Bush governed Texas as a moderate. He campaigned in 2000 as a moderate. He was elected as a moderate. He has governed as a moderate. You're dis-satisfied because he didn't lurch to the right.
The far right has no claim on Bush because they didn't elect him. They didn't turn out very well in 2000.
Bush won Florida by 700 votes. Nader syphoned off 90,000 votes from Gore.
Even after Florida, Bush would not have been elected were it not for Democrats in West Virginia giving him their handful of electoral votes that put him over the top.
The reality is that the far right doesn't have enough votes to elect a president. Your only claim to political power is that you can prevent someone from being elected.
"Far right" being anyone who believes in the rule of law?
Even this center-right has been stiffed by this administration, which has taken domestic policy decisively to the left. And if the right doesn't have enough votes to elect a President, the elitist country-club Rockerfeller/RINO wing of the GOP definitely can't. Yet, through this President, they rule anyway.
Bush won Florida by 700 votes. Nader syphoned off 90,000 votes from Gore.
Even after Florida, Bush would not have been elected were it not for Democrats in West Virginia giving him their handful of electoral votes that put him over the top.
The reality is that the far right doesn't have enough votes to elect a president. Your only claim to political power is that you can prevent someone from being elected.
OH BOY, are you ever correct. Conservatives stay home, democrats get elected. This makes a Hillary Clinton Presidency very possible.
Until the Conservatives can rid themselves of the "FAR RIGHT" title, (given to them by the media and the democrats, they have little chance of being a majority.
I must have missed the campaign speech where Bush promised to spend like a drunken sailor on shore leave and promised to grant amnesty to 10 million illegal aliens.
I never thought he would be another Ronald Regan, but to pretend that Bush's policies represent something less than a leerch to the left shows a rather predictable neo-com delusional thinking.
80% of Americans want the border secure and illegals deported. Being overrun by illiterate, non-English speaking hordes from corrupt Latin American neighboring countries is about as fundamental an issue as any country can have. The vast majority of citizens don't want our country to become like Mexico.
It isn't "far right," it's patriotism and basic sovereignty. Most Americans don't want their country sold out from under them. And they will vote.
Just who is the 'far right' in your opinion?
Also, I would invite you to search the archives here to see how many pleaded with conservatives to vote for him so that he'd win even when we knew that he wasn't 'one of us'. I'd invite you to see how many here 'promised' us that he'd be conservative.
To a large degree, we voted against the Dems rather than for Bush because of how bad the Dems were. None of that means that we have to be pleased with him. None of that means that we have to vote for more of the same.
You are right that we can only prevent someone from being elected rather than elect a conservative, but Republicans also cannot elect one without our help. Many on your side take to calling us names and discounting our worth to the GOP. For that, I'd recommend a lot of reading by a fellow named Dale Carnegie.
Indeed!
Every 10-12 years, the RNC has to do some house cleaning. Bush's term is over in "08 and the party will be forced to abandon it's extreme right wing to move to the center where the general electorate is. Also, it will be in response to the DNC move to the center as well. It will be quite a battle for supremacy, and nobody that belongs to this so called true conservative wing of the party will be happy with the candidates that emerge from the primary fights.
The candidates will both be centrists, and both the extreme left wing and the right wing of each party will be alienated. There will be a mad scramble on both sides for third parties, and the winner will be chosen as a result of who is split worse, and who has more apathetic voters stay home.
I can't, at this time predict who that will be. It depends on how many blue dog Democrats we pick up and how many of their liberal lefties stay home or vote Green.
We are certain to suffer some severe loss in seats, but we may be able to hold on to the reigns.
One thing is clear. The Republican party will not look like it does today. We cannot win elections with a somewhat large segment that is at war with the rest of the party. We cut Buchanan loose during the last upheaval, and I would think that this cut will be much larger and deeper, based on the rhetoric coming from right wing congress critters.
The RNC needs to stop pussy footing and start playing hardball, or we will lose. We need to look this in the eye and take it to it's ultimate conclusion now, before it is too late to rebuild the base for the '08 general elections..
if we don't, it will be 2012 before we see power again.
Bush is portrayed by the media and the left as "far right", despite the fact he is moderate. If a more conservative candidate ran for president, could he be portrayed as any more of an extremist than Bush has? My point is that degree of conservatism is irrelevant to carrying the moderate vote when the media and the left portray anyone to the right of center as an extremist.