Posted on 02/22/2010 2:11:01 AM PST by Brugmansian
Ron Paul out-polled Sarah Palin almost 5 to 1 and keynoter Glenn Beck got huge ovations as he disavowed any conservative ascendency within the Republican Party.
So someone please tell me - just what the heck happened to a convention that was off to such a wonderful conservative start? Where is the momentum from the Marco Rubio speech and the Dick Cheney "Obama is a one term President" moment?
Perhaps David Keene of the American Conservative Union will be a bit more careful when picking keynote speakers from now on. What happened was predictable, given that the man he picked uses a daily TV show to make it clear that he blames Republicans, Democrats, the left and the right and politics in general all equally for America's woes.
While he has a huge audience, some of these thoughts are not exactly the consensus among American conservatives. They are not consistent with reality either. Besides, CPAC stands for Conservative Political Action Committee.
Oh I realize that in a ballroom jammed with a disproportionate share of Paul supporters and Beck groupie Keene is likely not aware of how conservatives across the country viewed this soiree. Not yet . . .
I just have to ask: what Republican Party has Beck been watching the past year?
The following lines from his CPAC address -- which are the lines the media have been spreading as his theme -- are simply baffling:
I have not heard people in the Republican Party admit yet that they have a problem. I haven't seen the Come-To-Jesus moment from Republicans yet.
Huh? Is he serious?
Has he not heard about Marco Rubio? Rubio is now up 12 points on Charlie Crist among GOP voters. That sounds to me like a lot of Florida Republicans admit there's a problem.
What about Governor Chris Christie in New Jersey? The lesson he is teaching the New Jersey legislature this week about government spending could have come straight off of Beck's blackboard. He should be proud of this. Why is he ignoring it?
Has he not heard about J.D. Hayworth challenging John McCain in the Arizona primary? Say what you will about J.D, but the idea that a 30-year incumbent is facing a serious primary challenge indicates that some Republicans are admitting they have a problem.
Beck said in his speech that Rush Limbaugh is one of his heroes. Rush is a Republican by the way. He has been onto Republican problems longer than Beck has. Rush is . . .
You obviously don't listen much to Limbaugh. He was calling McCain a "progressive" long before Beck took up the term, and he's been railing against overspending, sell-out "country-club Republicans" for years.
Unlike Beck, though, Limbaugh realizes you don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Third parties and Ron Paul are losers and vote siphons we can't afford in the battle against the most radical leftist administration and congress in our history.
Huge government agencies aren't going to be disbanded overnight, and no one with a soul will vote to cut-off social program funding that will leave the elderly and truly poor starving. Change will have to come, but it will have to come humanely and incrementally, starting with incentives for those who haven't yet been sucked into the socialist vortex of dependency, and weaning those who are salvageable.
Reform can't come insanely, by simply mandating those programs to shut down, massive government layoffs, or trashing every politician who doesn't agree.
I think we've seen enough of radicalism in Obama. We need to put adults, as imperfect as some may be, back in charge, and then refine and insist that the path be increasingly toward the right.
I’ve heard Michael Medved explain it many, many times.
I’m thinking third or independent party!Then you are a fool.
And if that's what Beck is promoting, then I'm in the process of re-evaluating what I think of Beck.
Without Beck blaming both sides (and face it both sides deserve blame) independants would have tuned him out. That’s not WHY Beck is saying it - but because he phrases it that way the disenfranchised and people who don’t call any party a home were willing to listen to what he has to say. Because he was not cheerleading for the GOP.
Beck’s TV show has introduced a lot of people to the Constitution and our founding fathers. Because face it, the school system does a really terrible job at that. And while I love Levin and respect Bennet they do not have the audience to reach as many people as Beck has.
Beck singlehandedly became a lightning rod for the lefts crazy attacks and that’s only because he touched a nerve and threatened their plans and progress.
Beck is too emotional. He’s theatrical and dramatic and he’s trying to get people to watch his TV show and listen to his radio. But I believe he is passionate about saving our country - and the left LOATHES him so he must be doing something right.
The LP was mostly responsible for the successful gun rights SCOTUS decisions. With NO help AT ALL from the GOP. They also fought the Kelso emanate domain fight. Again, with NO HELP from the land developer favoring GOP. Two biggest gun and property rights campaigns of the last fifty years done by........GOP? NOPE. So, who's taking the money, and who talks right and acts left?
Never. Odd isn't it? The Socialist Party got much of its platform passed by using the Democratic Party as a proxy. The Communist Party USA did the same. So did Greens. Only very rarely did any of them flat out criticize or run against Democrats. That format worked great for the far left, didn't it?
But the Libertarian party has taken another tack. Rather than drag the GOP to its position, rather than launch get out the vote drives for good GOP candidates as the CPUSA was notoriously excellent at for the Democratic Party in NYC, the LP spends most of its time attacking the GOP and running candidates against the GOP. It has even been caught taking money from the DNC and openly allied itself with Greens in Ohio
In other words, I don't believe the LP is for real. Yes, I believe there are some, perhaps many in it who are sincere. But I don't think the movement as a whole is.
Just a note to confirm my receipt of your Freep-mail rebuttal to my comment. If you want to debate our mutually exclusive takes on the OP's take of Beck's comment, bring your points into the public forum.
Separately, on review of my post, I'd like to add a point that I started to make, then dropped in order to simplify the post.
When Beck talks about "good enough" and "success," it is likely (and I think it would be clear if his comment had been presented with the surrounding context of his other comments) that he is referring to success of the country, reducing the size and influence of government, increasing personal freedom, improving our economic lot, and so forth. In other words, "big ball," not "small ball" (winning seats in the next election).
In other words, it's not good enough to just win seats. What follows winning the seat is vitally important, or else the government is going to continue to take its people down an unsustainable path.
If that is the gist of his "it's not good enough to suck less than the other guy," it is obviously true. And again, that contention does not impugn Cheney. The only aspect of Cheney that Beck appears to use is Cheney's forward-looking contention that conservatives are going to have a successful year. Beck's response is "Yes, but the success depends on ..."
What?
The GOP was a third party. Democrats and Whigs. Matter of fact, the GOP decayed establishment is very Whig like.
But, you knew that, right?
Sorry pal, everyday he is behind the Golden EIB microphone and I am anywhere close to a radio station that broadcasts his show (99%) I am listening.
Rush is just as much a part of get the RINO’s out as the rest of us and unlike your characterization that we change the whole process overnight, you are wrong on that as well. As an engineer, I understand the physics of mechanics and also of politics.
Granted, I would say that agencies like the EPA and NEA sould be disbanded immediately. Get the government the hell out of our lives and those people will have ample opportunities to find gameful employment elsewhere just like the buggy wheel makers did with the coming of the mass production automobile.
Head, meet wall.
Sorry. It was a mistake. I clicked in the wrong place...you got me so intent on replying, I didn't notice what I was doing until I sent it and my Freep-mail box popped up. I always debate in public, never in email or Freep-mail.
ROTFLOL. This was set up for Mitt Romneycare.
Yeah, we should really really love the bi-partisan, my friends across the isle kabuki theater, boob bait for conservatives GOP that disliked Goldwater, that disliked Reagan, even Reagan said so in Robernt Kovak’s Prince of Darkness, which is one of the best books on Reagan’s fight against the usual RINO, big gove loving GOP
The GOP couldn’t even get rid of National Public Radio. How’s that for wimpism? And, you think they are going to do in the Dept of Ed, or the EPA?
I’m addressing those who work within the party establishment for the sole purpose of advancing the GOP as a political party. If the shoe fits, wear it. If not, then don’t take it personally.
What is the falsehood that Levin is calling him out on?
As is O'Reilly's.
Well then, it’s settled, as if politics is like some law of physics, and as if all over the world and our own history, and factually right now, it is common for humans to have multiple party systems.
But if a Hollywood social critic that’s never been elected dogcatcher says something, it must be so?
( please! )
OK. I wouldn't have played off Cheney's encouraging comment but its a matter of style I guess. Beck has done great on some things. I never thought I would see anything like the Revolutionary Holocaust on TV. Conservatives have been pushing that message since Walter Duranty--before him even.
But the negativity and lumping all republicans into one group does grate.
All he has to do is tell the truth.
Republicans are not the same as Democrats. Some are but not all are.
There are some Republicans we need to get out of Congress. There are some we need to keep in Congress (DeMint, Bachmann for instance) and others (Rubio for instance) we need to support in the primary in order to defeat an establishment RINO.
Its a simple, obvious and truthful position to take. But Beck refuses to take it. Everyday its usually the same thing. Republicans are to blame too. Yeah well, some are. But not all. And certainly not the ones the TPs are trying to get elected.
I saw Keene had his extra puffy thick rug on this year.
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