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.
I agree. But I was writing in response to a post about the Republicans having better success in elections when they govern conservatively — or at least pretend to.
Oh yes, there is a gulf between me and the current GOPe and it appears never the twain shall meet. I hope they prove me wrong, in a good way.
Actually, Romney has been a political animal all of his life, starting as a republican intern in his early teens, attending the 1964 convention, being an activist in college, participating in campaigns including Governor and Presidential and Senate, for his parents, and political interviews all of his life (including the 1960s, and 1970s), leaving the republican party because of Reagan in 1979, donating to widely scattered campaigns during the 1980s and 1990s, becoming a supporter of democrats and a democrat fund raiser and voter, and running for office for the last 20 years while spending about 55 million of his own funds and breaking spending records in multiple campaigns.
Even Ann has run for political office. Mitt Romney was weaned on politics and has been involved with them all of his life.
mark
You’re probably right.
That was irrelevant to post 4. Do you know what this thread is about? The campaign is over, you can quit being so devoted to the man.
Thanks much.
x already knows that stuff.
x has posted on this thread about a RedState story which included this text, "According to the town clerk, Romney became an Republican only on October 19, 1993. The implication is that Romney had either never voted between his registration as a independent in 1979 and 1992 (so his vote in 1992 automatically enrolled him as a Democrat) or that he was a regular Democrat voters in those earlier elections and changed to Republican to run for Senate."
Red State--Mitt Romney: Registered Democrat (also his registration as a independent in 1979)
Except there would not be anything being negotiated now because it would have been done. We were in a stronger position a year ago. You can make a stand this year and have no strength. We all know this deal is going to be bad for us. We have no leverage. The Dems don’t care about defense cuts or taxes going up when republicans will be blamed. The deal that was on the table last year was a good one for conservatives. It was heavily weighted towards us. This one we are screwed. Then if economy rebounds Dems sat see. If the other deal happened and economy rebounded it might have been a different story in nov. We can’t kill the party or the movement in search of perfection. That is my only point. Good is not the enemy of the great.
this is part of the plan....
plant a few phoney conservatives in media to belittle the pubs at every chance...
the rats have controlled the Senate for what now?....at least 6 yrs....we haven't had a budget in the last 3....they control the White house, the Senate and the media....
yeah, but its the pubs fault.....
I agree that we lack strong charismatic leadership at the top but the people I like who could demand a little attention keep getting knocked off by the rinos or the purists....I don't know who I dislike more...
you sickening anti romniacs gave us another 4 with the dictator........be proud of yourself.....
pathetic whiners and losers....
you people and your little theories about how Romney wasn't conservative enough hold no water because even hard core good conservatives lost.....
personally, I blame all of you neanderthals who voted for third party, or didn't vote, or who voted for bammmey just to show those rascal republicans how mad you are....
losers......egotists.....maniacs....
we'll stick together....
in the meantime, live your life as happily as you can....I am so sorry that my generation ruined my country for you.....I have adult children and I can't bare to even talk to them about what I think is happening because I can't bare for them to live their lives without hope....
Think about it, you just ran the worst candidate in modern history, and you may have ruined the GOP, and you are STILL WHINING even weeks after you had your head handed to you, and we are trying to figure out how to deal with the massive damage that you have caused to the republican brand by running that incredible loser.
You seem clueless to the facts of what you did, you were so determined to run your democrat, that you lost an election that you couldn’t lose, against Jimmy Carter part II.
Sickening indeed, and here you are, still whining about it, and evidently wanting to do it all over again in 2016.
>> We let our enemies define us by
There’s also a problem with blaming the “Republicans”. It’s the self-serving RINO establishment that’s failed the Republican Party.
It’s important we differentiate the “establishment” from the Republican constituency. We can’t have an amorphous collection of citizens too ashamed to be associated with the Republican name because of insider abuse. We need solidarity, and we must expel the RINO rot that has stained Reagan Republicanism. We begin locally.
but for the record, FR was totally crazy with the Romney haters, the Sarah haters, the Gingrich haters, the Huckster haters, etc....
the same stupid purist crap keeps the pubs and conservatives killing off candidates early in the process and we have no consensus.....
until we learn to fight as a unit, to fight like one solid voice, to swallow our prejudices and look at elections as a business campaign to win at all costs, the pubs, the conservatives, the holier than thous will NEVER win....
some of you really think there will be a chance in 4 yrs....well, its over.....this was our last chance....the rats have it all figured out and our side is just peeing in its pants.....
pretty words don't mean a thing....winning the damn election does....at least if we controlled the white house we'd have a chance at someth
smugness is an ugly thing when our country is on the brink....
>> until we learn to fight as a unit, to fight like one solid voice
Agreed. But we still need to expel the RINO crap.
Frankly you seem full of freeper hate, you launch into me with bile and hate, and then tell us how we need to love rinos who are destroying the party and conservatism.
If you don’t want see radical liberal rinos criticized and critiqued, then why come to a conservative site?
This is’t the place to find love for the William Welds, and Mitt Romney’s and Olympia Snows.
B) From the sound of your post you'd no doubt be surprised how little your opinion means to me.
Get lost.
The trust of the article is correct.
Here where I live in the lovely left-wing whacko State of New York, there is actually a Conservative Party that has a separate line on the ballot. You can register as a Conservative Party member.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.