The Right's Big Bet

Vanity | 2/1/2008 | Richard Kimball

[InvisibleChurch]

[I_like_good_things_too]

good analysis.

[San Jacinto]

I am not voting for John McCain. Few conservatives will.

[Richard Kimball]

I'm pinging you because you posted on the thread "Can McCain win over doubters?" These are some of my thoughts about what's going on in the Republican Party right now. At this time, I'm not advocating conservatives support McCain, and I may be wrong about Romney being just about gone. However, I'm curious as to whether my thought process is valid, and would like feedback.

Thanks.

[tear gas]

That's good stuff. I think you've got all the questions covered there.

I suspect that the Limbaugh types will join the cheerleading team before November even if McCain is the nominee. Most of the talk show types like Limbaugh don't have the guts to be out there on their own without a party. Limabaugh didn't even have the guts to endorse a conservative in this election.

Is there room for two or three more Michael Savage types? I don't think so, unless they want to become short wave talk show hosts in Idaho or some such.

The Hannity and Limbaugh types will stay mainstream.

[Richard Kimball]

God, I miss voting for that man.

[Richard Kimball]

I think you’re correct. As to Savage, he’s a niche market. He’ll always have listeners, but mostly on the fringes of political thought, and they’re used to losing elections.

[cripplecreek]

I remember a FR poll about who we would vote for if winning didn’t matter. That one floated back and forth between Hunter and Thompson within a fraction of a percent for the whole time the poll was active. Granted it was a FR poll but I think it indicated something important.

Obviously I’m a Hunter guy but I do think Thompson was far superior to what is left in the race today.

[I Hired Craig Livingstone]

“When Buchanan left the party, most Republicans breathed a sigh of relief. As a whole, the party decided that it was better to have Buchanan outside the house throwing rocks, than inside.”

And guys like McCain and Huckabee have picked up the house, moved it fifty yards to the left, and started chucking rocks at those of us left behind. At least Romney and Giuliani were somewhat deferential in asking to be allowed in — which is why I and a lot of other Republicans don’t have quite as much distaste for those particular RINOs.

Anyway, I’d rather start chucking rocks back than move. If we need a new house, then so be it. Parties dying and being born is something that’s happened before and will happen again...

[LibKill]

**** McCain.

If hitlery is the democrap and McCain the pub, then I will vote AGAINST HER, not FOR him.

If McCain is the pub and Obama is the democrap, I just might stay home.

BTW. I have voted conservative in every election starting in 1976. 9 years in the USMC. I owe nothing to anyone.

[TommyDale]

McCain will never convince the conservative base (or at least enough to win an election) because of these issues:

1. McCain-Kennedy Immigration Amnesty Bill
2. McCain-Feingold Anti-First Amendment Bill
3. Gun Grabbing history
4. Gang of 14
5. Keating Scandal
6. Homosexual marriage/civil unions
7. Embryonic Stem Cell research
8. His 2000 outburst toward the Christian Right
9. His Giuliani-esque philandering while married
10. His hot uncontrollable filthy-mouth temper

[Richard Kimball]

Yeah, I was a Fredhead, but unfortunately, neither of them could get traction. If McCain tabbed Thompson as his running mate do you think it would make a difference? I don’t think Hunter ever got a high enough profile to get the less politically aware conservatives.

[Richard Kimball]

Good point. While some on FR wouldn't vote for Huckabee, Giuliani or Romney, I don't get near the sense of personal animosity towards them that I do from the McCain posts. In this sense, it's really not about politics, they just don't like the guy.

I've been wondering what the options were if we're kicked out of the Republican Party, but didn't want to go there yet, because the current situation isn't resolved.

I also struggle with the "holding your nose and voting" thing because I did that for Rick Perry in Texas and I'm still kicking myself.

[BufordP]

Conservatives are conservatives because they adhere to certain basic economic and cultural principles. Reagan adhered to those principles as best he could given the circumstance of huge Democratic Party majorities. That's why he was successful. That's why we admire him.

If segments of the Republican party abandon conservatives they will do it at their peril. Not because conservatives will turn their collective backs on what is left of the Republican Party - though they will - but because their moderate/liberal policies will be their ruin.

You speak of these constituent parts as though they were sports team competing against each other and what decides the outcome is the skill level and athletic abilities of the players. Maybe that is true during elections. But when it comes to actually running the country the McCains, the Clintons, the Obamas, even the Bushs, will fail.

So let the ignorant masses make yet another mistake i.e. Carter, Ford, et al. Conservative principles will out again. Hopefully for a more sustained period of time. This one was too short.

[JimSEA]

in 1992, Buchanan was the leader. This time, there is no leader.

I agree with you and once again, the key is culture war and immigration. McCain will never be forgiven McCain - Kennedy. Fortunately, Peter Brimlow is not yet a prominent force as he was beginning with his Alien Nation in 1995.

I can't see McCain winning and look for, most likely just now, Hillery or Obama to win.

[Richard Kimball]

I've actually considered registering as a Democrat and voting for Obama in the primaries. I don't like his politics, but Hillary scares the ever loving cr@p out of me. Did you see her Christmas campaign ad?

It's not just the promises she makes, it's that I think she really sees everything as belonging to her, and that she'll dole out stuff as presents.

On the Republican side, I think McCain is a foregone conclusion, but my state primary is after Super Tuesday, so I can still wait if my vote will help determine the outcome. Above everything else, I don't want Hillary in the White House again.

[LibKill]

Hillary scares the ever loving cr@p out of me.

Yep, Anyone who has paid any attention to politics over the last 20 years or so cannot help but be scared of the murdering bitch of Waco.

Considering all that Juan McAmnesty has done, I'd rather stay home.

[Richard Kimball]

You speak of these constituent parts as though they were sports team competing against each other and what decides the outcome is the skill level and athletic abilities of the players. Maybe that is true during elections. But when it comes to actually running the country the McCains, the Clintons, the Obamas, even the Bushs, will fail.

In this article I did. I have my political opinions, but right now I'm still trying to figure out the landscape. I didn't want to make value judgments here. I'm still struggling with what comes next if it's Hillary and McCain. I said I wouldn't vote for McCain, but several Supreme Court vacancies are coming up. I think most of them will be from the liberal wing, as a couple have been waiting out Bush, but they'll still be huge. McCain will most likely go more liberal than I like, but Hillary picked Bill's appointment and we got Ruth Ginsberg. There's also the war with the terrorists. I'm convinced most of this could have been averted if it hadn't been for Carter and Clinton I. When candidates govern as limited government fiscally responsible conservatives the general public is happy with them because things go well in the country. Reagan was almost an anomaly in actually governing this way, though, because few people, once elected, are willing to reduce government power.

[Richard Kimball]

Re: The culture wars. While the left has been effective in painting social conservatives as wanting to "enforce their religion" the right has not been effective in pointing out how the left attempts to enforce their religion. I don't want a "Theocracy", but I also don't like the idea of college students being pulled up before civil rights commissions because they put an ad in the paper for a room mate and don't want to room out with a homosexual.

I have trouble seeing McCain winning, but I also didn't think he'd whip Romney by 70,000 votes in Florida. Nationwide, polls show him beating Hillary. The national press machine hasn't turned on him yet, but I never thought he had a chance at being the nominee.