Posted on 02/28/2007 7:54:19 AM PST by Al Simmons
Wedge Issues Posted by: “Common Tator” in FreeRepublic.com April 16, 2002
The one thing that amazes me on this site is the belief by some that the conservative position is the majority position.
Mostly people tend to believe it could be the majority position if the right candidate ran, or if it weren't for the media or RINOs or etc, etc. They really don't have a clue.
Roughly 2/3 of the public has firm views. They have made up their minds and do not change them. This group is nearly equally split between the left and the right.
There are about a 1/3 of the population that is never sure. Sometimes it will go left and sometimes it will go right.
When a party restricts itself to its base it will be in a minority party. The "base only" party will be reduced to crying as the other side works its will. In some nations both the left and right restrict themselves to just their base. That nation then develops five or six parties. And all governments in that nation are coalitions of a major party and some of the minor parties. In that situation the minor party always has more influence than its numbers represent. For the Rino and Dino haters that is the worst of all worlds.
Many of Rino and Dino haters try to make ours a 3 or 4 party system. They never figure out that their splinter right or left party would never get much power in a government based on coalitions. They are too small. It is the centrist parties that have a 1/3 of the public as potential members that get the clout in the Multi Party system. As you can see in a 2 party or a 5 or 6 party system the center tends to prevail.
But in our two party system the center is an instrument the major parties use to enact their goals. In the multiparty system it is the center parties that use the right and left to enact their centrist goals. Such a system like those in Italy and France are RINO and DINO paradise.
This nation now and for all of the last 140 years has been roughly 1/3 left, 1/3 right and 1/3 in the middle. Those in the middle who run for office are what we call RINOs and DINOs.
When Republicans drive RINOs out they leave the party to become DINOs and take their political power with them. The Democrat party gets them by default.
Then the Democrats thanks to its Dino buddies have a veto proof house and senate. It was Barry Goldwater's greatest accomplishment. In my BRAIN I knew Barry would elect a lot of DINOs ... and he did.
If a party with most of the center wins the presidency too, they have a filibuster proof senate. That party then can do anything it wants to do. When the party leadership takes control they implement the parties’ core beliefs. It was what LBJ did after Goldwater drove all the RINOs into LBJ's camp. It let LBJ do the "Great Society." LBJ had to have Barry's help to do it. And Barry did what it took to give LBJ the support he needed... LBJ had all the left. Barry gave him all the center.
To win control a party must keep its base and get over half the middle. If the Republicans have more RINOs than the Democrats have DINOs the Republican agenda prevails. If the Democrats have more DINOs than the Republicans have RINOs the Democrat agenda prevails.
Those that demand the defeat of RINOs are doing all they can to enact the leftist agenda. They are the most valuable asset the left has. One of the most effective tactics in politics in the negative campaign.
Negative campaigns are not about getting votes for your candidate. They are about getting the other side's base to not vote for their candidate. Thus if you can get the right to vote against a Rino or not vote at all, you can elect a very liberal candidate.
If you can force the Republicans to nominate a right wing candidate so right wing he can't get the center voters, you elect the left candidate.
So bloody what? I seem to recall hearing somewhere that Hil-liar-y was once a "Young Republican".
Oh, absolutely the Republicans can KEEP Rudy. I have respect for his leadership abilities, his strength on defense and the war against Islamofascism.
On the other hand, I won't be Bushed or Doled again. Rudy is pro-abortion (even partial birth), pro-homosexual unions, pro-gun control... Uh, no. I will no longer bow at the altar of political expediency to elect a "Republican."
But the Republicans here in SC and nationally ran me out of their party in 1996 anyway, when they caved to Clinton. In the more than a decade they held the Congress, they ALWAYS gave in, compromised, got along -- LET THE DEMS WIN. I've voted for EVERY Republican Presidential candidate since Reagan -- but I won't vote for a "Republican" who is not a principled Conservative.
Liar.
But those are precisely the problem---pro-queer, anti-gun, pro-baby killing. Those are not "moderate" positions--they are flat out "progressive".
About the only way that Rudy would be acceptable to me is if Gingrich is his running-mate.
Well, she changed. Rooty didn't, other than his party label.
It would be helpful to have the responses, that's all.
Can you link to where it was quoted?
So, now that your other liberal buddy Romney seems to be crumbling, you moving over to the Rooty camp?
Actually it means "Abandon your principles - who cares about them? Power that matters!"
We can elect Rudy and have a liberal working his will, or elect Hillary and have a liberal working her will. At least "our" liberal will have an "R" after his name. Big deal. Great choices.
Actually it means "Abandon your principles - who cares about them? Power that matters!"
We can elect Rudy and have a liberal working his will, or elect Hillary and have a liberal working her will. At least "our" liberal will have an "R" after his name. Big deal. Great choices.
Damn straight! The tent has to be big enough to win elections or the conservatives will get NOTHING that they desire. I favor Hunter in the primaries, but I will vote for Rudy against any dim candidate imaginable!
Yes, but I have never lost an arguement with myself.
That is simply false. How many DINOs can you name in the U.S. Senate (and you're going to have to prove to me that Webb is one)?
Also, the most recent presidential election proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that you do not have to nominate a moderate or even likeable candidate to be electable. Kerry is an out-of touch Massachusetts rich guy with a crazy foreign wife, an admitted war criminal who actually *ran* on his 4-month military record (that takes nerve), and about as far left as anybody in the Senate, and he STILL almost pulled it off.
bump
Logic?
What the hell is LOGIC doing here?
Naked appeals to emotion are the currency of the day, or so it would seem.
This is no longer the case. The true number of swing voters is now less than 10% of the voting population. Roughly 90% of the population is now decided. Everyone else trends one way or the other, and their minds are very difficult to change. For the forseeable future there will be no more landslides either direction.
Attention:
The above Bump was neither a endorsement nor a condemnation of Rudy Guliani
Here's the original. It's actually a reply to a Wellstone post, rather than a post itself:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/667033/posts?page=58#58
(D) Wellstone in trouble in Minn Senate Race
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/667033/posts
Why do Rudy-supporters think that NOT being a Rudy-support is equivalent to "trying to drive the RINOS out of the Republican party"?
Can't you folks handle the simple fact that most Republicans just simply don't agree with you? Why do you have to try to put on the fake martyr complex?
Q: Who defeated Jimmy Carter in 1980?
A: Jimmy Carter
Great point Ivan, and I suggest to us all that we look at the past historical data to see how the GOP can do that.
When the GOP tacks left, they lose elections, generally speaking.
When the GOP tacks right, they win elections, generally speaking.
Reagan got elected on a conservative, optimistic platform. The GOP took the Congress in 1994 by way of presenting a conservative plan of action to the American people. I wager that the majority of moderates (who themselves, of course, form a spectrum right-moderate to left-moderate) have more of an affinity for conservatism than they do for liberalism. The GOP primary voters and party leaders should remember the lessons of history.
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