Posted on 12/15/2003 5:54:40 PM PST by Theodore R.
GOP Is Now The "Fraternal Twin" Of Socialist Democrats
By Chuck Baldwin
Food For Thought From The Chuck Wagon
December 16, 2003 The Republican Party's full-court press to enact the biggest expansion of Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society" welfare state by passing the recent Medicare reform bill proves that the GOP is the "fraternal twin" (Howard Phillips) of socialist Democrats. In fact, G. W. Bush and his fellow Republicans on Capitol Hill make Bill Clinton look like an economic conservative!
Furthermore, Robert Novak was quoted in The Washington Post as saying the arm-twisting of recalcitrant conservatives within the GOP by party leaders was nothing like many Republican congressmen had ever seen. Novak quotes Rep. Nick Smith of Michigan as saying he has never seen anything like it in his 11 years in the House.
According to Smith, threats and intimidation to swallow his convictions and support the bill got "personal." After rebuffing midnight appeals from House Speaker Dennis Hastert and HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson, fellow House Republicans told him they would make sure Brad Smith (Nick's son) never came to Congress. (Brad is running for his father's seat as Nick is retiring from Congress after this term.) After the bill passed without Smith's support, California Congressman Duke Cunningham, and other Republicans, taunted him, saying his son was "dead meat."
Other conservative Republicans who refused to support the socialist Medicare expansion bill, such as Florida's Rep. Tom Feeney, had to resist insistent phone calls from President Bush. Regarded as an up-and-coming leader within the GOP, Feeney was told a 'no' vote would delay his ascent into leadership by three years, or more.
In the end, only 25 Republicans in the House of Representatives had the courage to oppose the Medicare bill. Those brave souls include Todd Akin (Missouri), Gresham Barrett (S.C.), Dan Burton (IN), Steve Chabot (Ohio), John Culberson (Texas), Jim DeMint (S.C.), JoAnn Emerson (Missouri), Tom Feeney (FL), Jeff Flake (Arizona), Scott Garrett (N.J.), Luis Gutknecht (Illinois), John Hostettler (IN), Walter Jones (N.C.), Jeff Miller (FL), Jerry Moran (Kansas), Marilyn Musgrave (CO), Charles Norwood (GA), Ron Paul (Texas), Mike Pence (IN), Jim Ryun (Kansas), John Shadegg (Arizona), Nick Smith (Michigan), Thomas Tancredo (CO), Pat Toomey (PA), and Zach Wamp (TN).
The sad truth is, the current crop of Republicans has increased federal spending more in three years than the Clinton administration did in eight. With Republicans in charge of all three branches of the federal government, spending at the federal level now consumes some $21,000 per household every year. That's up from $16,000 some four years ago. In fact, federal spending has grown by more than 25% since G. W. Bush took office.
Rep. Ron Paul correctly pointed out, "With Republicans controlling the administration and the legislature, and nominally controlling the Supreme Court, the party has run out of other people to blame. One thing is certain: Republicans who support bigger entitlement programs and bigger federal budgets have lost all credibility as advocates for limited government."
It is time for conservatives to see the Republican Party for what it really is: another big-spending, socialist party that cares nothing for the U.S. Constitution, limited government, or conservative principles. However, before conservatives can see anything, they must open their eyes to the truth, and that doesn't appear likely to happen anytime soon.
© Chuck Baldwin
That's false, Burke. Completely, totally false.
It is hyperbolic, but not totally false. I seldom hear Republicans defending their core principles. Instead, most Republicans seem ready to abandon them at the drop of a hat. The Republican response to Clinton's (IIRC) seventh State of the Union Address was an example of this: for nearly every expansion of government Clinton proposed, the Republicans proposed a smaller version. Never once do I remember them they questioning whether the expansion was a good idea in the first place.
Abandoning principles while arguing specifics is a guaranteed-losing formula. After all, if the Democrats propose a $10B program and the Republicans pare it to $5B, how can the Republicans really defend their position? Since the Republicans support the program, it must be a good thing. So why wouldn't bigger be better? And of course, if the program is allocated $5B and has major cost overruns, how can the Republicans avoid blame, when they refused to allocate for the program as much money as was "needed"?
For whatever reason, Republicans consistently fail to defend conservative principles. Regardless of whether it's because they're really liberals in disguise, or just because they're incompetant oafs, their failures are numerous and consistent. Whether or not it's appropriate for conservatives to abandon the Republican Party, they should at the very least acknowledge its severe shortcomings.
It would go something like: Don't spend $40 billion on new entitlements. Don't spend money like drunken sailors. Don't sign bills that you admit are unconstitutional and pass the buck to the judicial branch, which can't be trusted. Pretty simple...just watch what the GOP does on spending issues, then don't do it.
President Bush signed the workplace verification bill to prevent hiring of illegal AliensNonsense. You are confusing spending with principles.
Republicans frequently defend conservative principles such as bans on abortion, lower taxes, strong military, faith-based charities, less regulations, etc.
For instance, we wouldn't have passed Concealed Carry Weapons laws in more than 40 states without Republican leadership at the state level, and we wouldn't have repealed the ban on arming pilots without Republican leadership at the national level, either.
True, true. Some people like to whine fromt he sidelines instead of ever actually doing anything to make the situation better.
Republicans frequently defend conservative principles such as bans on abortion, lower taxes, strong military, faith-based charities, less regulations, etc.
For instance, we wouldn't have passed Concealed Carry Weapons laws in more than 40 states without Republican leadership at the state level, and we wouldn't have repealed the ban on arming pilots without Republican leadership at the national level, either.
Well, there are some principles Republicans will defend, granted, and some states actually have conservative Republicans in control. But I very seldom see the Republican leadership at the national level make any principled arguments against expansions of government power, except when the leadership must do so to protect its own turf.
The Republicans and Democrats, at least at the national level, simply play "Good cop/bad cop". People need to recognize that in that game, the "good cop" is not your friend.
Simple, sensible and direct. Thank you.
Interestingly enough: I have yet to see any of the Oh-Woe-Bush-Is-the-New-George-McGovern types pestilenting these boards ever, ever respond, credibly OR concretely, to Southack's irrefutable mega-listing of solid, hard-fought and invaluable c-o-n-s-e-r-v-a-t-i-v-e accomplishments, these past three years. (See posting #7 in this very thread, for latest example of same.)
Now why, oh why might THAT be, I wonder?
No... no, wait. I guess I don't really wonder, after all.
It's genuinely pathetic, how some hereabouts have somehow managed to delude themselves into believing, post-Reagan, that "conservatism" is all about matters of purse, and purse alone; rather than the sacred, true conservative ideals of (oh, say) exporting and safeguarding democracy, both here and abroad; or working on behalf of the helpless unborn; or even (if Mammon's is the only standard to which they'll willingly bend the knee) lower income taxes for working families, nationwide.
They are -- increasingly; ultimately -- the Republican equivalent of the Green Party: noisy, self-aggrandizing... and (blessedly, in the final analysis) self-marginalizing.
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