Posted on 11/08/2006 4:30:06 AM PST by Aussie Dasher
Watching in stunned amazement from the other side of the Pacific, trying to take in the electoral devastation meted out to the GOP, I have only one question (and my inquiry is genuine): How the hell was this allowed to happen?
First (and only) post of the day (I'm at work):
Now, we're going to suffer. The people voted for the party endorsed by terrorists. And you all know what happens when one appeases the enemy.
The GOP didn't lead, didn't keep to the core values and they lost because of it. What no one here seems to want to admit is that the base turned out to vote on the party line, while all those other voters who are the middle...voted their emotions.
We can be angry with them for allowing the loss or we can come to terms with the fact the congress critters didn't do the job, had lousy media relations, ran up the deficit, didn't control the budget, didn't get immigration under control, etc.
Several things come to mind, but the most telling reason is the low percentage of voters who bothered to show up at the polls. THey think they sent a message to the Republicans, but all they did was cause untold gried for the entire country for not only the next 2 years, but for the next 10 years.
Another factor is the relentless MSM message that Republicans are corrupt and that the WOT and Iraq are separate wars!
Exactly, obviously the "real" conservatives kicked out good conservatives, so their spin falls flat.
They do not know who the enemy is, the MSM.
Several things come to mind, but the most telling reason is the low percentage of voters who bothered to show up at the polls. THey think they sent a message to the Republicans, but all they did was cause untold grief for the entire country for not only the next 2 years, but for the next 10 years.
Another factor is the relentless MSM message that Republicans are corrupt and that the WOT and Iraq are separate wars!
This is historically normal for the party in power to lose about 30 seats in the midterm elections.
The Dims ion general ran more conservative dims not moonbats.
The GOP has moved away from it's base values and the electorate said 'enough'.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/02/AR2006110201597.html
Read this Krauthammer article for perspective. It's not an unusual political cycle.
Yeah, let's get back to investigations. Where's that Rummy? Where's that Rove? Where's that "cooked intelligence"? Let's start a pool...what week will the first subpoena fly? The Dems just won't be able to help themselves. Now that THEY are in charge, they will need plenty of distractions from the "foreign policy debacles of the Bush Administration" and the "disaterous tax cuts which brought us this collapsing stock market and rising unemployment". ;-) Heh, heh, heh. They'll overplay their hand, they always do.
We did not demand enough of our representatives. So they coasted, wallowed in our money, and didn't take on anything tough.
As far as politics are concerned, ineptitude is the only real sin in warfare. The war hasn't been run well. Democrats didn't like the war, and once they realized that Republicans were unhappy about how it was being run, they felt safe in criticizing it. The Republican line held for a long time, but unhappiness over the situation ran very deep. It was just a matter of time before the ranks started to break.
President Bush has the 'vision thing', and he understands that we need to confront militant Islam. His courage in being the first to really raise the banner and charge the enemy's positions will always be remembered. Hopefully, his strategic mistakes will be remembered sepearately from his visionary ones, and not be repeated.
It was a combination of press lies, GOP wasting time and money, and swing women voters.
I don't see it as "devastation." Ruling parties tend to sit on their behinds after a while in office. I just woke up, but looking through the numbers I get a feeling that things could've been a lot worse.
While we were in power, I hated this "reach across the aisle" garbage. The Republicans showed how weak they were, they rarely objected and put up a fight, because they wanted to be bi-partisan and nice.
Now, does anyone believe that a Democrat is doing to go for this bi-partisan ideal? Will they remember that their "friends on the other side" worked with them and were as friendly as can be?
The answer is NO.
And all of those things are true becuase the GOP didn't lead.
I'm fairly sure that the conservative base made up most of the people that were out there voting Republican. I believe that the news media played a large part in the size of the Democrats' win. The Democrats would have picked up seats in any event.
Regardless, this is still the same country it was on November 6. Remember that. There is no big change in the country, but in the composition of Congress.
We need Haley Barbour back at the RNC or someone of his caliber. Tom Delay maybe. We need to get our more conservative members of Senate to step up (Jeff Sessions). THe White House was starting to show some fight thanks to Tony Snow. Hope that continues. Freepers need to unite and continue our vigilant stand against liberalism. We will be ok. Only 2 yrs. and we can clean the house up.
Correct, sir.
Because the current GOP is a spineless, wimpy party, whom about a 1/3 of which are RINOs. This is not all bad, (good to see Chafee gone for example). This will give the non-attentive folk in America a chance to really see the Dims for what they really are. When the Dims try to run things in Congress, it will be an eye opener.
This will only help the GOP in 2008.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.