once again, the plan he has proposed is the same plan he campaigned for in 2000 and lobbied for while Governor of Texas. Once again, it may be a bad plan, but it is not a “betrayal” it is what he said to everyone that was listening that he planned to do.

Medicare Prescription Drugs,

This one was not as clear as Education and Immigration. It came up as an election issue when Gore used the tried and true “GOP will destroy Medicare” and then promised that the Dems would spend whatever it took for full coverage of all seniors. Bush and Rove made a fairly blatant political decision and issued their own plan which is roughly what is now law. Not a conservative issue but not a betrayal either at least to those that followed the campaign.

CFR

CFR was another wedge issue that the Dems were using from the left with McCain surging on the “maverick right”. Bush came up with a 6 point CFR plan that ended up being passed with a 7th point, issue ad bans, tacked on by the democrats as veto bait to use against the GOP in the mid-terms. A case can be made that Bush should have taken the bait and veto the bill but he didn’t and I guess that could be a “betrayal” but not because he campaigned against CFR to get elected.

So when people accuse me of supporting GW no matter what he does I have to plead guilty so far. He has done nothing but do what he said he would do as a candidate. What actually surprises me about Bush is his strength on national security, something that most people were not thinking about in 2000, his tenacity on tax cuts and his refusal to be swayed by world opinion his stance on social issues from abortion, to faith all the way to the issue of Gay marriage. He is, in my opinion, the strongest president on traditional values in the last 60 years. You can argue that some of what Bush has done is not “conservative” but it is not a fair assessment that he has betrayed those that voted for him.

[Frito Bandito]

That leaves all of us with finding and supporting the candidate that most closely reflects our sensibilities.

Right. For some conservatives, that eliminates George W. Bush from contention.

[Bob J]

Right. For some conservatives, that eliminates George W. Bush from contention.

That's your right. Who is the lucky winner of vote this September?

[Bob J]

That should read your vote.

[Frito Bandito]

Should it also read November? :)

[Frito Bandito]

And I dunno. It's early. Maybe GW can bring me in. It won't be Kerry. Or Nader...

[Bob J]

Who did you vote for in 2000?

[Bob J]

Should it also read November? :)

I assumed you'd be voting absentee...;}.

[Frito Bandito]

Alan Keyes

[lainie]

Now, I believe, HE would have prosecuted one hell of a war on terror!