Posted on 01/23/2014 6:37:29 AM PST by Moseley
In the U.S.A., Republican voters and grassroots are sharply divided in political culture from the Republican establishment and politicos. But one culture clash in particular is urgent and important: Does it really matter if Republicans win elections? Republican politicos furiously insist yes. Republican voters answer a lukewarm maybe.
The Republican Party is driving the United States over the cliff at 70 miles per hour, while the Democrat Party is driving the U.S.A. over the cliff at 120 miles per hour. Yet Republican leaders passionately try to convince us that it matters that Republicans must be driving as the car careens down into the abyss. But worst of all, Republican politicos cannot comprehend that they have not convinced anybody.
Obviously, there is a third possibility. Republican leadership could actually listen to the grassroots, take their concerns genuinely to heart, make changes, and institute reforms. Republican leaders could work on earning back the trust of their voters and volunteers. But they are so obstinate in their delusions that they cannot imagine that their arguments are failing to change anyone’s minds. The belief that the establishment’s arguments have been believed by anyone other than themselves is the most dangerous problem.
Of course, this sharp divide is driving a civil war within the U.S.A.’s Republican Party. At least it is one of a handful of factors. Some people are Republicans to achieve something. Others are Republicans just to be Republicans. It’s like a competition between rival fraternities at Yale or Harvard. Our club has to beat their club… just because.
Republicans winning elections is the most important thing as viewed by all Republican politicians, conservative or moderate. This is considered absolute truth for elected office-holders and candidates and also any Republican involved in politics as a career.
(Excerpt) Read more at canadafreepress.com ...
This came alive for me in 1994, when the establishment savagely betrayed Col. Oliver North. (My friend Mark Merritt was Ollie’s press secretary.) Running for US Senate from Virginia, North lost by 2.7 percent because the GOP insiders ran Republican “RINO” Marshall Coleman as an Independent specifically to defeat North. Coleman took 11.4 percent of the vote on November 1, 1994, while North lost by only 2.7 percent. For all the talk today, insiders specifically intended to elect Democrat Chuck Robb rather than allow a conservative to win. For most conservatives, the marriage was over back then in 1994
But in dramatic contrast, the vast population of Republican voters and grassroots holds a strikingly-different view. They do not care if Republicans win elections, unless winning will actually advance a beneficial agenda. GOP voters and grassroots volunteers see no point to electing Republicans if they won’t fight for a traditional Republican platform.
The widespread belief that “There’s not a dime’s worth of difference between the Democrat Party and the Republican Party” is the greatest threat, a mortal threat, to Republican success. The Republican political class furiously denounces such thinking. And having spoken, the politicos imagine that the argument is won and the debate is finished. It is not. GOP politicos are shouting into a hurricane. They persuade no one.
Only if they are non-collectivist conservatives.
We should care if conservatives win elections.
The GOP is happily trailing in the wake of the DemoncRAT party.
The GOP holds the majority in the House, yet acts like they’re in the minority.
They’ve surrendered on spending, on Obamacare, and they can’t wait to run-up the white flag on immigration/amnesty.
Screw ‘em—I’m an Independent now.
Only if the Republicans actually provide a true and better distinction from the Democrats. When Repubs embrace the same socially and economically liberal views of the Dems, they’re not giving us a reason to care for them.
The first campaign I worked on was Goldwater. Yeah showing my age a little. And while there is indeed a difference between Conservatism then and now, there was a HUGE difference between the GOP and the Dems back then that lasted until the late 80s, early 90s.
No, there really isn’t a dimes worth of difference between the two. We are merely in a huge societal transition period. While we may see some “victories” off and on over the next decade, the cast is set. America is a LibTard Nation and will continue to lurch radically Left and there really isn’t anything we can do about it. It’s going to be a few Generations before the Nation realizes it’s huge error. It’s like that child who just won’t listen. Once they are old enough, they have the power to do whatever they want ... and they will.
I hate “giving up” but I value honesty more. No, it really doesn’t matter if the GOP wins any election. We are just done as a Nation for awhile. Just hope our g-g-grandchildren can pick up the pieces.
Absolutely.
The thing is, we need to fight for America.
Remember that. America first. Now go vote.
(well not right now but when the time comes, do whatever you do, for America)
Silly article. This congress is the conservative ever. Least amount of bills ever passed. ...yet some on this forum can’t trash them enough. Funny when W, Denny Hastert and Tom Delay were spending money like they hated the stuff expanding government....where was all this outrage then? They much more liberal.
Maybe I’m just in a bad mood today, but I am on the cusp of becoming apolitical. As the article states so well, the democrats want to run us off the cliff at 120 mph, but the Republicans only want to do it at 70 mph.
The bottom line is that this appears to be what an increasingly selfish, uninformed and intellectually lazy public want to do. If it’s what they really want, it’s what they are going to have.
Let them have at it. And we’ll all enjoy the consequences.
What does the Republican Party really stand for? It is a ship adrift with no compass to guide it. It is a party without beliefs or convictions.
If it’s what they really want, it’s what they are going to have.
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The public is getting what it deserves. Nothing’s going to change until the inevitable onset of a catastrophic, game changing event that produces widespread pain and fear. People don’t change until they have to.
I completely agree with you. For me the re-election of O’dipwad, after such a horrible first-term record, was the point where I finally came to the conclusion that we were done for awhile. Sometimes the alcoholic has to hit rock bottom before he realizes he needs to change...
Oh yeah, in my rant against the American people I forgot that it seems they also lack the guts to make the tough decision to say “no” to a lot of people who need to hear that word, but are unaccustomed to hearing it.
I disagree.
As bad as Obama is, I don’t see whatshisname is critically different long term.
What is the huge and growing problem however, is China.
China is becoming critical to America. China now exports more than America.
America now owes China 1.3 trillion dollars, and we are nowhere near balanced in trade.
Nowhere near.
China is very rapidly progressing.
We still ignore, what can be argued is the most important nation in the world.
Just saying.
China is communist.
Really....remember Nelson Rockefeller, George Romney, Richard Nixon. The main difference between now and then is we only had three news channels to get information from so if a guy was portrayed as conservative we had little way of disproving it. All three of these people were falsely presented as conservatives!!
There’s obviously been that GOP-E vs. conservative/grassroots tension for many decades. I’d been entirely conscious of it for ages. But the backstabbing treatment given Palin was the breaking point for me. It was the watershed in which I no longer saw the GOP as either an ally, nor as a party that represents me.
It totally altered my lifelong voting habits. I’d voted exclusively GOP in every primary and every general election, regardless of office, big or small. That’s come to an end in 2012. Now I might just give my vote to a very selective few. And, I’m even getting to a place where I think I might even stop bothering to vote altogether. Considering the putrid status of both the GOP and the country as a whole, it seems so beyond pointless.
A not-very-stiff breeze will blow China over at this point. China is on the ropes, financially. They are going to have the mother of all banking crisis - this spring.
One major wealth management fund announced that they were defaulting on their obligation to pay at maturity.
China is imploding. Global economic depression is killing demand for their rubber dog doo doo at the exact moment that their middle class (such that it is) is driving up labor costs.
Meanwhile, they built MORE than 28 large cities that can house more than 500,000 and nobody lives in them.
On top of all that, they are a massive importer of both food and energy.
Russia’s actually in better shape than any of the G20 right now, but they don’t have the extra cash to spend on modernizing their armed forces. As such, they are just going to screw with everyone else’s security situations.
The irony with Russia, of course, was that if the world economy came back, they’d be rolling in cash.
Then there’s Canada, which is solid all the way around - bad global economy and all.
China’s about to pick a fight with Japan, and since nobody remembers how hostilities between those two tend to go, I will tell you that war between the two of those guys could go nuclear from the outside, the rest of the world be damned.
China’s got a legitimate historical beef with the Japanese. duckduckgo (doesn’t track your searches) ‘Unit 721’.
China hasn’t stopped digging its hole, and it looks like they are actually bringing more people in to dig it even deeper. No respectable company is going to go in and help them frack after getting fleeced by the ‘bright new market in China’ crap from the 1990’s.
Brazil’s not far behind China. The BRIC strategy was another scam - every one of those kleptocracies took the money and ran, with the Goldman’s pocketing the fees.
Republicans and democrats don’t fight to win elections so they have the opportunity to do what is best for the nation.
They fight to win first place in line at the pig trough.
They want to get the hog’s share of the loot stolen from taxpayers and the ‘right’ to stuff their own pockets along with the pockets of their friends and allies.
Look how republicans conducted themselves during the Bush administration - they were throwing money around like a bunch of drunken democrats!
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