Blood on the Potomac

Blog ^ | May 25, 2005 | Frank M. Pohole

[Cacique]

Blood on the Potomac

 

 

On May 23rd in a scene reminiscent of Caesar's assassination seven backstabbers on the Republican side committed an act of betrayal worthy of Brutus. We might as well remember this day as the Ides of May. The left as it has for most of history has shown it is more adept at power politics than the center and right. Next to Brutus, Benedict Arnold and other famous traitors we may now add the name of John McCain. The left was looking for a fiddle to play and they found a violin in John McCain.

 

V. I. Lenin had a dictum, ignore you are a minority, act as a majority, act as if you are in charge.  He understood that what mattered was the exercise of power, not how much support you had. Lenin had his Kerensky, Hitler his Chamberlain and the Democrats have John McCain and his willing accomplices. For McCain his treason had several objectives. He has presidential ambitions that were thwarted by George W. in 2000. It's no secret that the man bears a mean grudge. The other reasoning behind the move is the fatal reasoning of "centrists" everywhere. The belief that if they compromise with their opponents and meet them "half way" they will reciprocate and throw their support to him later on. But as centrists have learned before in history the hard way. You cannot feed a shark a finger and expect him to be well fed.

 

What point are elections if when we elect a majority the left manages to move the goalposts and plays us for fools. I was under the impression that when you lost elections you don't get to make the rules and you don't get to make policy. But it appears in the delusional surreal world of the senate the rules of the real world do not apply. Our idiotic Republican leadership allowed the democrats to change the rules to require 60 votes for cloture. That's because we have supposedly 55 votes. Suppose we had elected 61 senators on our line. Does anyone think they would not have attempted to change the rules to make 75 votes necessary for cloture? What a bunch of saps we are when we let them get away with it.

 

In Lenin's day the Bolsheviks (which means majority) had only 11% of the votes in the Duma. Yet they managed to run circles around Kerensky and his moderates. The Bolsheviks in our own senate appear to have learned their lessons well. History repeats itself.

 

Conservatives too need to learn a lesson. They have invested too much emotional capital in the Republican party and have forgotten that Conservatism is a political movement, not a political party. By investing themselves in the Republican party they have become what blacks are for the Democrats. A huge voting block that can easily be ignored. Once again we have been disappointed with our "leaders" and like a battered wife, we keep going back for more. I am not sure the answer is a third party. Perhaps merely the threat of one will suffice. But we can no longer compromise. We cannot continue to vote for RINOS as the lesser of two evils. We need to make clear that our support will go only to true conservatives, both our money and our votes.

 

There is blood on the Potomac. Our republic was stabbed again. Not mortally yet, but one must wonder how many pints of blood loss we can endure. We may have won elections but it appears we haven't learned to be in charge. In politics, perception is reality and right now Republicans can only be perceived as losers.

[Do not dub me shapka broham]

Thanks!

I've been lurking, you could say.

:)

I like those editorial cartoons, especially the last one, which I think encapsulates my sentiments perfectly.

After hearing Voinvich's pathetic, lachrymose lament the other day, I'm pretty sure that he would feel at home wearing a colorful beanie with little propellers attached to it.

[LibertarianInExile]

I gotta tell ya, there is more spin being posted on here by pro-RINOs than I could ever have imagined. I knew there were party loyalists here, but Jeezus H. McGillicuddy, these people are proof that the GOP could burn the Capitol down using the Constitution for kindling, and there'd be a strong support base for it here.

I have a link to Tony Blankley's column on my homepage, and it's posted here on FR, and it is the best column on the whole subject I've seen so far.

I never was all that impressed with the man on McLaughlin, but he is rapidly rising to a Steyn level of respect with me for his writing. While Steyn is always great, and in my eyes the best political writer today, for his ability to see through the bullshit and catch nuances, I don't think you can beat Blankley.

[RKBA Democrat]

Well. I guess it's one of those times when I get to wade in as one of the few unzotted Democrat FReepers.

To use a poker analogy, the Republicans were holding a straight. But rather than play their cards, they folded.

It's times like this when I'm actually somewhat at a loss for words. I mean what do you say? I'm sorry. The Republican party base and my fellow conservatives deserve better.

Much as my Democratic party makes me want to gnash my teeth at times, I can say that at least I have some sense of being represented by my party.

[Do not dub me shapka broham]

I'll be sure to read it.

Blankley has always impressed me, whether it was as a chief aide to Newt Gingrich or as an editorial columnist for the Washington Times.

We could definitely use more people like him on Capitol Hill.

I don't know what the world is coming too when states like Ohio and South Carolina turn out the type of milquetoast, feckless, Rockefeller Republican retreads that have-for some inexplicable reason-been able to colonize the Republican Caucus in the U.S. Senate.

(Sigh of exasperation.)

[LibertarianInExile]

South Carolina has been the limp wrist of the South for decades. That lazy, effiminate accent [shudder] and crappy college football are tipoffs that the state ain't got something quite right going on. Their richer neighborhoods tend to harbor the carpetbagger/scalawag sort. If Fritzy Hollings didn't make it obvious, Lindsay Graham sure does.

Ohio, on the other hand, that state ought to have been electing good men. Bob Taft the Elder was far better than what they seem to elect nowadays. Maybe Blackwell will do something to make a difference there, dunno.

[Do not dub me shapka broham]

It really is baffling.

The Ohio Republican Party is following the lead of Texas, where, after Tom Pauken assumed the state leadership, the mushy moderates were flushed out of the corridors of power.

In Ohio the Christian conservatives and tax-cutters are gradually-but inexorably-supplanting Robert Taft III cronies, and yet those two dopes in D.C. think they're going to ingratiate themselves with ordinary voters by bartering their souls over to the Dem. Caucas?!

It defies reason.

[MikefromOhio]

Unfortunately Bubba Taft has done more damage than good. Blackwell needs to run and run strong. Ohio can be a conservative state so long as the conservative candidate gets the message out there. Otherwise, it is a very purple state, so to speak.


But unlike South Carolina, our college football is going to be great this year :)

[Do not dub me shapka broham]

I hope so.

Even if the Democrats manage to defeat Blackwell, I have the sneaking suspicion that it will be a Pyrrhic victory for their party.

I believe that what occurred last year-when those hapless out of state organizers were left befuddled by the surge in Republican party registrations-was just a foretaste of things to come.

[Coleus]

bring back trent lott