TOM MCCLINTOCK DAILY EDITION - 10/8/03 - GOING DARK!

[Rabid Dog]

As many of you know this has been a local, regional, national news and views thread. I want to thank all of you that have respected its intent. When I first started this thead, I was on the fence between Arnold and Tom. Within a week, it became clear that Tom was the man I could respect and support.

Within a month it became clear that the CA G.O.P. was not an organization I could respect and support and so I have switched parties and will be changing my screen name to Rabid Dog.

Tomorrow I am entering Freeper Detox and will be drying out for a week or so but am looking foward to discussing the changes in California under the leadership of our new governor - ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER!!

[Carry_Okie]

Thank you all for your fine work and steadfast support of conservative principles. By Tom McClintock's leadership, we have at least boxed Arnold into doing a few things he wouldn't have committed to doing (something his supporters would hardly admit, as to do so would be to acknowledge Tom's leadership qualities). It remains to be seen how substantive those accomplishments will be once the details become evident. It is, after all, Pete Wilson's people who will carve that turkey.

As is always the case with support from the "vast middle" of the political spectrum, that commitment to Arnold is at best ephemeral and individually subjective. Arnold's support does not so much represent what he brings to California, as it does a reaction of fear for what the State portends to become as a consequence of liberal governance. Given the body of legislation that has recently crossed the governor's desk, we have yet to live with the consequences long enough for the people of this State to recognize the full implications of what they portend, consequences that may yet be hung on Arnold, for there is much that has passed the legislature and been approved by Davis that he would have rejected, but doesn't have the will to repeal. It's just too many issues and details to muster "the people" (what is in fact a distracted and usually disinterested electorate) to compel the legislature to reverse its course and preferences.

Arnold's victory was numerically substantial, but from what I can tell, his support was in large part projection of individual preferences onto incredibly vague positions that varied according to the nature of his audiences. He proposed expensive and intrusive environmental policies to the left and talked of fiscal prudence and the need to return business to California to the right. He truly does want to be a governor of all the people, and that is the problem. All of the people do not agree because their preferences are mutually exclusive. Politics therefore involves choices with consequences.

The campaign was so short that exposure of a close examination of those few policies he proposed was not possible. It's really too bad that his supporters here did not reflect longer upon what those policies portended. They also underestimated the power of their own choices and persuasion. I see nothing from the recall that doesn't strongly indicate that had the GOP supported McClintock he would have won.

That indicates a a troubling set of choices for the future of a conservative Republican Party. If it is truly the intent of the GOP to take the party to the left and ignore the base that supplies it its supposed principles, then it will become the party of "We're not the Democrats." Thus Democrats will have taken control of the determinants of all political choices.

What remains for us to accomplish is to learn how it is conservative principles that serve the interests of traditional Democratic constituencies. It is we who should be doing the "reaching out," not by making concessions of watered-down Democrat proposals, but by showing how and why creative conservative ideas can truly create a productive and happy society. At this, conservatives have done a rotten job, preferring to spout principles and quote the founding fathers instead of showing how the limited government they gave us can undo the mess of democratic socialism. Until we can distill those ideas and their supporting mechanics into simple and understandable terms, we don't deserve to win elections.

A lot of damage has been done to this website by the vitriol that arises from having little to defend. Let's hope FreeRepublic once again reflects the principles that made it what it has been and could again be in the future.

CO

[truthkeeper]

If you want more details, I can scrounge.

Thank you, that's generous of you. Only at your leisure, if it's not too much trouble. I've heard different information as well.

[Flashman_at_the_charge]

The good thing for Tom is that I think he will be called on more by the media as an expert witness in the field of California budgets. Tom will be able to ask questions of the Arnold camp that will be passed on by the media. This kind of “and how the hell are you going to pay for that?” examination of the Governors fiscal policies is well overdue and I for one will welcome it.

[AmericanMade1776]

Arnold is not a Flaming Liberal, he was someone who went over and supported our troops in Iraq, if he had been a flaming liberal he would of been like Sean Penn and had dinner with Saddam before the conflict.

You know, I hate to say it, but the way you guys are losing and crying you sound like the liberal sorelosers, buck up guys! WE WON!!! California won, the People voted and the People will be heard.

I bet McClintock is not going to leave the Republican party, just because he lost this race.

[Rabid Dog]

Thanks!

My family can't wait for me to start drying out - I've been told I have been impossible as of late. My mouse hand is cramped up into a little claw and my eyes are bloodshot all the time now. I guess I no longer speak in complete sentences anymore and have a puddle of droll by my chair.

I just hope it doesn't hurt too much. I'll keep a picture of Tom next to my bed!

[Carry_Okie]

Sorry, I forgot you.

[truthkeeper]

Exceptional, well-written post. Thank you for your effort.

[A CA Guy]

More fabrication from the Tombot dreamworld.

All I saw was his attempt to divide the party.

[Flashman_at_the_charge]

I'm going him the benefit of the doubt for now. These are very early days.

[Rabid Dog]

Ya see what you want to see.

[ApesForEvolution]

Because that's all you were looking for...

[SONbrad]

Excellent point. From listening to these McClintock people you would think that we got our a**es kicked. It really sickens me to hear this sore-loser mentality of the McClintock faction. I didn't think that was the way you were when you were a member of a team. You don't quit on the rest of the team.

As you said, I am sure that McClintock is not going to quit and he wouldn't want his supporters to either.

[ApesForEvolution]

You beat me to it...

[Flashman_at_the_charge]

I guess that pager went off a little late this morning.

[pogo101]

This page on the Cal. Sec. State's site is as good a starting point as any. Bottom line: voters who are registered as "decline to state" may vote in a party's primary (and presumably in only ONE party's primary per election!) IF AND ONLY IF that party has passed an internal rule permitting this. Thus far, only the AIP has done so.

No way will the two major parties allow this; they were the principal forces that sought to overturn the 1996 "open primary" amendment in the first place.

[EternalVigilance]

Thanks. The war continues on a host of fronts.

[freekitty]

Tom McClintock is a good man. I hope he remains in government in a leadership role, where he will make a difference.

[capitan_refugio]

A CA Guy -

We all listened to you spew your filth for weeks now. The election is over. No one here really cares what you think. You are about as welcome on this thread as a fart in church.

The people who supported Tom McClintock did so because he best represented their beliefs and principles. From your comments, that's something you don't understand.

I'm sure you can find a gloat thread somewhere. So stop your trolling. Go away already.

[Rabid Dog]

Thank God we don't live in Russia - or else you'd have to kill me for leaving the Party. Or maybe sent me to Siberia so I could be "re-educated".

There's a reason Communism didn't work.

What's good for the party isn't always good for the people.

[Cinnamon Girl]

Respectfully, your comments make no sense and don't seem very productive. You sound like a Libertarian voter, that is, "my way, or we can all go down the tubes."