OK....I respect that, and i want you to equally respect my position which is based on what i think is the wisdom of history.
We, and I use the collective "we" meaning Republicans, have a long history of growing pains and political mistakes. The other side, the "they", have a equal if not longer saga that we exploit.
The democrats made the very same mistake that we are making now, when we exploited their arrogance and the resulting House Banking Scandal. This caused them to self destruct from within and we took all their territory, as you well know.
But then we became arrogant, and they exploited our error. They now have us on the defensive and we are self destructing from within, just as they did.
They gathered themselves together by simplifying their credo and they launched a political war against bush and everything they chose him to represent.
one of those representations is Social conservatism which they have successfully boxed up nice and neat and labeled dangerous and EVIL.......Just ask the people of Missouri what happened when Rush Limbaugh got into the stem cell debate. What happened in New Mexico as we attacked our own president and shelved the Immigration bill? What happened to Santorum and co. as a result of his stupid attempt to usurp States rights, a direct violation of long held Republican beliefs?
State after State after State held primary elections where the party was infighting, but that was not the problem. the problem was that when the general election was held, the party remained split like rotten log. it did not come back together as it should have, because the issues were not political, they were emotional and divisive.
So now, you give me that same list of issues, and you expect a different result because we were not somehow Conservative enough to win!
I respect your opinions on all of these issues, and I share many of them, but they do not belong in the political debate at election time during the general election. They need to be put aside after the primary and the elections cannot be solely based on this sort of social argument.
Even the immigration debate, having failed to sell it's self as a national security issue, became nothing more that a repeat of the hundred year old divisions regarding immigrants and the populations that they reside in. It was joined by every riff-raff advocacy group from skin heads to Azatlan nut cases, and it destroyed the legitamacy of the debate by connecting us to these groups. You know this because you saw it happen in our Arkansas FReeper group.
Speaking of Arkansas, I know that few people even know what happened here during the election, but it is sufficient to say that this southern state no longer has a viable Republican Party. We lost everything down to the local mayoral elections, and as a republican, I no longer have anyone to vote for. The ballot is likely to remain blank for the foreseeable future.
Please understand that when I see comments that indicate a repeat of the same tactics used in 2006, for the 2008 elections, it gives me much distress and the reality is that we cannot afford to do that again.
Not unless we have a suicidal wish.
There is a better way to handle this, and you need to listen to the moderates who have their hand on the pulse of this seemingly confused country. It is important that we remain in the game. We must, or the they will run amok and uncontrolled again.
Excellent post.
You post was both impressive and thought-provoking. No matter which side of the debate someone is on, it is respectful and reasoned posts like yours that have the best chance of swaying someone's position on the issue at hand.
Well done. BTTT