Posted on 05/15/2008 8:24:51 AM PDT by bilhosty
Things are so ugly for the members of the GOP right now, it’s worth pondering their political mortality: Put bluntly, can this party be saved?
We talked to some of the smartest minds in Republican politics, and their prognosis is pretty grim. They think it will take pretty big changes — and possibly many, many years — to repair a Republican brand sullied by excessive spending, an unpopular war and an even more unpopular president.
Republicans are deeply divided over how dramatic changes should be and how precisely to change things. But there appears to be an emerging consensus on six steps they must take — and soon. What follows are the composite views of key Republicans we interviewed.
1. Get a clue: Republicans desperately need to cook up some new ideas and craft an attractive agenda to have any chance of success. Former Massachusetts governor and presidential candidate Mitt Romney says it should be a modern edition of Newt Gingrich’s “Contract With America.”
“Maybe I just suffer from the “fecal encephilitus” that an earlier poster mentioned, but I have trouble taking seriously, a party named after a bird. No matter how noble falcons might be.”
No problem...I feel the same about a party that uses an elephent as their symbol when they clearly should be using a rino...
The jackass on the other hand is entirely appropriate..
The problem: "What is a republican?" is still the problem by any other name: "What is a conservative?". And even if we, the Freeper faithful, can come to terms on those fundamentals, for many of our fellow Americans, it seems that political allegiance is as tenuous and ethereal as fashion.
Gosh... This really pisses me off!... But can't you blame them really?... For thinking we voters are really a bunch of brainless... morons... who forget easily... And when we actually 'remember, then, we don't seem to have the spine, the convictions... to hold our vote until we get the changes we want. Like cows really..
... This is the way we look to the GOP bosses :)
These three (along with a score of others who call themselves Republicans) are jackasses.
1. Newt- Poses with Pelousy to endorse the war against Gorebal Warming.
2. Dole- A Viagra salesman who, after dosing himself, doesn't know what to do next. (Just ask Libby.)
3. Lott- A fopish fool.
I have to admit the Chicago Democrat machine, led by Emanuel, Axlerod and others are wiping the floor with the stupid party.
Just wait until the dems seize complete power in 2009, the entire country will be a “sanctuary country” and many the little dunces in the GOP will be sent to prison, one by one. The GOP will not even put up a fight, they instead will be “apologizing”.
I blame Presidente Jorge Boosh, the lil cream puff who will not even fight for his daughter’s honor, much less the country. His family gave the swimmer Kennedy a full dinner and medal when fatso was pounding Jorge to a pulp.
Jorge turned his back on the conservatives and now the chickens are coming home to roost.
The Dems play for keeps and play to win, while the GOP plays footsie.
SUPREME COURT SUPREME COURT SUPREME COURT
All Pubs in Senate and House get together on the steps of the capitol for a press conference and announce:
1. Push for immediate drilling and refining of our petroleum resources.
2. Push for immediate cessation of ALL benefits for people entering/living in the country illegally.
3. Start making plans for landslide victory partys in November....
It's not so much as being against "new thinking" as it is being skeptical of "unrealistic thinking".
"Alternative energies" are fine...as far as they go. There's nothing wrong with pursuing them...but there should be no expectation that they will make a significant contribution to our energy deficit in the foreseeable future.
By the same token, "energy conservation" also has its limits. Turning out the lights when you're out of the room, so to speak, is not going to have a significant impact on our energy consumption (the same can be said for compact fluorescents). Again, though, a good thing to do...but not an answer in itself.
All of these partial solutions avoid the main point: if we want to be energy independent, we're going to have to drill for our own oil! That's "realistic thinking"...but the greens don't want to even consider it.
And, down the road, when an alternative to petroleum becomes economically feasible, the market will tell us.
Until that time, petroleum will remain the most efficient lubricant of our (and the world's) economy.
To misquote some famous movie: “If you can fake sincerity, you’ve got it made.”
The GOP is a shambling, rotting corpse, lurching around with no leadership. A delivery system for earmarks and graft. The demo-thugs are worse, but just a matter of degree.
1. Lower taxes.
2. Smaller Government
3. Conservative SCJ
4. Stop Global Warming scam.
5. Protect our borders.
5. End Nationlized education.
6. Prevent Natioalized health care.
The jackass on the other hand is entirely appropriate..
The those political symbols were not chosen by the parties but were the invention of the cartoonist Thomas Nast. IMO, a falcon might be a fine symbol for a party that might be called, for instance: "The Federalist Party" or something. Teddy Roosevelt started a Bull Moose party, but it didn't get very far.
The True Republican Party died the day the RNC turned its back on The Contract With America, because it’s conservative base was shut out. That was the day a new Conservative Party should have been born. Perhaps we could have averted the criminal Clinton years, and the globalist Bush debacle.
“Big tent. They no longer needed the conservative “wing” (which is the heart and soul of the Republican electorate).”
The Republican Party’s contempt for the libertarian “wing” is even deeper than it is for the conservative wing (and it was Ronald Reagan who said, “I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism.” in Reason Magazine, 1975)
Big-Government Republicans like GWB, Karl Rove and Tom DeLay did more for the Democrat Party than Clinton, Reid, Pelosi, MoveOn.Org, and George Soros combined.
But you're right, of course. We can only kneel and genuflect to the Yankees.
The fact they think 6 steps are needed to "fix" things is evidence enough of that.
I like your thinking though I would raise defending borders and court picks to an even higher priority. As far as taxes the problem is that we have spent all of our political capitol on taxes and neglected everything else. We have come to believe we can just lower taxes and revenues will rise and we do not have to worry about cutting spending. I don’t believe taxes inhibit investment any more as there seems to be plenty of investment. As far as cutting spending we have to win and then show we can do it as we do not have any credibility on the issue. Most pollsters and focus groups that I have been reading about find the public is no longer so interested in cutting taxes as taxes have been reduced and are under control. They do however, do not want tax increases.
Preventing nationalized health care means coming up with an alternative. I have long thought that a buyers coop would be agreat deal. You pay to have you policy underwritten and put into a pool and then it is picked up by the lowest bidder. Since 40% of the cost of health insurance premiums is marketing and commssion we have an instant savings and a strong incentive to be very efficient in administrating.
If you want to know whats wrong with the GOP you need look no further than this kind of elitist drivel.
I can agree to the first two but it wil take more than that to accomplish 3 (unfortunately).
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