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How To Fix The Republican Funk (Its Not Becoming Democrat Lite, Stupid Alert)
Townhall.com ^ | 05/14/2007 | Star Parker

Posted on 05/13/2007 10:31:31 PM PDT by goldstategop

The $64,000 political question is what, if anything, will energize the Republican Party?

An undercurrent attitude is taking hold that it's inevitable that the White House in 2008 will follow the Congress and fall into the hands of the Democratic Party.

Republicans, already in a funk, get deeper into it as they contemplate this prospect, and are radiating a sense of impotence about what to do. The existing field of presidential candidates is not inspiring confidence and the question seems to be who will be the sacrificial lamb rather than who will be the contender.

Dollars are flowing in record proportions to Democrats. Democratic presidential candidates raised 50 percent more funds than Republicans in the first quarter.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Democrats are getting the majority of contributions from corporate Political Action Committees for the first time since 1994. According to the Journal, Democrats, who pulled in around a third of corporate PAC funds in the previous election cycle, got 56.5 percent of these funds in the first quarter of this year.

Inside the Washington political establishment, high-powered lobbying firms are retooling and bringing in new Democratic partners to get ready for the new era.

Fred Thompson's recent lethargic performance at the Lincoln Club in Orange County, Calif., didn't help. Thompson sounded more like a concerned elder statesman contemplating the country's problems over cigars and brandy than someone who is losing sleep about the direction of the country.

So what's the diagnosis? Can anything be done or must Republicans resign to an inevitable ebb and flow of history and accept that, for the time being, their time is up?

It's here where the supreme, and most grating, irony lies.

Republican success since the rise of Reagan has been defining a bankrupt Democratic Party, out of step with American values of freedom and limited government, and offering an alternative.

To recall Reagan's oft-quoted observation at the CPAC conference in 1985, "The tide of history is moving irresistibly in our direction. Why? Because the other side is virtually bankrupt of ideas. It has nothing more to say, nothing to add to the debate. It has spent its intellectual capital."

The difference between the Democratic Party in 2007 and 1985 is absolutely zero.

Democrats have not generated a single new idea. They're all about government and taxes today as they were in 1985.

What's new now is Republicans, not Democrats. Republicans have purged the alternative vision that made their party fresh and exciting.

Back to Fred Thompson's speech in Orange Country as case in point.

The former senator from Tennessee devoted a good portion of his remarks to boilerplate phrases and buzzwords that appeal to a conservative crowd ("Wouldn't it be great if, instead of worrying so much about how to divide the pie, we could work together on how to make the pie bigger?")

But Thompson did take a brave step into substance and this was most revealing and concerning. "...there is nothing more urgent than the fate that is awaiting our Social Security and Medicare programs." What's his answer? "If grandmom and granddad think that a little sacrifice will help their grandchildren when they get married, try to buy a home or have children, they will respond to a credible call to make that sacrifice..."

Thompson is supposed to be the guy to fill the Reagan void. Can anyone imagine Reagan saying anything like this?

I'm not talking about peddling any free lunches to deal with the $70 trillion Medicare-Social Security overhang. I'm talking about the courage to be honest about what's wrong with these programs that has gotten us into this mess. Government planning and social engineering.

What happened to the Reagan message that too much government is our problem, restoring ownership and choice, and applying this truth to the entitlement monster and public education as we did when we reformed welfare?

Americans can walk and chew gum. We can talk about things beyond the war. But to do so requires that our politicians display the same courage at home that we're asking our young men and women to put on the line overseas.

The social engineering experiments that our country took on in the last century are failed and busted. Republicans need to get back on message. They seem to have lost the conviction and fortitude to do this, which is why the thrill is gone.

But if Republicans insist on morphing into Democrats, Americans will vote for the real thing.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Editorial; News/Current Events; Philosophy; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2008election; conservatism; democratlite; fred; fredthompson; gop; liberalism; ronaldreagan; runfredrun; starparker; thompson; townhall
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To: teldon30

Let me change the “RINOs” to CINOs....i think RINO confuses people that Republican actually stand for some kind of conservatism....not lately as i see it.


21 posted on 05/14/2007 12:39:37 AM PDT by teldon30 (disgruntled 2nd class)
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To: teldon30

No, it’s pretty much Bush. His actions have cast a shadow over every Republican in the country and have caused great damage to the conservative image - without any conservatism on his part. The RINOs find it easy to be RINOs if they know there will be no resistance to the liberal agenda whatsoever in the Executive.


22 posted on 05/14/2007 2:37:52 AM PDT by billybudd
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To: billybudd

The RINOs find it easy to be RINOs

no argument there...


23 posted on 05/14/2007 2:46:16 AM PDT by teldon30 (disgruntled 2nd class)
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To: goldstategop

I think we got compassionate conservatism with a heaping dose of open borders and co-opting of the democrats agenda all sandbagged safe and secure behind Osama’s mayhem.


24 posted on 05/14/2007 3:08:51 AM PDT by Modok
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To: goldstategop

What is a RINO? A spineless GOP’er that drinks with Ted Kennedy and hopes the Washington Post never puts their name in print.


25 posted on 05/14/2007 3:11:43 AM PDT by bmwcyle (Satan is working both sides of the street in World Socialism and World Courts.)
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To: Cacique

That is very true, the GOP seems aimless right now.

Reagen also had been Championing Conservatism for many years before he was elected, the only one who has been doing that in the Presidential race (specualtively running anyway) is Fred Thompson.

One of the problems with Conservaitsm at the moment is instead of relying on the Heritage Foundation for mental firepower we now are leaning to Neocon think tanks.


26 posted on 05/14/2007 3:25:30 AM PDT by padre35 (we are surrounded that simplifies things-Chesty Puller)
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To: Darkwolf377

“If” Ru7dy drops behind Hilliary in the polls, can you see him making up the gap? For myself I don’t, Rudy seems particularly wandering just over Abortion.

Relying onm polls 18 months out seems strange.


27 posted on 05/14/2007 3:29:41 AM PDT by padre35 (we are surrounded that simplifies things-Chesty Puller)
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To: AlaskaErik

I still would vote for them, there’s no way I wouldn’t vote against Hillary Clinton in two years given any opportunity. There’s bad and there’s worse. Agree with the people (and Starr) who think the primary’s the time to de-RINO. First, we have to stop amnesty and get a “real” conservative in there, find the best possible, RINOs will destroy the GOP if left in control.


28 posted on 05/14/2007 3:36:20 AM PDT by Baladas
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To: goldstategop

this is easy...
Privatize social security and medicare
Repeal the 16th ammendment and pass the Fairtax
Appoint constitutional judges

oh yeah.. they already had their oportunity..and i think they wound up...BANNING INTERNET GAMBLING!!!!


29 posted on 05/14/2007 3:37:45 AM PDT by mo
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To: goldstategop

I’m for Reaganism — minus Anthony Kennedy, Sandra Day O’Connor, Jim Baker, and quite a few others too.


30 posted on 05/14/2007 6:26:38 AM PDT by Theodore R. (Cowardice is forever!)
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To: billybudd
I wonder who is to blame for the current Republican “funk”.

It's Bush alright. But it's H.W. Bush that started it all with the "New World Order" and no new taxes lie. Then the GOP nominates the only person on earth that could lose to Bill Clinton. Bob Dole one of the most boring and uninspiring people in politics. Now along comes W to totally destroy any hope of a conservative agenda. He also had help from the pubbies that were elected in '94 with a promise to leave after their term was over. They just couldn't stand to give up the power so it was taken from them by the Dems.

31 posted on 05/14/2007 6:26:45 AM PDT by BubbaBasher
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To: Cacique

Is this because there are so few conservatives left (like in 1964-1965), or is it that rank-and-file conservatives are just as uninformed as the electorate as a whole?


32 posted on 05/14/2007 6:32:12 AM PDT by Theodore R. (Cowardice is forever!)
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To: bmwcyle
It sounds like you are describing one Orrin G. Hatch, but he wants the Washington Post to recognize him. And people in UT don't know that he is a consummate insider, or do they?
33 posted on 05/14/2007 6:34:35 AM PDT by Theodore R. (Cowardice is forever!)
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Comment #34 Removed by Moderator

To: billybudd

It is interesting that liberals hate GWB when he has performed pretty much like a liberal Democrat would have liked to perform. Of course, the verdict may be favorable yet on Alito and Roberts (we shall see); it surely wasn’t favorable on Anthony Kennedy and Sandra D. O’Connor.


35 posted on 05/14/2007 6:36:38 AM PDT by Theodore R. (Cowardice is forever!)
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To: Theodore R.

Particularly, minus George Herbert Walker Bush and the legacy he left, GWB.


36 posted on 05/14/2007 6:41:27 AM PDT by brydic1
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To: brydic1

Apparently Reagan “advisors” sold him on the idea that he could not win with a divided party in 1980 and that he “needed” the runner-up, GHWB, on the ticket to defeat Carter and Mondale. Reagan bought that line. Many thought Reagan would have chosen Kemp in 1980. Then after Kemp’s disaster in 1996, who knows?


37 posted on 05/14/2007 7:01:43 AM PDT by Theodore R. (Cowardice is forever!)
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To: BubbaBasher

Supposedly, “party leaders” said it was Bob Dole’s “turn” in 1996, and he got the nomination — with a lot of help from deceived Republican primary voters, I presume. I guess it was all over when the ND primary returns reported that Dole had carried that state.


38 posted on 05/14/2007 7:03:18 AM PDT by Theodore R. (Cowardice is forever!)
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To: brydic1

It seems to me that if GWB wore the “D” label, most of his current defenders would excoriate him, and most of his current critics would become his newest defenders. It’s all in the “D” and “R”, that’s all most people can remember.


39 posted on 05/14/2007 7:04:47 AM PDT by Theodore R. (Cowardice is forever!)
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To: Baladas

You can’t vote against HRC. What would the people of NY, AR, and IL think of you if you did!!!!!


40 posted on 05/14/2007 7:05:50 AM PDT by Theodore R. (Cowardice is forever!)
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