Replies

"You keep on misrepresenting my position to make dubious points."

I've yet to make a dubious point on this thread, sir. I back my points up with facts, and the rest are putting forth potential game plays to take back these seats. You, sir, have offered nothing but a constant drumbeat of negativity and sarcasm, and have yet to put forth a single viable offensive that would attempt to have us win back these seats. Your attitude displays that of somebody who doesn't want to win back what has been lost, and it is very disturbing.

"My difference with you has to do with your criticism of Ogonowski because he is not "conservative" enough for you."

How about the MA posters telling you the same thing ? They're fed up with candidates offering them nothing but Socialist or Socialist-lite alternatives, because these are non-alternatives.

"We should be supporting them once they have been nominated as the Rep candidate. The time for "ideological purity" is in the primaries not the general election. Any Rep is better than a Dem period."

Not always. The string of RINO Governors in MA did nothing but harm the Republican party and the cause of Conservatism in the state. Liberal rodents can't inflict the kind of damage liberal RINOs do from within, and we're reaping the consequences of that.

"Did those 25% meet your "ideological purity test?"

Offer some solutions, not sarcasm.

"The so-called Southern strategy may kill the Rep party as a national party."

You have a very dubious grasp on politics, I'm afraid. Without that "Southern Strategy", the Republican party would be in the supreme minority. Did it ever occur to you that many in those states where liberalism ran amok under both parties that millions of people have voted with their feet and moved south and west ? My family did, otherwise I'd have been a New Yorker today. Without the foresight of Nixon to go into areas that had been previously hostile to the GOP, our party might've folded already. It's too bad you seem to think such vision is wrong-headed.

"The South has now become the Reps power base, but the Dems and the MSM depict it as Southern whites [aka "racists and bigots"] just changing parties from Dems to Reps."

News flash, pal. The media and the rodents can openly display bigotry towards the South and just about anything Conservative or Republican. Get it, they're leftist, and they hate us. It's that simple. Most of your old-line racist Democrats from the South died as Democrats. You'd be hard pressed to find many living examples of those old-timer Dixiecrats as Republicans today. The only one of prominence who switched was Strom Thurmond, and after he switched, he embraced Civil Rights and consistently received the highest percentage of the Black vote of any prominent Republican in the South. Of course, the media will overlook the racist trash Klansman from West Virginia (a North Carolinian by birth), that being Robert Byrd. Byrd gets a pass because he's a Democrat. You need to understand there is little point in kissing up to media types that hate you, and that you need to take your message straight to the real people.

"Reps are as scarce as hen's teeth in the Northeast and the Dems, primarily due to demographics, have taken over CA and the Left Coast."

They're not dead, yet. But RINOs are doing their damndest to kill what's left.

"States like Nev, AZ, CO, and NM are trending more and more Dem."

States swing back and forth. You'd have been sounding the alarm about Colorado in the early '70s when it went against the national trend ahead of Watergate... only to swing back to the Republicans again. Most of your states that are due to gain seats after the next apportionment are in Republican leaning ones. Take a glance at how many rodent states continue to shrivel. MA is going to have the fewest number of Congressional seats in its history (actually, it already does, and continues to shrink). ME & RI are on course to having only 1 member each, and even NH, too. NY will probably lose 2 more, and PA, too. We will do just fine as long as we stay the Conservative course and don't start falling into liberal rodent ideology and spending, which kills us every time we pursue it.

"And there are even cracks appearing in the South in places like VA."

NOVA has been trending that way for some time, because of the influx of superrich liberal big gov't types. They mess their nests where they come from and come elsewhere to successful areas to spread their cancer.

You, sir, have offered nothing but a constant drumbeat of negativity and sarcasm, and have yet to put forth a single viable offensive that would attempt to have us win back these seats. Your attitude displays that of somebody who doesn't want to win back what has been lost, and it is very disturbing.

You sir, need to go back on your meds. You are an ideologue who would prefer that candidates like Ogonowski lose. Your mindless criticism is not a strategy for victory for the GOP. I suppose you would like to replace Snowe and Collins as well with more conservative candidates, but the people in Hell would like ice water. What you condsider negativity and sarcasm is called political reality. I see no concrete solutions coming from you except for some emotional generalizations and exhortations. People like Ogonowski are in the arena doing more than just talking. He deserves our support not your negative criticism.

How about the MA posters telling you the same thing ? They're fed up with candidates offering them nothing but Socialist or Socialist-lite alternatives, because these are non-alternatives.

Then they should participate in the political process instead of just criticizing the lack of alteratives. Have you ever run for political office?

You are the one without a grasp on politics and reality. The movement of the Dems in the South to the GOP has more to do with the actions of the Dem party than anything that the Reps have done. LBJ knew that the the Dem support of civil rights would hurt them in the South, which was the conservative wing of the Dem party. The Dixiecrats, George Wallace, et. al. were examples of the fissures within the Dem party that preceded Nixon or LBJ. .

The movement of people from the Northeast and liberal states to the South and West are not the prime reasons why the South is now the power base of the GOP. Your anecdotal evidence just doesn't wash.

Long on emotion, short on facts. Plenty of "old-line" Dems shifted over to the GOP, including many who held elected office. You don't have such a seismic shift in the political landscape without wholesale defections. Here are some former Southern Dems who are now Reps: Senator Shelby wiltched after being elected as a Dem to the senate; Albert Watson [R-SC], Bill Archer [R-TX], Jesse Helms [two years before he ran for the Senate], Trent Lott, Miles Goodwin [Governor of Virginia], Elizabet Dole, Phil Gramm, Andy Ireland [R-FL], Richard Baker [R-LA], Bill Grant [R-FL], Waltern Jones [R-NC], Jimmy Hayesw [R-LA], Billy Tauzin [R-LA], Natthan Deal [R-GA], Mike Parker [R-MS], Sonny Perdue, Ralph Hall [R-TX], and many, many more.

Demography is destiny. I have a home in Scottsdale, AZ. I can tell you that AZ is becoming more liberal and more Dem as the demographics change [half of the those under 21 are Hispanic] and there has been an influx of white liberals from CA, CO, NV, and NM are changing similarly. Hispanics, who comprised 16% of Arizona's population in the 1970s, now are approaching 30% of the population. Over 40% are under the age of 18.

It depends on how you describe for some time, but Fairfax County went for Kerry, the first time that has happened in over 40 years when Goldwater ran. I have seen the changes over the past 30 years I have lived in the area on and off. It is not only the super-rich liberals moving in, but also Hispanics. There is a reason why Herndon, Prince William County, Loudon County, Manassas, etc. are passing anti-illegal immigrant laws. Close to 30% of Fairfax County residents are foreign born.