Posted on 12/08/2010 3:06:19 PM PST by FTJM
One of our former presidents wrote a book many years ago. In it was a quote I have remembered for many years. It said, "You have to deal with life the way it is, not the way you want it to be."
Those words always go through my mind when I hear people say things like, "Sarah Palin is going to be able to peel away the black female vote from Barak Obama.....Independent women are going to flock to Sarah Palin...."
Political pollsters almost always round up - You might see a two-man race poll as 49.5 and 50.5 become 50 and 51. It's common to see party ID break down add up to 101, and polls on individual candidates add up to 101 (sometimes a little more).
The problem with the idea of Republicans consistently voting lockstep for whoever gets the nod from the Old Codgers is that it more or less assures us that any actual conservatives will get sabotaged in the primaries. See, if the GOP leadership takes the vote of conservatives for granted because, well, because we let them, then what’s their motivation for letting someone we like win?
If the Republicans don’t act like Republicans then why should I bother voting for them?
Sorry, but your attitude is what has led to seemingly never-ending terms for people like Arlen Spector, Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, and etc.
That may have been fine for your generation, it isn’t for mine.
I want revolutionary conservatism. I’m tired of pathetic, spineless GOP politicians who campaign and put on a big show but then get elected and compromise so much that they’re indistinguishable from the Democrats. (Scott Brown, anyone?)
“Compromise in pursuit of pleasure is not a vice. Compromise in defense of principle is not a virtue.”
I will not compromise.
I completely take issue with this, both as a supposed statement of fact and as an attitude. How in the world does the GOP "let" anyone win or not win the primaries? I find this a pathetic victim mentality, as if we are indeed sheep, herded to the ballot box with guns to our head or electrodes implanted in our skulls with Karl Rove's voice intoning for whom we must vote.
The GOP supports and endorses candidates. So what? The MSM supports and endorses candidates. So what? Rush, Sean, Levin, Beck, they all support and sometimes endorse candidates. So what? Are you really so arrogant as to believe that you, and your generation, are the only ones who make up their own minds about who to vote for?
I don't think you are. But your reference to Spector, Snowe et al. does show that you could use a little more analysis of how politics work. Those people were elected by the citizens of their respective states. Period. Yes, the rest of us can try to influence those elections, but in the end, they are supposed to reflect the views of the people of Pennsylvania, Maine and so on.
I have always marveled at the people bellowing about, say, Snowe's pro-choice views when the fact is the people of Maine, in the majority, want a pro-choice Senator. Want to change that? I do. But I don't blame them or denigrate them for voting their conscience, though I sincerely and deeply disagree. The fact remains that you have to work to get the best available candidate elected, not sit on your butt because the best available candidate isn't all you want.
I encourage you to look at the big picture, not get lost in the myopic weeds. Your attitude is what will hand victory to the Communists on a silver platter.
I've told this story many times. For years I lived in the district of a truly pathetic, spineless GOP congresscritter. Guess what? The district was actually very liberal, but somehow this dude kept getting elected. For a while, before I knew better and got the maturity of years, I had the same attitude you do: I'm not compromising by voting for that turkey. Fortunately, as it turns out, he kept getting elected anyway. Why was this fortunate? Because eventually the Republicans were able to get a majority, and that majority was able to stop several very harmful-to-our-nation Rat legislative initiatives.
Moreover, because I voted for the turd and thus helped the GOP get a majority, Henry Hyde -- one of the most pro-life members of Congress and a man for whom I never would have the opportunity to vote for directly -- became the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, from whence he showed extremely strong leadership in the selection of judges and other matters, particularly as to stopping federal funding of abortion.
People with your views can denigrate all they want the fact that good, decent, smart and principled Republicans in Turd's district went ahead and voted for him, but by doing so we did what we could -- and ALL we could -- to help conservatives in other districts get the truly worthy people in positions of leadership in Congress.
Yes, we should always start out with every effort to get conservatives to run and win. But we should always look at the big picture.
In my case, conservatives in other states were working their fingers to the bone to get good, strong people elected. Would I sit home and undermine their work by taking a seat away from the majority? Not a chance.
None of this has anything to do with the immature conclusion that the GOP or the media or the bogeyman "picks and chooses" our candidates and only "lets" people win if they so choose. We are not victims. We are voters and we make our own destiny. Yes, the odds are often against us, but they are neither insurmountable or unfair. It's up to us to find and support candidates who can do the job AND win.
“Looking at the big picture” got us to where we are today.
Since you supposed a generational divide between us, may I ask how many presidential elections you have been eligible to vote in? Just wondering, but feel free not to answer.
“That’s what Christine O’Donnell’s supporters claimed, too.”
Deleware does not represent a good cross section of the US.
There may not be a generational divide between you and me since I am a Depression baby. I’m probably older than you. I have worked very hard at all levels for the GOP over the years, but I am now to the point where 2012 may be my last election. I am totally and completely disenchanted by the kind of candidates the GOP scrapes up at every election. Palin is the only possible candidate that I will vote for or work for. If she is not the next president, I will retire from all forms of politics and sit out the rest of the disaster that will be the former, great American experiment. I’m tired of fighting for freedom that keeps moving further and further away.
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