Posted on 01/31/2008 5:27:28 AM PST by pissant
With John McCain’s all-too-easy road to the nomination paved through Florida and now nearly complete one thing is clear: The Republican Party has been hijacked. Over the past month a new Axis of Evil has emerged -- not one based in Damascus, Tehran or Pyongyang -- but instead in Cedar Rapids, Charleston, South Carolina, Derry, New Hampshire and Boca Raton, Florida. It is the liberal and “independent” voters in these 4 states that have nearly completed a deed that makes Kim Jong Il envious -- the near crippling of the American Electoral System. These four states have combined their native liberal populism with an imported liberal electorate and have forced the GOP to accept a nominee so distasteful that in more than one poll -- the numbers of voters choosing not to vote and those choosing to vote third party actually exceed those who will hold their nose and vote for Maverick, War Hero, Amnesty Supporter, John McCain.
I can hear you saying, “surely you aren’t saying that South Carolina has gone liberal -- are you?” Are you kidding me? Drive through the Carolinas and count the number of license plates from NJ, NY and Pennsylvania. There is not much Dixie in the Carolinas; it’s more like Trenton and Long Island with fireworks. “But”, you protest, “New Hampshire, is Live Free or Die, it’s been a backbone of conservatism since the 1950’s.” No longer my friends -- NH has become an exurb of Boston, with Boston’s sensibilities and, ugh, their voting tastes. NH hasn’t been reliably conservative since Reagan’s first term. These voters would rather be loved by the Boston Globe, than respected by the Union Leader.
But the evidence continues, you say, “Iowa, that’s America, with small town values and homespun sensibilities.” Wrong again -- Iowa is just a state brimming with farmers on the federal dole, college students and ex hippie professors looking to con, libs in training at Grinnell.
And Florida? As my bubbies would say in Bay Ridge -- puhleeeez. It’s the 6th borough and has been since the mid 1960’s. Liberals have been sliding down the I-95 corridor since Kennedy was elected.
Sadly these 4 states have done more than set the tone for the other 46 -- they’ve dictated terms. Frankly I could extend the analogy to include Nevada, which is down to about 13% native -- but why beat a dead horse.
What we have is the sick and twisted dreams of Pinch Sulzberger, Don Imus, Maureen Dowd, Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews come true: the GOP has been forced to choose a nominee designed to cause the base to retch, and thereby not vote. Guaranteeing 4 years of Clinton score settling or Obama socializing entire corporate sectors.
Its time to simultaneously bring back democracy to the GOP and defang the left and her Rockefeller accomplices in the new Axis of Evil. It’s time for the nuclear option -- its time for the GOP to front-load the whole freaking process into one date. Make every state vote on exactly the same day. Make every candidate compete in EVERY state at the exact same time and hold every single GOP primary and caucus on Super Tuesday. When NH and IOWA complain, take a page from the Democrats and refuse to seat their delegates, or better yet, declare renegade states as straw polls.
This would balance our nomination process out. There will be no more “Big Mo”, no more singular precincts in obscure Iowa towns setting the tone for the rest of the country. If liberals from Englewood Cliffs NJ want to vote liberal, it’s going to get cancelled out by conservatives in Chattanooga -- who might actually get to vote for Fred. Its time to let Nebraska count as much as New Hampshire. Let Texas matter as much as South Carolina, let Florida be canceled out by California -- as it should be. The only two groups who have benefit from the current process are the media flacks selling the drama and John McCain establishment hacks. Does anyone think Fred Thompson got a fair hearing? Or Duncan Hunter? John McCain does not speak for me…or frankly for any one else, I know.
Folks, we have let the liberals and RINOS set the agenda. Open Borders, Higher Taxes, and surrender to Kyoto-worshipping technocrats. This is the Republican Party? But hey, the McCainiacs counter, “John McCain is a war hero -- right?” Let me be the first to say it’s not about what you did in the 60’s sir -- it’s about what you will do to America in 2009 and beyond.
This is our party, not John McCain’s or Mel Martinez's, or Lindsay Graham’s. The Republican Party is THE conservative party dammit. Let’s admit it and take it back. RINOS and Liberals have taken the GOP plane hostage, and its time for us passengers to revolt…and do what has to be done -- Let’s Roll.
Cheer up! Things are looking VERY GOOD for post-Super Tuesday voters who want to influence the process. You will likely have a choice of 3 candidates to vote for, and your vote will have a lot of influence.
I wrote an article on this, here: Five Proposals for Fixing the Primary Process for the GOP.
While the establishment will disagree with me...I’d like to suggest a simple solution...where 50 governors meet a year prior to the primary season (no caucuses anymore)...and pull numbers. We start a 3-day voting affair across the nation on the first Tuesday of Feb....with ten states voting. The second day would be twenty states. And the third day...the final twenty. The 50 governors would pull numbers out of a hat and accept their position in the polling situation.
We are standing here....a week before Super-Tuesday...with only two candidates for either party still in the running...which is a pretty fair joke. The number of debates held since July of last year...the number of position changes on various topics....all time wasted in my humble opinion. The massive cash apparatus that was in full-swing....a joke. The number of idiots soaking the candidates for cash....a joke. The idea of Iowa and New Hampshire shape-shifting the entire election....a joke.
I’m probably out of the main-stream...and neither party will appreciate my comments. But I think we are no longer living in 1895 and have folks running around on trains to campaign. Its not necessary to give us twelve debates...or even six debates.
I’ll even add this to my solution...I don’t see any logical reason to wait till July or August for the party convention. I’m a bold-thinker....why not open up a stadium on the first week of May....bring folks in for three days....preferably over a Friday, Saturday and Sunday....and kinda wrap things up. I don’t need some stupid network idiot wasting five nights of my time....analyzing what this dimwit said or that dimwit said. Its like some NCAA football conference playoff season...that goes on forever...and the winner....is really a loser.
Nah! I don't like that either. Then you can get the wealthiest candidate as the nominee. The only one who can afford the massive media buys.
I would favor a series of regional primarys: Northeast, Southeast, Mid-west, Pacific Northwest ... you get the idea. If you take the country in chunks like that you take away the distortion introduced by states that have very narrow focus, like Iowa's farm subsidies, yet you still preserve the opportunity to a less well-funded candidate to get on a roll (which can be a good thing).
Love your tag line.
which two?
Boy, if SC, NH, and Iowa have all gone as blue as this author portends, I think the GOP has bigger problems than the order the states have had their primaries in.
I agree. If the 2000 vote had been similarly divided, McCain would have won then, too.
Outofstyle: you are correct about Reagan getting a majority of the youth vote in '80. I've read that stat many times. And indeed those voters did become lifelong conservatives. I am one of them even though my family is Rino Republican.
Where Jeeves is correct is the next generation, Generation Y as it is sometime referred. My younger sister's politics are left-Democrat. I can't believe I was raised in the same household. Gen Y voters were too young to have actually voted for Reagan, but they absorbed all the Media hatred for the Man and his ideas. They probably cast a majority of their first-time votes for Clinton.
Until McCain gets more than 40% of the vote somewhere, it’s not the liberals giving him to us, is the number of other candidates available for the “anti-McCain” vote to go to.
With your permission, I’d like to post this on another conservative board. Part of the knock on FR is that we’re turning into the “all-or-nothing” types we shouldn’t be. I’d like to demonstrate we’re not all like that—at least not yet.
OH Goodie! Three candidates, two of which I refuse to vote for in Nov, and NONE that I would allow to put a sign in my yard or would do anything to elected!
“It’s the state themselves that set primary dates. Not the RNC. The RNC did try to hold back the flood of early primaries, but Michigan and Florida went early anyway.”
Seems to me that if the RNC was interested in conservatives
doing well in the primaries they do everything they could to have them represented in early primaries. Instead they seem to want to penalize conservative states that wish to move up their primaries.
I would not call either Michigan or Florida a conservative state, would you? My take is that the RNC applied too little control, too late.
This is absolutely true. We have a little more voice than we used to, but we don't yet know how to use it.
Absolutely. I’m flattered.
Exactly what I meant!
I agree absolutely about Rick Santorum, but losing re-election isn’t a good springboard to the presidency.
You are correct. The Union Leader isn’t the Union Leader of old.
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