Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Gotta Play to Win. Conservatives shouldn't sit this one out.
Weekly Standard ^ | 10/30/06 | Craig Shirley

Posted on 10/23/2006 7:34:58 AM PDT by Valin

IN THE MOVIE A League of Their Own, Tom Hanks was given two of the best lines in the history of baseball flicks. The first, as we all know, was, "There's no crying in baseball!" The second came when one of his players quit the game, telling Hanks it was "too hard." Hanks's brilliant response: "It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. Hard is what makes it great."

With the midterm elections almost upon us, conservatives need to take that to heart. They won't win by quitting. The Washington Post declared last week that Demo crats are "prettier" than Republicans--"Democrats seem to be fielding an uncommonly high number of uncommonly good-looking candidates" (glad we've got that settled!)--so let's focus on the important differences between the parties.

Yes, some Republicans have abused their charge; some have engaged in corrupt behavior; some have violated conservative principles; some don't even know why they are Republicans. And yes, many in the "base" are angry with . . . take your pick: growth of government, spending, corruption, steel tariffs, illegal immigration, McCain-Feingold, Mark Foley, the war in Iraq.

I suspect that most of those people in the GOP who are most upset are not Security Moms or the religious right but the "angry white males" credited with delivering Congress to the GOP in 1994. These middle class dads became increasingly repelled by Bill and Hillary and the seedy liberals who came to dominate the Democratic party. Now, some are frustrated with the GOP.

But consider this, my fellow angry white middle-aged males: Ever since economic libertarians and social conservatives came together to form a majority party, the Republicans have thrived on vigorous internal debates. It is not a weakness of the GOP that some of its members are at daggers drawn over foreign policy and national defense, economic policies, and the federal role in education. Whether or not the GOP majority survives the November elections, these debates will take place.

And in this, populist conservatives should take great comfort. Republicans are not so confident about themselves as to believe they have all the correct answers all the time. Conservatives are so suspicious of man's nature that they naturally shun claims of absolute certitude in politics.

If liberalism still has an organizing philosophy, it is a white hot, unreasoned, and, yes, frightening hatred of all things conservative and all things Bush. Within the Democratic party today, the reigning idea is an outright craving of power. Democrats do not allow debate within their party. If you are pro-life, as in the case of the late Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, you are ostracized. If you support some part of the president's foreign policy, as in the case of Joe Lieberman, you are defeated in a primary and then shunned.

If Republicans have disappointed the American people, it's because they have standards and rules that they sometimes fall short of. Liberals are unencumbered by such standards except those of political correctness, and who can figure those out anyway? (In the latest version, Marquette decreed last week that grad students shall not display quotations from humorist Dave Barry on their doors.)

Republicans have established high standards for themselves, and this is a good thing, as we've seen in the Mark Foley case. Some GOP commentators are wailing that 20 years ago, the recently deceased congressman Gerry Studds, a Democrat, did not suffer for his homosexual relationship with a 17-year-old congressional page. And it's true: No one ever calls a Democrat a hypocrite on moral issues. But that's hardly a selling point for a party. Republicans should not be upset if Americans have come to expect not very much in the way of ethics and morality from Demo crats.

What the garden-variety angry white male needs to remember is that Democratic anger has a different source than his own. Democrats aren't angry at the moral failings of Republicans. Democrats are furious because they can't understand why they, the party of government, have been denied control of Washington by the American people.

Quin Hillyer, on the American Spectator website, poses the question well: "Who do you want, going forward, to handle taxes, national security and judges, the conservatives or the liberals?" A Democratic Congress would not sit still. As Larry Kudlow has warned, the Bush tax cuts will not be safe just because of the veto pen. "President Bush," he points out, might be "confronted with a [Hobson's] choice of vetoing a so-called $500 billion deficit reduction package that would overturn and rollback" his tax cuts.

As Ronald Reagan might ask, whose world would you prefer to live in four years from now, the liberals' or the conservatives'? For my money, I'll take the messy and mistake-prone but good-hearted Republicans over the brooding, power-hungry, and uncommonly good-looking Democrats. So should all conservatives.

Organizing a political movement around the principle of freedom combined with moral rigor has never been easy. But the fact that conservatism is hard is what makes it great.

Craig Shirley is the president of Shirley & Banister Public Affairs and the author of a history of the 1976 campaign, Reagan's Revolution: The Untold Story of the Campaign That Started it All. He is now writing a book about the 1980 campaign, Rendezvous with Destiny.


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: elections; forgetaboutit; notvotingforrinos; votegop
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-36 next last

1 posted on 10/23/2006 7:34:59 AM PDT by Valin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Valin

What a condescending piece of carp. Conservatives aren't "quitting." Some of us feel Republicans should be punished for raising spending more than twice what it was in the Clinton years and completely destroying any border security. Not saying Democrats should take over, but maybe a more divided government would make the Republicans not feel so complacent and actually listen to us.


2 posted on 10/23/2006 7:37:57 AM PDT by billybudd
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Valin
Ah, if only there were a plethora of stories telling RINO-coddlers who screech that conservatives are "unelectable" to just shut their pieholes and suck it up.

Alas, only conservatives are called on to hold their noses and vote for liberals with an 'R' by their name. These same liberals who are indistinguishable from their Dhimmicrat counterparts in that they support gun control, abortion on demand, gay marriage, and more. And every time a vote comes to a pinch, these same RINOs consistently side with their Dhimmicrat brethren.

Yeah. I'm all fired up to vote for more of that crap.

3 posted on 10/23/2006 7:38:45 AM PDT by Prime Choice (True Conservatives don't vote for Liberals just because they have an 'R' by their name.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Valin

The only people who think we are going to sit this out is the wishing MSM, f them and the mega-watts they came in on.


4 posted on 10/23/2006 7:39:01 AM PDT by boomop1 (there you go again)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Valin


Well...considering the vast silent majority doesnt believe the MSM garbage, knows what a disaster any democrat control of congress would be, I think the voter turnout will be strong like it was in all the past elections where the DEMS LOST...and the media predicted them winning.

I, and many of my friends, are energized to vote for those running for office that best represent the ideals of this country, that run on the facts, and an understand of good policy decision....and no one fitting that bill is a DEMOCRAT...


5 posted on 10/23/2006 7:39:51 AM PDT by in hoc signo vinces ("Houston, TX...a waiting quagmire for jihadis. American gals are worth fighting for!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Valin
I'm voting. The last thing I'll do is let any election be decided without my participation. No matter who wins, I'll have done my part.

It's a straight Republican ticket for me.

6 posted on 10/23/2006 7:44:35 AM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: billybudd
This is not the time to play "hard-ball". We have to take some responsibility for the mess we're in this election cycle.We allowed the RINOs, the crooks, the big-spenders, the perverts, the "don't offend the Mexican voter" border security pansies, to win in the GOP Primaries instead of working our butts off to defeat them.

That's where the battle was.
7 posted on 10/23/2006 7:46:39 AM PDT by no dems (I'll take a moral Mormon over a demonic Democrat or repugnant RINO anyday.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Prime Choice

Well, I'm going to do my part to try to rid the Senate of Fat Debbie and the governor's mansion of the Canadian Bitch. In Michigan, things can only improve. If only we could get rid of that POS Levin this year too.


8 posted on 10/23/2006 7:48:29 AM PDT by MichiganConservative (The US is so full of domestic enemies, maybe all we can do is slow the inevitable ascent of tyranny.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: billybudd
Cut and Run Conservatives are Cut and Run Conservatives. Stay home and punish the Americans fighting terror across the world, punish American workers and punish all other Conservatives. Maybe some Rinos deserve it, but to punish our economy and defense for a personal agenda or ideology is wrong! IMHO... which you have no right to try to take away from me!

BTW, have you checked the percentage of Cut and Run Conservatives vs Conservatives on FR homepage?

LLS
9 posted on 10/23/2006 7:50:47 AM PDT by LibLieSlayer (Preserve America... kill terrorists... destroy dims!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: trisham

I just need to have my voting state changed, and I'm good to go.


10 posted on 10/23/2006 7:53:33 AM PDT by wastedyears ("By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail." - Benjamin Franklin)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: in hoc signo vinces

The ideals of this country lie in the footsteps of the past, Our forefathers.


11 posted on 10/23/2006 7:55:23 AM PDT by lillybet
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: no dems
Show me the last time an incumbent was defeated in the primaries and then you'll understand why this "defeat the RINOs in the primaries" is just so much asinine empty rhetoric.

I've had it with the RINOs. They are just as bad as the Dhimmicrats. And between you and me, I've had enough of their knives in my back to know that I'd rather have the enemy in front of me than behind me, pretending to be my ally.

12 posted on 10/23/2006 7:57:15 AM PDT by Prime Choice (True Conservatives don't vote for Liberals just because they have an 'R' by their name.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Valin
Rush last week was pleading for a cut and run Republican to call in and try and convince him that he is wrong to not agree with the strategy, of cut and run, in regards to the election. There were no takers, which is not surprising.

Yes, we can all be PO'd that there is no one carrying the banner for conservatism, as Reagan did, and yes, the Republican's should be punished for not standing up, as they continue to be flailed unmercifully by the MSM and other leftists.

But to sit this one out and not vote, even for a RINO over a Dem, is not punishment, it is an execution.

13 posted on 10/23/2006 7:58:11 AM PDT by Michael.SF. (Liberals would let Mark Foley be a Boy Scout leader.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Prime Choice

In Michigan, Joe Schwartz, a RINO, got beat in the primary by a conservative.


14 posted on 10/23/2006 7:58:37 AM PDT by MichiganConservative (The US is so full of domestic enemies, maybe all we can do is slow the inevitable ascent of tyranny.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: lillybet

Unfortunately, you're correct, and I believe it. They had the true vision of how this country should be, and it's become sliced, cut, and run around in the 230+ plus years that we've been a country.


15 posted on 10/23/2006 7:59:04 AM PDT by wastedyears ("By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail." - Benjamin Franklin)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: MichiganConservative
In Michigan, Joe Schwartz, a RINO, got beat in the primary by a conservative.

When was that? And what other cases do you have to offer?

Remember: once is a fluke; twice is a pattern; three times is evidence.

16 posted on 10/23/2006 8:03:31 AM PDT by Prime Choice (True Conservatives don't vote for Liberals just because they have an 'R' by their name.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: LibLieSlayer
Oh. Right. It's only a small matter of a "personal agenda". This is exactly the condescension I'm talking about. Like it doesn't matter that Republicans are now bigger spenders than the Democrats ever were, or that the Republicans refuse to secure the border. Defense you say? How about defending us from the millions streaming across the border illegaly every year?

Your attitude is exactly why Republicans will get hammered this election. The attitude that the *critical foundation* of what the party should stand for is somehow petty or unimportant, a mere "personal agenda."
17 posted on 10/23/2006 8:05:24 AM PDT by billybudd
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Prime Choice

That was a few months ago.

Here's a Club for Growth press release about it and a similar one in Colorado:

http://www.clubforgrowth.org/2006/08/a_2for2_night.php

If the voter's aren't there to vote for conservatives in the primaries, then they get what they deserve. Do you vote in the primaries?


18 posted on 10/23/2006 8:09:55 AM PDT by MichiganConservative (The US is so full of domestic enemies, maybe all we can do is slow the inevitable ascent of tyranny.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: in hoc signo vinces
"I, and many of my friends, are energized to vote for those running for office that best represent the ideals of this country, that run on the facts, and an understand of good policy decision....and no one fitting that bill is a DEMOCRAT..."

I'm Right with you.

Unfortunately I'm discovering quite a few fellow conservatives here in NoVA who seem politically exhausted from the liberal MSM onslaught. It's been far more effective than I had realized. Many are disillusioned with the results from those they fought so hard to elect in the last election cycle. It is taking a lot of effort for me to convince some of them that, even if it's voting for the "lesser of two Weevils", it's never been more important for them to get out and vote.

My advice to my fellow FReepers is not to assume anything about their Pubbie or Conservative friends - make sure they are going to vote!
19 posted on 10/23/2006 8:26:19 AM PDT by NearlyNormal (Our military wins wars, the liberals and their MSM lose them.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Valin
I'm no big Tom Hanks fan... but I believe in one of his roles, he said “Stupid is as stupid does.” So if you does stay home... YOU is stupid!
20 posted on 10/23/2006 8:43:00 AM PDT by johnny7 (“And what's Fonzie like? Come on Yolanda... what's Fonzie like?!”)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-36 next last

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson