Posted on 04/10/2012 4:52:33 PM PDT by Cato in PA
So it’s come to this.
Rick Santorum dropped out of the race earlier today, which leaves Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, and Ron Paul in the running. By any reasonable estimate, Paul still doesn’t stand a chance and Newt won’t mount a serious challenge barring divine intervention.
We’re left with Willard Romney the open socialist, who stands against everything we believe in as conservatives. There are many among us who refuse to vote for him. We who feel this way must unite behind a third party if we’re going to accomplish anything. If we don’t, we’re no better than the party-line Republicans who cry about the need for change but do nothing about it.
JimRob hasn't called for a third party, and that's fine. I'm certainly not criticizing him. But if he won't, I will.
I’d like to take a moment now to quash any lingering doubts you may have about the necessity or wisdom of doing this in case you've somehow missed my other posts.
1) We know Obama is a Marxist. He’ll do bad stuff. Romney is a political weatherwane! There’s a *chance* that he might do good.
Wrong. Romney’s conservatism is 100% rhetoric. If you want to know what the man stands for, look at his record. He ran to the left of Ted Kennedy in 1994 and lost. He governed Massachusetts as a far-left radical, even going so far as to sign socialized medicine into law, a decision he defends to this day. He also defends the bailouts.
HE ADMITTED THAT HE IS A PROGRESSIVE. The vast majority of his judicial picks were far-left judicial activists. He lobbied Obama to adopt the individual mandate on a national level as late as 2009.
Nothing about Romney’s record could even cast him as a moderate. He'll do nothing to stop our economic collapse, and with him at the helm, the Republicans will take the blame. You thought 2008 was bad? Just wait until 2014. How do you think President Jellyfish would stand up to a Democrat-controlled Congress?
2) Okay, so Romney is a liberal. But he and the other Repubs will HAVE to listen if we elect a Republican president!
Wrong. We’ve fallen for this ruse time and time again. Even the historic Republican victory in 2010 didn’t work in our favor; we got Crybaby Boehner and Moderate McConnell, who refuse to listen to us even when a Democrat president is in the White House.
Why would they suddenly toughen up on liberalism if we replaced a liberal Democrat with a liberal Republican?
3) No, no, we have to change the Republican party from within!
How many years have we heard this? How well has it worked out? Will it EVER work out? No, because the Rockefeller wing holds the reins of power and will never let them go.
Even after a historic “Tea Party” victory in 2010, nothing has changed. If that won’t change anything, then how else can we achieve change at the voting booth?
4) But this is an election year, the WORST time to start a third party.
There will never be a ‘good time’. Most people don’t pay attention to politics in off-years, so we’d probably be ignored if we waited. If we do it during an election year, yes, we’re going to split the vote in certain cases.
Nobody ever said that change would be easy, but it’s necessary. If we do nothing, we’ll be no better than the Mittwits.
We need to strike while the iron is hot so we’ll get exposure. If we can get exposure, we can make progress. As difficult a fight as this will be, the only other option, trying to change the GOP from within, is a proven failure.
5) I think you’re just a sore loser. You need to compromise and accept Romney even if he’s not your perfect pick!
This isn’t about purity; this is about principle. Part of politics involves compromise, which is why I’ve said over and over again that I’d vote for Santorum or Gingrich. Paul never really had a chance, so the question doesn’t apply to him.
But part of compromise is having enough -principle- to know compromise becomes caving. And you know what? There are certain things that aren’t worth compromising over, like supporting an open socialist. These are the sort of distinctions that party-line Republicans are incapable of making. They’ve pulled the GOP lever all their lives, and they just can’t imagine doing otherwise.
6) A vote against Romney is a vote for Obama.
Wrong. A vote for a third-party candidate is a vote for change in the only means still available to us: rebellion. We’ve tried to get the establishment to listen to us for so many years, but our concerns have fallen on deaf ears.
Your continued support will only result in more of the same. You don’t stop someone from abusing you in a relationship by staying with them if you can't resolve your differences; you leave.
7) It will be YOUR fault if we have another 4 years of Obama!
Dead wrong. If you want to blame someone for Obama’s re-election, blame the establishment for backing a far-left radical who has sharply divided the GOP and destroyed voter enthusiasm nationwide. Turnout is abysmal and Willard looks even worse in the polls than John McCain did.
The GOP base has basically already given up. It’s like 2008 but worse. If you want to vote for the person responsible for that, be my guest.
Now...we can talk about how angry we are, or we can do something about it. Let’s start throwing some ideas around for how to proceed if the inevitable turns out to be true and Romney is the GOP nominee.
Should we try to create a new third party? Would an existing third party suffice? Let’s discuss.
I figure Mitt isn’t much of a Mormon. He only has one wife.
By contrast, Newt is much better, working on number three.
President is a management job. Chuck doesn’t have much experience with that. Neither does Newt (though he gets half a point for herding cats in the House). Neither does Ron Paul.
Of course if we want someone to do triage on the country, Dr. Ron Paul is your guy.
A third party is a total waste. Just look how the Libertarians do...who the heck will they run when Ronny Paul is gone?
Mitty is a total RINO piece of crap but it is what it is...I expect he will win and then WE THE PEOPLE will have to excersize our power and stay on top of him to stay right. OMG, if Allen West gets picked for Veep we have a winner!!
I’ll make a deal with you and everyone else here who thinks I’m wrong: show me how we can bring Willard Romney the open socialist in line with conservatism to any degree and I’ll reluctantly support him.
I’m not some unreasonable idealist; I said it wasn’t about purity from the start and I meant it. Hell, if Romney would stop defending Romneycare and adopt a flat tax plan like Newt’s, that would be enough for me to vote for him because that, at least, would make some significant headway into fixing the economy.
It’s the same rationale behind my support for Newt: he’s come out against the individual mandate and has a good plan for the economy.
Care to take me up on my offer?
“I’ll make a deal with you and everyone else here who thinks I’m wrong: show me how we can bring Willard Romney the open socialist in line with conservatism to any degree and I’ll reluctantly support him.
I’m not some unreasonable idealist; I said it wasn’t about purity from the start and I meant it. Hell, if Romney would stop defending Romneycare and adopt a flat tax plan like Newt’s, that would be enough for me to vote for him because that, at least, would make some significant headway into fixing the economy.”
Every time I see that mug, I’m reminded of 9-11.
Almost every person in the history of the world who set out to achieve great things had some bozo in his ear telling him it couldn't be done. You are that bozo, telling all that there is no alternative to the socialist-Lite (tm) party for a conservative. There is, but it takes vision to recognize that, and it will take serendipity and a great person or persons to bring it about.
The libertarians fail because no one likes what they believe. Not the whole package, anyway.
I don’t think Romney is an open socialist.
Romney care was a state requirement to buy insurance, in response to a federal requirement for Emergency Rooms to treat anyone who walks in. What were the alternatives?
1. let ER go bankrupt.
2. put ER workers in jail for violation of federal law.
3. enslave ER workers, forcing them to work on people who can’t pay.
4. steal from people with insurance, making them pay for people without.
5. fine people without insurance, and fine them enough to cover the ER costs they run up.
6. fine the people without insurance, but not enough to cover the ER costs- subsidize with other tax money.
7. invent a government program to pay for all health care.
Of those options, 5 sounds the most conservative to me, and it is the best description of Romney care. 6 is the Obamacare option, forced after 7 didn’t fly.
The Republican party didn’t break off from the Whigs. The Whigs failed, and the Anti-Nebraska party was built up from its ruins, with a number of anti-slavery Democrats.
Why not do that again? Because there was a lot of bad that happened between the failure of the Whig party and the election of Lincoln and the Republicans. We would save our nation that pain.
“Lord, send us the cure. The sickness we have already.”
Newt is your 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Party Candidate!
Wake the # up, people!
Go Newt!
Here is a technique:
Vote for Mitt. He gets elected.
Vote for (R) for Representatives. A majority get elected.
Vote for (R) for Senator. A 60% majority get elected.
Then we can put through legislation that is all (R) and the liberal wing of the party will have to cater to the most conservative wing of the (R) party.
That is essentially what happened in 2008, except with a (D) instead of a (R) and the liberals/socialists rather than with the conservatives.
Imagine: doing away with the EPA. How about the DEd. Perhaps even cutting back on the regulations from HUD that prevent cities from adjusting to modern conditions. Throw in a conservative supreme court justice or two, but one as stellar as Thomas is unlikely.
I read your posts. Many false extrapilations.
If we threaten to withhold support from Romney but don’t rule out voting for him in the general, it will give us leverage over him and the party.
I disagree that President is a management job. It is a vision job. There is so much machinery in place, the only “management” needed is picking a handful of folks who share you, um, VISION.
Mitt has no vision.
Any chance Sarah Palin could jump late into the primaries and take enough delegates to keep Romney from his expected coronation?
We have certainly reached the point of desperation.
A brokered convention sounds better all the time ... and it sounds MUCH better if Sarah has a shot at the crown!
some of us put our energy into the primary fight. If we cannot dominate these low turnout events (IA = 120k, NH = 220k, etc.), winning an election with 100 million voters ... ???
That is why a bunch of us were doing the stuff, phones, windshield flyers, door-to-door, signs, etc. in the December of New Hampshire and the caucuses of Maine .... cause that is where the grassroots can matter.
I spent my wad already. Who’s well rested for a 3rd-party pipe dream.
GO NEWT. CT-RI-PA-DE-NY in 2 WEEKS.
Does that mean Jim Robinson is a “plant” since he doesn’t support Romney? ( Jim...copied you on this since I mentioned your name)
So in your world are you an Obama “plant” if you don’t enthusiastically agree to support the father of socialized medicine in America?
Does that mean you are a “plant” if you don’t like Romney’s support of Planned Parenthood, gun control, global warming, forcing Catholic hospitals to provide contraception, higher taxes, liberal judges, wealth redistribution?
If so...I guess I’m a plant.
FUMR!
I’d rather have a liberal than a traitor in office.
But Romney’s going to lose anyway.
the guy in the office with me said:
people who live in PA, 2 weeks before the PA primary, and they are online discussing the general election and who they are going to run for Pres in Nebraska and TN and SD ....
he said, “people like dat are not really involved in politics.”
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