Years ago I read a book about the fall of Constananople to the Moslems.
The book claimed that most able bodied men was in the Churches praying and believing God would save the city rather than on the walls fighting the Turks.
Way I see it is the Turks are outside our walls. Are you going to going to leave the fight because you don't think it makes much difference?
History is filled with persons who said "The Nazis or Communists can't be much different or worse than things are now"
I guess if the Christians act the way you say that years from now I might come visiting my former homeland with a grandchild on a tourist visa and she might ask "Why isn't there any Churches, Grandpa?"
I will just say "This land used to have Christians dear until they got mad and refused to support the only effective opposition to the liberals there was"
The way I see it, the Republicans are handing the walls over to the enemy and not fighting at all.
President Bush has the power. He CHOOSES to say "everything has been done", but that is not true. Everything has been done THAT HE WANTS TO DO. Inaction is his choice.
Governor Bush has the power. If he does not act, he CHOOSES not to act. Everything will have been done THAT HE WANTS TO DO. After talking a good game, inaction will have been his choice.
The Republicans have the power in the Senate to pass the nuclear option and put the conservative slate of judges on the Bench. Right now, they are wavering. Which means, if they do not, that they have CHOSEN, as a party, inaction.
In all three cases, the conscious choices of Republicans will have maintained the status quo for death. The Democrats erected it. They are the Turks. But the Republicans now have the guard over the walls, and they are simply surrendering portions of the walls because they don't want to get bloody in the fight.
If they do it, you are not opposing "the Turks" by continuing to support treacherous Republicans who hand over portions of the wall. You are, rather, tacitly abetting them.
I don't suggest that Christians MERELY stay home. They need to form a Christian Life Party whose central platform focus is the sacredness of life and marriage, and who put those things in the middle of their platform. They can caucus with the Republicans in Congress, and this would allow, for example, a Republican Senate leader and Speaker, but the instant the Republicans abandoned the pro-life position and handed over a portion of the walls because the economic Republicans don't want to fight those issues to the bitter end, the Christian Life Party would break the caucus with them and end Republican control. Having the pro-Life Christians as a separate political entity would keep the Republicans much more honest. As it is, the Republicans have passed their ENTIRE economic agenda, and have wavered on the ONLY part of their agenda that is truly pro-life: the nuclear option.
Right now, the Bush boys are both failing to intervene to save this woman as well.
If the consequences of doing this would be a loss of control of the Senate THIS WEEK (not at some indeterminate point in the future), Republican heads would be clearer and they would understand that failing to protect life is, to the Christians, the same thing as George H W Bush's "Read my lips, no new taxes."
Was it WISE for the anti-tax Republicans to stay home in 1992 and ensure Bush's defeat? Yes. If he was going to welch on promises and raise taxes anyway, it is absolutely necessary to punish him and his party by stripping their power away and focusing their minds for the future. No Republican is going to do that again in a generation.
The Republican leadership still has time to do the right thing here. Jeb Bush can still intervene to save Terri Schiavo, and the Republicans can find their spines (or their self-interest) and pass the nuclear option in the Senate. And that will shore up the Christian base through 2008.
But if they don't do these things, they will have handed over the walls to the Turks. The Turks could not take the walls and win the fights without Republican complicity, because the inescapable fact, given the 2004 election, is that now the Republicans have the power to do the right thing. If they DON'T, it is because they DON'T WANT TO.
And if that's the case, they are no better than Turks. Continuing to remain allied with them will be the same thing as anti-tax Republicans rewarding George H W Bush with a second term in office after he lied to them about taxes.
In any case, the Republicans are NOT going to be able to hold their coalition together if they welch on the nuclear option, and everyone can forget about Jeb Bush every becoming President if Terri Schiavo dies. The Christians are not the Republicans' "Black Bloc". They are not going to vote for Republicans no matter what. Some will, but millions won't.
This is crunch time for the GOP. The Turks are at the gate, and the Christians want to fight. If the Republican leaders cower in the executive mansions, and the Republican Senate hands over a portion of the wall to the enemy, the Christians are going to feel betrayed, and no spin is going to save them in 2006.
I still hold out hope that the Republicans will do the right thing, but its fading as fast as Terri Schiavo's life, and I am exploring new options. So are many other Christians who have been voting Republican for 30 years.
It does not require EVERY Christian to walk out the door for the party to end, only a few million.
And it doesn't have to happen at all. The Republican leadership is playing like these Florida judges, as though they have absolute discretion to do whatever they want, and everyone who votes for them just has to accept it. That is not the way democracy works.
It would be better for the GOP to figure that out this week, save a life, save the conservative judicial agenda, and save their lock on power all at once.
But I have to say: I think the leaders are thinking like you. I think they think that by admonishing the Christians they are going to get out from the consequences of their abdication of leadership. For some that will work. For millions it will be not.
This is crunch time.
Now is the time for the Republicans to act decisively, or lose the right to lead.