Posted on 09/08/2008 1:07:18 AM PDT by Luke21
In every war there is one decisive battle. This battle doesn't end the war; a great deal of hard fighting lies ahead. But in retrospect it's the moment when one side's ultimate victory -- and the other side's ultimate defeat -- were sealed. In our Civil War this decisive battle was Gettysburg. In World War II, it was Midway.
Unexpectedly -- perhaps even astonishingly -- this year's presidential campaign is shaping up as the decisive battle in the Culture War that's been tearing apart our country for decades.
On one side are the Traditionalists. We believe that church and State should be separate, but that religion should remain at the center of life. We are a Judeo-Christian culture, which means we consider those ten things on a tablet to be commandments, not suggestions.
re: John McCain is either very lucky or very smart...
Or perhaps both! The wheels go ‘round and ‘round and every once in a while they end up stopping at the same place. Jackpot!
I am not one who believes that God directs every aspect of our lives or every aspect of our country’s life. But I do firmly believe that it’s impossible to objectively review the history of America and not come to the conclusion that something paranormal has intervened a lot to times to give us the advantage. Look at the group of men and women who we refer to collectively as the “Founding Fathers”. Only once in all of history have that many people of unique abilities and faith been put together in one place at one time to work on a project. There are just so many times in our history when ‘luck’ has gone our way to assure success or avert disaster.
Good to know what those furriners in Ameica are thinking.
The Eastern Theater was important, but it was also mostly show. It was in the West, at Vicksburg, that the War was decided.
I'm not sure it's so simple. There are, certainly, groups within the Democratic party that suck on the public teat. But keep in mind that urban, educated, professionals are also a big part of the Democratic party (they're the ones who catapulted Obama to the Dem nomination). And these are people who tend to work longer hours and pay more taxes than a lot of GOP supporters in middle-America.
Plus, if you look at the States that pay more into the Federal treasury in taxes than they get back, the Blue States are the ones subsidizing the Red States.
The Dems 1994 midterm election loss started the Democrats foaming at the mouth and biting at imaginary flies.
At some point, we have to decide how many more of our freedoms we want to lose. The liberals have an unending supply of hate laws, cameras, tribunals, and coercive policies designed to take away our decisions on everyday life issues and empower them, their judges, their bureaucrats, and their parasites.
There can be more than one decisive battle. In the Revolution, there were a number — Breed’s Hill, Saratoga, Trenton, Monmouth, Cowpens, Yorktown. Each recovered from a losing situation to a survivable one, or a winning one.
On one side, most of us want to keep our money. We are already taxed at gigantic levels by government, and they are devising schemes to tax dog flatulence. They are insatiable.
Next is the country's patriotic identity. Do we respect the country and the constitution? Do we revere our military and our flag? Do we want these values transferred to succeeding generations, or do we want our kids to grow up as UN loving, tolerance embracing world citizens.
Next is the war against the thought police and political correctness. This philosophy denies it exists. But just try saying or doing something publicly that violates it. Failure to use proscribed thoughts, words, and concepts at appropriate times, such as in the workplace can have devastating consequences. As a result, the “racist card” and other canards can be used to prevent genuine discussion.
Finally, comes the question: can the religious and non-religious people who believe these things get along well enough to bring about a governing coalition. Some of the economic and foreign policy conservatives draw a line at conservative social issues, such as abortion and gay rights. Others of a libertarian stripe draw the line at attempts to curb pornography, believing them to be censorship. Others advocate the legalization of drugs or crusade against seat belt and motorcycle helmet laws and stoplight cameras.
It is in the last area, the social and personal, that conservative lifestyles and beliefs crash and clash. This is exacerbated by Republican moderates, a needed part of the coalition, who break ranks and join the Democrats on social matters. This fuels a regular and heated backlash by social conservatives who see the party failing to fight for their cherished beliefs, and a moderate wing that sees carping and disloyalty from the social right.
The other battle this year is within the Democrat party. On one side are the Clintons, the DLC, what’s left of the old Scoop Jackson wing of the party, what’s left of non-public sector unions, rural and small town Democrats and the PUMA’s. On the other side are Obama, public sector unions, Moveon.org, George Soros, the Daily Kos, indoctrinated students with little sense of history, and urban, upper middle class professionals who were radicalized in the 60’s and never quite recovered. The first group may give lip service to an Obama victory, but they actually want him to lose and lose big. Consequently, Obama will underperform the last polls before the election.
We started winning the abortion war 20 years ago. Not at the Supreme Court level, but where it counts, in popular attitudes. Now our population is the highest it's been, but the total number of abortions has been steadily declining. The number of facilities where abortions are performed goes down every year. In public discourse now, everyone in office denies being in favor of abortion per se. That certainly wasn't the case in the 1970s.
You could say that the pro-aborts renaming themselves "pro-choice" seemed clever at the time, but hasn't worked long-term. As was the case before Roe, "abortion" is essentially a cuss word that no one wants to hear or utter. Abortion itself is slowly retreating back to the shadows, where it came from.
Once a society's attitude toward life and its beginning changes, all other institutions begin to change in the same direction, because they are all built on that attitude.
Meyer puts it in a nutshell.
I am afraid most people are asleep and ready to follow the path to social programs and forget the price.
I stand corrected, I should have used “I” instead of “we” in that part of my post. Many of us knew about Palin and did not/do not consider her inexperienced or a lightweight. And I will throw Bobby Jindal (sp?) and Rep. Cantor into the mix as well. Any of those three would open the next generation of conservative leaders. Heck, I will toss Hunter in there too.
But *I* did not foresee how well Gov. Palin would “connect.” But Rove (?) did. McCain and whoever advised him on this selection have to be enjoying this. *I* am.
But *I* did not foresee how well Gov. Palin would “connect.” But Rove (?) did. McCain and whoever advised him on this selection have to be enjoying this. *I* am.
***Authentic conservatives “connect”. McCain probably had a dozen or so really good contenders in front of him, and he chose the brightest up & coming prolife female. This was his choice and he did a great job of it. The thing I don’t think McCain foresaw was that the media frenzy would cause them to jump the shark, and that was what I was pushing as a STRATEGY. What McCain stumbled upon, I (and other Hunter supporters) were pushing for all along. Since McCain didn’t develop this as a strategy, it means he doesn’t know how to take full advantage of it.
Maybe McCain does not know how to take full advantage, but his new campaign guy, Schmidt, will. He is supposedly, at 38 or so, the new Lee Atwater.
And I am not ready to conceded that McCain stumbled upon this, I think there was a well developed plan before the Palin pick was announced, and I see both Schmidt and Rove behind this. McCain understands battle plans. Plus, the early skirmishes in this battle show the quiet planning to be exceeding expectations. I do not believe that this was stumbled upon, I think this was all very well thought out. Just the people doing the thinking are not talking. Chuckling, yes. But not talking.
Just the people doing the thinking are not talking. Chuckling, yes. But not talking.
***Unfortunately there has been talk. The indicators behind the scenes are that McCain is livid about the press treatment of her, and that he views his relationship with the press differently as a result of this “betrayal”. That means he didn’t foresee it. We’ll probably never know, but we can only proceed from what evidence is presented.
If he is finally feeling betrayed by the press and will view it/them differently (at last) then that is another benefit from all of this.
Maybe he will hear what Democrats are saying about her too and “see the light.”
I understand you strategy perspective, and that you feel this is more happenstance than savvy planning.
The media’s/Obama-ites’ behavior does not necessarily need much emphasis from McCain to be noticed. It is getting noticed plenty right now. Deservedly so, if you saw the “ebay” listing of the Palins’ youngest child, though I suspect it was merely a photoshop.
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