Posted on 02/27/2008 6:04:33 AM PST by PlainOleAmerican
When searching for answers as to how we got here in America - here being a steadily accelerating march into Democratic Socialism - there is plenty of blame to go around. Personally, I don’t see an innocent individual in the lot.
Those who consider themselves to be the most politically astute people in America, conservatives, have once again been out-foxed by those they call ignorant. Forest Gump’s momma was right; stupid is as stupid does! Steeped in worthy principles, yes. Politically astute? You must be kidding…
America has exactly the mess of a government it deserves because it always has the government it elected. No matter which partisan group we claim our own, there is no escaping responsibility for where we are as a nation today. In reality, our messy government is a precise reflection of our very messy electorate.
But as a lifelong conservative myself, I want to focus on my conservative brethren in this column. I want to talk to my own peeps!
Before we can advance a conservative agenda in America, we will have to figure out how to advance a conservative agenda within our own party first. Conservatives are going to have to face some hard realities about how our agenda became only a fringe side-show in a nation where most of the population is actually far more conservative than the government it keeps electing.
Conservatives Don’t Know How to Win
So they keep losing and conservatives have once again positioned themselves, or allowed themselves to be positioned, to lose again in 2008. The fact is, they have done both.
Conservatives have proven themselves to be the most ineffective political constituency in America today. The track record can be summed up no other way. Although they represent the principles and values of more than 70 percent of Americans, they can’t seem to get their act together or lead that 70 percent of the country in a single direction. So, the better organized minority movement wins.
Unlike their opposition across the aisle, who not only find a way to give themselves several good socialist nominees to choose from, but find a way to hand pick their Republican opponent in each election cycle as well, conservatives can’t even figure out how to advance a conservative candidate within their own party.
Now, conservatives can uncharacteristically blame everyone else if they want, but if this doesn’t change, the conservative movement is indeed dead in America. If it’s not our fault, then it’s not within our power to fix it. I prefer to believe it is our fault for this reason alone.
Over-ruling RNC Powers
Frustrated conservatives are right. Their party is currently controlled by liberal-lites running the RNC and it is very difficult to advance a conservative agenda in this environment. But they are wrong when they accept no individual responsibility for how that came to be. If they continue to accept no responsibility for the errors of the past, then they have no power to change those errors in the future. Such a move is equal to blind surrender.
To advance a conservative agenda in today’s Republican Party, we will have to advance it against the will of the current Republican National Committee leadership, which is clearly convinced that they must join Democratic Socialists in the pander war, just to compete with them on a national stage. Are they right?
The Politically Principled Suicide Trap
Conservatives have stepped in this trap repeatedly over the last several election cycles and as of this writing, they still don’t recognize the trap, let alone how to avoid stepping in it again and again.
Conservatives are all about their principles, as they should be. They are also all about individuality. They seldom see a need to play well with others in pursuit of a common goal. They are the most independent minded folks on earth and they are always firm in their personal belief structures, so much so, that they will go down in flames before conceding a single issue, in the name of principle.
As a staunch conservative myself, I very much identify with the standard characteristics of the average American conservative. I too am very opinionated, principled and committed to my beliefs, sometimes to the ultimate detriment of those very principles.
But as a political analyst, I also see how these natural conservative characteristics are exploited in the political process, at the expense of the conservative movement at large.
In short, conservatives have been repeatedly triangulated on the issues by the opposition. They have been systematically set up in the primaries, to take the fall in the general election no matter which direction they turn. Time after time, the election is over for conservatives, before it even begins. Then conservatives fight to make themselves completely irrelevant.
Winning Battles to Lose the War
Contrary to common claims made in the current infighting among conservatives, conservatives never fail to be conservative. They don’t know how to be anything else. What they fail to be is united in that effort.
Unlike conservatives, liberals are all about group think and group movement. Liberals are not independent minded nor are they individually responsible for anything. They think together and move as one, because they take the need to unite and their individual responsibility to play an active part in the group, very seriously. Conservatives oppose this very notion by nature of being conservative and divided, they fall, election after election.
The 2008 Republican primaries provide a vivid glimpse into just how true this is. Conservatives were very committed to their individual ideas of what conservative means, so much so that they remained completely divided between no less than eight primary candidates, each of them more conservative than John McCain. Divided among the eight, the liberal wing of the party was able to unite and advance the most liberal Republican candidate in the race, John McCain.
Now Comes the Triangulation Part
Once the RNC has a candidate who is almost as liberal as the Democratic Socialists running in the DNC, conservatives are caught in the very trap they were trying to avoid. No matter which direction they turn in the general election, they will be supporting another national shift to the left, even if they refuse to play any part at all.
If they vote for the RNC leftist who emerged from the RNC primaries with 35 percent of the Republican vote, they are voting for a shift to the left. If they stay home on Election Day, vote third party or write in some non-factor, they are allowing Democratic Socialists across the aisle to win by default, just as Clinton did in 1992 and 1996 with less than 50 percent of the popular vote.
If they cross over in protest and vote for a Democratic Socialist to teach the RNC a lesson, they have voted for a giant leap to the left and the only message they are sending the RNC is that the RNC must move even further left in the next election cycle to get back those votes that went Democrat in the last cycle.
Checkmate! No matter which direction conservatives move now, they are moving the nation left, at odds with all of the principles and values they hold dear. Stupid is as stupid does!
Once Triangulated and Cornered
Like a pit viper backed into a corner, out come the fangs. Now cornered and pissed off, conservatives have their fangs out and they lash out at everything that moves. Anyone who failed to support their guy in the primaries is the enemy now. Anyone who sees the need to at least block a giant leap to the left in November is also an enemy.
Reality is, only about 35 percent of Republicans support John McCain. The other 65 percent who voted against McCain can never be accurately accused of supporting McCain, only opposing the greater opposition.
But more than 35 percent will indeed vote for McCain come November. Not because they have some new found love for John McCain or his many shortcomings, but because they will be NO part of sitting the First Family of Political Crime, Presidents Clinton, or the freshman cut-n-run Marxist from Illinois in the Oval Office.
Isn’t it funny how those who openly oppose Clinton and Obama are now seen by some conservatives as liberals, the enemy, when it is their vote or non-vote, of conservatives to angry to think straight, that will elect the most Socialist candidate running for office in the name of opposing McCain?
This is how fuzzy logic can become, once cornered in a trap.
How Silly Are We Now?
The infighting among conservatives has reached a deafening pitch. To see just how dangerous a cornered conservative can be to his movement, consider these postings at a well-known conservative discussion board Free Republic.
In reaction to my recent New Media Journal column titled “Why Conservatives Must Vote in 2008,” and some of the posters, hundreds of blogging conservatives lash out against their conservative brethren. So consumed by rage once cornered in the same old trap, they lose all perspective of who the real enemy is and cannibalize their own movement.
“This article was written by a self-important self-flagellating idiot. My conservative vote did not count for a whole lot in moving forward a conservative agenda whenever I voted for guys named George Bush. Now, this clown blames conservatives for being SO POWERFUL as to being blamed for allowing the Democrats to takeover congress. What I did at the polls in 2006 had NOTHING to do with the Republicans losing the congressional majorities. And if the Hillary the Republicans greatest hope for retaining the WH does not get the nomination, my conservative vote will have little to do with the 2008 election.” – Freeper by the screen name Biblebelter
“I think the RNC is going to be very surprised at the vote total for conservatives that do NOT coattail for McCain.” – Freeper, The Citizen Soldier
“If I vote my conscience, none of the current GOP or DEM candidates will get it. If I decide to hold my nose, McCain will get my vote. IF I decide to hold my nose. Your telling me that if I don't vote for McCain is voting for Hitlery or Obomba is not making me think of voting for McCain.” – Freeper, Just another Joe
“Just more McCainite fearmongering they think they can bully us with. Sorry, but my greater fear is we get another Arnold Schwarzenegger. A Hillary or Obama might give us a GOP majority in ‘10.” – Freeper, Free Vulcan
“At what point do you just realize it’s over. Nobody thinks the Rat party is going to go back to being a southern, agrarian, pro-slave party. The shift to a big government, elitist, urban party was incremental and permanent. The shift of the Republican Party BACK to a big government, elitist, country club party is permanent. The majority of the party is not in control in which case the majority should leave the system in which we get screwed.” – Freeper, demshateGod
These are but a few from hundreds of comments. Not all of them are self-defeating like these. The issue isn’t whether or not these posters have a valid point, but rather, what is the productive nature of their point? Can anything productive come from the massive infighting underway with the conservative base of the Republican Party? Anything positive for conservatives I mean?
“The McCattle have already surrendered and become democrats.”- Freeper, cripplecreek - This comment on the basis of opposing Obama and Clinton?
Have conservatives really lost sight of who the real enemy is here? Do they really accept no personal responsibility for how we got here, or what happens next? Are they really throwing in the towel, not just for the GOP, but for the nation, or are they simply having a momentary temper tantrum?
Most disturbing to me when reading comments on a conservative discussion board like Free Republic, is the fact that you will rarely read a comment based on a productive idea of how to change what every conservative is indeed upset about.
Hundreds of complainers and finger-pointers can be read at Free Republic and countless other conservative blogs. But for all the principled opposition to what is happening to our party and our country, where are the conservative ideas of what to do about it? These kinds of comments are suspiciously absent among conservatives at present.
Conservatives are supposed to be part of the solution, not a part of the problem. Yet they seem unable to move beyond their rage to a place where productive solutions can emerge. I expect this kind of emotionally charged hand wringing and indiscriminate lashing out from liberals, but from conservatives too now?
If the Conservative Movement is Dead
There is but one reason. Conservatives failed to unite to move their agenda forward. Divided, they have fallen. Continuing to divide will only worsen the problem, not provide a solution.
My grandfather was a WWI veteran and although he passed many years ago, he remains one of my heroes today. He repeated the following advice so many times as I was growing up, that there was no way to wash it from my memory.
He would say, “If you have nothing productive to add to the conversation, say nothing at all. That alone will be more productive.”
Conservatives are getting their ass handed to them by an anti-American minority and the best response they can come up with is to beat on each other in a fit of rage and further divide their foot soldiers? Well, they bicker and divide at their own demise…
Three Undeniable Realities
1) McCain sucks! But one of three candidates will sit in the Oval Office for the next four years, McCain, Clinton or Obama. When faced with three dangerous attackers, and only two bullets left, shoot the two most dangerous attackers and go hand to hand with the least of the threats remaining. To address none of the three is certain suicide. 2) Most Americans are far more conservative than the governments they elect. The socialist minority will continue to win so long as conservatives fail to unite in productive measure. 3) Conservative principles are not welcome in any socialist country. So, stopping Democratic Socialists from sitting in the Oval Office at any cost is a must.
Or, we could spend the next seven months regurgitating all the well-known ways that John McCain is a horrible Republican alternative to the completely unacceptable Democratic Socialists he’s running against. It won’t change anything, but you can sound more conservative at cocktail parties by showing how smart you are to recognize this reality.
McCain was indeed a ten o’clock two. But he’s fast becoming a two o’clock ten! Unless conservatives want to go home and take a cold shower and wait another four years for a date, they will have to dance the least ugly girl at the party this time around.
Eliminating the two bigger threats and going hand to hand with the lesser McCain is the best they can do in 2008. But then they will have to do a better job of uniting on principle in 2010 and beyond.
No argument, the RNC is a problem.
But why have conservatives not figured out how to solve that problem?
Frankly, even now, as you will see on this discussion board, many conservatives are more interested in throwing darts at each other than working together towards a solution.
We can’t change anything that way, can we?
Sadly, if you think putting Obama or Clinton in the White House in protest to McCain is the answer, someone needs to dictate your thoughts.
the primary I will vote in has not been held yet...but I too am looking for answers...and I will vote Conservative.
The RNC has decided to become “The Other Democrats.”
We have no influence on them at all, other than withholding donations and our votes, or sending mail to their wastebasket.
So I stopped donating, and I haven’t had a chance to vote.
Won’t matter if I vote or not. So I won’t.
Save gas, learn to watch baseball. It’s over.
They have also been suckered into the Libertarian philosopy that we should let the Socialists take over the country and in four years, we Principled Conservatives will be seen as saviors. That is complete and utter bravo sierra! The Libertarians are hoping for an armed revolution that will create a power vacuum they cans step into, because they will never get power through the voting booth!
Hopefully, most of the "Principled Conservatives" will take a deep breath, and return to rational thinking. From some of the posts on here, those singled out in the article and their cohorts do not have the maturity to even consider backing down from their wild, enraged and childish positions. Since they refuse to become part of the solution, they have decided they can have more impact and revenge by being a major part of the problem. And, prove that they are incapable of learning from experience. It is sad and pathetic.
So you’ll be casting a write-in vote.
Here, the vote scanner doesn’t take them.
So I absolutely do not agree that conservatives had any sort of duty to unite instantaneously behind one and only one conservative. (Logically, that would only mean that the 8 conservative CANDIDATES had to meet and agree on 7 pulling out, anyway.) So I refuse any accountability in the current situation. I would have voted for Thompson in my state convention (after Hunter withdrew) but couldn't because he withdrew beforehand. And why did he withdraw? Merely because McCain won 100% of delegates in winner-take-all primaries. So I see the RNC scheme as deliberately engineered for just such a result as we have now.
Hey, if you want to continue wasting bandwidth on a conservative forum shilling for your liberal champion, have at it. McCain is a lost cause and has been the day he announced his run. If this is the best that the dying GOP can do, then they need to go ahead and slip on the banana peel so the DNC burial detail can finish their job.
Gee, Folks! Look over there! It's an American Quitter!
John McCain and the GOP insiders don’t want the conservatives in the party, they just want their vote. If they wanted us, they would come right out and ask us, with some conciliatory gestures in hand, like the promise to fix the broken primary system, so that this never happens again. That is not a gesture that would weaken McCain, and it would go a long way to prove that the GOP is truly a big tent.
Political extortion gets them nowhere.
why are our leaders refusing to tell the truth? the mosques all over the U.S. are peaching hate? When the truth is necessary, American Leaders choose to fail, or Lie? Again, I am an idiot, but I see where each of us is headed...Why not try to counter?
So I should trudge down to the polls, a month after it’s over, to vote for a man I loathe more than Hillary or Obama, and believe to be more dangerous,and tell myself I’m saving the country?
Yeah, that’ll show em.
“Maverick McCain rips GOP By Noelle Straub Friday, April 2, 2004
WASHINGTON - Sen. John McCain yesterday unleashed an attack on his own party, saying the GOP is ``astray’’ on key issues and criticizing President Bush [related, bio] on the war in Iraq.
*****``I believe my party has gone astray,’’ McCain said, criticizing GOP stands on environmental and minority issues.
*****``I think the Democratic Party is a fine party, and I have no problems with it, in their views and their philosophy,’’ he said. ``But I also feel the Republican Party can be brought back to the principles I articulated before.’’
*****The maverick senator made the remarks at a legislative seminar hosted by U.S. Rep. Martin T. Meehan (D-Lowell) as he again ruled out running on a ticket with Democrat John F. Kerry [related, bio].
*****The Arizona Republican took on President Bush for failing to prepare Americans for a long involvement in Iraq, saying, ``You can’t fly in on an aircraft carrier and declare victory and have the deaths continue. You can’t do that.’’
*****McCain said the U.S. should seek more U.N. involvement in Iraq. ``Many people in this room question, legitimately, whether we should have gone in or not,’’ he said, adding that that debate ``will be part of this presidential campaign.’”
(and he was mavericking on David Letterman last year, claiming GWB “wasted” the lives of our troops)
Sometimes what appears to be the obvious answer, is the answer.
“Reagan did not beat Carter on conservative principles. He was TALLER, looked more Presidential, and had ten times the charm. The fact that he was a great leader was the bonus. Clinton beat the promise breaking George Bush because, he was more likeable than some clown that made promises to the American people that he was not man enough to keep. Dole would have made a better President than Clinton but he was just not as likeable as a treacherous sex criminal.”
I’m afraid you’ve hit the nail on the head....
And it doesn’t same much about our country...
“return to rational thinking”
Obviously you and I differ a great deal on what rational thinking is..
“...it’s the DC Elite Republicans who are not consistent and do not take Conservatism seriously.”
As I’ve mentioned before redefinition of the meaning of “Conservatism”, but by example.
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