Posted on 06/22/2002 9:46:05 AM PDT by quidnunc
This summer will mark the 47th year since I took my first Republican job: as public relations director for the party in Minnesota. Since then I have rarely strayed from politics, or my party. I served as a staffer to two GOP congressmen, to a GOP governor, as a federal appointee to Richard Nixon and as a corporate executive who supported in Washington and Springfield much, if not all, of the Republican agenda.
You can describe me as a conservative. Thus I am qualified to say that although I dearly love conservatives, they tend to be querulous, disagreeable and threaten revolt when Republican office-holders don't please them. So it is now with George W. Bush. Here is a president who has surprised us all with the firmness and resolve he showed after 9/11. I must tell you I voted for him with less enthusiasm than I had for many of his predecessors. But his administration has pleased me often most notably on two issues: defense of America and social policy.
Yet, Bush has to get re-elected in a country that is evenly divided on philosophy. Thus he must occasionally on matters that sometimes offend conservatives dip into the other side's ideology for support. He has done so on three notable occasions: on the issue of steel protectionism, where he departed his free-market proclamations; on the signing of a campaign finance bill tailored by his enemies, and allowing his attorney general (in the words of Libertarian Nat Hentoff in the Washington Times) "to send disguised agents into religious institutions, libraries and meetings of citizens critical of government policy without a previous complaint, or reason to believe that a crime has been committed."
In a perfect political world, where conservatives are in the majority, these things would be sufficient to encourage a boycott of the polls. Either that or a protest vote for the Democratic opposition. But we are not in a perfect world. We conservatives have a president who didn't receive a majority of the votes, and has one house of Congress against him. He must make compromises to get re-elected. Conservatives who do not understand the nature of politics ought to stay in their air-conditioned ivory towers and refrain from political activity altogether. If they cannot adjudge the stakes in this election and the difference between Bush and an Al Gore or a John Kerry (D-Mass.) or a Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.), they are foolish indeed.
-snip-
To read the remainder of this op/ed open the article via the link provided in the thread's header.
How'd you like the "cut Bush some slack" demand followed by the "agree with this or you're a crackpot" jab to start things off?
Gotta love that coalition-building.
Well, there's two sides to every story. Should I try for a bakers dozen, twit?! Guess I just did.
I see you are wallowing in your own filth again. You have graduated from a sick puppy to a sh%t eating dog while sniffing the rear end of another one.
I already told you, these anti-Bush people/forces, aren't interested building any coalition with the President's supporters. They all hate Bush and disdain conservative Republicans.
Btw, exactly when did you change your tune about President Bush and decide to support him? I don't remember seeing that one.
What I said was "Tom Roeser's credentials as an undoubted conservative Republican simply cannot be challanged without the challanger running the risk of sounding like a crackpot. "
My point has been abundently proved.
There you go again. When you attack the screen name, you lose the argument. Will you self-professed rhetorical geniuses ever get that? Nay. I highly doubt it.
The only people tpaine gets any respect from are the discredited retreads.
I know.
Really, What happened in 1992 when the RATS owned everything? We won congress by a landslide and effectively changed the course of American History (for a while at least). Sometimes, it's better to stand up for what you believe. The problems the Republicans face is they are becoming like the RATS in the 70s and 80s. Say/Do anything to keep your seat. Often times it's better to stand on principal (even if you lose a battle, you will win the war). However, if you bend like silly putty you'll be molded into something you never intended and hence you'll lose the war. Although you'll never see it because you've been molded by the opposition to believe what they believe.
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