Posted on 08/07/2005 11:44:02 PM PDT by calcowgirl
(snip)
Here we have a Republican governor [Linda Lingle of Hawaii] who is a prime champion of something that flies in the face of everything a principled conservative or libertarian would stand for. I would say "I told you so," but I can't. During my speech in Hawaii, I championed the recall against our awful former governor, Gray Davis. But I voted for Schwarzenegger, who is becoming to California what Lingle is to Hawaii.
I still like Schwarzenegger, but he is tacking left, hoping to defuse the union attacks against him. His reform agenda is in tatters, partly because of union attacks, but also because it is a pale imitation of the original plan. It's hard to rally the troops or win over converts when one sells out core principles. That is Schwarzenegger in action: selling out one conservative and libertarian principle after another.
Remember pension reform, the Campbell initiative to limit spending, government restructuring?
The Los Angeles Daily Journal reports that the governor recently appointed four new Los Angeles judges - all of them Democrats. Is this why citizens, fed up by liberal mismanagement, waged the recall revolution? Did we do this in order to have hydrogen cars and to ban junk foods from schools--proposals Schwarzenegger has supported--or to rein in a behemoth that saps our freedoms, wastes our tax dollars and drives businesses out of state?
(snip)
Many people argue that the best way to win elections in liberal California (and Hawaii) is to continually offer candidates who don't really stand for anything, and therefore don't offend the liberal electorate. ...
It's a constant conundrum: Support principled believers in limited government who are hard to elect, or back supposedly electable candidates who are bound to disappoint but might be better than leftists.
(Excerpt) Read more at ocregister.com ...
---Support principled believers in limited government who are hard to elect, or back supposedly electable candidates who are bound to disappoint but might be better than leftists.---
That's really not the problem. When republicans campaign on limited government, they WIN. The problem is once they get in office, they cave.
It's why they call it the stupid party: They'll say what it takes to win - promising to reign in government, lower taxes, etc - then when they get there, they forget to 'dance with the one that brung ya'.
Instead they lament that they can't enact all the things they said they would, because there isn't support for it - that it will cost them their next election. So they instead pander to the people who they want to like them but will never vote for them...they enact the opposition's agenda in order to be 'popular'. But by not enacting what they promised, they DO cost themselves election - by ticking off the people whose hard work and core support put them there.
" O’Sullivan’s First Law" states that"All organizations that are not actually right-wing will over time become left-wing."Which is just another way of stating the fact that people with the courage and principle to resist the bullying of "objective" journalism will be labeled "right-wing."Nobody is objective - least of all people who actually think that they are objective. Journalists are negative, superficial, arrogant and timid. IOW, journalists are left-wing bullies.
" O’Sullivan’s First Law" states that"All organizations that are not actually right-wing will over time become left-wing."Which is just another way of stating the fact that people with the courage and principle to resist the bullying of "objective" journalism will be labeled "right-wing."Nobody is objective - least of all people who actually think that they are objective. Journalists are negative, superficial, arrogant and timid. IOW, journalists are left-wing bullies.
From the column:
Sen. Tom McClintock is the real thing, but was said to be unelectable at the recall. I bought that and voted for Schwarzenegger out of the fear that Cruz Bustamante would become the next governor. But McClintock would have offered a real roadmap for reform. In Hawaii, Lingle's Republican credentials now only give her more credibility as she shills for legislation that is as opposed to traditional GOP principles as possible.
BTT!!!!!!
The problem is that they are not better than the leftists, they ARE the leftists.
Thanks calcowgirl! Go Tom!!
I don't think they cave. Except for a very small minority of Republicans like California State Senator Tom McClintock, I believe most Republicans outright lie when they campaign with the theme of limited government. They are the perfect compliment to Democrats to help push big government legislation, deficits, pork barrel projects, limiting individuals freedoms, high taxes, lax immigration control, and courts making law. If the Democrats are the wolves stalking the flock of sheep, the majority of Republicans are the wolves dressed in sheepskin.
Great post! I will never vote for a liberal ("moderate") Republican because when such a scumbag succeeds in getting elected, all it does is encourage more Republican politicians to "tack left", and it also encourages more liberal Republicans to run in the first place. I will NEVER reward that kind of scumbag with my vote.
I prefer a devil who looks like a devil over a devil who wears a mask.
People who were paying attention just before the recall election know better. See this LINK to the last Gallup poll just before the election.
~snippet~
.... when McClintock is pitted against just Bustamante, among probable voters the Republican state senator beats the Democratic candidate handily -- by 19 percentage points.
Probable Voters 2003 Sep 25-27
Bustamonte 37%
McClintock 56%
The problem with all this Arnold bashing is that McClintock is on the record recently as saying that Arnold is doing a terrific job at great personal cost. But I know that won't mean a thing to the McClintock crowd.
If you correct or scold a child for doing wrong, is it "bashing"?
If you give an employee an unfavorable performance review, is it "bashing"?
The criticism noted in the article is of Arnold's actions as Governor. While I have never seen McClintock say on the "record" that "Arnold is doing a terrific job", the only the "record" I care about is the set of actions being implemented by the Governor. I agree with the criticisms of those actions noted in Greenhut's column.
There seems to be a lot more than "scolding" going on around here. It is more like "I told you so" and pompous preening about who is the better conservative based solely on who is the most rigid and, well, ineffective. This is most annoying because it is precisely the reason the Californian Republicans can't elect anyone to statewide office that they can actually tolerate. Well, let's look at the record for a second.
Below are recent words from the mouth of "The Great McClintock," Official Grand Totem of the Free Republic Lost Tribe Sleeper Cell of California Conservatives:
"Governor Schwarzenegger clearly recognizes this [the liberal demolition of California], and he has put his popularity, his career, his reputation, and his place in history on the line to lead a political effort to take back this government.
... The Governor is now bearing the full fury and character assassination and venom that is the specialty of these unions. If they can personally ruin this Governor, or if they can defeat these initiatives, they will sit unchallenged astride the government of this state until it collapses under their weight."
Tom McClintock Speech to California GOP Executive Committee, June 25, 2005. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1436664/posts
Naturally, there are "conservatives" here who would be only too happy to help the unions in their plan to destroy the Governor. I prefer the way of McClintock and SUPPORT the Governor.
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