Posted on 02/10/2008 3:07:11 PM PST by smoothsailing
Rampaging RINOS
Conservatives should think twice about bolting the GOP
Sunday, February 10, 2008
By Jack Kelly, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
If you read the threads on conservative Web sites (which these days takes a strong stomach), you'll encounter frequently the acronym "RINO." It stands for "Republican In Name Only," an appellation that self-styled conservative purists apply to any Republican who disagrees with them about anything.
That epithet has been applied most frequently to Arizona Sen. John McCain. But his former chief rival for the GOP nomination, former Massachussetts Gov. Mitt Romney, also has been derided as a RINO, as have former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. Every GOP candidate who rose above the asterisk level in the primaries has been called a RINO.
The epithet is ridiculous, because it assumes that being conservative and being Republican are identical. Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower were good Republicans, but they weren't conservatives. Nor were Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon, Bob Dole or George H. W. Bush.
A political party is a conspiracy to obtain power, nothing more. In democratic politics there is nothing wrong with that, because the conspiracies are peaceful, open and -- in a two-party system -- moderating. For Republicans to be successful, they must embrace moderates as well as conservatives. This means moderates get to lead from time to time.
But the dyspeptic denizens of the Right believe in addition by subtraction. To make the GOP stronger, moderates must be calumnized and driven from it. Polemicist Ann Coulter is so angry with Mr. McCain's occasional........
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
I’m getting really tired of some of the rants on these threads.
Like, which ones are the most tiring for you?
If I'm to follow this statement to its logical conclusion, if McCain wins without conservative support, he'll not bother to enact conservative legislation as president, i.e. cutting conservatives out of the process. Of course, this will simply prove that conservatives were right in the first place, that McCain is a RINO mostly interested in advancing more liberal legislation. So we will have been right in not voting for him to begin with, since we will most likely be seeing the real John McCain in action.
I need a drink.
Actually, Kennedy would probably be a Freeper now.
Strong national defense, lower taxes, belief in G-d and country...
Thank you.
ONCE IN A WHILE????????????????????????????????????????????????
Where has this bright path been?
I am not a "conservative" (whatever that means nowadays) and never once said I was...
I thought many times about leaving the GOP. Too late, I'm gone until the open border "conservatives" go away.
the ones that start out “I will cut off my right arm. nail both feet to the floor, go on a hunger strike for 8 years, shoot my 1st born son, give up sex for 8 years, before I’ll ever vote for McCain”, or something more radical than that.
I guess the thot of Hillary legalizing 20 million new voters with all the cash she will save by bringing the troops home in abject surrender, doesn’t mean much, nor does the prospect of FORCED UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE, 2-4 new Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s on the Supreme Court and on and on, ad infinitum, ad nauseum.
That’s not to say I am ANY FAN of McCain, because I’m not. I guess to lil ol me, the enemy of my enemy is still my friend.
Then there is a concept known as RINO Creep. That is , the definition of RINO may be currently changing to include those today who would not have been included earlier.
Arlen Spectre and Chuck Hagel are classic RINOS. But John Bolton? Probably not but he has been included in the black list because he came out for McCain.
It’s all ok however because tha primary process is designed to learn where the boundries are and determining the center within those boundries. One thing is pretty clear, the center has shifted and many are unhappy about that shift.
The general election is another matter. The question becomes “Will the center shift result in more coming within the boundries than those leaving the boundry?”
The answer is of course...... those around the center must work hard to prevent those on the fringe from fading away.
He is wrongly CONvinced that we need him more than he needs all of us because without all of us, he's gonna go right down the same exact cliff that Bob Dole went off!!!
So then all the horrible stuff you pointed out is gonna happen anyways if he doesn't straighten his hand and that's a really shiddy thot!!! (we git ta be mavericks, too)
Oh, okay. And the 2 thirds of Primary voters who dont like McCain? Are they deranged too?
That's something to mull about for a long time. Theodore Roosevelt was a progressive, and by today's standards, no good Republican. TR would have said that he was acting to prevent revolution, and therefore conservative in his own way, but most conservatives today would disagree with that.
For the rest of Kelly's list, the times were different then. Democrats had a strong desire to change the country, and in opposing them, Eisenhower, Ford, Nixon, Dole, and Bush were in a sense good "conservatives," though the Conservative Movement of their day wouldn't have thought of them as its favorite candidates.
Today, when conservatism also implies a desire for change -- if only to get things back to how they were -- it's easier to paint those old Republicans as not really conservative.
With the changs that followed the end of the Cold War, it's getting harder to hold on to that "Movement" sense of things, though. There may not be any one "Conservative Movement" right now.
But the basic point -- that in a two party-system, a party has to be bigger, wider, and more than an ideological movement or faction or tendency if it's going to win elections -- is undoubtedly true.
Well, when push comes to shove......<br
You make some very good points that I have rassled with myself regarding McCain. As I said, I/m no fan or cheerleader and indeed he needs to come a LONG WAY-OUR WAY before he ever will git the workin’ bees to carry his water, but in the mean time, I’m thinkin’ it would be wise to listen to the sharpening of the RAT knives and prepare to feel their steel if’n we don’t put ‘em down.
It seems to me that if I were to capitulate and vote my vote for the lout who appears quite beatable precisely like one of his Viagra pushin, Arab lobbyin Senitorial predecessors and then the leftist(s) beat him anyways because all he's got goin for him is pure unadulterated fear...
I just doesn't make any more sense that those who hounded me not to vote for Tom McClintock because it would be a vote for Bustamonte, or not to vote for anyone but Schwartzenswindler because it would be a vote for Angelides, now try to tell me that not voting for McCain is a vote for Obama or Clinton, the Commonistas!!!
This jaded argument looks really stupid now in hindsight to even the most cynical political genius on FR!!! This stampeding of FReepers in packs toward or away from this one or that one by some ridiculous "king maker" wanna be's is beyond stupid anymore... way, WAY beyond!!!
I don't honestly know what I'm gonna do as of yet and I think I'll just keep my powder dry until someone gives me a real reason to vote FOR them, even if that excludes Presidential candidates. Right now, if I had to vote for President, I'd write in Dick Cheney!!!
and thus the debate ends
“But the basic point — that in a two party-system, a party has to be bigger, wider, and more than an ideological movement or faction or tendency if it’s going to win elections — is undoubtedly true.”
True no doubt, but the Reagan coalition was always center right...through times moderates and independents have trended center-right. Now there is a change.
I’ve been saying for 20 years that people are underestimating the socializing (indoctrination) of our citizens in school, universities, and media. The long payoff for the liberals/socialists is coming in now - and it’s going to get worse because conservatives don’t know how to play the game being played out in the media and educational system. All we do is complain about it. You never see any substantial programs or movements (that are funded)to counter the misinformation out there. We have talk radio, but it’s not enough - we are losing big and the losses are becoming huge (the fall of the conservatives in the GOP).
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