Posted on 05/17/2006 7:47:58 AM PDT by Pukin Dog
Edited on 05/17/2006 8:30:59 AM PDT by Lead Moderator. [history]
"A house divided against itself cannot stand." – Abraham Lincoln, 1858
It is getting somewhat strange around these parts when not only the President, but yesterday the First Lady was personally attacked by someone claiming to be a ‘Conservative’. Can there be any doubt that there are forces among us looking to drive a wedge between us?
A few weeks ago, this forum’s owner attempted to remind all of us of the big picture, that regardless of any personal animosity towards the President or Republican Party over their adherence to Conservative principles, that they are still a clear choice over the alternative Democrat Party rule. At that time, I assumed that FReeper-sanity had been restored, and that some of the negative rhetoric aimed at those in Washington D.C. would be dialed back.
Free Republic is a political forum with a proud history and vision, responsible for dragging Dan Rather from his post, and providing countless radio-talk shows with their daily talking points. FReepers are unique in their determination and energy towards protecting and defending the goals of our Founding Fathers.
We are also quite a powder keg of emotion and anticipation, expecting our Republican majorities to take advantage of this opportunity to make permanent gains in our Conservative agenda. Some might argue that this opportunity has been squandered, but those persons would be ignorant of history, lacking understanding that change cannot occur overnight in Washington, and that this is the way our Founders designed our Republic.
In frustration, impatience, and ignorance, we have allowed this forum to become a haven for those who do not share our Conservative goals. I do not blame our enemies anymore then I would blame a scorpion for stinging me. If anger and stupidity were one’s nature, I would expect the trolls that infect this forum to be angry and stupid consistently, which also makes them somewhat easy to detect.
The trolls are not the problem, though. The problem is that so many of us are allowing ourselves to be taken in by those who seek only to prevent us from going to the polls in November to keep their stinking hands off our government for another term. There can be no doubt, that no matter how disappointing our current government has been in promoting the Conservative agenda, that the alternative, enabled by our staying home will be MUCH worse.
The way to deal with Republicans who have actively worked against our goals is to defeat them in Primary elections. We do not even have to defeat them all, only enough of them to send the message that we will indeed target them if they work against our agenda. It should be the goal of EVERY conservative to see that Lincoln Chaffee is defeated in November. His seat is one we can afford to lose. Were I a Rhode Island resident, I would vote for the Democrat if only to send a message to Snowe, Hagel, Collins, Graham, and especially that bastard Specter that their primaries just got a lot tougher.
We only need to get one of them, and Chaffee is the one to get. It does not really matter if a Democrat takes his seat; he will be junior and mute as long as we maintain our overall majority in the Senate.
The one thing that bothers me here like nothing else, is the simple disrespect of the President. Am I am Bush-Bot? Damn straight I am. If you want to know why, click on my handle to read Southack’s excellent list of Bush’s accomplishments in office. But if Bush had done almost nothing in office, it would be no excuse for some of the slights and disrespect he has received from some of us on this forum.
Some of the things I have read here this past week match in tone what one can find on our favorite Democrat sewer site. Someone calling himself or herself a FReeper was promoting shooting aliens at the border until they stopped coming. Is that what we are about? Obviously not, and that so-called Conservative has been eliminated from this forum.
I think it is important to remember that you and I have just as much responsibility as George Bush does in changing our culture to better reflect Conservative values. Right now, this very moment, Conservatives have the government they deserve. We put them there. They are not our mommies and daddies sent out to bring home our Conservative bread. That responsibility lies with all of us. These Republicans represent us, they don’t serve us. Our job is to pick the best individual and send him/her to Washington in the hope that their CHARACTER will see them through.
This is why it is such a nutty thing to consider punishing the Republican party, when we should be letting them know that we’ve got their back, but if they cant do the job, we will replace them with ANOTHER Republican, instead of handing the reigns of government to the party of anger, hopelessness and despair. We sometimes like to think that those people we send to Washington are different from us, that they are capable of meeting our every need and desire.
I want every one of you to think about what you would consider to be your perfect mate. Maybe some of you think you have found that person. If you are married and totally in love with another person, that is great. Now I want to ask you to think about the last time that person you love, who is PERFECT for you, completely pissed you off. Remember, this is your perfect mate, your one true love. Do they do everything you want them to do? Obey your every desire? If you answer yes, I am going to put you on my troll list.
Those people in Washington do not even cut your lawn, yet you expect perfection. Get over it.
I am issuing a challenge to every person who considers him or her to be a Conservative; why don’t we all commit to a return to HONOR? Do we honor our Conservative agenda when we comport ourselves in disgraceful ways? Is it an honorable thing to suggest that our President is a moron, as I read here a few days ago? Is it honorable to attack Laura Bush or any other person representing true Conservative values?
Some of you might argue that George Bush is not representing Conservative values to your liking. I would remind you that the first thing Bush said upon taking office, is that he was going to be President of ALL the people, not just some. You know that if you followed Bush from the beginning that he campaigned of the very immigration platform he is defending right now. Did you vote for him? Yeah?
If you have ever had a steak at a Ruth’s Chris restaurant, you know that sometimes they bring that wonderful steak to your table with a sprig of parsley on it. I hate parsley. Hate it. If I were to treat my steak the way some of us want to treat our President, I would have to throw out the steak, due to that nasty parsley that comes with it. I can deal with the parsley to get the steak, and that is what I am asking FReepers to do.
Expecting perfection from any person, group or team is a recipe for disaster. George W. Bush is my president. You can disagree with him, you can blame him for your problems if that is your desire. If you disrespect his office, his service, his risking his life to be with our troops in Iraq, his steadfast desire to bring a new tone to Washington, or if you just like the way he keeps Democrats so pissed off they lose their minds on a regular basis, I ask you to treat him and his wife with respect and cut the personal attacks. If you call him ‘Shrub’ or ‘Jorge’ consider yourself my enemy.
Right now, our real enemy are the Main Stream Media, the Democrat Party, and all who follow and support them. If you want to jump-ugly on someone, why not start with those leaky bastards and give our side a break?
Do it for Pukin.
I knew that you could.
Great rant, Pukin. Well stated and well put. Get ready for flames from the jerks, however.
Ever so many years FR explodes into a general brawl. In 1999-2000 it was much wilder than now. I'll tell you, them was some factions that knew how to food fight. The future of western civilization was at stake on every thread.
Yes, everyone who disagrees with the President is a 'troll' or an 'anti-Freeper'.
Keep telling yourself that.
bump
Dog,
You hooked me and reeled me in.
I'll sign
This illustrates the problem with the anti-Bushies (since I can't thing of a better phrase).
Mexico has 100 million people
Central America has 50 million people.
And even if there were 200 million of them, they would not all come here.
This is one of the reasons I'm not all that concerned about Mexican immigration, they don't have that many more to export (unless of course there should be a complete breakdown in order such as a civil war in which case there a huge refugee problem which mean intervention by us.)
One of the benefits of a guest worker plan would be you might see Americanized English-speaking Mexicans working here influencing Mexican elections.
Mexico would more likely become South Texas than California Aztlan.
Ditto to everything you said.
Freepmail.
THANK YOU, Pukin Dog. We sure needed this thread.
Sauce for the goose, baby!
Agreed.
No conservative I know is asking for perfection. We are not asking that everything turn out our way or that our President fight the Democrats on every small issue.
We do expect, however, for our "conservative" President to not actively campaign against conservative principles like he has been doing recently when it comes to the domestic realm.
We ARE asking to not be treated like fools and bigots. One cannot forget the Miers debacle and the cries of sexism that came out of Mrs. Bush and certain people in the administration. One cannot help but cringe at the thinly veiled accusations coming out of the Republican Congress that one is a racist if he opposes the guest worker program.
Like it or not, a lot of Bush's base is very upset right now. Do not treat us like we are spoiled children crying because we did not get a candy bar. Such accusations are very insulting.
All I can say is that if this administration and this congress continue to act arrogant and not only ignore, but fight against, their base, there will be a Speaker Pelosi soon. Not because any conservative is going to vote Democrat, but because too many of the average conservative Joes will just not care enough to go to the polls and vote for RINOs.
Us staying home is the only hope they have of winning.
Big floppy clown feet?
"Expecting perfection from any person, group or team is a recipe for disaster."
Perfection?
No.
But suppose, for a minute, that September 11th had happened, but President Bush had responded the way Clinton did to the first World Trade Center attack. Suppose he had refused to declare war and sought a "law enforcement option".
Could you continue to support the Republican Party even then?
Suppose he appointed open pro-abortion judges to the Supreme Court.
Could you continue to support the Republican Party even then?
What he just did on the Border was give a speech that says that we will have no effective fence, and have a de-facto amnesty...and that if we can't get that, we will be left with the status quo of an open border. Which means that we are going to lose our country itself.
To people who see this clearly, what the President AND MOST OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY (the House Republicans excepted) have done is to hand over America to a steady foreign invasion. It is the equivalent of the President and the Party having done either of the two aforementioned things.
It is not a matter, for the Border Conservatives, of demanding perfection. It is, rather, a matter of maintaining certain MINIMUM STANDARDS that cannot be gone below. And on the fundamental matter of the survival of the nation itself, long term, in the face of a Latino invasion, the President and the Republican leadership have chosen to go with allowing the progressive invasion of the US, without any effective resistance.
It was not hysteria of perfectionists when the low-tax portion of the Republican base walked out on Bush's father in 1992 after he broke his "read my lips, no new taxes" pledge. It was the enforcement of discipline and minimum standards. It was normally Republican men and women all across America saying that there is a level below which they will not stoop, and there is behavior that they will not accept, and that if the Republican Party insists on selling out a core constituency, they will withhold their votes from the Republican Party until it meets those minimum standards.
Yes, the principled anti-tax Republicans, by walking away, DID result in Clinton's election in 1992. But they ALSO were the catalyst that provoked the Contract With America and the sweeping Republican victory in 1994. And ever since then, the Republican Party has never once even suggested raising taxes. Republicans get it: taxes are a MINIMUM. Raising taxes will result in Republican voters abandoning them. Republican voters don't demand PERFECTION, but they DO demand that Republicans not violate basic minima. Raise taxes, and low-tax Republicans would rather see the Republican Party lose ONE election, to get the message that they can never win ANY elections, ever again, if they don't STOP the unacceptable behavior.
The Republicans GOT IT on taxes.
No pro-abortion candidate has any real hope of ever being the Republican nominee. It is not because pro-life voters demand PERFECTION. No. PERFECTION would have been no Arlen Specter at judiciary. It would be a constitutional amendment against abortion. It would be investigation of abortion mills, and prosecution for poor health practices. Pro-life Republican voters are willing to accept a good deal less than perfection. But they, too, have minima. To a pro-life voter, if the Republican Party nominates a pro-choice candidate for President, or raises a pro-choice justice to the Supreme Court, it is PREFERRABLE to stay home and let the Republicans be horribly defeated in ONE election cycle, to teach the lesson that such behavior is unacceptable. The Party has a lot of latitude, but if it falls below the MINIMA of a core constituency, then it is imperative that such constituency intentionally PUNISH the Party, by a defeat in a national election, to teach the election that the discretion of power and leadership DOES NOT PERMIT Republican leaders to go below the minimum.
Raise taxes, and Republican tax hawks WILL cause the party to lose the next election. Everyone knows that. Which is why Republicans haven't suggested it since 1992.
Elevate a pro-choice Presidential candidate or Supreme Court nominee, and the pro lifers WILL hand victory to the Democrats in the next election, to teach the lesson to the Republican Party that they cannot win if they betray this core constituency on its fundamental concern.
I am not a Border Conservative, but I think that what President Bush and the Republican establishment, the House Republicans excepted, have done is clearly go far below the basic minima that Border Conservatives would tolerate.
What were they saying all along: THE WALL is THE KEY.
They have said, above all, "Build a Fence; seal the border". And they said no amnesty. Bitter-enders said many other things, but most thinking "BorderBots" said that the WALL was the key. Stop the flow, and the problem of illegals already here can be dealt with in time. Over and over, relentlessly, the Border Conservatives said this.
What have the Republicans offered them?
No wall, no internal enforcement against business, and a backdoor amnesty by another name.
The BorderBots were not just not given EVERYTHING.
They weren't given ANYTHING.
The Republican leadership (House excepted) gave them the back of the hand, the equivalent of a tax hike for border hawks and a pro-abortion presidential candidacy and Supreme Court nominee for the pro-lifers.
Of course the BorderBots have to walk.
Their core issue has been ignored, not just on some points, but on EVERY point. They have been completely disregarded, and their concerns overridden.
Simple self-respect and the honor of which you spoke requires them to sit out an election, knowing that this will indeed hand power to the Democrats, just like in 1992. It is the only way to focus the mind of the Republican leadership to understand that a closed border is the MINIMUM that Border Conservatives will accept. Go below that, and they can't be Republicans anymore, because an open border means the slow motion destruction and dissolution of the American culture, and eventually the unity of the nation itself.
That's what they were saying BEFORE Bush's speech.
Now they're angry.
But it's what they will continue to say now.
Hopefully, after two years of misery under a Republican Congress, there will be another "Contract With America" moment, and the Republican Party will understand that NO NEW TAXES, NO PRO-ABORT SUPREMES OR PRESIDENTS, and a SEALED MEXICAN BORDER are minima below which the Republican Party cannot let itself go, because the result if they do is Democratic rule.
Were the tax hawks wrong in 1992?
Are the pro-lifers wrong on their minimum?
No, and no.
Are the BorderBots wrong on theirs?
It's tough for me to see how they are.
And it's tough for me to see how their own self-respect will allow them to vote Republican this year, except for firm seal-the-border candidates of WHATEVER political party.
Your appeal was sincere, Pukin Dog, but it won't work.
It won't work because it CAN'T.
Appeals to party unity were made after George Bush 41 raised taxes, but they were in vain. And in the end, it is better that they failed. The Republican Party learned, through electoral disaster, that they do not have the power to raise taxes if they want to hold onto power. Their own base will execute them.
In 2006, the Republican Party is going to be executed by its Border Conservative base. At this point, it is unrecoverable. The President made a fatal error, and the Senate yesterday made it unrecoverable by refusing to agree to enforcement first. The pieces are now in motion, and they can't be stopped. BorderBots cannot swallow their pride and maintain their dignity if they vote GOP this year, and the GOP cannot win without them.
The Democrats will win in November because of what George Bush said Monday night, and what the Republican Senate did on Tuesday.
But this is not the end of the world.
It is a teachable moment, or November will be at any rate.
The recovery that will follow thereafter will be to add a Sealed Mexican Border to the list of UNTOUCHABLE Republican policies. The Republican nominee in 2008 will support not a virtual fence and backdoor amnesty, but an Israeli-style wall. And with that, the BorderBots will come back in force, just like the tax hawks did with the Contract with America.
It's too bad we have to be defeated in November, but we do. BorderBot self-respect, and yes, honor, demands it.
That doesn't mean that I approve or accept blindly everything said or done here or in D.C., but the alternatives are worse. Much worse.
"A house divided against itself cannot stand." – Abraham Lincoln, 1858
"Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and a house divided against a house falleth." - Jesus of Nazareth, circa 33AD?
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