Posted on 11/30/2005 6:12:08 PM PST by Amerigomag
The appointment of Susan Kennedy as Chief of Staff to the Governor is a betrayal of the hard working activists that supported the Governor during the recent special election. Kennedy has a track record as an active partisan Democrat that has worked contrary to Republican candidates and beliefs.
Those of us who supported the recall of Gray Davis now find one of his top operatives, Susan Kennedy as the leader of Schwarzenegger staff. Not only did she work for Davis, but Kennedy is plagued by her involvement in the Oracle scandal.
This is a dangerous false start for the Governor, not a fresh start.
The California Republican Assembly Board of Directors will be voting on a resolution calling for the California Republican Party's withdrawal of their pre-primary endorsement of the Governor.
What Arnold should have learned from the special election is that he shouldn't have waited until Sept. to start defending his reform initiatives. He sustained heavy damage from the firefighters, police, and teachers unions for months before he got active in the special election campaign. He should have learned that jokingly calling his opponents "girlymen" isn't going to cut it as political dialogue.
I've been doing some thinking about this recently, and I don't think conservatism sells any more in California, let alone "Republican," so for the time being, we can't think "liberal-vs-conservative" in regard to California politics. As a matter of fact, I think that both in California and nationally, conservatism is essentially dead (at least the Goldwater-Reagan conservative revolution is dead), and it needs to be reborn through a new generation of leadership. I don't see that leadership anywhere, frankly, so until it emerges and clarifies or re-invigorates the conservative political philosophy, I think the incessant attacks on "RINOs" or "Democrats in Republican clothing," are feckless and so "20th Century." I hope that self-proclaimed conservatives start showing more creativity and imagination.
Enjoy it.
See, post #43 is exactly what I'm talking about. Conservatism in California has atrophied over the last twenty or so years. It's been reduced to a camp of self-marginalized cranks who offer no vision, no positive agenda, no imaginative platform, no inspiring rhetoric. They'd rather call everyone a "RINO" and say "I told you so" then lead the state into a new conservative golden era. Totally useless. California conservatism is feckless and dead, as I said earlier.
I meant post #143.
I think you mean DICCs -- Dem-servers in conservative clothing.
Little feckless, 20th century correction there. ";^)
I'm glad you defined it as a particular type of conservatism, because the term has been stretched so much that it's almost impossible to define anymore. Despite the fact that many like to distinguish themselves as "real" conservatives (thereby automatically designating everone else as not real), there are multiple varieties of conservatives. Sometimes they overlap and/or join forces. Sometimes they are at odds.
One thing many self-defined "real" conservatives have in common is the fact that they forget one can be a genuine mainstream Republican without being one of the several varieties of dogmatists who occupy both ends of the the "Republican bell curve."
One side of the bell curve is occupied by those who are self-styled "real" conserviatves. On the other side, there are people who are genuine Left-leaning but who, for whatever reason, prefer to be registered Republicans.
What happened in California (and several other states) is that the two ends of the bell curve increased in number over the last 15-20 years. Neither side likes the other and they rarely work together. Those of us who are in the mainstream -- what one might call the top of the Republican bell curve -- are buffeted between the two dogmatic ends.
We don't win elections in California because the various dogmatic factions on the ends of our bell curve are always fighting with each other. As a consequence, the CAGOP has no unified identity or message, so the public hasn't got a clue. While we're fighting amongst ourselves, we let the massive Dem/union machine in this state define us.
I've seen this dynamic play out time and time again in my locality, as well as statewide. When was it that the Republicans gained control of the Assembly for the first time in umpteen years? 1994? 1996? Whenever.
What did they do with their golden opportunity? Pass honest Republican/conservative legislation to demonstrate their worth to the people of California? Work together to solidify their majority? Heck no! Those who occupied the two ends of the bell curve squabbled amongst themselves for two years, fighting over who would be speaker and other nonsense. They were tossed out en masse two years later and it's been all downhill for Republicans in the state ever since.
That is the problem in this state. No gimmick like a recall or special ballot-initiative election is ever going to fix it. The two ends of the Republican bell curve need to find a way to focus on what they have in common, not what divides them. Only then will things begin to turn around.
I agree with you wholeheartedly on this. I just don't think it's limited to California.
"understand the Dems better"
LOL, a girlie man.
Yeah. You're right. But he can't win without Dem votes either. We can choose sides and say the devil with the rest. He can't.
I know there are some who say if McClintock can't win then a pox on both houses, or we might as well have Angelides if we don't have a "real Republican".
I just don't see how that gets us anywhere with conditions being what they are in this state. I'd love to see a solid conservative bloc running this state -- shoot, let's have Antonin Scalia leading the parade. Maybe we'll get there someday. But we had a bold and optimistic agenda and it got clobbered at the polls. We had a governor with cross-party support. Whether he can regain that position is unclear.
One thing most Reps and the more sensible Dems can agree on is fiscal responsibility. So I'm willing to wait and see what comes of this new approach.
All I can do is repeat:
I'm no hard-right ultra conservative, but am a life-long loyal Republican. I'm not a single-issue voter. The big tent concept doesn't scare me, and I understand that politics is about building winning coalitions. But, as I said in an earlier post, the one thing I expect in return for my loyalty and willingness to do grunt work on campaigns is for Republican politicians to be loyal to us party grunts in return.
It is one thing to court moderate Democrat votes, as Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush have done. It is quite another to sell out to the hard Left like Arnold has done. The former I can understand -- not like it, perhaps, but understand. The latter is a deal-breaker to me.
I understand your position. But neither Reagan nor Bush have had to deal with 2005 California. When the parental notification law didn't pass, it was a real eye-opener for me.
Oddball special elections like the one we just had (and the recall) rarely are predictors of how those initiatives/candidates would have fared in a normal election. Those who say Arnold miscalculated strategically and tactically by insisting on the special election for his initiatives are right.
Most, if not all of those initiatives will be back in one form or another. With the right placement and supporting campaign, several will pass.
DICCs -- Pronounced "dicks." I like it.
I hope you're right. It's sure been a roller-coaster.
I was working in Sacramento, lobbying for a regional government agency, in 1995-96 when the GOP in the Assem. was fighting with itself over who would be speaker. (Remember Doris Allen!?) Willie Brown really had the GOP tied in knots, and I actually tip my hat to him for this political ability to stymie the Republicans in the Legislature.
Ditto that. This state continues its slide down the slippery slope.
Instead of comporting themselves with dignity, resolving their differences behind the scenes and coming together for the good of the whole, they selfishly fought like schoolkids. In the process, they threw away the opportunity we grunts handed them by our hard work.
Obviously I can't speak for every district in the state, but the same kind of squabbling has been going on in the district where I live for years and years. And, of course, we see it all over FR daily.
Looking over the last 40+ years, with the rise of Goldwater and the conservative movement, his landslide loss, the rise of Reagan and the GOP rebound in 1966, the victory of Reagan in '80 and the capping victory of a 49-state sweep in '84, the Republican Congress in '94, the victories of GW Bush in a clearly divided nation, and all that has transpired over the last 5 years, I have come to the conclusion that ideology isn't enough. Conservatism has become a big tent. Who are we referring to when we talk about "conservativism"? -- 2nd Amendment conservatives? Fiscal conservatives? Social conservatives? Libertarian/conservatives? Religious conservatives? Neo-conservatives? Paleo-conservatives? Isolationist conservatives? American-excellence conservatives? Anti-immigration conservatives? Economic/pro-business conservatives? Tax-cut conservatives? Deficit hawk conservatives? Country club conservatives? Southern NASCAR conservatives? (Sorry, I know you're a NASCAR fan :-) It's a big tent! But we win elections only when we have a leader with the political skills and character who can pull the pieces together into a whole, and project a positive message to the remaining 10%+ of the electorate needed to actually win elections. The "pure conservatives" tend to be back-stabbers, not political winners, IMHO. If conservatism fractures over the next two or three years, it will be because there isn't focused leadership on the national level (in the likeness of Reagan) to keep the factions together. Sadly, I think someone like Ronald Reagan comes around about once every 100 years. We will likely never see another one like him in our lifetime.
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