History is about to repeat again...
South Carolina Republicans let down the country BIG TIME ... shame on them
Republicans fail themselves.
Don't forget that in 1989, in the immediate aftermath of the Stockton shooting by Patrick Purdy, Bush 41 stabbed law-abiding gun owners in the back with his EO banning the importation of "assault rifles." Gun owners didn't forget, and this was a large part of the reason why Bush 41 - that elitist, anti-gun, anti-Israel, one-worlder snob - lost my vote. Were his similar-minded son running for a 3rd term, I can't say for certain that I'd vote for him (oh, I probably would, just to stop Shrillary, but I'd have to wear a gas mask to the polls).
And we’re left with some really, really crappy choices. Sigh.
With the last Conservative gone, “None of the above” for President.
Perhaps closed primaries would help Republicans actually elect people who have Republican ideals.
JB Williams is just plain wrong. Thompson was NOT the most conservative Republican running—Hunter and Tancredo were.
YEARS of Pigeon-holing by a largely liberal media, and the left has been succsessful...
“CVONSERVATIVES” are now seen as Evil, hate-filled people who drive pickups with Nascar Flags and shot-guns in the window, who just live for the day when they can run over a black man or a Gay on the way home from hunting...
I could go into greater detail, but you get the point...
Why on earth are these early primaries “open”, allowing anybody to pick our candidate? It’s like letting the Raiders coming in to the Broncos locker room and picking who the Broncos will start at quarterback. Insane.
At a time in history when conservatives are referred to as only a “fringe” of the Republican Party, and when fundamental American values and principles are called “extreme right-wing ideas,” a truly conservative candidate can’t win.
Just dang! It makes me want to transform myself into pure energy and visit our parallel FR universe.
But it’s been a while . . . little finger in USB port and Control, P, Insert, right?
In S.C., the Palmetto State where I grew up, conservatism was once interchangeable and synonymous with segregation; thankfully, much of that philosophy has changed for the better. (However there are relics of that highly charged racially polarized period who call themselves conservatives: David Duke is one.) I feel, however, that true conservatives are lenient to some change (i.e. giving a hand to those less fortunate instead of a handout) while maintaining those philosophies that have defined them: Strong on national defense, fiscal responsibility, and certain issues such as abhorring late-term infanticide...
Change for me would be to accept certain other issues as inevitable--stemcell research among them and a responsible immigration policy that would seal border areas and deport criminal elements while allowing guest workers instead of something that borders on ethnic cleansing.
I'm afraid so.
To paraphrase the phrase by the British “No Conservatives please, we’re Republicans”
Well-stated! I stuck to Fred and voted for him in FL today!
I don’t know if conservatism is dying, and there are very few true conservatives in our country, or if 99% of Americans are asleep or just plain don’t care anymore.
Whatever it is, it doesn’t look good for America.
I am dreading an Obama win.
I disagree with the analysis. Thompson wasn’t ‘too conservative’ to win in South Carolina. He was just a terrible candidate that ran a campaign that was almost a template for how not to do it.
If he was too conservative to win South Carolina, why did the majority of polls between mid-August and mid-October show him with the most support in the state? Did SC suddenly become less conservative between October and January? Did people not realise back then what Fred’s political philosphy was? Both seem unlikely. Instead they looked at the candidate and he didn’t impress them, didn’t convince them that they should vote for him and so they looked at other candidates instead.
Thompson’s woeful 2% in New Hampshire can’t be explained away with ‘oh but they’re all liberals’ when Thompson was out-polling McCain in the state before he’d even declared to run.
It is all well and good to analyze a chicken’s guts in detail, but at some point the chicken must be thrown in the pot or the analysts will go hungry.
Conservatism became diluted through many small compromises, each a tiny defeat in its own right, until, at day’s end the the mix had lost its earlier essence, the potency of its tonic gone flat and unpalatable to those in need of a sudded burst.
The whole idea of political conservatism rests on fundamental concepts worth saving; take away the concept or cloak its presence and you’re left with a fading memory.
lets just say it: The GOP would rather lose with a Bob Dole than win with a conservative
IMHO, a true conservative, Jeb Bush, would have run away with the nomination this year, but for the fact his now rather unpopular brother is in the White House.