Posted on 05/18/2006 3:59:06 AM PDT by FerdieMurphy
As conservatives wake up to the fact that George Bush is not a conservative and as conservatives become more and more disgusted with the Republican party governing like Democrats, the party is cranking up its spin machine to scare conservatives enough to keep them voting the party line in November.
Across the internet and in some elite media outlets, pundits, and operatives are spewing the party’s rhetoric. It’s the same old scare tactics the party elites have used to hold conservatives within the fold and Democrats use to hold blacks and poor whites in their party. It is the “We may be bad and you may not like what we are doing, but the other side is worse.
The reason this works is because too many Americans don’t understand politics and how a republic works. Even many people on the political blogs, who consider themselves politically astute and well informed don’t seem to have any idea how politics in our republic works.
The ruling political class wants it that way. It keeps them in power and makes it easier for them to offer little or no choice in most political races.
The truth is, there is about 30% of the voting public in each camp who vote for the party no matter what. The Republicans have so-called conservatives who would vote for Arlen Specter rather than Thomas Jefferson, because Specter is a Republican and Jefferson was a Democrat. On the Democrat side, they have a group who would vote for Zell Miller rather than Lincoln Chafee, because Miller is a Democrat and Chafee is a Republican.
Neither of these groups have any political clout. They are irrelevant to the political debate.
Neither party, nor any politician, has to work to get their vote. Consequently, their issues are of no concern to either party.
The battle in every election is to get out the vote of people who lean toward a party or candidate, and get the vote of issue voters. The 40% or so voters who either vote for either party, or who withhold their vote when dissatisfied, are the ones politicians have to court and motivate.
Neither the Bushiban nor the Clintonistas are of any real interest to the respective parties. Those votes are there and counted before the polls ever open. The parties and individual politicians fight for and court the other 40% of the voters.
Rove knows this and spoke about it after the 2000 election. In 2000 Evangelicals didn’t turn out in their customary numbers and almost cost Bush the election. Rove was determined to change that. In 2004, Rove made it a point to go after the Evangelical vote, including an unprecedented Republican push in the nation’s black churches.
Evangelicals and other Christians responded by getting out and voting for Bush. This included a record 16% of the black vote in Ohio, just about all of which came from the black churches because of issues like abortion, gay marriage, etc.
That 16% of the black vote was not only almost double the percentage of black votes the Republican historically got in presidential elections, it was more than double the black vote Bush got in 2000. It was also more than Bush’s margin of victory in Ohio. It was not as much as his total margin of popular vote victory, but it gave him the election. Without the black vote Bush would have lost Ohio and its 20 Electoral votes. Take those twenty votes from Bush and give them to Kerry and you have President Kerry.
In fact, remove the increase in the evangelical turnout and it is doubtful that Bush would have won a second term. Rove worked on pushing those issues that motivate evangelicals and it gave Bush a second term.
To be sure, he also hammered on the war and on the terror issue and got a larger percentage of soccer moms scared by the thought of another attack. He also downplayed Bush spending like a crack whore and increasing the size of government. But all that just further illustrates the point that he went after the issue voters who didn’t turn out in 2000 or who could vote either way.
There is nothing wrong with what Rove did. It is the way our republic is designed and supposed to operate. What is wrong is when some of the 30% don’t understand why their party or candidate doesn’t govern the way they want, and why their agenda is ignored.
They fail to understand that the way to advance their issues is to vote issues rather than party. If neither party is right on your issue, don’t vote or vote third party. Now you become one of the voters the parties and candidates are trying to win. You become important to the process and to how the nation is run.
The politicians ignore the 30% who is going to turn out and vote for them no matter what the politician does. Why shouldn’t they?
If you don’t want to be irrelevant in the political scheme of things, don’t be part of the 30%. Let the politicians know that while you may not vote Democrat, you will vote third party or stay at home if they don’t act and vote right. Then follow through. Don’t let them scare you with that lesser of two evils crap. Make them earn your vote and you become relevant.
Great post and especially after yesterday's rant. The uninfringed Second Amendment is for me a fine litmus test. The GOP is a bit too blue.
I didn't think that was witty, as a matter of fact I thought that was shi--y!
Many of us do that, but we end up with candidates like Bob Dole.
"When the Repubs are in charge of setting the agenda, we can then work on securing the votes of the more conservative Dems to balance out the liberal RINOs."
In the last 15 years, the GOP has proven that they will never be in charge of setting the agenda, no matter what the numbers are---unless we find a way to fix the GOP, which is clearly broken.
Are you talking about Harris in her run for Senate from FL?
(The Republicans have so-called conservatives who would vote for Arlen Specter rather than Thomas Jefferson)
This is where I stopped reading as the author showed that he has no idea what conservatives are. I would never vote for Spectre. If I were in Connecticutt I would vote for Lieberman. In Illinois, for the first time, I will vote for the incumbent governor because I'm so disgusted with Topkinka.
Conservatives have to run.
We have to vote, so we can take control.
There are conservatives who register as democrats in PG County MD to help keep out the real lefties.
Don't let Hillary win.
The supreme court is at stake.
This world will always be disappointing, vote, and make your vote count. We have to make our stand here.
We've got a conservative candidate running in the Florida Senate race, Katherine Harris, but Governor Bush hasn't been too friendly with her. The GOP establishment seems to be writing off this race as lost already, because nobody else has a snowball's chance in Hialeah of beating the Democratic incumbent, Bill Nelson.
It is all about power. It will never change.
The GOP did NOT want Dr. Tom Coburn of OK, the truest of conservatives, to win his primary. Thank God the Republicans of OK swept him to victory in the primary against the Party's will. That tells you everything you need to know about the country-club Republicans in charge of the Party. They never liked dear Pres. Reagan either.
He said "so-called conservatives" i.e. those that aren't actually consservative e.g. RINOs.
I think all this article is saying is keep 'em guessing. Let your distaste on issues be known.
Bob Dole would have been a vast improvement over what we got, though, right?
Conservatives supported him 'cause he wasn't Algore or John eFfin' sKerry.
He also seems like a decent human being as opposed to his predecessor or his opponents.
My dissatisfaction with President Bush does NOT translate as positives for Demoncrats. I hate 'em more every day. I just have a few issues with President Bush.
George Bush is conservative:
1. He is pro-life and has appointed conservative justices that fit that bill.
2. He has reduced the growth of government spending (discretionary)
3. He has proposed and defended vigorously reductions in non -discretionary spending.
4. He is opposed to gay marriage.
5. He maintains international abortion promotion bans.
6. He defends the nation militarily rather than attacking the military.
7. He is not controlled by liberal interest groups such as teachers unions and trial lawyers.
People who continue to promote the idea that Bush is not conservative are deliberately trying to help democrats in my estimation. I fully recognize that there are many people who are more conservative than Bush but that hardly means Bush is not conservative. It is to Bush's credit that he allows immigration to become the big issue.
Everyone keeps trying to pretend he is up for re-election every day. He is not. He is free to do pretty much what he wants.
This fellow understands the process.
Voting a straight-party ticket is fine when the party crafts policy in a responsible manner. When they behave as the Republicans have since 2000, with big budgets & earmarks, new social programs, all the immigration & border security issues, well, it's time to vote selectively. IMO.
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