Why Do Conservatives So Quickly Abandon Their Own?

Cathryn Crawford

[Cathryn Crawford]

Isn't it true that a lot of the bashing of Bill Bennett is simply due to the fact that conservatives naturally rejoice in the misfortunes of their own? The ability of the conservative movement to abandon their own people when they are even slightly attacked by the liberal/media establishment is absolutely astounding.

Why are conservatives so quick to judge their own? Are we afraid? Are we so afraid of being tainted by a scandal that we will so easily turn away at the first sight of blood?

This is a serious and long-term issue among conservatives that deserves to be adressed.

[exit82]

Cathryn, his own words tell the story. He has gambled millions. He says he has "broken even" over ten years. His career is one where he preaches the value of example as a pillar of morality.

What has he preached to his own wife and children? That it's OK for Daddy, since he has a lot of money, to go to Vegas and Atlantic City, and wile away the time on $ 500 slots? He is in the big leagues of gambling, by any standard. He is not just dropping one or two hundred bucks every six months or so.

Yes, he has a gambling problem.He is smart enough to realize that his addictive habit could only result in being found out someday and being used to embarass him . That is self destructive behavior.So,yes, I would say he has a severe problem here. He compounds it by not acknowledging it(again, by his own words).He is not gambling for recreation--there is some other reason someone gambles big time like this--after all, isn't the reason behind gambling is to get something for nothing? Not much of a virtue, that.

When you set yourself up to be a cultural icon like he has, he has to have a stake in his message. Rightly or wrongly, folks will take from this that he doesn't value his own message. So, why should anyone else? Another voice for reason thus is neutralized.

[Cold Heat]

LOL!

[WorkingClassFilth]

The problem, as I see it, is lodged in the way the order is composed in the Republican Party.

The fact is that the Republican's enjoy the support of the grassroots conservatives across the nation. These folks are the voice of America. These are the pro-gun, anti-abortion, pro-Constitutionalists that make-up the BPOU's across the mid-West and the South. These folks find the Republican's the vehicle closest to their ideals since the Democrats have become the agent of international socialism and moral decay.

The ruling leadership of the Republican party is still composed of establishment elitists who care very little for the social agenda of their support, but know that they can use the active base for their gain. As a result, the Gingrich's, Dole's and other's continue to oink (when prodded) but rarely root deeply and consistently on our behalf.

At some level, Conservatives know that their representation beyond the Congressional level rarely merits loyalty on actions alone. Nonetheless, because of the alternative (socialist excressence) the faithfull line up to vote the lesser of two evils in the hopes that their wishes will be honored.

In the last decade, this loyalism has paid dividends. The Republicans now mouth grassroots agendas, but still rarely act in kind. This rhetoric, however, is still an indicator of what pressures are in play at the time. As things stand now, the grassroots have never been served so well in the last 30 years. Even so, incrementalism is a hard row to hoe for long-suffering folks that carry the party's water year in and out.

The final division will be down the road. If the Republicans cannot follow the desires of their voters to the degree that their foot-soldiers wish when the road is free, clear and open, a division will occur. For the time, this confrontation is assumed to be distant by party elites.

I see this at the state level all the time. The laughter of paid party people and office holders at the expense of grassroots workers is shamefull. At the national level, flacid weenies like Bob Dole should tell the intelligent observer all that is needed to be known.

In short, the ebb and flow of the electorate is based on factors like these observations and more. Locale, timing, issues and history all bear on the greater whole as well.

Just a few opinions and observations to start the ball rolling...

[Cathryn Crawford]

Oh, sure, there are plenty of people, conservatives, willing to judge.

Hey, I used to smoke quite a lot (cigarettes). Does that disqualify me to write about the morality of Bill Clinton? I mean, what I did was legal and what he did wasn't, but I am a conservative, and smoking is a vice, so...

[Cold Heat]

Lot's of folks gamble. Myself included.

BTW, do you play the stock market???????????????????

It is the same, it is all the same.

[Cathryn Crawford]

All true...

[WaterDragon]

I've been waiting for the dust (a confusion of spin) to settle and for the facts to emerge before I comment. However, it is the liberals who defend their guy no matter what, isn't it?

The liberals also seldom debate anything, at least with the public. Conservatives debate EVERTHING. And we expect the leaders of the party to have decent character, don't we?

I don't know what the deal is on Bennett. I don't expect the man to be perfect, but if he actually does have a truly serious gambling problem (and who knows whether that is true) then he has no business writing books on morality.

[Cathryn Crawford]

Hell, the stock market, hedge funds, etc are more of a gamble than the slot machines!

[ETERNAL WARMING]

BTW, do you play the stock market???????????????????


You got that right! LOL For the last 12 years, stocks have been based on virtually hot air and people bet fast and heavy on it!

[WaterDragon]

A soul addict! Hello.

[Cathryn Crawford]

Liberals may defend their guy no matter what, but conservatives swing to the other end of the cycle and automatically abandon their guy.

[ETERNAL WARMING]

Oh, sure, there are plenty of people, conservatives, willing to judge.

Only the "holier than thou" ones. LOL

[Cathryn Crawford]

That's who I'm talking about.

[Cold Heat]

The market is nothing more than the elite form of gambling.

Gambling is the second oldest vice and is a great form of entertainment and a proffession for some.

Bennett says his gambling has not affected his personal home life and his relationship.

I see that as no gambling problem. End of story.

[Cathryn Crawford]

How do you mean?

[gcruse]

After living through the sanctimonious piety of the Jimmy Swaggerts, Jimmy Bakers, Robert Tiltons, and now Bill Bennetts of the world, there is a perverse pleasure in watching those who live so much holier a life than we pagans fly the colors of human indulgence.

[WaterDragon]

Books!

[Cathryn Crawford]

Yes, yes. I have actually been accused of being addicted to reading...when I was a kid my parents limited me to one hour of reading a day because if they didn't I simply would not do anything else.
Nothing ever again made me madder at them than when they did that...I think I was six or seven at the time.

[gcruse]

It also appears that the morality police have
 a heavy hand in the republican party. They are like maggots.

If Newt Gingrich's trashing didn't reveal that, I don't know what else would.

[TLBSHOW]

I have been here, but the Preident Bush can do no wrong groupies are at war with me at the moment.

LOL