Posted on 07/31/2015 10:43:59 AM PDT by Kaslin
The GOP’s Puritans must be used to being politically lonely. They often speak as if their positions on issues like immigration, abortion, regulations, welfare, education, were carefully chiseled on sacred tablets somewhere, but the rest of us somehow never get it right.
“Nobody has ever run as a conservative, but that’s what people really want,” they say. Barry Goldwater was the last true conservative and made it as far as the nomination. Sixteen years later, Ronald Reagan said he was a conservative, but to get elected, he campaigned for a strong America against world evil, welfare queens, and big government. Period. He didn’t run against illegal immigration or abortion, despite his statements of personal abhorrence on the latter.
One thing Goldwater, Reagan, and the Bushes never did was to engage in low behavior and expect everyone to give them a pass, as liberals so readily did when Elizabeth Warren phonied up her Native American heritage, or when Hillary’s serial falsehoods became weekly revelations. As to Obama, well, enough already said. Their media mavens and low info voters like what they say and how they say it, and the rest matters not at all.
It must be difficult, indeed, then, for Puritans to pant principles like liberty, honor, decency, then give a pass to Mr. Trump when he attacked Senator McCain’s POW status (“a loser,” he said). Trump could have attacked McCain and others with reason and passion for what they have said or proposed, but he chooses to make his attacks gratuitously low. The Puritans jumped into the cauldron of political turpitude because Trump said things they like about Mexico sending us their criminals. Flailing about Putin, the Iranians, and other of the world’s miscreants—and all other Republicans who dare depart from purity—has done little except quicken the Puritan heartbeat. Were the election held today, however, it would be surprising if Mr. Trump received even 40% of the vote.
Why is it the Puritans—like Goldwater and today’s mountaintop denizens—have forgotten Rule #1? Reagan knew it and the Bushes knew it: You gotta get elected!
I was a young federal manager during the Reagan years, and what that master administrator knew was that legislation was one thing, but for the most part, executive orders and emplacement of the right professionals down deep in the bureaucracy was far better. Having control of the House or Senate or both was nice—when you could get them to act—but having the pen and the power of appointment was the best of all worlds. Obama’s legacy may include a flawed health care law and a disastrous foreign policy, but more so, with his pen and his appointees he has set much in motion that will be hard to undo, unconstitutional or not.
This past week, I’ve had several conversations with Thirty-Somethings, and a few common themes surface: They’ve had it with political parties that do nothing. Most like it that Trump has pointed at the gorilla in the room, but they are not comfortable with him because they say what one of the characters in my books might say: “If someone can buy the presidency, he will owe his supporters nothing.”
They want safe, secure borders, and managed, legal immigration is key. As to Planned Parenthood, let the Clinton Foundation fund it, not us. It’s about human rights. No respecters of the establishment, they’ll follow the most positive, unifying voice, not the loudest one.
What they understand—and what Puritans must understand—is that we can go beyond Reagan’s dream, but if we want good things to happen in the end, we have to make them happen, with everyone part of the action team.
What the Thirty-Somethings want is what we all want—a class act, maybe a Just-Right-of Center-Something to take us to that high place where we know we belong.
I’ve got one word for the “buy the presidency” argument.
Romney
Wonder why the message on the hat was cropped...
“Why is it the Puritans—like Goldwater and today’s mountaintop denizens—have forgotten Rule #1? Reagan knew it and the Bushes knew it: You gotta get elected!”
Nobody’s forgotten that, we have just realized that it doesn’t matter if you get elected and then do the same thing as every other politician.
Was there a point there?
This guys accepts that Puritan is a derogatory term.
The left worked hard to get to this point.
Trump is getting the “We’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore” supporters.
There are a lot of them.
Today’s conservative movement is relatively recent. It bears little resemblance to Goldwater or Reagan. The GOP needs to take a look at what has changed and how we got to where we are now. Strategy and tactics must reflect that change.
Trump - speaking truth to power.
Only one of two antiestablishmentarianism candidates.
John P. Warren sure has a hatred going for “Puritans”.
Perot's mistakes had nothing to do with financing. For starters, his VP choice was an incoherent joke.
I don’t have to buy into Trump’s candidacy (not yet anyway) to tell this guy to take a hike. McConnell just got re-elected running as a conservative, on the conservative platform, and he was emphatic in saying that he was doing so. Then what happened once he got re-elected? Harry Reid couldn’t have done more to advance Hussein’s unconstitutional agenda. Hussein himself couldn’t have been more sneering and dismissive of conservatives-the very people to whom McConnell lied by saying he was one of us, to get conservative votes. Trump may not be the man, but neither is Yeb, or any of the other squishes trying to pull another fast one on conservatives (and if we fall for it yet again, not only shame on us, but we are too stupid to even vote). Cruz is the only one who even approaches being true to conservative principles, and the likes of this author and the GOPe he supports have done everything within their power to destroy him. If they don’t like it that conservatives are giving Trump the time of day, they really have only themselves to blame-they let us know in no uncertain terms that they aren’t going to make room for a Cruz, a Chris McDaniel, or any other conservative, because conservatives interfere with why the GOPe is even in Sodom On The Potomac. The GOPe did all but push us into somene like Trump’s arms when they told us and the men we support to get lost and shut up, to just go away, they got our votes and we’ve served our purpose.
If that means ditching opposition to abortion and sodomite mirage, never. If we don’t continue to fight for these issues, the left’s “morality” will dominate. Many conservatives were willing to compromise when the sodomites were claiming that they just wanted government out of their bdrooms, and look where we are now-they have legal standing to force the children of Christian parents, in public schools, to be propagandised by the sodomite agenda.
The message is: Make America Great Again
There are a lot of them
I'd say that's about 70% of real Americans.
You have to blame it on the voters of KY that McConnell got reelected. You can not blame it on the GOP
If that means ditching opposition to abortion and sodomite mirage, never.
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.
