"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
I don't see how there's much wiggle room for the party to change its message when those four issues are THE issues for so many IN the party.
It's not that the ideas have to change; the way of delivering them, and the way our supposedly conservative representatives BEHAVE (i.e. voting conservatively) must.
But the truly troubling (and I think accurate) part is here:
What if, in fact, we're seeing a restoration of a secular national trend toward liberalism - a preference among voters and the American populace more generally toward liberal solutions to national problems and to the Democratic Party as the repository for those solutions?
I believe this is accurate. People want the government to GIVE them stuff.
It's as simple--and as simplistic--as that. Forget self-reliance, the individual pursuit of happiness, liberty. People see the government as a way of confiscating money, and they see themselves as either trying to get money from it or KEEP money from it.
And no conservatives have been able to show people why they should BE conservative. And the illegals, and those who want what they haven't earned, are bringing this country to its knees.
HRC and those liberals who follow her into the WH will bring Soviet-style totalitarianism "for the good of The People" (and The Children), because people will see government's job as taking care of us all--which means willingly giving over their liberty to mommy government.
Forget 1984--people should be reading Brave New World. Government isn't going to take our freedoms away--we're going to give them away to government, willingly.
I don’t believe it’s due to W’s fear of alienating any one. The amnesty fiasco proved that wrong.
Our politicians, (both parties) believe they are smarter than the rest of us. They won’t do what we want them to.
Is it any wonder we don’t want them to stay?
I believe the next couple of elections will be blood-baths for the Republicans. But that is what is needed to rid the party of pretenders and posers.
After President Bush's deplorable refusal to enforce U.S. immigration laws, secure the Mexican Border, and halt further illegal immigration, Republicans lost the support of Middle America, and this allowed the psychotic Left--and its Political Machine, the Democrat Party--to augment their power and increase their influence.
Why We Banned Legos
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1871687/posts
It has more to do with the brainwashing starting at an early age. Brainwashing that removes the age old idea of being happy with someone else's success; thou shalt not covet. It removes ideas of ‘giving’ and ‘sharing.’ Indeed they make it into sin instead of a virtue. Replaces that whole process with their, “Right to fairness” ideology which removes and crumbles the whole power structure, which history demonstrates time and again kills people. Kills people by lack of medical care, lack of food, lack of water, lack of...keep filling the blanks.
Change our message. As a conservative, I can’t change my message of a person getting things in life because of their own hard-work. I won’t change a country that is founded with the idea ‘making money.’ I won’t support an idea that takes away my personal property for the good of those who won’t work.
I don’t see how what they want to do to our government and economy meets the idea of being in America and living in a free country. Their idea(s) of fairness...are not fair to those of us willing to work and/or make money.
Thou shalt not covet,
Charity begins at home, not with the federal government.
They have goaded millions into believing we’re guilty of oppressing people around the world to support our own lifestyle. Funny, look to the middle east and it is islam that is the oppressor, it is their rich sheiks that oppress their people, it is the government of N.K that oppresses the people, it is Chavez as he creates his socialist dream that oppresses. The Sudan, Nairobi, Darfur... Our own policies of not wanting to deal with these people are not what causes their oppression. We get involved...we’re bad. We don’t get involved, we’re bad...
Change our message! Only if we’re going to have the guts to stand-up and TELL THEM THE TRUE MESSAGE! America doesn’t run the world. Responsibility lies with those nations, not America.
How long will the “liberal edge” last after a couple of more 9/11s on their watch?
Are you aware of the state of the Democrat party? I’ve seen a few RADICAL liberals who say they won’t vote for Hillary. It's a shame that the American people don't want to fight the muslims who attacked us, but by and large they're just waiting for something good to come on tv.
Another thing. How about the gains Conservatives have made in media? Liberals don’t control information like they used to.
In referendums across the country, voters reject gay marriage and vote to restore property rights taken away by Kelo. Majorities also favor free speech and gun rights.
The liberal fascist party is 180 degrees out of sych with these positions.
People will support conservative themes when the issue is clearly explained to them.
Too much doom and gloom in this thread. Get out and volunteer in your local governments for spots on the county planning board, health department and zoning commissions. Make your conservative presence known.
You are a “traitor” to Ronald Reagan’s 11th Commandment. “Thou shall not speak ill of any Republican” Republicans like you have been around since President Lincoln. Reagan means: vote Republican or you get Communist Dictatorship.
I’m not sure I agree with the premise, that America is moving left. But I do agree the GOP has squandered the key issues of taxes, terrorism, moral values and illegal immigration beyond repair. The party no longer has credibility on any of these. For just that reason, I would not be surprised to see Fred Thompson go Independent in 2008. He has maintained a lot of distance from the GOP, and he’s strong enough to split the vote enough to gain a win without a true majority. Thompson v. Romney v. Hillary, and I think Thompson wins that.
Social Security has to be fixed. President Bush opened a constructive debate and got kicked in the teeth. The fact remains, however, that if the dems are opposed to personal investment accounts, they must necessarily favor benefit cuts and tax increases, but they haven't been called out on it.
Health insurance needs to be reformed. The dems have scapegoated Evil Insurance Companies and Evil Big Pharma. They've sold much of the country on the idea that health care nirvana is around the corner if we just slap down some bad guys. Their solution is single payer, which means rationing and a long-term decline in standards of care, but they've not been called on it.
Energy policy is hot due to gasoline prices and our import dependency. The dems' solution, of course, is to scapegoat Big Oil and the automakers and pretend that all we need is conservation. Pure nonsense, but they don't get called on it.
Culture of corruption? Well, the earmarks haven't gone away -- they've increased -- but the dems will no longer have the CBO report on them. They're not going to get called on that either.
The war in Iraq? The dems want to cut and run, but won't be pressed beyond their talking point of "responsible redeployment."
Obviously it's the responsibility of the Republicans to carry the rhetorical battle to the dems, and we've been seriously deficient in this area. This is where the MSM is a killer -- any Republican who takes on these issues finds himself endlessly swimming upstream. But it still has to be done.
Unfortunately, however, the correction is likely to come after the nation elects a democrat government. That will expose the dems' policy bankruptcy in a hurry, but we will all pay a high price in the meantime.
P.S. One of the best things Newt Gingrich and Dick Armey did when they led the Republicans in the pre '94 minority era was to force the caucus to develop a Republican substitute on all major legislation, starting with the budget. The minority Republicans of that era actually thought through all the tough issues and developed a coherent response. The dems did nothing similar -- they spent their minority years in relentless negativism and papered over their own incoherence, in large part, by lying about the Republican agenda, Social Security and health care being leading examples. Now they're in the majority and the cupboard is bare. The minority Republicans need to restore the old discipline asap and start figuring out what they're FOR, not merely what they're AGAINST.
1) I don’t trust any poll conducted by any organization that is part of the MSM or affiliated with the Leftists in the MSM. Polls are simply their way of doing both push-polling and sampling how well their campaigns of disinformation and indoctrination are going.
2) The only person who is in a position to cut through the filters of the MSM is the president, and Bush is the most inept communicator I have ever seen in that office. At least half of the power of that office is being able to communicate a vision and a message, and Bush is hands-down the worst communicator I have ever seen in my lifetime. This isn’t just an inconvenience, it is dangerous.
3) The Republicans miserable showing (despite the fact that I don’t trust the results of any MSM poll) is somewhat accurate and the reasons are immigration, perceived self-serving corruption and the inability of any conservative in elected office to effectively articulate a conservative message. The elected check-pants Republicans are mostly preening, self-important empty suits.
Nailed it. Democrats let the republicans clean up THEIR mess and let the voters think that they never needed the republican party to begin with.
It’s easier than that - we fail to keep our promises, and too many Republicans have drunk the D.C. kool-aid. We buy into the legalized corruption which should be done away with. Cutting government and taxes are not tired messages. We have failed to deliver.
I work at a university and I’ve watched student workers deteriorate over the past 25 years. Each year the number of truly intelligent students seems to decrease. MTV, public education, and the nutty left dominate their minds.
Even the ones who seemingly are capable of thinking don’t seem to try. Last year a student worker who seemed quite capable told me that Republicans scare the hell out of him. I asked why, and he said Republicans put dissidents in concentration camps. He added that he’d written an essay denouncing Bush for one of his lefty professors and was convinced that Bush knew about it and had him on some kind of list somewhere.
They absorb all this crap from Michael Moore, Daily Kos, MTV, and their teachers. Most of them want three things in life:
1) To be able to do whatever they damn well please when it comes to sex.
2) To be given everything for “free”.
3) Not to ever have to fight in a war, no matter what.
In addition, they repeat all the nonsense about multiculturalism, diversity, global warming, etc.
Granted, there are still plenty of good kids out there, and I get to see the worst of the worst sometimes. But 25 years ago there was more of a balance. Maybe half the kids who worked in my department had some common sense, understood that nothing in life is free, knew that war was unfortunate but sometimes necessary, and had some values. Today it’s about ten percent.
We need the Republican in NY who lost the Senate seat to Hillary to run, I forget his name, but in fly over country, he’d be very popular(don’t know how they bribed NY into electing her).
I tend to think we might be looking at a "Throw the Bums Out" situation in November 2008 (look at the current approval rating of Congress, which is so low that Bush's numbers are more than twice as high). And if so, the political carnage will be bipartisan, and the only winners will be whichever "newbies" are best-organized (cf. the Gingrich Revolution in '94).
The only reason the GOP is polling poorly is due to the base still being pissed over immigration, the GOP's gutless lack of fighting back, too much spending. If someone like Fred Thompson gets the nomination, a huge number of currently disgruntled base members will come home.