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The Nation Needs a Better GOP
Los Angeles Times ^ | May 10, 2009 | Mickey Edwards

Posted on 05/10/2009 5:49:35 AM PDT by kellynla

There are optimists within the Republican Party. They look at the wreckage left behind after last year's elections, and recall 1964. That was the year that Barry Goldwater, the Republican nominee for president, was so badly trounced that pundits proclaimed the GOP dead. But it was also the year that a new breed of conservative activists, myself among them, brought a new energy to the party that eventually reshaped it and led to years of Republican domination of the executive branch.

The whistle-past-the-graveyard crowd imagines that this year's doomsayers have simply forgotten history: Four years after the 1964 disaster, they remind us, Republicans won the presidency. We'll just do it again, they say. But the Republicans' defeat last year was far different from their 1964 loss -- and it will be a lot harder to come back from.

In 1964, Goldwater was seen as an anomaly. He was not representative of his own party, and, to a large extent, was rejected by it. The conservatives voters so soundly rejected in 2008 are seen not as anomalous but as representative of the larger party.

The Richard Nixon who won the presidency in 1968 had been vice president under Dwight Eisenhower, who left the White House with his popularity intact. The GOP candidate in 2012 will have to overcome the nation's memory of the previous Republican in that office, George W. Bush, who was less popular in most of America than the New York Yankees are in Boston. There will be no "glorious days of Republican leadership" to hark back to unless the party's candidates continue to dredge up memories of Ronald Reagan, who left Washington two decades ago, before a good many younger voters were born.

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2010comeback; conservatives; gop; rebuilding; republicanparty; republicans
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The Gelding Old Party just needs to get a testicle & spine implant before next year to begin to retake the Majority in the House and/or Senate and hopefully they will do a better job of leading if & when they do achieve the Majority than they did the last time.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!

Semper Fi, Kelly

1 posted on 05/10/2009 5:49:36 AM PDT by kellynla
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To: kellynla

The GOP needs to be a party about constitutional liberties, pro-growth economics, and national security. That’s all. It doesn’t need to be in our bedroom, living room, car, or wallet.


2 posted on 05/10/2009 5:53:53 AM PDT by Perdogg (0bama - America's Elegabalus and Commodus combined)
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To: kellynla

Can we cross a cat with that elephant? I don’t know what the offspring will quite be, but it will have claws and 9 lives.


3 posted on 05/10/2009 5:54:15 AM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Beat a better path, and the world will build a mousetrap at your door.)
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To: kellynla

Correction: this country needs A GOP. Liberal-lite isn’t working worth a crap. We can’t have a GOP with half its members stoned on Glowbama.


4 posted on 05/10/2009 5:54:37 AM PDT by Excuse_My_Bellicosity (Liberalism is a social disease.)
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To: kellynla
The Gelding Old Party just needs to get a testicle & spine implant

Exactly. You can't stand for something without the latter, or defend it without the former.

5 posted on 05/10/2009 5:54:40 AM PDT by andy58-in-nh (You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.)
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To: HiTech RedNeck
Can we cross a cat with that elephant? I don’t know what the offspring will quite be, but it will have claws and 9 lives

It will also require a giant litter box.

6 posted on 05/10/2009 5:55:41 AM PDT by andy58-in-nh (You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.)
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To: kellynla

Yes - and I think its going to be young blood with no baggage. This AF1 incident marks Husseins Carteresque demise and when it becomes pregnantly obvious, our cream will rise - it might be Palin or someone else outside of the DC beltway.


7 posted on 05/10/2009 5:56:00 AM PDT by blackminorca
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To: kellynla

Has this not been the theme the past 4 weeks? Enough already. They have no power. Who cares.

Meanwhile the liberal commies are the party in charge and spending us into oblivion. But they skate.

The Ree fn diculous.


8 posted on 05/10/2009 6:08:07 AM PDT by nhwingut ( Don't Blame Me. I Voted For Waterboarding...)
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To: kellynla

“Republicans have to put a leash on attack-dog tactics and engage in a constructive manner to deal with serious problems facing the country.”

Can someone help me here. We had Bush 43 that would have had trouble getting angry if one of his daughters were being raped. And we had McCain, who made a career out of attacking Republicans, with very few words of criticism for Democrats.

Just who are the attack dogs? Maybe Limbat and Hantity and Savage, but the last time I checked, they were not running for office and often spent as much time attacking Republicans when they screwed up (i.e., immigracion, “stimulus”, bailout, etc.), as Democrats.

You can see the point...this is an attempted takeover of the Republican Party by people who want it to NEVER be a majority party again. They know that Democratic-lite will never stand a chance against the real thing...and Democratic domination of the House and Senate for decades already proved that.


9 posted on 05/10/2009 6:08:16 AM PDT by BobL (Drop a comment: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2180357/posts)
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To: Perdogg
The GOP needs to be a party about constitutional liberties, pro-growth economics, and national security. That’s all. It doesn’t need to be in our bedroom, living room, car, or wallet.

Unfortunately, your premise is faulty. The children of families broken by sexual misconduct are statistically far more likely to grow up requiring government supervision (because of single parents), government resolution of their misconduct, and government financing of their rehabilitation. Hence, there is no such thing as a "fiscal conservative" without being a social conservative as well.

It is not without reason the Torah forbids sexual immorality just as there is excellent reason that it was Marxists who deliberately inculcated it in America.

10 posted on 05/10/2009 6:08:52 AM PDT by Carry_Okie (There are people in power with a passion for evil.)
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To: andy58-in-nh

“It will also require a giant litter box.”

So we build a bigger litter box. There is NEED of feline influence in this party, as they have tended too long to be herd animals, and therefore prey, while the present situation requires the instincts to hunt down and finish off rodents and other vermin. The classic approach, to define the least government as the best government, was right for Jefferson and it is right today. Governmant only facilitates things when they get out of the way.

When one of the players (the Democrat party) chooses to be both player and referee, that muddies up the issue beyond recognition. Most unfortunately, the Republicans rarely have the gumption to call the Democrats when they combine the resources of the nation with the fortunes of the party. The Democrats ave no concept of “stewardship”, the acceptance and carrying of a trust between the people and the necessary degree of government to carry out those Constitutional tasks with which they are charged. So far, the Democrats have chosen to treat this trust as a mandate for unbridled change, damn the Constitution.

Until we call a national Constitutional Convention, we are stuck with changing and re-interpreting the Constitution with the cumbersome, intentionally awkward means already contained in its language.

Which I presume to be in English, the commonly accepted tongue of the American people.


11 posted on 05/10/2009 6:13:11 AM PDT by alloysteel (When the chips are down - the buffalo is empty.)
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To: kellynla
Here's what I think.

We ran a real conservative in 1964 and got wiped.

We ran a real conservative in 1980 and 1984, and won 45 and 49 states.

The reason that they keep pushing "moderates" on us is that they want us to lose. The GOPers who push moderates are more afraid of the power of conservatism than they are of socialism.

That having been said, the times are bad. 2012 may be more like 1964, especially if the events of 1963 somehow repeat themselves.

But, if the times dictate defeat, why not go down with the colors nailed to the mast? And if the times are favorable, why not win with a proven formula?

There's NO argument for GOP "moderation" that works. None at all.

12 posted on 05/10/2009 6:13:25 AM PDT by Jim Noble (They are willing to kill for socialism...but not to die for it.)
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To: Carry_Okie
There is a way to address social issues without imposing big government morality on people, which is counter to the belief of constitutional federalism which is supported by conservatives. My belief isn't faulty, it is consistent with the constitutional premise of limited government.
13 posted on 05/10/2009 6:14:53 AM PDT by Perdogg (0bama - America's Elegabalus and Commodus combined)
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To: Carry_Okie
It is not without reason the Torah forbids sexual immorality

But there IS a reason that the preaching of sacred scripture is not one of the enumerated powers of the US Federal government.

14 posted on 05/10/2009 6:15:43 AM PDT by Jim Noble (They are willing to kill for socialism...but not to die for it.)
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To: kellynla
In 1964, Goldwater was seen as an anomaly. He was not representative of his own party

On the other hand, John McCain is representative? I now know what Megan McCain's pen name is, when she wants to remain confidential.

15 posted on 05/10/2009 6:29:26 AM PDT by Bernard (If you always tell the truth, you never have to remember exactly what you said.)
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To: kellynla

SARAH!


16 posted on 05/10/2009 7:07:59 AM PDT by onedoug
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To: kellynla

The nation needs a GOP that actually stands for something. What we have is a GOP that can only say “we’re not quite as bad as the Democrats”. The Republicans, even the best of them, only stand for a little bit less then Democrats. They only play defense and never offense. They want to slow government growth. Heaven forbid that we should roll it back. Are you sick yet of Republicans(not RINO’s) bragging that their tax schemes/cuts will bring in even more revenue?
Are there any Republicans to the right of FDR? Any that advocate a government smaller than pre-Roosevelt?
I used to think that the Republicans were a party of principle and that the Dems had none. Wrong! The Dems are the party of principle, albeit evil ones. The Repubs have no principles. A a party that can only say that they aren’t quite as bad as the other guys is doomed.


17 posted on 05/10/2009 7:38:01 AM PDT by all the best
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To: HiTech RedNeck
Whaddaya get when ya cross an Elephant with a Rhino?

Ellifino!

18 posted on 05/10/2009 7:42:50 AM PDT by Erasmus (Barack Hussein Obama: America's toast!)
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To: blackminorca
Unfortunately, it's a race against time.

The Fascist-in-Chief is that close to realizing his kind's age-old goal of making elections obsolete.

The question is whether America, or what's left of it, wakes up in time to prevent the evil ones' final triumph.

I give America a forty percent chance.

19 posted on 05/10/2009 7:46:44 AM PDT by Erasmus (Barack Hussein Obama: America's toast!)
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To: Jim Noble
But there IS a reason that the preaching of sacred scripture is not one of the enumerated powers of the US Federal government.

Hence the need for Federalism. Each State was originally free to set its own standards for personal behavior as matters of free association and free exercise. They could even have a State religion if it so desired, because the Feds had no say in what they chose to do in that regard. It was the 14th Amendment doctrine of "selective incorporation" that changed all that. We need to get the Supreme Court out of the business of an establishment of no religion.

20 posted on 05/10/2009 8:12:00 AM PDT by Carry_Okie (There are people in power with a passion for evil.)
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