Posted on 12/13/2012 2:15:52 PM PST by neverdem
Over the next couple of years, Barack Obama wants to raise the national debt to $18.9 trillion or so.
John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, and the congressional Republicans want to raise the national debt to $18.4 trillion or so.
The present leadership of the Republican Party has gone from making the case that government is the problem and the American people are the solution to making the case that Democratic controlled government is the problem and Republican controlled government is the solution.
By giving up on making the case that government is the problem and pivoting to “Democrats are the problem,” the Republican Party has failed the American people. Historically, when parties lost, their leadership went and hid for an appropriate amount of time under a rock after an acceptance of blame and a resignation.
The present Republican leaders in Washington, instead of hiding under a rock, have taken to standing on the rock and demanding conservatives self flagellate. Neither John Boehner nor Mitch McConnell are visionaries. They are survivors. They survive by recognizing the biggest threat to them and trying to befriend it or neutralize it.
Right now, both see conservatives as their biggest threat, not Barack Obama. Why? Because while Barack Obama maintains the White House, John Boehner and Mitch McConnell maintain their positions of power. They exist for power, not for vision. The visions they articulate are routinely backpedaled. Remember the pledge to nowhere the House Republicans concocted in 2010 as a second coming of the Contract With America? Within two months of returning to the majority they’d already ditched their pledge faster than a frat boy fleeing a one night stand. Only conservatives wish to hold them accountable for their breach of trust, thus conservatives are the threat.
The very same Republican leadership who paved the way for the rise of the Democrats in 2006 through moral opaqueness on the role of government in the lives of Americans now seek to shut up and shut out the conservatives who continue to loudly point out that the size and scope of the federal leviathan has grown too unwieldy. More troubling, with the removal of the several of the critics within the party from key committees and a clear message that loud voices of conservatism will not get plumb committee assignments, the incoming freshman class and even the current conservative leaders in the House of Representatives have rolled over.
Let us not kid ourselves. The Republicans intend to strike a last minute deal to cave. They will. They are going blind in the bathroom over the idea of bifurcating tax cuts so Barack Obama can veto the tax cut for high income earners and let the rest slide through. It is, as usual, a too clever by half compromise from the GOP, which has spent more time out negotiating itself to the left than negotiating with the Democrats.
The compromise is no longer the issue. It will happen.
The issue is that the Republican leaders who will be in charge in January are the Republican leaders who were directly complicit in the construction of the fiscal cliff and were directly complicit in getting us already to $16 trillion in national debt. Democrats are not to blame; both parties in Washington are.
Obsequious praise for small government does the Republicans no good when they too are in favor of big government in their actions. And having two leaders as the face of the party who have both been in Washington since 1986 does no good restoring credibility when these multi-decade residents of the swamp wink and smile that they really do think Washington is the problem.
Is it any wonder the American people have come to the conclusion that government isn’t so bad when the party of small government keeps expanding it too? The leaders of the party are the message, not the words. And the message does not resonate because they do not practice what they preach.
Until the Republicans change their message, they will keep losing. Changing the message means changing the men. Will 16 Republicans in the House be brave enough to stand up and say the party needs a new Speaker of the House?
This is not about the compromise. This is not about the fiscal cliff. This is not even about removing Amash, Huelskamp, Schweikert, and Jones. This is about beginning again anew a process that cannot happen when the faces of the Republican leadership have been in Washington since 1986 expanding government while preaching the need for limiting it.
EXACTLY!
(I wish I could express myself as well as you do.)
Invent a Jump-to-Conclusions Mat.
Oh yeah, I already got your stock answer, they both are the same so you didn't vote. Right?
I listened to a bit of yesterdays Mark Levin show. Many GOP state governors are fighting the Obama care implementation of healthcare exchanges in their states. The first thing Boehner does after being reelected, is run to the press to declare he is giving up on fighting Obama care. He must attend the same parties as Roberts..
Erick Erickson can blame republicans all he wants too. But the truth of the matter, imo, is that voters aren’t taking the responsibility to know basic constitutonal law, particularly the Founder’s division of federal and state powers evidenced by the Constitution’s Section 8 of Article I, Article V and the 10th Amendment.
In fact, the Progressive Movement agenda to unconstitutionally centralize government power in DC probably wouldn’t have made the strides that it has if it weren’t for the inadvertent support of the Progressive Movement by Constitution-impaired voters imo.
I believe one Trent Lott got through a resolution clearing Admiral Kimmel of the liability of Pearl Harbor, right? But I had always thought Kimmel was a scapegoat.
Afraid that someone else already beat me to it.
I was hoping you’d get the reference. Just trying to lighten things up. Everyone is stressed or angry around here.
They don't want to change their massage. They threw their lot in with the libs at least six years ago. We do not have a two party system.
Very true! Both about lightening the mood and people stressed and angry. Sheesh. I’m trying to remain optimistic, but other than Jesus, it seems that everything that they taught me to depend on while growing up is falling apart
One wonders if this is a good thing in a difficult-to-swallow shell. Because admittedly, I did need to stop trusting in the things of the world as much.
I read what most are saying and I agree that the Repubs have lost their way. I would like to know if any of you have a candidate in mind? I think it is crucial that we come together with a man who would be able to carry the conservative banner and, most importantly, have the support of the good people in our Country? Is there anyone who believes we cannot ever win again, I don’t but I believe we must begin to find the right person and fully support him - starting now!
You have your faith and your family, that sounds like enough to me.
the democrats, more so. but in general, yes.
This is why I became a registered Conservative. There is very little difference between the RATS and the RINOs.
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How does one become a "registered Conservative"?
I disagree. Kimmel had specific intelligence, not as far as I know of the intended date for the attack, but of the general planning for a Sunday morning sunrise attack on Pearl Harbor using multiple aircraft carriers, and that information should have led to higher readiness as war so clearly approached. Kimmel was not a scapegoat. Beyond that, the Navy tradition that the commanding officer is responsible when things go wrong is a good one. Kimmel was in command, he set the standards for in-port readiness, and his fleet failed spectacularly.
Every nominee since Reagan, except for McCain, was ANTI-REAGAN in 1980, Romney actually left the republican party during the 1980 campaign.
That is sure true, it seems to be a serious situation, as the entire republican brand has been broken by this 2012 race.
A non-binding resolution exonerating Kimmel and Short and requesting that the president advance them to the ranks they’d lost passed the Senate but not the House. No president has acted on it.
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