Posted on 04/25/2006 9:49:30 AM PDT by Reagan Man
I know a little something about adventure.
In the late 1970s, the leader of the Republican minority in the U.S. House of Representatives used to greet newly elected Republican members with a white flag of surrender. "Every day I wake up and look in the mirror and say to myself, 'Today you're going to be a loser,'" said the former minority leader. "And after you're here awhile, you'll start to feel the same way. But don't let it bother you. You'll get used to it."
A party whose leader would offer such advice deserves to be in the minority -- and we were, for 40 years. But in 1994 we changed that with a bold ideas-based, values-led grassroots movement. We believed in transformational leadership: accountability in government, balanced budgets, lower taxes, stronger defense and reforming the welfare state. And we believed this: To bring about this transformation, we had to reject the minority leader's advice. We would not "get used" to losing. We would win. And win we did.
But today, 12 years later, conservatives are grasping for a reinvigorated movement that will return our party to its roots of smaller government, innovative ideas and common sense solutions. The situation is serious. We are in jeopardy of losing the majority we won in 1994. Now is the time to act.
Five Challenges to Our Future
History is full of once great but now collapsed civilizations, e.g. Rome, Greece, the Aztecs, the Mayas. And yet as Americans, we deceive ourselves into believing that somehow we are permanent, that we will escape the fate of those who also believed that they were unconquerable.
My stepfather was a career soldier who served America in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. It was while living in France -- where the damage of World War II bombs and the suffering of those wounded were still apparent -- that my father's lessons hit home for me. We toured the battlefield of Verdun, the greatest battle site of the First World War. I realized then that the difference between preserving our freedoms and losing them to tyrants is the quality of our leaders, the courage of our people and the willingness to work every day for the implementation of the solutions necessary for our survival.
The future cannot be left to chance. The future must be won.
Today, in order to win the future, there are five challenges that America must meet:
1. Confronting a world in which America's enemies, including the irreconcilable wing of Islam and rogue dictatorships, could acquire and use nuclear or biological weapons;
2. Defending God in the public square;
3. Protecting America's unique civilization;
4. Competing in the global economy in an era of the economic rise of China and India, which will require transformations in litigation, education, taxation, regulation, and environmental, energy and health policies for America to continue to be the most successful economy in the world;
5. Promoting active, healthy aging so more people can live longer, which will require dramatic transformation in pensions, Social Security and health care.
For 400 years, in the spirit of freedom and entrepreneurial pioneering, we have defined a better America that has overcome every challenge. It is in this tradition that I will regularly share my thoughts here on the solutions necessary for our generation to meet these challenges and win the future.
I can make only one promise: It will be challenging and engaging, and it will never be dull. But then again, adventures never are.
Perot made a good showing back in 92 when we had a lot less important issues than we do today.
Squirrely as he seems in hindsight, he pulled almost equally from left and right. A common sense candidate for any office can make a "politician" look like an idiot in a debate.
I think a Presidential election was not the right place to begin, however. We need to push common-sense candidates up from the bottom. Candidates that will vote NO on spending that doesn't properly belong at that level of government. When I see Congressmen crow about the bacon they brought home, I'm disgusted. I don't want them to bring home spending to my state -- I want them to reject spending in my state and every other state on principle. Federal spending is not supposed to be a big slush-fund used to buy local votes.
General rule: if you can identify a specific group that benefits from spending, and that group is smaller than the entire constituency at the level you serve at, it isn't appropriate spending. At the Federal level, you should NOT BE ABLE to identify some segment of the population that benefits.
Katrina ? BS
Social Security ? BS
Medicare ? BS
Medicaid ? BS
Welfare ? BS
Federal Flood Insurance ? BS
Public Education without choices ? BS
Military ? OK
Borders ? OK
Judiciary ? OK
Interstate highways ? OK
New Bridge in Podunk ? BS
Applause back home tempting pols to spend other people's money is commonplace, but just so far outside what anybody would consider honest in the private arena that it is stunning.
I totally agree. Frankly, they were more effective as a minority.
The preeminent issue in this election will be the invasion of the USA by illegal aliens. The politician who promises to rectify the circumstance in the manner in which American born citizen voters want will be elevted. The Republican/Democrat McCain/Kennedy proposal will not be accepted. If Hitlery comes out and states she will, within 100 days of her election , begin building a physical barrier (wall) and then impliment a moderate approach to Mexiican assimmilation into American society, she will be elected. If the Republican 'thinkers' fail to recogninze this they will loose huge. This worm is turning very fast. The media has succeeded in (wrongfully) demonizing Bush that unless someting is done fast, our gains will be lost.
My sister, a super-duper Liberal, happily points to Newt as man who dumps his wives. I wish that she weren't able to do that.
Is he writing about the herd of RINOs? Because the conservatives, apparently, haven't been the majority for seven or so years.
No kidding. Newt was our star and then our shame.
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