Posted on 11/09/2006 1:07:50 AM PST by Zakeet
If there was still any doubt, the Republican Revolution of 1994 officially ended Tuesday night with the loss of at least 28 seats and majority control of the House of Representatives. As I write this, the race in Virginia that will determine if the Republicans also lose control of the Senate is too close to call, but leaning Democrat.
It was a rout.
How did we get here? The war in Iraq and historical voting patterns that favor the opposition party in off-year elections are factors suggested by many post-election pundits. Certainly, the mounting problems in Iraq were on voters' minds, but responsibility for the conduct of the war lies with the executive branch, and President Bush was not on the ballot.
That said, this was a national election, driven by national issues. One big issue in exit polls suggests widespread voter backlash against the "culture of corruption." There is something to this, I think. Over time, too many Republicans in the governing majority forgot or abandoned their national vision, letting parochial interests dominate the decision-making process.
I disagree. I think Armey was talking about the notorious political pork that made the whole Congress stink. Bad year to be doing that, with a war going on and the budget in deficit.
"The Bridge to Nowhere" comes to mind -- the MSM gave that prominent play.
Agree with everything in your post number 4.
Bush seemed unfocused on Iraq and couldn't or wouldn't produce a decisive victory against the insurgents, which is something I notice that Saddam's defeated aremy did without too much trouble, while at home the Republicans , starting with the President IMO, made it clear that they'd abandoned the "Republican Revolution" years ago.
I have no idea where Bush and Congress are going wih all this, but I'm short on patience at this point.
He is dead on.
Boy, we really got Pwned by the formerly lame-stream media this time. They wouldn't have been as effective if the Republicans hadn't handed them the ammo, but we couldn't do enough to blunt their impact. Their bias was shameful, but what do they care now that they have both houses and an agenda for impeachment. 2008 is begun in earnest.They're just trying to find a tall enough tree while Nasty Pelosi orders the rope.
I don't think anyone has a problem with God. But the nutcases who worship organized religeon are certainly a problem.
I know you're not using it in a derogatory fashion, but the media does. It's one of their buzz words for, "Yuck! It's one of those bleating Christians again!" as though we are some kind of pestilence.
Why help them perpetrate the derogatory usage by repeating it? In the case of somebody who is actually an evangelical Christian, then it should be used, but the media lumps just about anybody of faith, including Catholics and excepting Jews, into the term, as though all Christians go about preaching the gospel zealously and constantly telling everybody what to do and what to believe like judgmental busybodies full of fire and brimstone.
The next time one of them uses the term, he or she should be asked if the person they are referring to is a preacher of some sort or somebody who walks around reading the gospel aloud to people, or are they simply talking about one of the millions upon millions of ordinary Christians in this country.
I will bet you a good part of the population doesn't even know what "evangelical" means.
All Christians are evangelicals.
1. Of, relating to, or in accordance with the Christian gospel, especially one of the four gospel books of the New Testament.
I think Caipirabob is more on the money than Dick Armey.
Thank God that Evangelicals are not ordinary Christians!
The problem I see is that we lost that 1994 passion along with the 1994 representatives. The core base of the party is full of folks who would rather not have control because they find it easier to be in opposition to everything.
We have a strong group of "pure conservatives" and libertarians on this board who seem to hate being the controlling party. Just like liberals, Bush and congress never did anything right. They take exception to virtually every descision by finding a cloud in every silver lining.
I worked the polls on Tuesday and spoke with hundreds if not thousands of Democrats as they came in to vote.
Maybe the culture of corruption was in the back of their minds, but before they strode into the voting booth, they couldn't help but razz me about "Bush's crazy Iraqi war."
I tried to convince them how shortsighted they sounded, but they were rabidly anti-war.
Many of these people were my friends from over the years, and they were ticked and motivated.
Five years of propaganda from ABC.CBS.MS-DNC will do that to a person, I suppose.
The thing this rout of the GOP says to me is that Fox News and talk radio do not have as much influence on the public as we thought.
Or as I thought, anyway.
Unfortunately, the Republicans who are more prone to corruption, the entrenched old-timers in the GOP, escaped the purge.
The good new breed of Republicans, many of them got booted after serving perhaps one or two terms.
Or maybe I am just being cynical because our squeaky clean one-term Republican congressman, a father of six, the environmental-friendly pro-life family man Michael Fitzpatrick, LOST by 1200 votes to an abrasive Democrat who does nothing more than throw verbal bombs at any and every person who supports family values.
Huh?
Evangelicals are ordinary Christians, but ordinary Christians are not necessarily evangelicals at all.
For one thing, Catholics are Christians, but evangelicals are protestants.
Good job.
I agree with most of what you say. Another problem as I see it was the constant attacks against the administration and thr Pubs without anyone challeging one of their lies. It has been proven, through captured documents, that Iraq had WMD and a nuclear program, not a peep out of the WH to counter Dean, Kerry and Pelosi and their lies. I also said two years ago that I thought this would happen, I said it because it is a historical fact that Americans start looking for a change after six years of one party in power. Forget that we are rebuilding Iraq, while fighting terrorists and sectarian factions within the country, as well as treasonous factions within this country. Forget the economy is not busted, in fact, it is doing well and the unemployment rate is good. Forget who broke the economy in the first place. Forget the fact that we have not had a terrorists attack within our borders for a number of years. Evidently many Americans did forgrt those facts.
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