Posted on 10/20/2006 7:05:29 AM PDT by Interesting Times
Dispirited conservatives and Republicans rightfully appalled at the Cunningham, Abramoff, and Foley scandals should remember history as they contemplate not voting in the 2006 elections because of disillusionment.
In early 1973, the Dow approached new highs in a booming economy. In the 1972 election, the new left was rejected in almost every state. The Paris Peace Treaty was concluded with North Vietnam memorializing its pledge not to interfere militarily in the affairs of South Vietnam. The nation was prosperous and at peace.
Worst President
Within a short time, the mainstream media were able to dismember and destroy the Nixon Administration, using as their sword the Watergate affair. In the congressional elections of 1974, Republican candidates were pounded, losing 48 House seats and five Senate seats.
Until the 1990s, the so-called Watergate Babies (i.e. left-wing Democrats) ruled Congress. As its first act after the 1974 election, the new Congress cut off all aid to South Vietnam. Within a short period of time, this led to Communist conquest of all of Indochina, the massacre of at least 4 million of our friends in the killing fields of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, and the displacement of millions of boat people.
In 1976, the left wing captured the White House with the worst President of modern timesJimmy Carter. By 1979, the U.S. economy was in shambles with 12% inflation, 11% unemployment, and vast deficits. Our military was reduced to a shadow. With even our embassy officials held hostage in Tehran, the United States became a powerless joke to the world. It may be fairly said that but for Ronald Reagan the days of our democracy might well have been numbered by the consequences of the 1974 election.
It is not clear why the voters of 1974 thought it wise or just to indirectly cause the destruction of millions of allies in Southeast Asia because of the cover-up of a minor burglary at the Watergate. They certainly did not know that by their votes they would punish themselves severely, leaving, by the end of the Carter years, a U.S. economy that was a burned-out hulk and a nation that was humiliated.
I wonder whether history will repeat itself this year. Despite mainstream media distortion, the economy is in its strongest condition since the Reagan years with low unemployment and inflation rates and diminishing fiscal deficits. We have recovered from the implosion of the Clinton Internet bubble and the shock of Sept. 11, 2001. We have crippled al Qaeda, assembled an international coalition to deal with North Korea and made reasonable progress in defeating at least the foreign insurgency in Iraq. We have seen no terrorist attack on our heartland in more than five years.
Despite the second-guessing by Democrats who have no military experience and by a few veterans who question the Iraq policy, an overwhelming majority of active-duty personnel support the Bush policies and the Republican administration. For example, in 2004, an Army Times poll of active-duty military personnel showed less than 15% voting for Kerry and more than 80% voting for Bush. Despite the token military veterans trotted out by the Democratic Party as Trojan horses in Republican areas, it is clear that a large majority of veterans and active-duty personnel reject the cut-and-run policies of the fringe element now in control of the Democratic Party.
In the spring of 1975, I watched in horror our refusal to aid our South Vietnamese friends and their collapse. I watched our friends die by the millions in the gulags of Cambodia and Laos and in frenzied attempts to escape on the high seas, and I remembered my friends, who died in Vietnam, and whose sacrifice was so casually discarded by the Watergate Babies. I lost faith in the United States for many years.
I wonder now if we are so blind and ignorant of history to actually allow a new crop of Watergate Babies to install clearly unfit leaders such as Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.), John Conyers (D.-Mich.), and impeached Alcee Hastings (D.-Fla.) as the guiding force in our nation. Considering that a Democratic win could mean the rise of John Murtha (D.-Pa.) from Abscam to majority leader, and Hastings from impeached federal judge to House Intelligence chairman, it is no exaggeration to say both parties have bad actors. The distinction is that the Democrats promote them and the Republicans fire them.
Finally, I wonder if voters (like those in 1974) are going to actually vote for the betrayal of our Iraqi and Afghan allies and the sacrifices of our troops. I wonder if our Iraq War veterans will watch the mass execution or flight of those who fought with them and believed in us. If so, history teaches us that in the end we will suffer terribly ourselves. This is particularly true here, where we face adversaries who have said they will not stop at the waters edge but have already reached across the ocean to destroy our nations largest buildings and thousands of our people.
Has it ever occurred to you that it is the crappy job of observing that is your problem? You are not even half right.
agreed
I have feelings similar to yours. Here in Tennessee I supported Ed Bryant, a fine conservative and a Christian, for the Republican senate nomination and was deeply disappointed when Bud Corker got it.
Then I looked at Bob Corker's opponent, Harold Ford, Jr.
Except for Slick Willie BJ Clinton there has never been a slicker, more vile DemonRat politician. Ford consistently runs lying ads where he portrays himself as the next thing to a conservative Republican and NEVER even mentions that he's a DemonRat. He's also said he's a lawyer even though he flunked the bar and hasn't been licensed anywhere. In addition to that he's the most liberal Congress critter from Tennessee. The one thing we can genuinely count on him doing if he's elected is abandoning all his "conservative" talk and becoming just as much of a moonbat leftist as his predecessor, Al Gore.
Seeing all of this totally changed my view of Bob Corker. I voted early yesterday for Bob, have contributed to both the Republican Senatorial Committee and the local Tennessee Republican party, and will volunteer to help the Corker campaign. The survival of the country is riding on this election. If we don't win slick Harry Ford and the other DemonRats will destroy this country for the benefit of their subhuman Islamofascist terrorist friends and allies. We MUST contribute, work, and vote for a Republican victory. The alternative is terrorist nukes exploding here in America.
The mistake the Tennessee republicans made was letting Corker get through the primary. Corker just looks lost and gives the impression of being tired and old. It doesn't help matters that Ford is young, very well spoken and slick.
Someone like Corker is the absolute last person you want running against someone like Ford.
Still, I think that Corker might pull it out. It just depends on how motivated Tennessee republicans are as midterm elections are all about party turnout. In presidential election years you have to worry about convincing the undecideds but those people don't even vote in the midterms.
The Florida republicans letting Harris get through the primaries was another huge mistake. Those are two senate seats that were easy wins that the GOP primary voters threw away.
Schoolchildren of Da Nang "celebrate" the anniversary of the fail of Saigon Vietnam Conflict Remembered, Sunday, 2 April, 2000, BBC |
Led by LTC Hale, soldiers distributed OIC supplies and Arabic copies of Seabiscuit: An American Legend by OIC co-founder Laura Hillenbrand on a mission to a school in Balad. |
Nevertheless, compared to Ford, Corker's the Second Coming.
He is to hardcore conservatives but not to the people of Tennessee as a whole. It is so crucial that we don't let a guy like Ford get his hands on any sort of power as he could easily turn out to be another Clinton. He is far more of a threat than Obama.
This is where the FR strategy of voting for the most conservative candidate in the primary and the for the Republican in the general election really falls apart.
By not considering who is electable, hardcore conservatives can produce a candidate that is totally non-electable in the general election.
Tennessee and Florida should have been easy senate seats and the primary voters in both states really screwed things up. Let's hope that Corker can pull it out as his race is more of a toss up at this point.
It will break my heart if Democrats gain control in November.
Our military men and women will have died in vain.
Millions will suffer when the tax cuts are repealed.
Tens of millions will suffer when activist judges are emboldened by the Democrat's socialist/Marxist agenda.
"How about the mistake of 1976! Jimmy Carter is the American most responsible for the rise of Islamic Fascism. We cut and run in Iran, turned our backs on the Shah and look at the mess we have today." ~ jimfrommaine
Exactly.
Miami Herald
Opinion - Posted on Sat, Jul. 08, 2006
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/14992603.htm
Jimmy Carter damaged our nation's security
While visiting relatives in Davie over the holiday, I read Jimmy Carter's July 4 Other Views column, Our nation needs fewer secrets, about the Freedom Of Information Act.
The U.S. government is the most transparent on the planet -- by light years. Carter's accolades for some of the most oppressive regimes is pure wishful thinking and blind assertion.
As someone who spent a military career in service to my country for four years under his tenure, I am insulted and infuriated by his self-serving claims of his exploits on behalf of tin-horn governments. All the while he exposed military secrets and applied an ax to the U.S. military to further his pacifist fantasies.
The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are attributable to him. His failed policies encouraged the shah of Iran to flee into exile in the United States. This act put in place a radical, fundamentalist Islamist government that killed all those friendly to our country and loyal to the shah. In appreciation of Carter's ''good works'' these radical Islamists stormed the U.S. Embassy and held its personnel hostage for more than a year.
To further ensure his legacy, Carter -- in league with his director of Central Intelligence, Admiral Stansfield Turner, and Sen. Frank Church, of the Senate Intelligence Committee -- decimated the CIA's human-intelligence capability, using the bogus rationale that we had technical means that made human presence obsolete.
In another act damaging to U.S. national security, Carter exposed the top-secret development of the Stealth cruise missile as rationale for terminating the B-1 bomber. Then he returned the Panama Canal to Panama so that the Chinese could take over management of this strategic canal.
The list goes on and on.
LEONARD GATO, Cape Coral
Yes, Peach....I am afraid all of those things will happen.
But, I think that a lot of the deaths that are happening now to our troops is because of the dems and their anti-Bush rantings...and anti-war propaganda...that is FEEDING the terrorists with the impetus to kill as many American troops as possible, before the election...
They KNOW that they may be able to sway the elections.
I saw that most amazing headline on an artiticle last night...something like, "Spain's elections may have been swayed by the train bombings by the terrorists"...
WELL..DUH!!!! WE all knew that the day the election results came in and Aznar LOST!!!
It not only worked recently, for al-queda, but, the KNOW our Vietnam history!
Have every intention of voting a straight Republican ticket.
LOL
Thanks for the ping!
Thanks for posting this great article.
Fabulous post devolve, Hillary is 'reining' over them all!!
Abramoff? Sheesh, Reid got more $$ from Abramoff than anybody else by far.
Plus, Reid has his own scandals. As well as Jefferson. And, of course, Menendez.
Cunningham and Foley left before anybody knew what was going on. Ney is gone now. A scandal isn't when someone is discovered and then quits, it's when they or their party can't let go.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.