People, mostly on the Left, would have you believe a number of new concepts.
I repudiate these concepts.
The Demorats, Leftists and Socialists want you to believe in a New Paradigm because, as they are writing now:
- Conservatism is dead;
- The internet is dead;
- Blogs are dead;
- Talk radio is dead.
Therefore, the GOP is striding boldly into a new, all-encompassing view similar to that of the Demorats. And John McCain is taking the forefront in leading the Republican Party to a newer, wider definition of itself because, after all, it has to.
The Mainstream Media (what Limbaugh calls the DriveBy Media, and I call the DEM: Defeatist, Elitist Media) say so. Newsradio says so. TV says so. Mainstream pundits say so. Leftist blogs say so. Newspapers say so.
The internal strife within the Republican Party, played out publicly for all to see and hear, heralds the true Death Knell of Conservatives and a New Day for the Grand Old Party.
The GOP desperately needs to be more accommodating, more inclusive rather than exclusive; it needs to move, first, more to the center. Then it needs to move further left which, after all, is the Natural State of Things.
In summation, it needs to be more like the Demorat Party; anyone can see that.
No. It does not.
Because: why, then, have two parties? Why not have us all coalesce into not only a One World Barbeque, but a One Party American political system?
When compromises have to be made, when accommodations have to be made, I ask: why is it only that Conservatives must compromise and accommodate?
I submit: we should not.
The Left is declaring us dead, jejune, moribund, of no further consequence.
I submit: we are not.
But here are some telling stats: why the trouncing on Super Tuesday? Because 14.6 million Demorats showed up to vote. 8.3 million Republicans appeared. Disparity, anyone?
McCain is now our Front Runner.
Romney is out; Huckabee is soon to be. Ron Paul is a spattered fly speck on a windshield.
Here are my new thoughts: burblings indicate Huckabee is being groomed as McCain’s VP. I say: no, wrong. Once McCain has bled sufficient votes from Huckabee, Governor Michael will be kicked to the curb by the McCain Campaign, his usefulness over.
THE BOTTOM LINE:
Just as Dewey defeated Truman, Leftists, Demorats and Socialists are declaring the death of Conservatives and Conservatism.
I would ask: are you dead?
BZ
I would submit that the DEM’s, party leadership, beltway insiders would like to be relevant again, but the viewers/readers of the old media continue to fall away. and rather than change their tune they would like to convince the public to change theirs. the days of the evening news anchors easily swaying opinion and senators (like McCain) getting away with back room deals to rush funky legislation thru (like McCain-Kennedy) are over, thanks to bloggers like Malkin and talk radio. I’m not sure the insiders realize it yet, but they will when they try to pull some shit, (and McCain undoubtedly will, if elected, he has too big a history of cavorting with his liberal buddies). and the phones ring off the hook and the mailservers plug up again.
It’s just too easy to get information and send information these days, and it’s easy to write your congressmen/senators too. I do, and while I usually get the usual canned response I occasionally get a personal one, so I know people actually do read them. when Washington screws up, they hear about it, they don’t like it and they are not used to it. but there are some citizens watching them, and they are a lot more vocal then they used to be.
Oh wow. You mean we AREN’T dead?
What a concept!
BZ
my other thought is conservatives settled for Bush, conservatives settled for McCain, thinking the more centrist has a better chance of winning.
I disagree, I think what would gain popularity is a real conservative with a real plan of action and the fortitude to push said plan. much like Gingrich and his contract with America.
conservatives are in disarray, discouraged due to Bush’s crazy spending habits and conservatives need a strong leader, and we haven’t got one right now.
no conservatives aren’t dead, but we are real weak right now, the good thing is so are the libs. hell the only people in the world who seem to know who they are and what they want are the Muslims right now. most of western culture is way too busy examining their own navel and refuse to deal with issues like what is right and what is wrong. and accept pluralism and moral equivalence as a workable philisophy (which it isn’t).
I have a cold, BZ, but no… I’m not dead and neither is the Republican party, regardless of what the MSM would like to believe.
McCain will not elect Huckabee as his VP! That idea is so absurd that… that… er…
Wait a minute. Everything about this election cycle is absurd. Anything could happen. Whoever thought we would have wound up with someone as liberal as John McCain? Well, to answer my own question I was listening to a rant on Rush Limbaugh’s blog today and he ran a tape of what he said in 2006. He predicted if we didn’t vote and the Democrats wound up with the House and Senate, then we would be stuck with McCain as frontrunner in 08. He really did say that and he sure had it right.
Now we have those who are willing to throw their votes away again and give it to either Hillary or Obama. This I don’t understand, because either one of them would be worse than McCain. We have a chance of keeping McCain in line. We have no chance whatsoever of keeping either of those Dems in line.
I think what we need to do now is
1) vote for McCain as the lesser of two evils (by far)
2) turn our attention to Congress and try to get a few more conservatives seated there and try to make the changes there first.
Shop: we’ve effectively lost the Presidency. Yes, we need to concentrate on the House and Senate in Washington, and then coming elections in our states.
BZ
My problems with conservatives is this, taken from one of my longer tracts:
“This idea of adhering to a ‘strict constructionalist’ stance would actually have some meaning if those pressing for it actually meant it. ‘Strict constructionalism’ is not limited to the Judiciary alone and, in fact, by pointing to that first we see the very *last* institution that is the backstop of our liberties and freedom. The first place to apply ‘strict constructionalism’ is where it matters the most: where laws are made. That is not the Judicial or Executive branches, but the Legislative branch. When individuals are heard to moan about ‘activist courts’ they are not addressing the problem that the laws are being made by ‘activist legislators’. That realm of ‘activism’ has had profound and deep changes in the perception of the public on the role of the government in its lives. It was once understood that the role of the Federal government to be played in the lives of ordinary Americans was limited so as to not overburden the individual and remove their liberty and rights and put those in the hands of over-worked, under-caring bureaucrats.
So, why do we never hear about ‘strict constructionalism’ being applied to Congressional or Presidential elections? Isn’t adhering to the boundaries set by the Constitution just as, if not more, important than the Judiciary? Yet, we do not hear that nor of individuals touting their ‘strict constructionalist’ outlooks for what they will do in office. As a litmus test it is only applied at the final place of appeal and *not* at the beginning of the process that causes such appeals to be necessary. When you hear any Presidential candidate touting that ‘strict constructionalist’ judges are their goal, one should ask: what about yourself? Really, the process of creating laws, moving them into place and enforcing them then causes court cases that wind through the justice system for decades until they get heard by the Supreme Court. Anyone serious on ‘strict constructionalism’ would put that as the prime view for ALL elected offices and critique individuals on what their views of the powers of government *are*. Yet that is rarely heard in the Land of the Free. Instead it is this or that social program or benefit or bribe to a certain sector of the economy and never, not for decades at least and perhaps longer, about the fact that government has little or no place in such things.”
This is causing the Traditionalist Social Conservatives, you know the folks following in the footsteps of Jefferson, Franklin, Washington, and Paine, to ask the Republican Party: Where’s the Beef?
Espousing such views is fine and dandy, but actually *carrying them out* when you have had majorities in Congress for a decade and the Presidency with a goodly portion of *that* is required. The Republican Party GOT THOSE THINGS and did *nothing* with them. Do not point at ‘tax cuts’ or ‘free trade’ when it is the size and scope of government endangering personal liberty that is the problem. In case it has been missed it was that promise that brought many to Reagan and returned some few to Newt and are now walking away from the Republican Party. And a lot of *those* folks had been stabbed in the back by the Democratic Party in the decade previous to Reagan.
Controlling government to enforce social views is anathema when done either for ‘liberal’ or ‘conservative’ views: the idea is to have government stay *out* of that. By using government for that it is then *validated* that government is good for that on *either side*. ‘Small government conservative’ is *not* fiscal conservatism but traditionalist conservatism via the Founders. Jacksonians grabbed that and expanded the frontiers and the Traditionalists followed to lay down the society necessary to keep those thing expanded into. To Jacksonians the Constitution is an honorable compact as written and amenable to honor amongst citizens. Traditionalists followed that up to institute those things necessary for society and yet keep government from the National side out of things.
Jacksonians were stabbed in the back by those that would no longer bother to protect the Nation. Traditionalists are getting it from those that will no longer support the Constitution. These are *not* two groups you want feeling disenfranchised in a Nation as they hold that volatile mix of liberty, freedom and gunpowder and making nice only with those that will keep to their side of a bargain.
I don’t think that Republicans have figured out that Nation is above Party and that agreements are above candidates. The other way around gets you what we have now. The Democrats turned to bread, circuses, bribes and no accountability, so have the Republicans, and soon the barbarians come and you no longer have society, government or Nation in that order as the last two depend upon the first.
Such a shame we have not bothered to learn history.
What is that about repeating it?
Conservatives are by no means dead. The Republican Party does however seem to be on its death bed because it seems it has turned into Democrat right.
The differences between Hillary, Osamabama and McDem are slim and none. McDem will fold to the left if he gets elected. Im really not sure he can beat Hillary but there are more than enough Dems who will vote against Osamabama because he is black.
Conservatives need to concentrate on the Congressional seats, a president can say whatever they want to get elected but to get anything done with those promisses or in Hillary’s case threats, they need help in Congress, thats where we can block the full speed ahead destruction of America.