John Hawkins
John Hawkins is a blogger who runs Right Wing News and Conservative Grapevine, and writes a regular column for http://Townhall.com. View all articles by John Hawkins
Posted on 10/30/2009 8:04:43 AM PDT by EternalVigilance
Conservatives are sick and tired of being taken for granted, misrepresented, and talked down to by the same "elite" Republicans in Washington who hopelessly screwed everything up during the Bush years.
Everybody knows exactly whom we're talking about here. The same snobby, elitist, stuffed shirt, squishy, poll-obsessed Country Club Republicans who went to D.C., forgot who put them there, wasted the incredible opportunity they had to change this country for the better, and are now pointing the finger at everyone except themselves for their mistakes.
Here are five messages for those people:
We're not going back to the Bush years: Conservatives are sick and tired of hearing Republicans talk about conservatism to get our support and then watching them immediately move to the center once they get elected.
Stop making promises to us that you don't intend to keep. Don't tell us how fiscally conservative you are and then vote for the TARP Program. Don't talk about limited government and then support big government programs. Don't tell us you care about the rule of law and then support amnesty.
We expect you to govern the way you campaigned when you needed our support. If you don't do it, we're going to make sure you catch hell for it.
This country can't survive if you're as childish as the Democrats: For the last few decades, we've had an "adult" party that deals in the real world and a "children's party" that promises everyone everything for nothing. Unfortunately, the "adult party" has been acting a little too much like a 40 year old going through a mid-life crisis for the last few years. Newsflash: This country cannot remain a super power or even a great nation if the Republican Party doesn't start acting like an adult party again.
Yes, the Democrats' "something for nothing" election promises may seem appealing at times, but the country can't thrive with two parties like that--and what good does it do anyone to be elected king of the crap pile? We don't expect the Republican Party to be ideologically perfect or to please conservatives in every way on every issue. That's not the real world. But, if the Republican Party isn't willing to draw a line in the sand over the things that have made this a great country, then the party just isn't worth a flat damn. There have to be SOME lines that can't be crossed without paying a terrible price.
Stop sabotaging our candidates: It is absolutely infuriating that Republican Party organizations talk incessantly about conservative principles, rely on conservatives for the overwhelming majority of their funding, and then turn around and sabotage conservative candidates like Doug Hoffman and Marco Rubio. Who the hell do you think you are?
We're not telling the Republican Party to endorse conservative candidates over moderate candidates or demanding that middle-of-the-road candidates be tossed from the party. What we are saying is, "Don't take our money, use it against us, and then take a haughty 'we know best' attitude." If you do, we're going to take you to the woodshed and show you why it's a bad idea.
"There will be no elite in a bankrupt America." -- Jonathan Hunter: If fiscal conservatism doesn't work any more, then America doesn't work any more because we can't live like this long term. If even the Republicans look at government as just another way to distribute as much borrowed money as they can get by with to their supporters, then this country is going to look like Argentina after the crash in twenty years. This is do-or-die for the future of this country and Republicans, including Republican members of Congress from blue states, need to understand that.
You're not as smart as you think you are: It must be grand to be a congressman or senator. Your fellow citizens elect you to office. Then you go to D.C. where your staff spends all day fretting over you and telling you how wonderful you are. Everywhere you go, all you hear from consultants, your fellow members of Congress, and all the people who want things from you is that you can do no wrong. If only people understood how SMART you really are. It's like being five years old all over again except everyone shares your mother's opinion of what a brilliant genius her little man is going to turn out to be.
Meanwhile, back in the real world, Republicans just spent two straight elections getting splattered like bugs on a windshield. That happened despite the fact that their constituents were screaming at the top of their lungs about the oncoming danger. Yes, that's right; the political novices in NoWhereville, South Dakota were more accurately predicting the problems ahead than the Republican politicians and political consultants in D.C. How in the world we got to a place where so many politicians have such a shallow understanding of politics, I don't know, but Republicans in D.C. need to wake up and smell the coffee. YOU GUYS blew it in 2006 and 2008, not us.
John Hawkins is a blogger who runs Right Wing News and Conservative Grapevine, and writes a regular column for http://Townhall.com.
Why don’t you give us your succinct explanation of what you think the “original intent” of TARP was, then.
A third party will emerge for the 2012 election and that third party candidate may very well win.
I've done exactly that on numerous occasions here on FR.
Here are just a few of the posts I've made on the subject that I saved. Feel free to go back through my “In Forum” posts to find others.
My FR posts on the financial collapse and the Kanjorski tape:
9-20-09 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2343569/posts?page=22#22
Also see posts 24, 27, 30 and 36 in above thread
5-28-09 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2260007/posts?page=76#76
4-16-09 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/2229875/posts?page=24#24
3-10-09 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2203102/posts?page=16#16
3-4-09 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2199084/posts?page=41#41
Fact Sheet: A Strong Bipartisan Proposal to Stabilize Our Financial System 9-29-08
It is expected that much, if not all, of the tax dollars invested by the Federal government into these troubled financial institutions will be paid back over time. Under the purchase
program, the government would sell the acquired assets, with the proceeds going back to the Treasury, to offset much, if not all, of the initial cost, and under the program to guarantee troubled assets, the Treasury Department would charge risk-based premiums to cover any anticipated claims.
http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2008/09/20080929-2.html
MORE:
http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2008/09/20080930.html
VP Cheney discusses TARP funds, 1-9-09:
“I think we've had significant positive impact in terms of being able to guarantee liquidity of the financial system, adequate capital in the banking system and so forth, and that's crucial.”
“But financing is different, the financial system is different. That is a federal responsibility, with the Federal Reserve, the Treasury — the producer and keeper of the value of our currency and all the regulation that's involved — the SEC and so forth. When the financial system is threatened, only the federal government can fix it, and that's what we've been doing.”
http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2009/01/20090111.html
I would conclude the task is too difficult. Conservatism assumes people want to work to get ahead.
Thanks for the information. I was not familiar with AIP. I’ll look into it.
I live in Sheila Jackson Lee's congressional district in Houston, which was once held by George Herbert Walker Bush and then by Barbara Jordan for years.
Before Sheila had it (and her majorities run to 75% year after year), her predecessor was a shambling, worthless lawyer-bum named Craig Washington. Washington had snappy clothes, scummy friends and worse associates (one of his legislator pals in the Texas lower house was found dead in the middle of the day on his hideaway office-boudoir king-sized bed, his nose full of cocaine and other drugs, wearing only a condom, a full erection, and a smile), and he ignored the district assiduously while hobbing and nobbing with his bro's in the DC Congressional Black Caucus.
One year after many tales of malfeasance and inattentiveness to constituents had drawn a vigorous and intelligent Republican opponent named Ed Blum (a bond broker at Paine Webber), Washington accepted Blum's challenge to debate the issues publicly, in a public forum.
The "debate" was a disgrace. Washington came unprepared and obviously uncaring, he had no answers to questions of fact and fumbled and fooled around whenever it was his turn to speak. When asked a question by his opponent, he'd shamble and smokestack, saying things like "Well, I guess you've got me there", until the whole thing began to be revealed for what it was -- a gigantic diss of his opponent, an elaborate insult to both Blum and some of the voters.
Then Washington won the general election with 74% of the vote.
That's what we're talking about in these gerrymandered districts, in which a few honest voters are pent up with a racist horde who only vote skin color on election day, and the only issue is "who is blacker?" or "who is more authentically black?" That's all the black racists want to know. And there is no way they are not voting for Maxine or Cynthia McKinney or Sheila, come hell or high water. They're bad citizens and they don't care -- or rather, they do care: they care about being bad citizens, and they care about taxing white people and then wasting the money if need be, lest any of it find its way back to the original owners. They care about that.
Get the picture now?
A fundamental difficulty, I think, is that both parties are so deeply entrenched in lies that it would be impossible for a truly honest politician to be a member of either. Such a person would either have to either expose the well-entrenched lies of his own party (not likely) or else ignore the lies and quite possibly have to pretend that they are true (difficult or impossible for a truly honest person).
WE have the power to fire you or remove you by other means. You make the choice.
2010 and 2012 are gonna be bad elections to be an incumbent.
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