Posted on 01/21/2013 6:45:57 AM PST by Kaslin
Every Republican knows another Republican who agrees with them on 99% of the issues, yet will attack them relentlessly over the 1% of issues they disagree upon. Instead of uniting against the left, these busybodies waste countless hours criticizing other Republicans. They will frequently do it under the ruse of being the “true conservatives,” claiming that anyone who does not agree with them is not conservative enough. Yet the 1% of issues they disagree with others on are often arbitrarily decided and not legitimate issues. Mitt Romney was criticized for being too moderate of a Republican presidential candidate, yet he ran the most conservative campaign as the Republican nominee for president we have seen since Ronald Reagan.
These “true conservatives” will tear apart other conservatives not on the issues, but on personality and connections. In Arizona, anyone who is perceived to get along with moderate Republican Senator John McCain and his ardent supporters is attacked for being a moderate themselves. McCain bullies his way around politics and most Republicans are afraid of him and his supporters, only seeking his endorsement to stay out of his crosshairs.
Sadly, this infighting results in Republicans losing races they should not have. Vernon Parker, a black Republican and former Mayor of Paradise Valley in Arizona, ran for Congress in Arizona's new Congressional district nine last year against Democrat Kyrsten Sinema, a self-avowed bisexual who once received the Arizona Federation of Taxpayers' Vladimir I. Lenin award for being the most far left member of the Arizona State Legislature. Several relatively unknown Republicans ran against Parker in the primary, claiming to be more conservative than him.
The “true conservatives” held two things against Parker. The first was that he had benefited from affirmative action as a small business owner many years ago. While affirmative action is not something conservatives agree with, just because someone is a recipient of it does not mean they support it. Conservatives disagree with many of the government created redistributionist tax breaks in the IRS code, but they still take advantage of them when doing their taxes. While I was working on the Arizona Civil Rights Initiative to ban affirmative action, one of the staffers told me they saw nothing wrong with any of us benefiting from affirmative action should an opportunity arise.
The other thing the “true conservatives” held against Parker is that he was listed as endorsing McCain for Senate in 2010. The McCain machine plays fast and loose with how it obtains endorsements, and will put down the name of anyone who was simply a delegate to the Republican convention as an endorser. When J.D. Hayworth entered the race to run against McCain for Senate, Parker attempted to remove the endorsement, but the McCain machine turned a deaf ear - even after Parker showed up at a J.D. Hayworth for Senate fundraiser!
Consequently, the “true conservatives” did little to help Parker in the general election. There was little activity in the blogosphere and social media by conservatives supporting him. The only Republican candidate in the race with name recognition, he had the best chance of any Republican in the slightly Democratic-leaning district. Parker is a charismatic, genuinely principled conservative who rose from the ghettos of Los Angeles to serve in high-level posts under both Presidents Bush. He lost the race by only 4%.
That wasn't the only Arizona Congressional race Republicans lost due to purists. Republicans went from holding five out of eight Arizona Congressional seats down to only four of nine. In two of those races, the Republican candidates had very close races but were snubbed by “true conservatives.” Martha McSally, America's first female fighter pilot, lost her race against former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' chief of staff Ron Barber by an incredibly close 49.9% to 50.1%. Iraqi war veteran Jonathan Paton lost to Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick by 3%.
The losing Republican Congressional candidates were all pro-life, pro-gun, and are considered more conservative than McCain. Paton ran in a Democratic-leaning district, which became even more heavily Democratic with a 9-point voter registration edge after the seat was redistricted last year. Even so, because he was the strongest candidate coming out of the Republican primary, his race was viewed as a tossup going into the general election.
The “true conservatives” hold Republican candidates to a standard that few could live up to. They expect Republican candidates to go beyond adherence to the party platform, and follow their dictates about who they may and may not associate with. They hold any minor indiscretion in a political candidate's past against him or her, even if that candidate has since become more conservative over the years. Heaven help us if that candidate has a spouse who ever contributed to an odd cause or candidate!
The “true conservatives” want Republican political candidates to make far out public statements on the issues and denounce other Republicans. Yet that kind of talk is what ultimately causes Republicans to lose races. The left and its allies in the complicit liberal media have figured out how to successfully ridicule and portray Republicans who make brash statements as extremists.
As long as a Republican candidate has conservative principles, he or she should not be required to commit political suicide by pleasing a few “true conservatives” with statements better left to talk show hosts. Ann Coulter can get away with making shocking political statements, but former Virginia Governor George Allen, former Missouri Congressman Todd Akin, and former Indiana Congressman Richard Mourdock cannot.
Using the standards of the “true conservatives” today, Ronald Reagan would have never secured the Republican Party nomination. Reagan used to be a Democrat and signed the most liberal abortion rights bill in the country after becoming Governor of California. He also signed a bill making community college education virtually free. As president, he never cut social spending. Yet he is looked up to by “true conservatives” as their number one hero.
The so-called “true conservatives” hold Republican candidates to a standard that virtually no one but Jesus could adhere to. Oh wait, the Pharisees and Sadducees didn't think even Jesus lived up to high enough standards.
Is the author the same Rachel Alexander who had her law license suspended by the Arizona Supreme Court last year for unethical conduct?
If conservatives are such a bother to the minuscule “moderate” faction of the GOP, perhaps it is time conservatives launch their own party. Let’s see how many elections the Romney/Christie/Kristol moderates win then.
LOL
1 -- Romney is a Fabian socialist, a progressive, not a moderate.
2 -- Romney "running a conservative campaign" is like Ted Kennedy running a MADD convention: it's better to look at actions than what they're spouting off.
The 1%........ the sanctimonious selfrighteousists
They are alive and well and suffer shoulder pain from constantly patting themselves on the back
The latter two on this list were thrown under the bus not only by the GOP-E but also by 'vote for the R' posters on this very forum. Unless I'm misinterpreting the meaning of this supposedly intellectual piece, it looks like the author is trying to have it both ways.
It isn’t “one percent” sweetie. Passing a budget with no real spending cuts that hikes taxes on the rich is a pretty big disagreement. We played your game with George “Lyndon Baines” Bush and the “Republican” Congress in the early part of the 2000s and got absolutely nothing. No spending cuts, no shrinkage of government. Instead we got new entitlements and Bush’s “compassionate conservatism”.
You can quit pretending, we easily see you prefer nobama. Did you secretly vote for the marxist too?
The progressive anti-Americans thank you. Enjoy in the ruin of freedom and liberty.
Romney was a backstabber of Gov. Palin and every real Conservative.
The Whigs are out in full force. How many times do they have to say that they don’t want Conservatives in the their party before we wake up? The Whigs are a dying breed; no amount of “taking the party back” will change that.
Time to move on. Remember that the Whig party went from electing a President in 1844 and 1848, only to disappear after failing in the 1852 election.
Team Romney's TYPICAL Dirty Tricks:
"Peeking Out From the McCain Wreckage: Mitt Romney"
"Someone's got to say it: IS MITT ROMNEY RESPONSIBLE FOR OBAMA'S VICTORY?"
"Vanity: Team Romney Sabotaged Palin and Continuing to Do So?"
"Romney Supporters Trashing Palin"
"Romney advisors sniping at Palin?"
Poor sport spoiler Romney doing what he does best:
Novak: "Fred Thompson drop-out rumors traced to Romney campaign"
I've made it no secret that I consider Romney and Obama to be the same politically. (What Romney says is of little impact; what he has done, however, is basis for this.) Nor have I hid my opinion that it is possible a Romney presidency would be worse than a second Obama term: simply because he would not seriously roll back any of the tyrannies and instead simply make our overbearing government seem to have a kinder & gentler hand, when in reality simply offering a more "acceptable form of tyranny.
Did you secretly vote for the marxist too?
Nope, I've been quite vocal about my stance: I will not vote for any candidate whose only 'positive' is "I'm not the other guy."
I voted third-party, Gary Johnson, simply because I know what he's about and believe him to be the superior candidate (he was NM's governor, was reelected while it was still SOLIDLY democrat, and left office with a sizable budget surplus).
The progressive anti-Americans thank you. Enjoy in the ruin of freedom and liberty.
Really? I suppose they ought to be thanking you, after all is it not you who are railing against me for voicing an opinion not your own? Is it not that behavior they want, because just like in compromise betwixt good and evil -- where good always suffers and evil wins ground -- progressives win when people are forced to choose between "really progressive" & "not quite as progressive."
In short, your accusation has the same character as "did you quit beating your wife yet? Yes or no."
The international banking cartel makes or breaks Republican candidates (as well as Democrats).
They are the ones who ultimately decide who they want and let their media machine (check out the board of directors of news organizations) know who to smear and who to make into a winner.
All the “issues” are just campaign fodder as far as the bankers are concerned.
“Let me issue and control a nation’s money, and I care not who writes its laws.”
Thanks for the links & info.
Yeah right......
You ain’t fooling anyone but your fellow paulnutz.
I really am getting weary of these preaching against straw-men
propaganda articles from the GOP-E
Actually, the left wing has a pretty accurate take on Rachel Alexander.
The GOP-e is probably shunning her like the plague these days despite s#ck-up articles like this one posted on FR.
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