[Leatherneck_MT]

Good post, good point and maybe it's time.

[exmarine]

I've already quit! The GOP no longer represents conservative values. Period. They are cowardly do nothing liberal big government compromisers who ignore the Constitution as well as any Democrat. I will now vote Constitution Party and I will take as many conservatives with me as I can!

[GOPJ]

It's different.

Democrats have no intention of resolving black problems. Black anger and votes depend on old problems remaining. Democrats tell blacks the same things every two years - the same stuff for forty years.

When Republicans offer solutions for blacks, like vouchers, and privatized Social Security, democrats fight us. They don't want bedrock issues touched, they want blacks to stay grateful for nothing.

It's not the same with conservatives, we're not the "blacks" of the party. We are the Republican Party. Conservatives don't get everything, but we're an important part of the team.

That is exactly what we conservatives lament about Blacks and the Democratic party. Black Democrats who vote straight Democratic and are rewarded by being ignored.

In other words, Conservatives are now the "Blacks" of the Republican Party!!!

[Dunedain]

About blacks. Why is it that blacks overwhelmingly spurn the Republican party? Or maybe a better question is why do they vote Democrat?

I can only assume Americans really are not any more racist than any other nations. Although I do find surprising attitudes. My mother-in-law believes blacks have so many babies as a conspiracy to take over America. A little over the top, I'd say.

How did blacks come to comprise such a large amount of the US population?

[Destro]

bump

[m18436572]

"I voted Republican, my daddy always said to vote Republican, as did his dad. Heck, my whole family voted Republican since who knows when. Why should I change?"

Zat sound black enough for ya?

(Hint: substitute Dem. for Rep.)

[Capitalism2003]

Our only hope is to pull the GOP back to the side of LIMITED GOVERNMENT, much the way Nader has pulled the democrats to the LEFT. Naderites no longer need to vote green. They feel perfectly at home in the Dean/Kucinich/Hellary party. We need to make conservatives who believe in limited, Constitutional government welcome back into the GOP. Sadly, the only way to do this is to inflict a little short term PAIN on our officials, and let them know we will not stand for their endless compromises.

How? Vote Libertarian!

[nickcarraway]

There is one way to make sure this doesn't happened: get onvolved. Join the local central committee, other comittees, whatever you can.

[inchworm]

I will in no way be voting for Bush again. This administration is walking all over the Republican philosophy, and conservative philosophy, and it only appears to be getting worse. By me voting for him I'm telling him that's it's:
OK to give illegals amnesty,
OK to support affirmative action,
OK to muzzle free speach for elections,
OK to tear down anti-sodomy laws.
OK to explosively grow entitlements,
Hell, Bush might as well be Sandra Day O'Connor. Just like the core principals of economics, if somethings outrageously high priced and you still buy it, then your essentially telling that producer that the price is worth it. Well I tell you that when it comes to Bush, I aint buying it any more. We are obviously in the day where Republican politics are no longer Republican Philosophy.
We need a new party because i aint voting for the old one. It's BS!!!

[firebrand]

I have not read this whole thread yet, but let me say what I think is happening, even if it might have been said already.

The RINOs are fighting us tooth and nail. They are more afraid of us than they are of the Democrats. In NY they are using every dirty trick in the book to stymie the conservatives in the GOP at every turn. They have grasped control of the state party here, so it is very hard to maintain a conservative presence within the party.

If the RINOs are not in control in your state, don't let it happen. Once they grab the party apparatus it is all over. We are still fighting here but it is ten times harder.

[Redcloak]

Yup... At times I'm reminded of an old SNL routine with John Belushi.

[Xenalyte]

Conservatives are now the "Blacks" of the Republican Party

The poodle is the black man of the dog world!

[Cacique]

ping

[MEG33]

YAWN

[Naspino]

If what 581 Floridans had your idea in 2000 Al Gore would be president. LIKE IT OR NOT. A vote against Bush IS A VOTE FOR DEAN. You people are incredibly naive about whether DEAN or BUSH is president DOESN'T MATTER. IT DOES.

[my_pointy_head_is_sharp]

grump for later reading

[Smokin' Joe]

The problem is simple, really. For far too long, the liberal Media have defined the debate in gradations of leftist theory, flanked by the extroadinarily extremist left on that side and "Right Wing Extremists" (without gradation) on the right.

When one group is burning condos in Vail, Colorado, the groups who want to just keep people from getting to out-of-the-way places seem (almost) reasonable. Other options (such as taking care of your own land) are not discussed or even presented, being part of the "Right Wing Extremist" view.

All major issues have been presented this way, with gradations of liberal solutions to problems, real and especially imagined, and only the most extreme Right Wing solutions (if any) presented. The liberal gradations are presented as "reasonable" solutions, and the "Right Wing Extremist" viewpoint accompanied by picktures of KKK and Neonazis (Even though Nazis are Socialists by definition, and belong on the left).

This has shifted the debate completely out of the conservative arena. You are either for some form of more gun control, or slaughter in the streets, according to the Media.

Others:

You are either for a woman's right to choose what happens to her body (and slaughter the unborn) or you are for mothers dying giving birth to horribly malformed microcephalic offspring of rape and incest.

Sign the Kyoto treaty or poison the planet.

Save every little species in an undisturbed habitat, no matter the cost or all life will perish from the Earth. , etc., etc., etc.

You have seen it, you have heard it, now is it any wonder that over a decade of this type of issue presentation by the media has had an effect on the way issues are perceived or debated?

Until the ability to define the issues in a conservative light in a meaningful arena is a reality, this situation will continue to get worse.

If the gun control debate were over private ownership of artillery pieces, if the abortion debate were over whether abortion should be used to save the mother's life, if the environmental debates were over whether the government has a right to intrude into private property which does not affect others, or whether a school has any business playing social worker, we would live in a very different culture. These options are never presented.

All right wing views are presented as extremism, not just the extreme ones, and this will continue to cost conservatives their rights and standing in the political world.

[Destro]

bump

[Destro]

bump PS - I posted this vanity before Bush's immigration amnesty.