Posted on 04/03/2005 4:15:09 AM PDT by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
Anyone would think it was the Republicans who'd lost the 2004 elections, and the 2002 elections, and the 2000 elections. From every corner, concerned "friends" of the party rise to offer "friendly" advice. Norman Lear, who produced all those critically acclaimed issue-confronting heroine-gets-an-abortion '70s sitcoms that seem a lot more dated than ''The Beverly Hillbillies'' these days, has now produced a People For the American Way ad in which a man who identifies himself as a "common sense Republican" objects to any attempt to end the Democratic filibuster of Bush's judicial nominees. As things turn out, the "common sense Republican" has so much common sense he's an official with a union that endorsed John Kerry.
Then there's the 59 striped-pants colossi of the Nixon-Ford-Reagan State Department who've sent a letter to the Senate calling on them to reject John Bolton's nomination as U.N. ambassador. According to the Associated Press report, the signatories include:
"Princeton Lyman, ambassador to South Africa and Nigeria under Presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton; Monteagle Stearns, ambassador to Greece and Ivory Coast in the Ford, Carter and Reagan administrations; and Spurgeon Keeny Jr., deputy director of the Arms Control Agency in the Carter administration."
Princeton Lyman? Monteagle Stearns? Spurgeon Keeny Jr.? If Norman Lear's shows had wacky characters like that, they'd still be in syndication. It's a good rule of thumb that anything 59 economists, bureaucrats or diplomats are prepared to sign an open letter objecting to is by definition a good thing. But that goes double when the 59 panjandrums lined up against you are Princeton Monteagle Jr., President Nixon's ambassador to the Spurgeon Islands; Spurgeon Monkfish III, President Ford's ambassador to the Lyman Islands; Dartmouth Monticello IV, President Johnson's personal emissary to His Serene Highness the Monteagle of Keeny; Columbia Long-Playing-Album, the first diplomat to be named by President Carter to the State Department's Name Control Agency; and Vasser Peachy-Keeny, the first woman to be named Vasser Peachy-Keeny. One sees their point, of course: Let a fellow called "John" Bolton become ambassador and next thing you know Earl and Bud will want the gig.
Even Sen. John Danforth, who should know better, got in on the act, taking half a page in the New York Times to give the Full Monteagle to the "religious right." Blog maestro Andrew Sullivan decided that America was witnessing a "conservative crack-up" over Terri Schiavo and the embrace of her cause by extreme right wing fundamentalist theocrat zealots like, er, Jesse Jackson and Ralph Nader. Sullivan was last predicting a "conservative crack-up" during the impeachment era, on the grounds (if I recall correctly) that Republican moralizing would dramatically cut into Strom Thurmond's share of the gay vote. In the '90s, the Weekly Standard ran innumerable special editions devoted to the subject: Conservative Crack-Up; Conservative Crack-Up 2; Conservative Crack-Up -- The Musical; Abbott And Costello Meet The Conservative Crack-Up; Conservative Crack-Up On Elm Street; Four Weddings And A Conservative Crack-Up; Rod Stewart Sings Timeless Favorites From The Great Conservative Crack-Up, etc.
The point to bear in mind when Hollywood producers, State Department diplomats, respected senators, gay mavericks, the New York Times and the rest of the media offer conservatives advice is a simple one: As that great self-esteem volume has it, He's Really Not That Into You. The preferred media Republican is an amiable loser: the ne plus ultra of GOP candidates was the late Fred Tuttle, the lame, wizened idiot dairy farmer put up for a joke against Sen. Patrick Leahy in Vermont. But, if they can't get that lucky, the media will gladly take a Bob Dole type, a decent old no-hoper who goes down to predictable defeat and gets rave reviews for being such a good loser. Republicans could well run into trouble in 2006 and 2008, but for being insufficiently conservative on things like immigration rather than for anything the media claim they're cracking up over.
The notion, for example, that poor Terri Schiavo will cost Republicans votes in a year and a half's time is ludicrous. The best distillation of the pro-Schiavo case was made by James Lileks, the bard of Minnesota, responding to the provocateur Christopher Hitchens' dismissal of her as a "non-human entity." "It is not wise," wrote Lileks, "to call people dead before they are actually, well, dead. You can be 'as good as dead' or 'brain dead' or 'close to death,' but if the heart beats and the chest rises, I think we should balk at saying this constitutes dead, period."
Just so. Once you get used to designating living, breathing bodies as "non-human entities," it's easy to bandy them ever more carelessly -- as they do in the eminently progressive Netherlands, where their relaxed attitude to pot and prostitution led to a relaxed attitude to euthanasia which looks like relaxing the Dutch people right out of business. It's all done quietly over there -- no fuss, no publicity; you go in to hospital with a heavy cold and you're carried out by the handles. (By "handles," I mean a coffin, not a ceremonial phalanx of Monteagles and Princetons.) But that's not the American way. This is a legalistic society, where grade schools can't have kids knocking a ball around without getting a gazillion dollars worth of liability insurance. I was in Price Chopper the other day and they had a little basket of Easter samples on display accompanied by a page of full print outlining the various sub-clauses of the company's "tasting policy." That's America. In Holland, you can taste a cookie without signing a legal waiver, and, if you get food poisoning from it, the doctor will discreetly euthanize you to avoid putting your family through the trauma of waiting six hours for the stomach pump to become available. That's not how the American cookie crumbles. Euthanasia here will be a 10-year court culminating in slow-motion public execution played out on the 24-hour cable channels.
The Republicans did the right thing here, and they won't be punished for it by the electors. As with abortion, this will be an issue where the public moves slowly but steadily toward the conservative position: Terri Schiavo's court-ordered death will not be without meaning. As to "crack-ups," that's only a neurotic way of saying that these days most of the intellectual debate is within the right. If, like the Democrats, all you've got are lockstep litmus tests on race and abortion and all the rest, what's to crack up over? You just lose elections every two years, but carry on insisting, as Ted Kennedy does, that you're still the majority party. Ted's quite a large majority just by himself these days, but it's still not enough.
I am a sinner too, we all are. If we were not sinners, then there would not have been any reason for the Christ to be scourged, tortured, and executed on a cross. But He did choose that path, because He wanted to save us.
I am so grateful that God promised to be sufficient enough, merciful enough, and loving enough to forgive us our sins if we confess them and are truly repentant. If I didn't have that gift from God, then I tell you I deserve Hell as much as anyone.
On the cultural side, we must remember this: the United States stands alone in the world as the only Christian nation. A majority of our population profess a belief and are Christians. No other nation on earth can say this.
If anyone wonders why America is the target of immoral and evil clutches, both from within and from without, all they have to do is ponder that.
Plus the polls conducted by the MSM made it sound like Terri was on life support, which she was not. Peter Lemmings and other MSM squaking skulls used loaded language in reporting the story. They also "stacked the deck" in reporting the story. Made it sound like only right-wing nuts were supporting Terri when actually a wide spectrum of ideological persuasions were outraged at the affair. Had the polls been worded to reflect the actual situation, they would have shown the vast majority not supporting the husband, Greer, and felonious Felos. The MSM used nearly every propagandist trick to pervert the event.
The stakes here are incredibly high. The only hope the Demorats have left for power is in the Judiciary. That's why they put it all on the line in the Schiavo case. If the Demorats get public opinion on their side that the Judge acted legally and rightly, they can try to stopthe Bush Judiciary appointments; if the public sides with the Repubs, that they were morally right in bringing the case to the President and Congress, the Dems will have no political backing for filibustering Bush's appointments.
That's why the MSM tried to bias all the polls on this issue. Bush's judicial appointments are all on the line.
BTW, Steyn hits another bull's eye.
About half of the coalition that elects republicans are Evangelical Christians. If your thought is that Evangelicals should show up every four years and vote for those parts of the Republican platform that you support and then quietly slink off and shut up with respect to the parts of the Republican platform that they support, that is not a coalition. You have to face the reality that, eventually, the Republican party is going to have to listen and respond to the desires of Evangelicals--or Evangelicals will have no reason to vote Republican.
The real test is coming up. Will Bush nominate and will the Republican Senators have the guts to confirm only original intenters to the US Supreme Court. My guess is no. At that point the coalition will begin to break apart.
Very true.
It is easy to be ideologically pure when your party doesn't win elections. I could claim to have the fastest car in the United States if I never took it out on the track against a bonafide opponent. The Loonytarians and Constipationalists don't win elections and so never have to compromise with anybody. That's why they always claim there is no differnce between the two major parties. That is simply untrue. Demos and Reps are on opposite sides on many issues. Here in KalyFORneeya it is most evident. For the first time in years we are seeing genuine reform in this state, because we elected a Republican (albeit, a moderate) governor. Politics is compromise, when you compromise you have to sacrifice some of your ideals. Absolutists end up with absolutely nothing. I'd rather see at least a portion of the Conservative agenda enacted than see none of it because I play by "all or nothing" rules.
bttt
Maybe that's how you feel. I am a rock-rib, pro-life, evangleical, Bible-believing Christian. I have been Republican for years and see no reason to change parties. In fact, This party is all together different than it was 30 years ago during the Nixon/Ford era. Reagan changed the party from its dominant pro-business, country club image to one that has not abandoned its pro-business stance but also supports the lives of the unborn.
What happened to Terri was evil (just as a whole lot of things that happen are) but it wasn't the fault of a political party but of a culture. The worst thing you can do is give up.
If you are really that upset with the GOP switch to Dem then vote for ultra conservatives in the Dem primaries.
The goofballs tried to leave the party and wound up following Pat Buchanan. Whiners don't impress me; those who believe in loyalty and are willing to work for the long haul do. Nobody ever said the good fight would be easy.
Never said I was giving up. I said I have left the GOP. Funny how often people make that mistake. There is life after the GOP, always was, always will be.
It is a fine start. I'd like it to be followed by a sentence for obstruction, which is a federal felony charge with up to five years in prison.
Change "Evangelicals" to "social conservatives" -- in order to include the ever-increasing number of conservative and conservative-leaning American Jews -- and you'll have it exactly right! :)
By that do you mean you've changed your registration? stopped contributing? won't vote for Pub candidates?
bttt
I WANT NOTHING TO DO WITH THE REPUBLICAN PARTY FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE!!!!!!!!!!! I have already re-registered "Decline to State"
I will not vote for Pubs. Not till I see the beef, hold the relish and onions. I've had enough.
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