I support and admire your passion. My problem with the Republican "right or wrong" crowd is that they join in with the Democrats in trashing conservatives like Alan Keyes and Katherine Harris. They spread all kinds of nasty things about them, criticizing their competence, intelligence, delivery, appearance, whatever. They always have reasons not to fall in with their support. The left wing of the Republican Party has always done this. Scranton and Rockefeller trashed Barry Goldwater. John Anderson said he's vote for Ted Kennedy over Ronald Reagan, and ran an independent campaign against him for president. But then they lecture us about third parties and their destruction.
The Rino's want our support for less than ideal candidates. The fact is that they don't reciprocate. We are told to support their Giuliani's and Romney's and McCain's and DeWine's, and they promise horrible things to come if we don't vote for the "most conservative candidate." They've got more boogey men than I can count.
Do a search on any Katherine Harris or Alan Keyes thread here and look at the ridicule these same moderates throw at our conservative candidates. They tell us not to expect perfection. But it's darned apparent they do.
I still remember the Specter-Toomey race. Specter has been a liberal just like everyone said he would be. We warned them. He's a stinking lizard. He's the poster child for cronyism with the Democrats, but we're told he'll vote with us occasionally or some such rot or that Toomey couldn't win. That's another canard. Gerald Ford said the same thing about Ronald Reagan. And the country was a lot more liberal in 1980.
We are having a discussion about what exactly conservatism is. After that, we can argue about how far left we want our candidates to be. Right now, most of our party couldn't be distinguished from Jim Wright and George Mitchell, the career pols they overthrew in 1994. And we aren't even talking about the president here. There's about ten threads every day on his betrayals.
There are, by my count, seven species of American conservatism. Wait, its Teusday now, so there must be ten varieties. Wednesdays are worst, we get, oh, twelve-thirteen then, in a decent season.
The truth is that there isn't one conservatism; conservatism is the anti-ideology. By its nature its a messy amalgamation of threads of everything under the sun. And the Republican party is all that plus more. It takes patience, perspective, and tolerance to make conservatism work, which Ronald Reagan had in spades, btw. What he lacked was anger and resentment.
None of my friends at Free Republic have trashed Alan Keyes or Katherine Harris. And in the view of many here we are called "Bushbots" because we stand with the Commander in Chief in a time of war within and war without.
You need to adjust your thinking to accomodate reality. Some of us strongly believe that spliting your forces during a battle to the death is foolhardy, and that is why we counsel sticking together.
This present situation has nothing to do with ancient history like Nelson Rockefeller. John Anderson, like Pat Buchanan, left the Republican Party because it did not give them the glory they believed they were due. They were craven, not Republican.
The world has gone around the sun alot since then. I thought the Arabs and the Afghanis were the ones that held ancient grudges.
We are told to support their Giuliani's and Romney's and McCain's and DeWine's
1. McCain isn't getting the Republican nomination.
2. DeWine isn't running for the Republican nomination.
3. Guiliani and Romney are running, and I pray other and better candidates will arise. But to give them their due, they both had to govern in liberal States and only rose to power and were able to improve things in their States because they could appeal to Democrats as well as weary Republicans.
We need to find a governor from a red state. I don't know if one is available and tough enough for the battles ahead.
we aren't even talking about the president here. There's about ten threads every day on his betrayals.
That is because they are posted by nine moles and one dupe.