The senator from Wyoming should be burning down the White House by now. We don't need a cipher in such a safe seat.
Posted on 10/14/2014 2:21:31 AM PDT by servo1969
There is a noble-sounding attitude that many Americans hold regarding whom they vote for. "I vote for the candidate," they say.
It sure sounds good. Voting for the best candidate, rather than the party, sounds as American as apple pie. But as the Democratic Party has become a doctrinaire left-wing party, this sentiment is no longer noble. It is actually foolish and dangerous.
There was a time when there were terrific Democrats whom an independent and even a Republican could vote for. Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman was such an example. He was a liberal -- he believed in the good that he thought an expanding government could provide -- but he was a hawk on foreign policy. What did "hawk" mean? Hawks were politicians such as Lieberman who believed that both for America's sake and in order to reduce cruelty on earth, America must be the world's most militarily powerful country, and that it must be prepared to use this power, when feasible, against the world's worst cruelest tyrannies.
Lieberman wasn't the only such Democrat.
Another was the great U.S. senator from New York (served: 1977-2001), Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who coined the phrase that summarized the post-1960s steep decline in America's values: "Defining Deviancy Down," the title of an article he wrote in 1993 for the American Scholar (a conservative journal).
Another such Democrat was Henry "Scoop" Jackson who served as U.S. Senator from Washington state from 1953 to 1983. Jackson was one of the leading anti-Communist "hawks" in American politics.
But such Democratic politicians no longer exist. The left chased Lieberman and others out of the party.
Therefore, voting for just about any Democrat for the House or the Senate, and almost as consistently for governor, is a vote for leftism. It is a vote for clones of President Barack Obama, Senator Harry Reid, and Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, to mention just the leaders of the Democratic Party.
Obamacare provides an excellent example of why "voting for the candidate" is an act of self-delusion. Every vote for this medical and economic transformation of America came from Democrats in the House and Senate; and every Republican, even the most "moderate," voted against it. Regarding the most destructive legislation in modern American history, "the candidate" didn't mean a thing. Party meant everything.
This may be the primary reason Republicans do not do better in a country in which few of its citizens identify themselves as "left:" Republicans run against their opponents, rather than against the left and the Democratic Party. That's what Mitt Romney did. And that's why he lost an election he should have won. Romney never defined his presidential campaign as being opposed to the left or to the Democratic Party. It was solely against Barack Obama, a popular president at the time and the first black ever to serve as president, something that continued to mean a lot to many Americans who hoped that this fact would reduce black animosity toward white America.
Had Mitt Romney constantly repeated that he was not merely running against Barack Obama, the man, but against Barack Obama, the most left-wing president in American history, and continually explained what that meant, he might well have won. But he never made the election about ideology or party. Instead it was about individuals. He, Romney, was the best candidate because he could fix things -- as he did in his business career and with the Salt Lake Winter Olympics. So the election was not about how big government undermines the whole American experiment; how big government makes citizens small people; how the left sees America as just another country; how the teachers unions have helped ruin public education; how the left changed our universities from places of education to places of indoctrination; or how cruelty -- mass murder, torture, slavery, and totalitarianism -- would inevitably take over as America retreated from more and more places. Which brings us to the present elections. The most horrific movement since Nazism and communism, violent Islamism, has taken over much of Iraq solely because America retreated from that country. Millions of Americans understood, and many of us wrote and broadcast, that if America leaves Iraq, a country that was becoming increasingly stable and peaceful, it would be transformed into a bloodbath -- which is exactly what has happened.
Why doesn't every Republican candidate remind voters that the Democratic Party supported the complete withdrawal of American troops from Iraq -- and that this made the Islamic State possible? Either the left succeeds, or America succeeds. Tell that to your constituents, Republican candidates. And then tell them that the left's political party is the one your opponent is proud to represent.
I've yet to vote for my first one and I first voted in 1966 (age 21).
There are many here on Free Republic that out of principle advocate voting for a democrat. Their focus and disdain for primaried republican candidates is so narrow they espouse a vindictive act to get even.
The view through a paper towel tube is so narrow it can’t see that there are thousands and thousands of voters that do not hold the vindictive position.
Totally true. But today the only faithful party-line voters are Blacks and FDR/JFK Democrats. And if Blacks don’t show up to vote, the Dems cast a proxy vote for them (providing Voter ID is not in force). The Dems are trying to get Hispanics fully on board, but they keep fighting it by learning English, and the Dems may have to settle for a lighter majority than they hoped (maybe 65% instead of 90%, huge difference when the votes are counted).
Conservative Republicans for the most part, will sit out an election and let the Dem win, if they don’t like the candidate. Conservatives do have their shot in the Primaries, but they usually don’t pay enough attention, so you end up with McCain/Romney. But once in a while they do put in the required effort, and thus Eric Cantor is now condemned to K Street.
We can win with OUR CANDIDATES, for a short time longer (until Amnesty makes the country single-party), but we have to also try.
He was an articulate, thoughtful individual. The modern democrat should follow his advice.
I generally like Prager, but this article could have just as easily been written about the GOP. It’s very simple: no one should ever vote for any Democrat, but you must be very cautious with all Republicans these days.
If they aren’t conservative, they are worse than Democrats and will stab the country in the back every time. For every “conservative” vote (which are 99.99% worthless “protest” measures), there were 1,000 votes where RINOs carried the leftists’ water and passed legislation that has harmed the country.
Everyone points to Obamacare as a the great Republican stand. I’ll believe they were serious when the House votes to defund all of it.
Crickets....
Voting for a RINO is worse than voting for a Democrat. Vote only for conservatives, and tell Rove and his party apparatchiks to go to hell.
Yeah. And votes for Boehner, Cochrane, Christie, Snowe, and the like are ALSO votes for clones of Obama.
It would be nice if we actually had two parties.
Today, I will to what I can to keep Democrats out of power, and YES, that means I will vote for a "RINO" if the vote is going to be close.
There is no such thing as a good Democrat...
I will not vote for a person with a “D”
There are some exceptions, Sheriff Clarke in Milwaukee Co is one of them. He could not get elected as a Republican.
The unfortunate thing for the country is that the Republicans often don’t give us much of a choice anymore. Far too many are to the left of center.
“The democrat party is the party of abortion, socialism, thievery, disarmament, and totalitarianism.
Voting for democrats is immoral.
Some politicians in the Republican Party are indistinguishable from democrats.
Voting for them is also immoral.”
An easier list
Baby Killers, Welfare Cheats and Pervert F*****s. Everything else is just corruption but those three are the real driving force of the demonratic party
Dennis Prager hits a home run again. Never let the Dems near power because they become swallowed by the DC progressives. We have the tea party and will continue to pull the Repubs in the right direction, instead of sitting on the sideline telling everyone how pure we are, while the country continues to go to hades
I believe the term "Useful Idiots" is appropriate.
I am afraid that the chances to wrest control of the Senate from Harry Reid and his pet RATS will fall short because of these "useful idiots". Of course, they will blame the GOPe and Karl Rove, et al. They are just like pResident JugEars. It is never their fault...it is somebody else's!
Thanks for the post.
As you point out, the way to beat democrats is not by pandering. I think you have to have bright fresh ideas of your own to sell, and have to point out how old, tired, and perpetually disproved their ideas are. Then let the chips fall where they may. Romney also lost because he didn't slam back at the false narrative pushed by the Democrats that he was an ‘out of touch’ fat cat.
Mike Enzi is no Cochran.
There was a time when there were terrific Democrats whom an independent and even a Republican could vote for.
Not really. They've been controlled by the far leftwing nationally since 1896. Non-socialist democrat leaders have been the exception since then, and non-existent nationally since John Nance Garner relinquished the Speakership. All congressional democrats enabled the socialist party leadership, as they still do.
Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman was such an example.
A lot of conservatives supported him in 1988 over the far-left RINO Lowell Weicker, who wound up leaving the party anyway, you could say that was a democrat primary with no Republican running. Lieberman became very popular and was unbeatable in 1994. They had created a monster. I call FAIL. I'd have probably casted a blank vote. Should have let the Wookie win, we might have seen Gary Franks (R) elected in 1994.
His election enabled him to be the VP nominee, and he nearly helped Al Gore win Florida. Again, fail. Don't create a monster. Liarman was a 90% lib as opposed to the usual 99%. 80%-90% libs are MORE dangerous than 99%ers because they more easily win elections by fooling chumps into voting for them.
Another was the great U.S. senator from New York (served: 1977-2001), Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Sounds like a fine man, and he wasn't a 100% lib. But he was still a lib and his election over conservative Senator James Buckley in 1976 and his subsequent reelections was a tragedy. No Republican ever had a reason to vote for him. If he didn't like "deviancy" then he should have voted to confirm Robert Bork to the Supreme Court. He did not. To label any liberal democrat as a "great" Senator is mind bogglingly idiotic. Jesse Helms was a great Senator.
Another such Democrat was Henry "Scoop" Jackson who served as U.S. Senator from Washington state from 1953 to 1983. Jackson was one of the leading anti-Communist "hawks" in American politics.
And in 1952 he beat a Republican incumbent who was to his right, and subsequently propped up 1 seat rat majorities from 1955-58. Fail.
Lieberman, Scoop Jackson. Some conservative writers really have a boner for any rat that didn't hate the military, as if that's some kind of singular accomplishment. I don't get it. If they were truly great men they'd have denounced and left their evil party.
The senator from Wyoming should be burning down the White House by now. We don't need a cipher in such a safe seat.
I think you’ve got it wrong. Not many if any are going to vote for a democrat but many of us are simply not going to vote at all. The elite republicans are not going to take my vote for granted any longer. Doesn’t mean that I will vote for a democrat..that will never happen.
The most conservative candidate gets my vote every time. If RINOs don’t like that then they can nominate conservatives.
I owe my vote to no one.
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