Posted on 02/27/2004 1:01:58 AM PST by kattracks
President Bush fired back at his Democratic critics Monday night. After being a sitting duck for the slings and arrows fired at him by the “Hate Bush Brigade”, the White House says the President plans to go on the offensive.
It’s about time. We need to see a tough, straight-talking, Texas-style George Bush hammering away at his detractors. He also needs to reach out to his conservative base and remind them of what’s at stake in this election, because he has a problem with a lot of them.
In recent weeks my conservative listeners have been talking about the same things Kerry and Edwards have been talking about. They’re talking about jobs even though the unemployment rate is only 5.6 percent. They’re talking about outsourcing, they’re talking about amnesty for illegal aliens – these are the things that people who listen to talk radio are concerned about.
Their reaction to the President’s handling of these issues should be a warning sign for the President. Conservatives are calling my show and telling me that they are not going to vote for George Bush because of his stand on amnesty or outsourcing, for example. And this simply amazes me. I ask them if they aren’t going to vote to re-elect George Bush are they going to vote for the Democrat? And the answer is inevitably, "NO! I’m not going to vote for anybody. I’m going to stay home on Election Day."
My reply is if you stay home and George Bush doesn’t win re-election and instead Kerry or whoever the Democrat candidate is gets elected, do you think things are going to get really better? And their answer is, "Well, no, but I want to take a stand."
They should remember Custer. He too took a stand. It was his last.
That just stuns me because it’s utterly irrational. They don’t understand they are taking a stand against themselves. By not voting they only help elect a liberal Democrat who wants to raise their taxes, enact all kinds of new spending programs. They would also endanger the nation by their already demonstrated ineptness and weakness in the war on terror, and hand over Iraq to the United Nations so it can create the same kind of mess we are now seeing in Haiti – another UN and Clinton "success."
They are wearing blinders that only allow them to focus on one issue. They say they won’t vote for a candidate who disagrees with them on one single issue even though he agrees with them on every other issue. It’s utterly self-defeating.
Even though they staunchly support George Bush on his stands on tax cuts, how he is fighting the war, and applaud his pro-life policies, they disagree with him on the amnesty issue, for example, and therefore can’t bring themselves to vote for him.
They’ll just stay home and help elect a Democrat who disagrees with them on just about everything. They’d enact socialist programs that would cripple U.S. industry, yet some of my listeners applaud them not realizing that if you drive a company’s profits down, you drive the value of their stock down and the millions of Americans whose 401Ks are invested in that firm suffer losses as a result.
When President Bush goes on the offensive, he’s going to have to remind Americans that if they want to pay low prices for the goods they need, the reason they are going to have to look overseas is because Democrats in Congress have so regulated American companies that the cost of doing business has risen. That’s due to the unions and government regulations that have become so prohibitive.
What’s the Democrat answer? Well, they say they’d make foreign nations enact the same kind of onerous regulatory and environmental burdens we have here that would force the prices of their goods up to the same level as ours. In other words, wreck their own economies to make John Kerry or some other demagogue look good.
Fat chance.
Mike Reagan, the eldest son of President Ronald Reagan, is heard on more than 200 talk radio stations nationally as part of the Premiere Radio Network.
A lot of us want to be able to go into the pollbooths next November and support what Dubyuh's doing by lending him our vote. Sure, we complain when we feel he offends our RightWing sensibilities, but I continue to believe Dubyuh's got a conservative core that simply needs to be brought to the fore and squash the Milquetoast Moderates who seem to hold sway in his Administration on domestic spending. These folks seem to believe if you spend like a DemonRAT, you can win over the Left. However, as evidenced by the visceral HATRED the Left harbors for Dubyuh, it ain't necessarily so!!
"I was referring to the others on this site that seem to despise the GOP with their every atom. I've also seen some specifically mention looking forward to the death of the GOP someday and how the CP or LP can then thrive."
Certainly those folks exist, and many are disillusioned past the point of ever supporting the GOP again. They were around four years ago supporting Buchanan and I had folks actually tell me that they wanted things to get worse so that they could get better. I didn't agree with it then, and I don't agree with it now...I'd like incremental improvement, thankyouverymuch!! That's what frustrates me so much when Dubyuh supports an incremental growth in Domestic Discretionary spending, I feel like we're losing despite having OUR folks at the controls!!
FReegards...MUD
BTW...I tend to agree with the anti-GOP folks on one point...that is, I can foresee a possible scenario wherein the UltraLeft abandons the RATS and supports the Green Party (or the Socialist Party or whatever) and the GOP melds into the ModerateParty by joining with the leftover RATS, and a Constitution Party or a Libertarian Party swallows up the remains of the Right. However, this possibility ain't happening this time around, and won't happen if the HildaBeast runs in '08!!
Yes, non-discetionary is the real boondoggle that Greenspan has been warning about for years.
Personally, when looking at the drug benefits that so many bemoan, it was going to happen anyway. The rat's programs had no language for modernization and even with it, they almost cut it out to get it through.
Medicare, as we all know, is a way of having nationalized medicine without really having it, but the large aged population demands government assistance and how could we realistically not have a program. But there is so much waste, and better means testing needs to be used now.
Social security, IMO is dead in only a few years. The program, as it is, cannot and will not survive.
I do not see any other options but to change it completely for the future. No options at all.
Having said this, there are a hundred or so others that can/should get the chop/chop!
Some are slated in the Bush budget. The rats are already howling.
I share yer disenchantment, my FRiend...I actually thought that once we got a Republican POTUS to go with a Republican Congress, we'd actually start to see the Devolution of Power from the Federal Leviathan and back to the States, Localities, and Individuals that was promised in '94. Unfortunately, we got a bit too much triangulation from the White House on domestic matters, and it's tough to blame anybody but ourselves!! You gotta admit that it's been an unpredictable three years, and I believe there's still room fer Dubyuh to do what's right in his second term.
"IMHO, one election doesn't mean that much. Getting the Republican party back on the track means everything."
Having power is important for the next four years, but I agree that over the long-term, we could survive it. Still, it's a scary thought to imagine letting Hanoi John Kerry take over as Commander-in-Chief fer the next four years, as I can see him totally fouling up the War on Terrorism!! I'd much rather see Dubyuh joining our plea fer Fiscal Conservatism!!
FReegards...MUD
I wrote it twice and still could not get it right.
LOL! Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!
An outlet for what???
I agree...as the Life Expectancy continues to rise, it's silly to think the retirement age should not move with it. The proper way to set up Social security is to say a certain percentage--say 20%--are eligible fer the benefits. At least then we'd have, say, 20% too young to work and 20% too old to work and the remaining 60% being the producers. The best solution, though, is to allow folks to build up their own nest eggs and retire whenever they get the urge, andf I hear rumors that that is where Dubyuh's legislation is headed!! I hope so.
FReegards...MUD
An outlet to register my disapproval with Domestic Discretionary spending growing at an 8% per year clip. As a Virginian, I'm blessed to live in a State where RATS have not won our electoral votes since 1964 (LBJ), so I don't really haveta worry about my vote electing Kerry. That said, I'd much prefer Dubyuh getting the message and curbing outta control domestic spending, thereby allowing me to proudly cast my vote fer Dubyuh!!
FReegards...MUD
Great job putting your thoughts into song, as usual.
The uproar over a lie (Bush was AWOL),was nothing compared to what would happen if he actually closed down the Dept of Ed! Look at how the Dems and the media handle actual acts, acts far minor to the disbandment of a government department.
So, you claim disinterest in any other president but the current one. Living in the moment, when attempting to use historical precedence, is disingenuous!
You won't decide who to vote for, until November? NOVEMBER ? Then don't post your "feelings" to FR until then. If your vote is mutable, then what you think now, doesn't matter. There are two and only two choices......Bush or Kerry. Staying home or voting fringe party is the same as voting for Kerry or whatever Dem is the candidate.
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