Posted on 04/26/2005 4:19:34 PM PDT by FeeinTennessee
For The GOP, A Warning By Vincent Fiore April 25, 2005
These days, it's hard to tell just who the majority party in Washington really is. But according to the last several national elections, Republicans have won the House, the Senate, and the presidency. As Bush begins his second term with increased majorities in both House and Senate chambers, it seems that the more power Republicans garner via the voters, the less resolve and political courage they display.
If you believe you sense the beginnings of a commentary that may be less than complimentary to the GOP, trust your instincts--you are right. This space is usually filled with anything but hyperventilating rants, as I leave the more exercised and vituperative prose for the posses of the Bush-hating left.
But even dormant volcanoes erupt once in a great while, and normally ground-in-fact writers can otherwise show the occasional adverse effects of frustration.
As Hillary Rodham Clinton continues to move ever-so-stealthily to the right on most every issue that is of consequence, Republicans cannot seem to find their proper voice on nearly anything.
Not just Hillary--though she stands out for the obvious reason of her future presidential run in 2008--but the entire Democratic Party. Like Hillary, the Democratic Party has acted like something they're not, and that is the majority party in Washington.
Sure, Democrats cannot muster the votes to pass their own legislation, but they do a more than credible job on blocking President Bush's agenda. Some of the success of Democrats can be chalked up to incidental events, like the always-helpful op-ed pages of the mainstream media, along with high gasoline prices and low stock market performances.
But the primary reason for the Democratic Party's success to date is its ability to adhere to partisan discipline and unity, and the GOP's unwillingness to engage them as a majority party.
Early successes aside, like the class action tort reform bill and the more recent Bankruptcy Reform Act of 2005, the Republican-led Congress has had one oar in the water most of the time.
From the alleged wrong-doing of House majority leader Tom Delay, to the botched job of touting Social Security reform, to the breathtaking lack of clamorous support for United Nations nominee John Bolton, Republicans--as a party--have not done nearly enough to refute liberal propaganda and obstructionists actions.
Republicans in Congress have done a wretched job at protecting and supporting the president with regard to Social Security reform. Senate members have been capricious in their support and strategy in changing Senate rules in answer to the Democrats' unprecedented filibustering of ten Bush nominees to the Circuit Courts.
Equally at fault in this widening gap of leadership is President Bush himself. Though the vast majority of Americans want illegal immigration stopped--even to the extent of closing the borders--Bush has developed a political tin-ear on the issue. Democratic Senators Hillary Clinton and Barbara Boxer are now outflanking him by calling for tougher border protection.
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The republicans basically MAKE ME SICK!
The Republican'ts just take your letters and use them to create fund-raising lists. When Bush comes up with an "exit strategy" for the millions of illegal invaders already here in the U.S. - and follows through on it - then I'll think about talking to them again.
Their lack of leadership in the Senate is what is screwing everything up. If we had a Tom DeLay in the Senate, you wouldn't see this butt kissing of the RINO's. You either toe the line or he pulls your committee chairmanships and puts you omn the committee to decide the new color of the hallways in federal buildings.
I have said it before and I will say it again. The GOP are cowards when it comes to holding these rotten liberals responsible to what they have done to this great country. They think that if they just play nice, that the Democrats will like them. After 40 years of of Demorcats ramming the liberal agenda down our throats, you'd think that the Republicans would have learned a valuable lesson. No matter how much you capitulate and appease liberals, they will still hate you. It's time for the GOP to finally grow a pair, and start breaking some kneecaps. We have a limited amount of time to undo some of the damage that the radical left has done to this country but somehow I just don't think they are up to the task. I hope that I am wrong.
The Republican'ts just take your letters and use them to create fund-raising lists. When Bush comes up with an "exit strategy" for the millions of illegal invaders already here in the U.S. - and follows through on it - then I'll think about talking to them again.
You aren't gonna get anything done by pouting about the situation. Write them, let them hear from you!
Unfortunately, you are not wrong. So sad...
The Republicans and the Dumocrats are in Bed together! That's the ONLY explaination. They both want to undo the US Constitution but for different reasons.
The Republicans want Cheap Labor and Oil Deals with Mexico!
The Dummos want to and have been replacing the US Constitution with the EU Socialist Constitution. The losers in all of the are the Patriotic American People who have placed their trust in both of these parties.
They have both went into agreements with the UN for the WTO, The Sea Treaty, The Unconstitutional Hate Crimes passed in the US, There are many other's that we are not aware of that's for sure, but we have certainly been paying for it!! They have to try to get us to disarm, they are in great fear, as they should be, of the right of the US Citizen to bear arms. They know what that means and that it will be a great accomplishment when they achieve that goal.
We need to elect under favorite sons and daughters a write in Candidate who we KNOW and who we know will stand up for the US Constitution. This can be done and we the citizenry CAN DO IT!
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." President 'Teddy' Roosevelt
PS And yes, I voted for him--VERY reluctantly and ONLY because I did not want to have as our "Commander in Chief," someone who had done great harm to us Vietnam Vets as well as being, a "Traitor."
I can think of no worse a party-dividing issue and majority-killer as that of America's immigration policy, and President Bush's widely perceived "back-door amnesty" for some 11 million illegal aliens in the country today. Discussions on immigration today are akin to discussions on Social Security 20 years ago: Say the wrong thing, and you may experience the fatal effects of the new "third rail" of politics.Basically though, there is the expectation of "To the victor go the spoils" that most people are fuming over. Republicans have not had this firm a grip on Washington for over 75 years. The country has gone through a mini-realignment of sorts since the GOP captured the House in 1994. The electorate is decidedly more traditional and conservative in its social demeanor.
So it is hard to come to grips with the fact that the Republican Party--from the president on down--has behaved like a majority-in-denial, content to be acknowledged as the premiere power in Washington, but lacking the iron-will and killer instinct of latter-day Democratic majorities that dominated the American political scene for decades.
What do Republicans in Washington say to the millions who volunteered for the Bush/Cheney 2004 election, giving up their days and nights to go door-to-door and make tens of millions of "get to the polls" phone calls, while donating unprecedented millions to the campaign?
Would they say "Well, we tried, but we were cowed into submission by the op-ed pages of the New York Times and the Washington Post"?
Or would they say that the opposition was "Just too tough to overcome, so we decided to moderate our views instead of fighting upon the mandate given us by the voters"?
Republican political palsy and its effect on the party rank and file are as yet unknown. While some are monolithic in their support for a Republican majority in government, others are becoming increasingly alienated with the party's lack of backbone and its political dithering on core issues. By the 2006 midterm elections, things will be clearer, and Republicans may regret their inactions upon these very core issues.
Last November, 122 million people voted or 60.7% of the voting-age public. That is the highest percentage since 1968. Out of this, some 62 million-plus voted for a Republican president, and increased his majorities in both houses of Congress to work with.
If Republicans do not set their sights on what these millions of voters sent them there to do, they will feel the beginnings of their wrath in 2006, and experience the full measure of it in 2008. A warning to the majority party in Washington: Put up or get put out.
The problem is that, now they have power, they're scared of losing it. Like seniors -- the older people get the more concerned they become about not getting killed.
If Republicans do not set their sights on what these millions of voters sent them there to do, they will feel the beginnings of their wrath in 2006, and experience the full measure of it in 2008. A warning to the majority party in Washington: Put up or get put out.
I read it. And this isn't the solution to the problem....electing democrats. I still am a firm Republican and I still back the President. We put him in office to work for us. True. But we have to continue to hold them to account. Where are all those voters who voted for Bush last year? They should still be busy writing and calling their leaders, the President to make sure that they hear us. I don't want special interests deciding what is best for me. And they are getting the upper hand, we are letting them.
I'm sick of all politicians, including the republicans.
Yes, and I'm ready to fight, and that doesn't just mean with paper and pen. Outrage upon outrage upon outrage, there will come a point...
It is the whimpishness of the weakest kneeded bunch since the crowd that bailed on Nixon that could send the GOP to its doom in '06 and '08.
Okaying "not to lose" is wimp politics and doesn't win voters.
"But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security."
My hypothetical question is this: Given the sedition laws how could we ever organize to the point of throwing off the government?
I think the Repubs are in a bad situation by having the majorities. There's too much ambassadorship happening, because they don't want to appear too ram-roddy and gloaty by using their majorities to their (supposed) advantage. They're walking a real political tightrope (with which they're hanging themselves.) It's the big boys version of giving every kid a trophy, or of not praising academic success, because it might hurt the others' feelings.
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