Posted on 02/14/2008 7:43:09 AM PST by K-oneTexas
Conservatives: Sitting Out 2008 Is the Height of Idiocy Ben Shapiro The conservative base isn't fond of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. They disagree with him on a wide variety of issues, and they feel insulted by McCain's ardent desire to please those across the political aisle. But conservatives are fools if they stay home in November. There's plenty to question about John McCain, but there's one thing conservatives can't question: McCain is better than Hillary Clinton. He's better than Barack Obama. And it's not close. McCain is a hard-line proponent of victory in Iraq. He has pledged to lower taxes. He has always fought governmental corruption, even if that has led him to absurd extremes like campaign finance reform. He is a strong pro-life voter. He says he will veto any bill that has any earmarks. In 2006, McCain received a 65% rating from the American Conservative Union, which measures whether members of Congress are in line with conservatives on major issues. In 2005, his score was 80%. Here are Hillary Clinton's scores in those same two years: 8% and 12%. Obama scored 8% both years. It's simply unthinkable to equate McCain's record with either Clinton's or Obama's. McCain is a left-leaning Republican, which means he ranks in the upper half of the Senate in terms of political conservatism. National Journal, by contrast, ranked Clinton the 16th most liberal senator in the Senate in 2007. Obama was No. 1. Despite the vast difference between McCain and his Democratic opponents, many conservatives are threatening to boycott the 2008 election. They argue that the Republican Party has abandoned conservatism, and that in order to reclaim the Party, the GOP may have to go through the purifying ritual of cataclysmic electoral defeat. This is historically ignorant. Intraparty squabbles are constant with regard to choosing presidential candidates. Parties do not move toward a particular ideological group because of electoral defeat they move toward a particular ideological group because that group is most motivated to back a single candidate. Ronald Reagan was a rising force in the Republican Party before Gerald Ford lost to Jimmy Carter -- he almost wrested the nomination from Ford in 1976. The Democratic Party's recent move to the left has not been a reaction to their electoral defeats in 2000 and 2004 after all, Al Gore and John Kerry were certainly quite liberal. The problem with the conservative movement in 2008 wasn't the movement -- it was the lack of a candidate. And sending the GOP to ringing defeat in 2008 won't push the Party back to the right unless there's a candidate to rally around. If conservatives think they can rally around a challenger in 2012 and oust an incumbent Democrat, they should think again. Conceding the White House in 2008 could easily mean an eight-year term for either Hillary or Obama and such an eight-year term would wreak havoc on a country already overburdened by taxes and under assault from Islamic terrorism. The proposed conservative boycott of the GOP in 2008 also demonstrates a massive misunderstanding of the GOP's role. The GOP isn't constructed to nominate conservative candidates. It is constructed to win. It's the conservative base's responsibility to nominate conservative candidates. In 2008, the conservative base failed. That isn't the GOP's fault. Punishing the GOP fruitlessly punishes an organization that isn't to blame. Conservatives must recognize that the choice in 2008 is between John McCain and Clinton or Obama. It isn't about McCain vs. Romney or McCain vs. Huckabee anymore. And if McCain wins, that doesn't preclude conservatives from rallying around a more conservative candidate next time. Dooming the country to at least four years of Democratic incompetence and appeasement won't solve conservatives' problem.
FamilySecurityMatters.org contributing editor Ben Shapiro is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School. He is also the author of the recently published "Porn Generation: How Social Liberalism Is Corrupting Our Future" as well as the national best seller "Brainwashed: How Universities Indoctrinate America's Youth." He practices law in Los Angeles.
In the mean time, with either of them, as I have said, the SCOTUS will be lost for another 30+ years, we will retreat from abject enemies who want to kill us now, and we will cede ground in other critical areas as well.
Obama and Hillary will also be even worse on immigration than McCain.
Sorry, I cannot cede the ground that we might hold simply because I am absolutely PO'ed (and I am) at McCain and his ilk.
Holding some ground is better than holding no ground. And with whatever ground we hold we can fight McCain just as we have done to date.
I understand the anger, the emotion, and the reasoning. I share it. But I will not allow it to give even more ground in the face of even worse cretans.
Dream on. McCain and his pro-amnesty RINOs teamed up in a Rep controlled Congress to pass the 2006 Senate amnesty bill [S. 2611]. Although the Reps voted 32-23 AGAINST it, Dems voted 38-4 FOR it. Of those 32 Reps who voted against it, Allard, Allen, Burns, Lott, Santorum, and Talent will are no longer there to fight it.
In 2007 folks like Kyl, Chambliss, and Isakson joined McCain. As an immigration activist who lobbied on the Hill against the bill and is very attuned to what is going on, there is still tremendous pressure from an array of forces including the Chamber of Commerce, labor union leaders, LaRaza, the Dems, corporate and political elites, the MSM, the Catholic Church, etc. to get amnesty. They are continuing to try either doing it piecemeal or thru another CIR bill. The nomination of McCain and Hillary or Obama has convinced many in Congress that amnesty is not as big an issue as thought. Yesterday's WP editoral said exactly that. It was entitled, "Nativism's Electoral Flop: Bashers of illegal immigration are failing at the polls"
Obama and Hillary will also be even worse on immigration than McCain.
That simply isn't so. There isn't a dime's worth of difference between them. There will be an amnesty regardless of who wins the WH. It will be easier for Reps to fight the Dems on the issue and they will be held accountable for the consequences, which will change the political landscape of the country. McCain gives the Dems the political cover of bi-partisanship.
Nativism’s Electoral Flop
Bashers of illegal immigration are failing at the polls
Thursday, February 14, 2008; Page A24
IN THE AFTERMATH of last summer’s national debate over immigration reform, elected officials of all stripes were stunned by the popular passion and fury unleashed by the failed effort in Congress to provide an eventual path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. Many Republicans concluded hopefully — and many Democrats reckoned fretfully — that immigration would be the premier wedge issue of the 2008 campaign. But with the presidential primaries in their homestretch, it now appears that both the hopes and the fears were overstated.
On the Republican side, what’s striking is that the talk-show tantrums of the anti-immigrant ranters, despite having riled up a vocal minority, have had little impact on the outcome of primaries. Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.), who styled himself as the nativists’ champion, dropped out of the presidential contest after never registering more than a blip in the polls. Former governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts took his turn at strident rhetoric against undocumented immigrants, to no discernible effect. Rudy Giuliani all but repudiated what had been his constructive, tolerant record on immigration as mayor of New York and then got shellacked in Hispanic-heavy Florida. Former governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas took the most rabid line of all, promising to drive all 12 million illegal immigrants from the country in four months; he seems destined to be an also-ran, barring unforeseen miracles.
Granted, hard-liners remain apoplectic about Arizona Sen. John McCain’s erstwhile role as a champion of what they regard as amnesty for illegal immigrants; their ire may yet erode the Republican base in the general election. And many Republican congressional candidates will surely try to exploit the residual fervor on the issue in this fall’s elections. But the fact remains that Mr. McCain is the presumptive GOP nominee, despite what amounts to only a mild shift in emphasis in his longstanding position. (He now talks about the primacy of border security but continues to express compassion for illegal immigrants, who, he notes, “are God’s children.”) Perhaps the more interesting fallout from the immigration debate has been in the Democratic primaries, which have been marked by a major surge of Hispanic voters in some states. In California, 29 percent of Democratic voters on Super Tuesday were Hispanic, almost twice the share they represented in 2004. In Connecticut, their share of the party’s primary electorate leaped to 7 percent from just 2 percent four years ago. In Missouri, where the Latino vote was negligible in 2004, Hispanics accounted for 5 percent of Democratic primary voters this year.
Those jumps go well beyond Hispanics’ increasing share of the overall population. And while Hispanics constitute a diverse electorate, concerned with jobs, education, health care, crime and other issues, it’s a safe bet that the nativist rancor of last year’s debate has motivated and mobilized many of them. This is bad news for a Republican Party that has aligned itself with the most noxious anti-immigrant voices.
No doubt, the unrealistic and irresponsible advocates of harassment, roundups and deportations will show up at the polls this November, if only to cast ballots against candidates who would embrace workable reforms. The hope here is that their electoral clout will be outweighed by a backlash among fired-up and fed-up Latino voters.
LOL! As if there was any way to stop what is about to happen! NO ONE can stop it. It is inevitable, a foregone conclusion.
John McCain was not the choice of the conservative base, but the conservative base had two good choices, Duncan and Fred.
It seems conservatives came out in insufficient numbers, or, what's worse, perhaps they DID come out, and the results are a reflection of the actual percentage of numbers among the voters in general.
Either way, crying like a five year old girl in pigtails and running to mom does not work in hardball politics. The other side will do whatever it takes -I mean WHATEVER it takes- to get into the White House.
Hell, I question the sincerity and political leanings of some posters here who claim JM is "worse" than HRC or BO.
I have disagreements with JM, especially the 2A, my primary political choosing device. However, putting either hillary or obama into the white house out of spite because the majority of republicans do not agree with a conservative's personal choice, for whatever reason, is not strategic thinking, nor is it forethought, nor a well crafted political ploy to ensure the takeover in 8 years with a true conservative.
It is merely, baseless, profoundly stupid, non clear headed political stunt, whose only purpose serves to do what the democratic machine could not do by itself.
Might as well put on a tuxedo.."If I'm going to BE impotent, I might as well LOOK impotent.."support John McCain's However, the people who voted (yes, fellow Americans who do not like liberals) seemed only minimally interested in Fred and Duncan. So, neither got off the ground.
Conservatives: Sitting Out 2008 Is the Height of Idiocy.
(worth repeating)
I won’t be sitting out the election. I just won’t be voting for McCain, Hillary, or Obama for President.
A vile crew if ever there was one.
Guess they are backing Hillary and McCain - whichever one wins, they come out ahead.
Perhaps Obama will spill their apple cart.
They pretty well orchestrated McCain’s rise to power, but haven’t been doing too well with Hillary.
Exactly!
"Perhaps Obama will spill their apple cart."
There is more than an even chance that O'Bama will pepper his administration with CFR members as well.
"They pretty well orchestrated McCains rise to power, but havent been doing too well with Hillary."
Which is precisely why they work both sides of the street at once. They WILL be in the camp of the eventual winner.
Okay. I'm sure they'll find a way to cope with their disappointment.
Hey, I don't have any delusions of grandeur; I'm simply making a personal stand. I suppose party hacks better hope there aren't too many individuals like myself out there.
And you still claim you don't have any delusions of grandeur? ;^D
Vote for whomever you choose. Just spare me your oh-so-principled decision.
We live in an imperfect world and those of us rooted in reality will play the cards we've been dealt to the best of our advantage....even if we're not insanely happy with the deck.
I hope you're okay with this. But if you're not--well, that's just fine.
Be well.
Ah, what a joy it must be to render oneself irrelevant.
Why? Does my principled decision create some pangs of guilt in you?
Of course not. I hope you vote your conscience.
I, however, will engage in the world as it is and vote for John McCain.
And I will do so with great pride and satisfaction.
Godspeed, Nittany.
Likewise, friend.
Nice to disagree without personal attacks.
Be well, my FRiend.
Then you have no idea what you are talking about.
Irrelevant? To whom?
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