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.
Are we related?
Quote: " 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."
But by not going to the polls you will be voting for RINO's. That is the thing. The RINO's (other than Chaffee) aren't running for office. Anger can indeed be a blinding thing.
OPEN SEASON ON RINOs. NOW THROUGH NOVEMBER 2008 !!!!
This should be your tag line - great comment.
Well THAT's good to hear.
PD's rant was good but you have made some valid points here too.
Sure there are, some are easier to spot then others. They are like Cylons on BSG. They look like us, sound like us, but every now and then, they go wacko and you can only suck them out of the air-lock and go about your business.
"Now do you feel better after that pity party?
I hope so."
Feel better?
No.
Just telling it like it is.
Fortunately, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
Unfortunately, that light will emerge in 2007, not 2006.
I wish it were otherwise, but it isn't.
BTTT!!!
Most Excellent Rant, Pukin Dog.
My posts on FR are as respectful as comments I send to the President, my reps, Senators, etc. With Durbin and Obama, it takes prayer and restraint but I do it. And I refuse to attack members of my team. Being passionate is no excuse for disrespect.
Vicomte,
Excellent post. Most of the Bushbots here fail to realize the importance of immigration. It truly is unlike any other issue of the day. If Bush's plan goes through, we can say goodbye to the Republican Party (not just in '06 due to voter apathy, but forever due to millions of new former-illegals Democrat votes).
You have to have lived in Arizona in the past few years to understand the problem with legalizing any of these illegal immigrants. I am now free of that state, but I will not go back until the problem is solved, which will, thanks to our President and "Republican" Congress, never happen.
This isn't about racism. It's about nationalism and the future of conservatism.
You go girl!!!
Welcome :)
Excellent sentiment Dog. Let's see how many follow your lead......
If they help to pass legislation which will turn America into a third world poverty stricken mess, what would you suggest we do? Work within a system where our President, at the behest of his father and the likes of George Soros (New World Order conspirators), conspires with the leaders of two foreign countries (Mexico and Canada) to destroy the borders and thus the sovereignty of America by 2010 or thereabouts?
That action takes care of destroying the country. The other action is to destroy the people by engorging this Nation with somewhere between 85,000,000 and 185,000,000 Mexicans who only want jobs and benefits with no intention of learning English or assimilating with the lousy Gringos that are here. We will become a Nation with Babel as its language and most of the people living in poverty.
And your answer is to maybe try to get rid of Lincoln Chafee?
I am not in complete agreement with you here, but I like your emphasis on party primaries. Most voters have no idea how few people really vote in primaries. A shift of several thousand votes can make a huge difference in a Congressional race. For instance, in 2002 less than 24,000 people voted in the contested CD 12 primary.
http://elections.sos.state.tx.us/elchist.exe
Look carefully at State Representative races (in some places they are called Assemblymen.) In Texas in 2006 the Chairman of the Texas House Education committee and a consumate Austin insider was defeated in the primary. He was considered a moderate. Just over 10,000 votes were cast, two or three times the normal number for a State House primary. He was defeated soundly by over 1500 votes.
The point is that at the state/local level, an unbelievably small number of votes can make a difference. Knock off a moderate or two in your State House, and watch in amazement as moderates change their tune and start voting your way.
I confess to being one who has let my disappointments and frustrations lead me to speak more harshly, with more ugliness, than I should about the president.
On the other hand, the furious defense here of the president, of every breath he takes, is very polarizing and tends to drive some of us who have been occasional critics but are generally sympathetic into complete and angry opposition.
Most of us, I think, react angrily to belittling attacks that to seek discredit not only what we say but our very right to think a dissenting thought or express a dissenting opinion. Often that anger takes the form of shouting back with redoubled anger, at higher volume, and with more unfairness. We hurl more anger at the president than we feel in our hearts. The president gets a lot of abuse that is really a way of hitting back at his aggressive defenders.
I am not saying who is the more guilty in all of this. Many of us feel great passion about these issues and there is heat aplenty. Then, of course, there are agent provocateurs. Quickly passions are aflame and it is quite impossible to say who started it. Maybe one can say, in a particular thread, who is at fault but, of course, the hurt and anger carries over from thread to thread.
Clearly those of us who have said overly harsh things about the president have much to repent. But I am specifically suggesting to his most vigorous defenders to consider whether they are not pouring gasoline on the fire with their own words and demands that he be only praised.
Pukin, you have done a tremendous amount with this thread to energize us. THANK YOU!!
Quite so. Sadly.
Alas, trying to inform about some of the globalist puppet masters' black ops areas and the hostility is chronic and traditional . . . and usually uncensored.
Times are changing. We must . . . as in . . . life at stake must . . . pull together for our Republic, our neighborhoods, and especially for our families--the foundation of our Republic.
If FREEPERS can't do unto others lovingly . . . what a sad commentary!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.