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.
Has Alan Keyes ever won anything? And we're supposed to follow this guy?
You are clearly delusional.
It's amazing how your post verifies exactly what Dr. Keyes was saying.
That about sums it up. The idiots running the GOP haven't got enough sense to learn that it was the veering left of this party that lost the house and Senate in 2006. After that loss, they seem to be trying to push the party even farther left.
The Republican party cannot win by acting like the democRATS.
The only reason GWB won, especially in 2004, was that his opponent was a complete moron. Many people, including myself, voted for him primarily to keep Kerry out.
I also know that there are many schools in which such things are NOT pushed and won't ever be, without a court order.
Liberals "push" all kinds of things in schools, every day and "gay rights" isn't on the top of that list; though it is there.
You are either unaware, or ignoring the fact that as mayor, Rudy was the major proponent of vouchers and charter schools and is also a firm believer in PARENTS RIGHTS over board of education "rights" and won that battle in N.Y.C. with almost no help from any other politician or group.
Unlike the lies and base propaganda, being posted to FR, 24/7, from the minute a Rudy thread was posted here, some of us DO know the facts and are refuting the lies, innuendos, and constant impugnations. We are also not obfuscating, dodging, nor making false statements about his record.
I agree 100%. Conservatives are in the minority, just like Socialists are in the minority, just like Libertarians are in the minority.
Rudy can pull enough people together to get a republican in the white house. No one else can. Conservatives need to get over themselves and get busy electing people who support their agenda at the local level where coalitions are not needed. Build a congress that reflects conservative values then get a coalition builder like Rudy into the White House.
Its digusting how so many people stayed home during the last congressional election and let the Republicans lose Congress.
There is more important issues then abortion and being able to owning .50 calibre sniper rifles or machine guns.
Abortion and Gun control are not huge issues when you consider the country is going to go bankrupt within 30 years if we don't do something now about the size of government and the cost of entitlements.
We have huge problems facing this country which is why we cannot under any circumstance afford to have Hillary elected.
John
For me too, in a few minutes.
EternalVigilance, Carolinamom posted a comment to you (#232) that said, "Your own obsession w/Keyes is what obsesses us, EV." You, EV, replied, "I almost never bring him up. It's y'all who do. It's a fixation that is quite interesting to observe."
I guess this is one of your "almost never bring him up" times. LOL
Well said.
Many moons ago, John Lindsay was my congressman and later Mayor. He was the first New York 'Republican' I'd ever heard that I didn't think should be exiled to New Jersey...or better Conn with all the other blue bloods and country clubber frat boys.
He was an idiot.
But he was not as extreme as Rudy, so he didn't accomplish anything for NYC because he was a dilletante pretty boy. I'm no fan of RG but he sure as hell got things cleaned up in the city and next to Mayor Koch was the best government NYC has had since Boss Tweed.
What was that about cutting out the drama? Equivocating libel like "treasonous liberals" with name-calling is both intellectual honest and insulting.
some ninofan
There. That's better. What you and your kind don't get is that you aren't even representative of hardcore conservatives. That's why your boy Duncan Hunter is polling at 1% in Georgia, of all places. We certainly don't need you to win, and there's an argument to be made that we'll pick up more votes by jettisoning you than by kowtowing to your ridiculous ritual purity.
If your ideologically pure candidate is a bore - the other party's more appealing candidate will win. And if your ideological positions are out of step with the electorate - it will be a landslide for the other side.
And here is where you are now breaking down. You now ask us to compromise with the liberals on our traditional American values. The Republican party has long defended God, country, family, life and liberty and we should not compromise these traditional American values away.
Wow, two Keyes speaches in a row. I guess someone mentioning the name, "Keyes", on this forum has gotten stuck in your head like a bad song that won't quit playing in your brain.
Have you never "compromised"; never changed whom you supported and then voted for, to be president?
He's in favor of school choice, and also believes that the NCLB act is good law, because it puts EVERY school in this country to account, not just the failing ones, although the failing ones pay the higher price for failing it's children in the first place.
Rudy believed that even poor families deserved to choose the schools their children attended. He also believed that parents knew what was best for their children. To the BOE, each child was just a number on a sheet of paper. The BOE, like any government institution, was just more interested in collecting their share of the property tax money, and getting a paycheck, no matter what.
Unlike the lies and base propaganda, being posted to FR, 24/7, from the minute a Rudy thread was posted here, some of us DO know the facts and are refuting the lies, innuendos, and constant impugnations. We are also not obfuscating, dodging, nor making false statements about his record.
Wow, what a great post.
Well don't just leave us hangin, make the argument.
And again you are trying to say I am asking you to do something I am not.
I haven't asked anybody to support anybody, nor have I asked anybody to compromise with liberals.
But again I ask you, if you don't compromise on a canidate and the liberals win, how will your agenda be moved forward?
Out of power, he has no chance of being an integral part of policy making.
And exactly WHAT has this man EVER really accomplished in stopping abortion?
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