You are so right. I'm so ticked at all the quarterbacks blaming the "stay-at-home Republicans", the "fundamentalists", the "religious right", the "single-issue Republicans", the "offended base", blah, blah, ad nauseum.
Anything to shift the blame from the Republican administration, the RNC and the hollow "leaders" of the GOP onto the weary, demoralized backs of November 7th's Republican voters, subdivided or in general.
The pre-election arrogance and tone-deafness of the Pub "leaders" continues unabated post-election. Read any election analysis article written by a GOP leader, listen to any TV election analysis spoken by a GOP leader.......you can detect who overtly or covertly gets the blame for the defeat. It's you and me, brother, plus convenient gone-guys like Foley and the very Rev. Haggard.
How many times do you see Frist, Hastert, Mehlman, Rove, Warner, McCain, etal get any serious blame for anything? These guys never blame themselves or each other after apocalyptic political catastrophes.
We here on FR have nothing to be embarrassed or ashamed about. We did our part. Would that our "leaders" had done the same. They ignored us, they looked down on us, yet they took our money and hard work.......and did what they pleased (mostly nothing, including years of failed PR).
Now it looks like many Republican incumbents who survived Armageddon plan to continue on their own merry, detached-from-party-principles way.
They're already playing footsie with the Dems on immigration, minimum wage, cut-and-run.........while we get the blame for their weakened position and loss of power.
Leni
Conservative causes just got trashed. Border enforcement is done...stick a fork in it. The most conservative plan we can hope for is the one GWB backs.
Maybe you don't realize yet that you have to appeal to a MAJORITY of Americans to get anything done politically.
The President and most Republicans are deeply conservative compared to the Democrats. Sorry that wasn't conservative enough for you. The fact that the conservative agenda moved forward steadily apparently wasn't good enough.
For the first four years I defended the President from moonbats. The last two, I have had to defend him from "conservatives". That was the difference this election.
Please note that none of the people you blame were on the ballot, nor were Foley, Abramoff, Cunningham, Specter, Hagel, et al. But Santorum lost, punished for having supported a sitting Republican senator with seniority, but he was clearly one of the good guys, worth 100 of the list you mentioned. J.D. Hayworth may lose and if he does it's because he dared (dared) to accept campaign contributions from the Indian tribes who are his constituents and who he has supported on principle his entire career, all because those Indian tribes hired a lobbyist who is in jail for bilking the tribes out of money for work he didn't do (not, as the media says, for bribing anybody). But "purists" wanted to send a message about "corruption." Talent may well have lost in Missouri because a "Christian evangelist leader" in Colorado, who no one has ever heard of, turned out to be a junky and a pervert, so some Christian conservatives in Missouri stayed home. How does that make sense?
I would ask that all of the self appointed so called "principled conservative" purists who either stayed home this year or voted against the Republican candidate to "teach them a lesson" please ping me so that I can keep a list.
I want to send you one last message of thanks as we are being led off to the "reeducation" camps.
Well done. Truly marvelous outcome. Just like 1992. Congratulations to you all.
Very specific comment to this years protest voters (or non voters): I don't disagree with your complaints, by and large, about the Republican leadership. I do disagree vehemently with your actions this election day. The time to lodge this protest was in the primaries or, better yet, in the local organizing committees in the early stages of this election cycle, sometime in early 2005. That's the point when we need to make ourselves heard and our influence felt. Once the candidates are in place, with as closely divided a legislature as we have now, we have to look at the consequences of throwing away our votes in a "protest" and giving power to people like Nancy, Charlie, Alcee, Harry and Jack.
Don't blame me. I voted for Republicans, Corker and Blackburn. Blackburn would pass even the most ardent purists muster. Corker probably wouldn't, though that has yet to be proven (I wanted Bryant in the primaries, but he lost in a three way race with another good conservative splitting our votes). I decided I wanted a Republican to take Frist's seat instead of a Democrat liberal who voted for Nancy Pelosi for his leader in the House (albeit reluctantly) and would have voted for Harry Reid in the Senate.