Posted on 06/22/2009 8:40:54 PM PDT by jazusamo
A Gallup poll last week showed that far more Americans describe themselves as "conservatives" than as "liberals." Yet Republicans have been clobbered by the Democrats in both the 2008 elections and the 2006 elections.
In a country with more conservatives than liberals, it is puzzling — in fact, amazing — that we have the furthest left President of the United States in history, as well as the furthest left Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Republicans, especially, need to think about what this means. If you lose when the other guy has all the high cards, there is not much you can do about it. But, when you have the high cards and still keep taking a beating, then you need to re-think how you are playing the game.
The current intramural fighting among Republicans does not necessarily mean any fundamental re-thinking of their policies or tactics. These tussles among different segments of the Republican Party may be nothing more than a long-standing jockeying for position between the liberal and conservative wings of that party.
The stakes in all this are far higher than which element becomes dominant in which party or which party wins more elections. Both the domestic and the foreign policy direction of the current administration in Washington are leading this country into dangerous waters, from which we may or may not be able to return.
A quadrupling of the national debt in just one year and accepting a nuclear-armed sponsor of international terrorism like Iran are not things from which any country is guaranteed to recover.
(Excerpt) Read more at jewishworldreview.com ...
Though I wish he will not be proven correct on this account:
“A quadrupling of the national debt in just one year and accepting a nuclear-armed sponsor of international terrorism like Iran are not things from which any country is guaranteed to recover.”
Little hope...
Agreed and sadly for all of us he doesn’t exaggerate.
I've yet to hear one Republican, THAT I KNOW, say that they are leaving the party because the party is "too far to the right." That's ObamaCom, state run "media" propaganda.
Yes, the problem hasn’t been that the party is too far right, it’s just the opposite.
I am not sure what to think anymore. All I can figure is that liberals have hijacked the term "Conservative" just as they have so many others in their insidious Orwellian way.
It is possible they have convinced those famous spineless tools, the "undecided" voters, that they are conservatives, but that they can vote for people like Barack Obama and still use the label to describe themselves.
They know that most Americans understand what a Liberal is, and the description is not a good one. Even hard-core liberals are reluctant to label themselves "Liberal". They view themselves as being middle-of-the-road, no matter how liberal they are. Even so, the Soviets understood this was well. Communists view liberals with scorn and derision, but they have to make those liberals think they are integral parts of the fair and just world. Fellow travelers, so to speak.
Tools.
It is no surprise or conincidence that they code-named Julius Rosenberg "Liberal".
Thanks for the ping jaz.
Dr. Sowell is so correct in there is only the Republican Party that is a viable alternative to take back our Nation from the Commie’s that have taken control by deceit, and out and out fraudulent tactics.
The basic problem, as I’ve posted numerous occasions is that we have to get the RINO’s, the entrenched RINO’s out of the Party.
Once we find a Conservative leader with spine, guts, and fortitude, the tidal wave rolls and it will roll right over the Fuhrer and Congress. A lot of State politicians have to go too.
The “Nixon-Ford” Republicans hated it when conservatives controlled the Party, in part because of it was led by Southerners.
“Perhaps people who are busy gushing over the Obama cult today might do well to stop and think about what it would mean for their grand-daughters to live under sharia law.”
The absolute mental disconnect between a future that Obama might be leading the US into, and the fawning of the left wing, particularly its woman, never ceases to amaze.
“In a country with more conservatives than liberals, it is puzzling — in fact, amazing — that we have the furthest left President of the United States in history, as well as the furthest left Speaker of the House of Representatives.”
For the latter issue, that’s because of 50+ or more faux conservative rats in the house.
Hear that you RINO-head politicians!
Thomas Sowell is, again, correct in his judgment and opinion of the current state of our political parties.
If Barack Obama has been the most remarkable phenomenon of the recent political scene, Sarah Palin must be second. The emotional responses to each-- especially by the media and the intelligentsia -- go beyond anything that can be explained by the usual political differences of opinion on issues of the day.
That liberals would be thrilled by another liberal is not surprising. But there are conservative Republicans who voted for Barack Obama, and other conservatives who may not have voted for him, but who are quick to see in various pragmatic moves of his since taking office an indication that he is not an extremist.
Anyone familiar with history knows that Hitler and Stalin were pragmatic. After years of denouncing each other, they signed the Nazi-Soviet pact under which they became allies for a couple of years before going to war against one another.
Pragmatism tells you nothing about extremism. But the conservative intellectuals who seize upon President Obama's pragmatism to give him the benefit of the doubt are obviously bending over backward for some reason.
With Governor Palin, it is just the opposite. The conservative intelligentsia who react against her have remarkably little to say that will stand up to scrutiny. People who actually dealt with her, before she became a national figure, have expressed how much they were impressed by her intelligence.
Governor Palin's "inexperience" is a talking point that might have some plausibility if it were not for the fact that Barack Obama has far less experience in actually making policies than Sarah Palin has. Joe Biden has had decades of experience in being both consistently wrong and consistently a source of asinine statements.
Governor Palin's candidacy for the vice presidency was what galvanized grass roots Republicans in a way that John McCain never did. But there was something about her that turned even some conservative intellectuals against her and provoked visceral anger and hatred from liberal intellectuals.
Perhaps the best way to try to understand these reactions is to recall what Eleanor Roosevelt said when she first saw Whittaker Chambers, who had accused Alger Hiss of being a spy for the Soviet Union. Upon seeing the slouching, overweight and disheveled Chambers, she said, "He's not one of us."
The trim, erect and impeccably dressed Alger Hiss, with his Ivy League and New Deal pedigree, clearly was "one of us." As it turned out, he was also a liar and a spy for the Soviet Union. Not only did a jury decide that at the time, the opening of the secret files of the Soviet Union in its last days added more evidence of his guilt.
The Hiss-Chambers confrontation of more than half a century ago produced the same kind of visceral polarization that Governor Sarah Palin provokes today.
Before the first trial of Alger Hiss began, reporters who gathered at the courthouse informally sounded each other out as to which of them they believed, before any evidence had been presented. Most believed that Hiss was telling the truth and that it was Chambers who was lying.
More important, those reporters who believed that Chambers was telling the truth were immediately ostracized. None of this could have been based on the evidence for either side, for that evidence had not yet been presented in court.
For decades after Hiss was convicted and sent to federal prison, much of the media and the intelligentsia defended him. To this day, there is an Alger Hiss chair at Bard College.
Why did it matter so much to so many people which of two previously little-known men was telling the truth? Because what was on trial was not one man but a whole vision of the world and a way of life.
Governor Sarah Palin is both a challenge and an affront to that vision and that way of life-- an overdue challenge, much as Chambers' challenge was overdue.
Whether Governor Palin runs for national office again is something that only time will tell. But the Republicans need some candidate who is neither one of the country club Republicans nor-- worse yet-- the sort of person who appeals to the intelligentsia.
...nothing more than a long-standing jockeying for position between the liberal and conservative wings of that party.
That explains the problem.. point out the country has a conservative majorty and that should help REPS... but then we have to fight with in party lib's pulling us away fron that majorty base to be left light..
Tom...you answer your own question
Needs repeating!
Are ya listening Steele?????
It was precisely the Republican "moderates" — Bob Dole and John McCain — who lost disastrously to Democrats who were initially little known individuals but who knew how to talk.
I agree with you, but I really don't think that the GOP/RNC sees it that way.
Thanks for posting this article. I enjoy reading Sowell.
The Rinos own the party. That's why they'll not be gotten out, and that's why Sowell is wrong above.
Replacing the Dems with the Reps is simply applying for a slow socialist takeover instead of a fast socialist takeover.
I do not believe that the Republican Party squandered its huge advantage of controlling presidency, house, and senate. I think it INTENTIONALLY subverted it. They saw a conservative future and REJECTED it.
The Rep Party didn't want a conservative supreme court, a conservative culture, and a conservative future.
And that's why they spent like there was no tomorrow. That's why they refused to defend their wars, why they refuse to patrol the border to control illegal immigration, why they thought Dubai Ports was so great, why killing Terri Schiavo was acceptable, and why 50 million aborted members of our constitutionally protected "Posterity" is just fine and dandy.
There are two ways to governmental reprieve in this nation: a viable alternative party OR a serious overthrow and total rejection of every rino in the republican party.
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