Posted on 10/14/2006 3:14:12 PM PDT by Paul Ross
GOP needs tough love, not abandonment
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By Star Parker, World Net Daily, October 14, 2006
A survey just released by the Pew Center shows that 51 percent of Democrats are enthusiastic about voting in 2006 as opposed to 33 percent of Republicans. This is almost a mirror image of what the picture looked like in 1994.
A Pew Center poll also shows a precipitous drop in support for Republicans and the Bush administration among white evangelicals. It's now a little over 50 percent, whereas in 2004 it was closer to 75 percent.
Given the realities staring us in the face, none of this is a surprise. I know that these polls reflect the facts accurately just from reading my mail.
Republicans and conservatives are fed up with their party and their representatives. But can it be that anything is better than what we now have?
I've gotten letters telling me that I've sold out, because I've written that we should not abandon the Republican Party because at least there is a chance of fixing it. What do we gain by allowing Democrats, who are wrong on everything, to regain power, just to express anger at wayward Republicans?
I'm as mad as everyone else. In fact, I think I've been madder – and mad longer – than everyone else.
I've been arguing for years that although the current administration pays lip service to traditional values, it has missed the central point that limited government is the other side of the same coin as traditional values.
Big government and a moral, traditional and genuinely free society simply cannot go together. It's worth remembering the observation of British historian Lord Acton that "power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
The correlation between the amount of power that we put in the hands of politicians and the tendency of those politicians to become corrupt is a human reality, not a partisan one. We can expect it from Republicans as well as Democrats.
Given the failure of the current Republican regime to limit government and to actually find reasons to grow it, what we're seeing today should come as no surprise.
Nevertheless, I still will argue that we shouldn't take our eye off the ball. Conservatives need to stay focused on what we, and all Americans, need – traditional values and limited government – and continue to push positively toward this end. Despair is no answer and will only make things work.
With all the comparisons to 1994, it shouldn't be forgotten that Republicans ran in 1994 on a positive agenda – the Contract with America. Americans voted for something in '94.
I'm adding nothing new to point out that there is no Democratic agenda in 2006. There are only Democrats looking for power and trying to grab it by taking advantage of Republican incompetence. Unfortunately, not a challenge.
We ought to think back further than 1994 and go back to 1976 when Jimmy Carter was elected president. There are a lot of similarities between what is happening now and the picture then.
The country was still traumatized by the aftermath of the Vietnam War, by having a president resign as result of the Watergate scandal, and what was then called the "energy crisis."
Carter was elected to bring fresh air to Washington. He sold himself as a man of the people who would bring decency back to Washington. Fed up Americans voted for him in hope that he would indeed bring back the fresh air that they wanted to breathe.
Unfortunately, like all so-called populists, what Carter really believed in was government and not people. To deal with our energy problems, he created a new Department of Energy. To deal with our education problems, he created a new Department of Education.
Four years later, we had double-digit inflation, 20 percent interest rates, a doubling of energy prices and Americans held hostage in Iran.
The country had to go through even greater trauma than it was in before the 1976 election to open the door for the Reagan era four years later.
Do we have to go through this again? Is the only path to electing Republicans who really believe in traditional values and limited government to throw out the current rascals, lock, stock and barrel, and elect Democrats who will show us how bad things really can get?
There is no question that current Republican leadership has lowered the bar, but let's not forgot just how free this country is. We ultimately get the leadership that we want and are willing to tolerate.
I think conservatives let our elected Republican officials off too easy these past years by tolerating an excessive growth of government that itself was symptomatic that there was a problem.
The answer is to get refocused, clarify our principles and fix the party.
The question is if we'll have to do it sitting on the sidelines while the Democrats turn what is bad into what is worse.
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Yeah, what's the White House and Congress done to fight Islamofascism? What have they done to cut taxes?
If we could selectively have the RINOs targetted, particularly in the Senate, and we retained sufficient numbers to thwart an impeachment over the war (which remains uncertain)...or to filibuster the Law of the Sea Treaty or other insanity such as the Illegal Alien Amnesty bill Bush will get through a suddenly-agreeable Congress otherwise...
This is why I have been openly warning people just how unconcerned W appears to be at the prospect of losing the Republican House. Which has proven to be the more conservative of the bodies. The White House must have calculated they can get more of their REAL AGENDA through with DemocRATs than with conservatives. And why do you think that would be...?
The question is..who is kicking Rick Santorum out? President Bush? I don't think so! The only way Rick will lose is if the conservatives and republicans stay home.
If the Dems get back the House and Senate, forget getting ANYONE on our side into power for a long time. Listen to what they say. They will do all they can to investigate Bush and impeach him; they will de-fund Iraq and we will lose there with terrorists feeling emboldened. The Republicans will get the message if they lose seats...but if they lose power, we all lose. The Dems will make sure via election laws...fair doctrine (to get rid of talk radio) and other means to make sure they never lose again.
Stay home and you WILL regret it.
Damn near wound up with Harriet Meiers, and only a huge groundswell of conservatives and our folks in Congress got W to turn tail and get her to withdraw.
Remember, the dems over-sampled their polls by 9-10% in the last election .. this year they're having to use 16% - I sincerely hope that tells you something .. Hmmmm ..??
- I sincerely hope that you're right...and they are confounded.
What makes you think she was a liberal?
Our own Dr Deb points out all these numbers to those of us who gather at the "Daily Dose" thread.
In one of the latest polls about the public wanting dems to take over the House - 53% - that was with 16% more dems, not to mention an abundantly equal supply of independents - which is all out of proportion. Independents only account for 2-5% - not 1/3 of the electorate. Looks like a lot-a-skewin' goin' on!
...and prosecution of the war on terror. Sorry that's not good enough for you. Hope you enjoy Rat rule.
Harry Reid supported her nomination, so she's not a justice I would want. Besides, she wasn't qualified, just a Bush crony.
Sixty years, not forty. People forget the period starting 1931 through to 1953 (excluding 1947-49), and again after 1955.
The time to do that is in the primaries. Did you campaign for GOPers in the primaries?
Do you know the differences in issues between the GOP & Dem candidates in your state? Do you really support the Dem platform? If so, then vote Dem or stay home.
Complaining about the GOP *is* the Dem platform, so maybe you are a Dem.
Is that the best we can hope for? Expecting the courts to legislate? That used to be anathem to conservatives.
What she said to the Texas Bar Women's association about Roe v. Wade, and her whole course of conduct while running the White House Counsel's Office, interfering with Ted Olson in both the Michigan Law School affirmative action case debacle and the Texas Sodomy law case defeat. And scads of other misfires. Can you say, Kelo?
From the conservative standpoint she has been given enough rope to evaluate her. She has been a Fifth Columnist. And W took her back to her old job. Where she continues to be a plague on the Conservative house.
We got tax cuts and conservatives on the Supreme Court just to name a couple.
"They are all a disgraceful and embarrassing bunch of reprobates who deserve neither our respect, nor our vote."
You know better than that.
I should also add the additional factor of her perhaps remarks to Arlen Specter over her support of Roe v. Wade...then subsequently denied by her, claiming she was "misunderstood."
Oh, if only we could all be principled and perfect like you.
True enough, but who would a Dim president and Dim senate have placed on the court? I know your sense of betrayal and anger. But for the sake of our country it is not the time to indulge it.
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