Posted on 08/22/2009 7:59:20 AM PDT by ex-snook
Tanenhaus belongs on IMUS and MSNBC where he will try to push this book.
Best literary work on the subject of the Hiss-Chambers Case is still 'Witness'.
I'm not talking about Bush. I'm talking about the rank and file American people. The tea parties. The town hall meetings. Where were they during the Bush years? For the most part, silently on his side, choosing to resist the Democrats with all their might. Even here, it was dangerous to criticize GW and his policies. It was wagon circling in the extreme, and it was conducted by the same people who now rise up. I'm saying we, the conservatives, need to be independent of the GOP. Clearly, our best hopes lie there for results, but we must consider ourselves separate from them. We must have our own nuclear option, which in the end, is Obama and a DEM congress. We must take to the town halls when the GOP spends more than it has. We must go full bore on BOTH parties. Neither party has a record worth defending on the central issue, which is spending, and scope of power. We must keep the heat on, and on, and on, and aim it at the entire operation.
...and later on...
The tea parties. The town hall meetings. Where were they during the Bush years?
You are absolutley right. Conservatives were asleep at the wheel, resting on our laurals, or just enjoying the good economy.
I'm probably like a lot of other people...I had high hopes for George Bush..voted for him 2x, defended him. And while he did the country a lot of good, he also did a lot to hurt the country.
If the Conservatives are able to get their foot back in the political door in 2010, we will still fail IF WE DON'T KEEP UP the town halls, or at least significant pressure on the politicians. I don't care if Republicans wind up taking the presidency, house and senate in 2012, the pressure from us CANNOT stop.
I don't think that's it. I think it was more that conservatives made a calculated decision to defend GWB against the left and discourage criticism. Events conspired to make it so. First, the Florida debacle, then 9-11, then war in Iraq, all induced the "circle the wagons" defensive posture that characterized the era. There were just a few exceptions--immigration, Harriet Miers, and Dubai. Anyway, it wasn't resting on laurels. It was a defensive posture brought on by the hostility and tactics of the left, and by events that seemed to require extreme loyalty. In my view, this grass roots movement must keep on the Congress. Why only the most extreme proposals like health care? Clearly the meetings had an impact. Why not keep pressing, and pressing, and pressing, all on the core issues--spending and scope of power.
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