Posted on 02/08/2008 11:15:39 AM PST by 84rules
There is NOTHING conservative about working with the Democratic nominee against most of your fellow conservatives in order to grow government, socialize medicine, lose the war in Iraq, tilt the Supreme Court to the Left, and make Roe v. Wade the permanent law of the land. If you are conservative and vote for the Democratic nominee or even just refuse to vote for McCain, who is by any and every objective standard, considerably more conservative than either of them, let me tell you what you are NOT doing,
* You are NOT doing the logical thing. When faced with a choice between a moderate who holds some conservative positions and some non-conservative positions and a liberal who holds no conservative positions, the logical decision is to take the moderate. After all, half a loaf is better than none.
* You are NOT helping conservatism or your fellow conservatives. To the contrary, you are helping liberals defeat conservative ideas. Isn't that what conservatives are saying that they're furious at McCain over? Well, who's less of a conservative: John McCain, who, if he were in the White House, would help conservatives win some battles and would help liberals win others or the conservatives who want to help a Democrat get into the office who will go against conservative ideas every time?
* You are NOT looking out for the best interests of the country. If you believe winning in Iraq is better than losing, if you believe balancing the budget is better than higher deficit spending, if you believe that having a Supreme Court that is tilted to the right is better than having a Supreme Court tilted to the left, and if you believe that Roe v. Wade is leading to the immoral murder of millions of children -- and the overwhelming majority of people reading this column certainly believe all those things -- then you are certainly not putting the good of the country first if you oppose John McCain in November.
I’m very torn on this. How do you respond to these concerns?
1. “The Democrats have controlled the House for 46 of those 60 years...including a stretch of 44 straight years. The Democrats have controlled the Senate 40 of the last 60 years. The liberal excesses of the 60s did not cause people to rise up and embrace conservativism. That didn’t happen in the 30s either.”
2. “with control of all three branches, what will these people do? The question is, how much damage can/will they do? Lots. And, the effects won’t be realized, particularly by the masses, for years to come. So, a counter argument to the one you advanced is that during the four years we’re “punishing” the GOP and waiting for failure, we’re risking the implementation of terrible policies that might never be eliminated. For example, the composition of the Court is at risk. How long would it take to reverse the damage done there, decades? Think of all the BS laws, entitlements, etc. on the books. Tell me, after the country realized how bad the dems were, when were these things removed? Answer: Never.”
Thus, ceding the battle to the hardcore liberals will cause more damage and not necessarily lead to a more conservative government, so isn’t it better to take the lesser and die a slow death than to cede the whole thing?
That may be why we got the GOP congress in 1994. But —
1) There were other reasons why. The “Contract With America” was a masterstroke of content-rich politicking, led by Newt before Newt made some mistakes and became a political liability. Who can predict whether we’d have a comparable spearhead in 2010?
2) In even 2 years, Stevens and Ginsburg likely will have retired, knowing a lib pres and Dem-Senate are in office. Their successors will serve 40+ years. (PLEASE remember this if you remember nothing else I type: BREYER AND GINSBURG WERE SEATED DURING CLINTON’S FIRST TWO YEARS IN OFFICE, in 1993 and 1994.) Recapturing part of the government 2-4 years later won’t undo that damage.
3) Gosh knows what HillObama will do in foreign/defense policy in 2 years (or fail to do), with a Dem Congress.
I’m just not prepared to take those chances on a HOPE for a “1994”-type comeback.
I second your objection to McCain/Feingold. I also object to McCain’s pushing of the global warming hoax, his duplicity on illegal aliens, his doubletalk about Guantanamo and waterboarding, and a lot of other things. But I don’t think he’ll sell out our military when push comes to shove, and the Clintons and Obama will because their records are crystal clear in the matter. For me that’s the most important factor.
There. Fixed for accuracy.
Ditto
Ms. Reagan is a wonderful woman. I would have no problem in the least telling her that she is wrong.
So you think supporting a Democrat who calls himself a Republican is better for the Republic than supporting a Democrat honest enough to call him (or her) self a Democrat?
I think those issues you spelled out ARE selling out the military. If he’ll work to reduce our ability to have a voice, if he won’t secure out borders, if he’ll put together an amnesty plan, if he can’t decide about Gitmo and waterboarding, those are all things either destroying what the military is protecting or outright selling out the military.
“Ms. Reagan is a wonderful woman. I would have no problem in the least telling her that she is wrong.”
Being wrong is one thing. Accusing someone of supporting Socialist Democrats is another.
It is looking like that was a bad assumption.
It’s not an accusation that is difficult to prove.
Thank you for sharing your OPINION, Mr. Hawkins. I respectfully disagree that someone who chooses to vote third party or sit it out because of their principles is 'unprincipled' or 'unconservative'.
I think supporting a Socialist Democrat who wants to dismantle our Republic is worse than supporting a liberal Republican who at least is willing to continue the war on terror.
“I would rather see the Republican Party suffer defeat, and either Dem get elected, and then show the country just what a failure their ideas are.”
So you would rather hand victory to Al Qaeda in order to satisfy your bloated ego than vote for McCain.
I can’t stand McCain either, but he’s far better than Hillary/Obama. The stakes are too great for me to allow a Democrat to win. McCain is an awful candidate, but Hillary or Obama is FAR worse.
Apparently, you care about your pride more than your country.
My take is that if you are going to vote Republican no matter what they feed you then why do they give a damn what they feed you as you will always accept it.
What, precisely, do you plan to do when the Repubican party feeds you something unacceptable such as McCain?
All they want or need from you is your vote and if you will always give them that then where is their incentive to do as you demand and not as they please?
I agree. I don’t like McCain either but let’s get real. Our highest priority is our safety. If the islamists nuke us, we could have “President McCain” on the phone with the Joint Chiefs, or we could have “President Rodham” on the phone with Attorney General Gorelik, demanding that they be indicted.
I say let’s get past the extreme menace of Hillary and Obama and then pick up the pieces. ANYTHING is better than those two.
I don’t agree with Ann Coulter that we might as well vote for Hillary. I would rather be annoyed by McCain than sifting through radioactive wreckage with Hillary.
Are you an Al Qaeda operative? You sure sound like someone with their best interests at heart.
I know some McCain insiders, and when this run began, they and he truly had NO idea of the wrath this country has about this illegal immigration, and are obviously too slow to catch on. Either that or they were playing dumb to secure more Hispanic votes where needed. It is / will be THE defining issue of this election.
P.S. I am an American, a conservative. The Republican party represents my views of a nation. As long as they do that they get my support. When they stop behaving in a manner that supports my views then they lose my support. Where I then direct my support is of no further concern to them.
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.