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.
"And the BorderBots could, but are too busy arguing the expedience of broadsiding the waves because they think it'll save time and would rather mutiny to control the tiller on principle at the expense of capsizing the boat."
True, they could.
Also, we could all accept a 10% tax increase in order to balance the budget and start paying off the national debt.
But neither of those things is going to happen.
We seem to be down to the core, where any giving at all affects somebody's fundamental interests. Economically speaking, giving the BorderBots what they want will effectively mean a pretty steep tax on labor-intensive business all across America.
Business never, ever, ever loses sight of the bottom line.
Never.
So we know that Business Republicans will not give an inch.
If the Republicans really do close the border and start heavy enforcement of the immgration laws against business, the Business Republicans will immediately change allegiances and direct their money to the Democrats, who will hike their taxes some and impose regulations they won't like, but who will overall cost them less than hiring legal labor with. Business is about making money and keeping it. That means hiring illegal aliens and making sure that flow stays open. There's nothing personal about it. It's a purely economic decision. If the Republicans start squeezing them the Business Roundtable will shift their alliances to the Democrats rapidly. It's just a matter of changing who gets the check.
And we know that BorderBots are personally emotionally committed to the issue.
Looks like they're going to cancel each other out in Congress, so we'll get a legal status quo, but not a political one this year, unfortunately.
Maybe this is just revenge by NC on NJ.
"Where is the greatest number of illegals? I'm guessing the Piedmont."
In total number, you'd be correct, because that's where the most opportunity lies. In percentage of population, it would be the agricultural coastal plain, though.
You may recall the name Siler City, from the old Andy Griffith series. That small, rural town of about 10,000 is absolutely swamped, around 50% or so I hear; it's the meatpacking plants, hog farming and other agriculture in the surrounding countryside that is the draw. I've been told that it all started with one Guatamalan, who was shown a lot of kindness and was treated well, and it took off exponentially from there. The Mt. Olive area, primarily known for producing pickles, is heavily populated with illegal aliens now, too. As far as more urban locales, the section of Winston-Salem where my mother grew up, known then as Sunnyside, may as well be little Mexico now.
The pace of change is just too, too much for most here. Especially taken on top of the collapse of textiles and furniture (China), as well as the long, slow decline of tobacco. I don't mean to paint too bleak a picture, because the economy is doing surprisingly well, in spite of all this. But it's very unsettling. Five years ago, 80% of my customers were textile companies. Now, I only have two left. Thank god for NASCAR, is all I've got to say. There is a gracious plenty of hardworking, legal citizens here, who have been displaced from manufacturing. I fail to see the need, and actually see a great deal of potential harm in the form of conflict between the two here, should the local economy take a turn for the worse. It could happen easily.
The President was not intended to govern according to polls. This is a republic not a democracy. In a democracy a robot could rule.
You are free to take it for yours with my blessings but for the moment I will stick with sticking it to the Treason Media. :^)
Making you long for us "Yankees" again?
CWO, can you recognize that there are those of us who support the President and despise the shabby treatment he is receiving from some in his own party as well as the msm, but who also feel he is making a mistake by aligning with the senate version of the "immigration reform" that will if enacted be a disastrous "amnesty lite" program rather than pushing for the senate to adopt more of the enforcement and border security aspects of the house version? Can you acknowledge that Reagan's second biggest mistake (Sandy O'Connor was his biggest mistake) was signing the Amnesty progam 20 years ago that lead to a huge upsurge in illegal immigration because it did not include strict enforcment and disincentives to future illegal border crossers? How about encouraging people to write a positive supportive letter to the President that also points out that we can't afford to continue rewarding people who flout our laws, especially with shortcuts to citizenship.
dirtboy, can you acknowledge that withholding support for the GOP this November and/or in November 08 and giving control over to the democrats would make the situation even worse, regardless of how angry and disappointed you are that the President is missing the mark on this issue?
"Imagine Egypt, Greece & Rome all those millenia ago. Factions developed from those who would harness the political power of immigrants streaming in from all parts of the known world."
A key difference: the "immgrants" streaming into Rome, Greece and Egypt were not, for the most part, there voluntarily. Each of those nations, especially Rome, was an evil, rapacious imperial power. There were plenty of foreigners in Rome, but most had been dragged there as slaves. Those immigrants were harnessed up for service to Rome, of course, but much of the labor was done by people dragged there against their will, serving the people who had murdered their families and raped their mothers, daughters and sisters. The "barbarians" who destroyed Rome from within had the RIGHT to do it. Rome dragged them there against their will. Slavemasters have no right to murder people and enslave them, but slaves DO have the right to murder their masters to get themselves free any way they can. Rome deserved destruction. So did Greece. So did Egypt. These were despicable civilizations, epitomes of evil and oppression. And their destruction was by free peoples. The Germanic hordes who swept into Rome were, indeed, barbaric. But they were FREE. Rome was a civilization of slaves; nobody cared about its defence, in the end, and Rome was put to death by the people that it had attempted to enslave, but failed. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
America does not deserve to be destroyed.
Not bloody likely. LOL
Heck, I've said for some time it is critical to re-elect the GOP House members this year. And vote for conservative Senators (please never ask me to vote for Arlen Specter). And my point has been that Bush's stance on wanting a guest worker program now is harming the chances for the GOP to hold the House. That is why I am so vehement about this. For some reason, folks equate opposition to Bush on this issue to opposition to the larger House GOP. When the opposite, IMO, is the case.
:-)
Amen!
I forgot about the Christmas tree farms. They're big employers. I worked two seasons at one in Tuckaseegee, when I was up at Western.
Wrong. A 10% tax increase would not increase tax revenues as it would destroy economic growth. But congress would anticipate a greater than 10% tax increase (because it would project continued economic growth and the higher tax rates on the growth adjusted income figures) and would accordingly increase spending even more. Therefore, the tax increase would kill growth, lead to unemployment and inflation, and the deficits would increase.
That statement most likely describes every Bushbot on FR. The President has picked up the ball and is now running with it. He has to work with a Congress that is being polarized by both extremes on this issue which could most likely end in gridlock and NOTHING being passed. What is the zero sum of that? Nothing but more complaining.
I'm going to give him my support for a difficult task ahead.
"Making you long for us "Yankees" again?"
If you're politically conservative, come on down. We need all the help we can get. I have family members who married conservative New Englanders. They're good people, even if they do talk funny, lol.
Just trying to fit in with your group, dear. It's the kind of post you all are known for; except in a far less refined manner. ;^)
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