Posted on 05/17/2006 7:47:58 AM PDT by Pukin Dog
Edited on 05/17/2006 8:30:59 AM PDT by Lead Moderator. [history]
"A house divided against itself cannot stand." – Abraham Lincoln, 1858
It is getting somewhat strange around these parts when not only the President, but yesterday the First Lady was personally attacked by someone claiming to be a ‘Conservative’. Can there be any doubt that there are forces among us looking to drive a wedge between us?
A few weeks ago, this forum’s owner attempted to remind all of us of the big picture, that regardless of any personal animosity towards the President or Republican Party over their adherence to Conservative principles, that they are still a clear choice over the alternative Democrat Party rule. At that time, I assumed that FReeper-sanity had been restored, and that some of the negative rhetoric aimed at those in Washington D.C. would be dialed back.
Free Republic is a political forum with a proud history and vision, responsible for dragging Dan Rather from his post, and providing countless radio-talk shows with their daily talking points. FReepers are unique in their determination and energy towards protecting and defending the goals of our Founding Fathers.
We are also quite a powder keg of emotion and anticipation, expecting our Republican majorities to take advantage of this opportunity to make permanent gains in our Conservative agenda. Some might argue that this opportunity has been squandered, but those persons would be ignorant of history, lacking understanding that change cannot occur overnight in Washington, and that this is the way our Founders designed our Republic.
In frustration, impatience, and ignorance, we have allowed this forum to become a haven for those who do not share our Conservative goals. I do not blame our enemies anymore then I would blame a scorpion for stinging me. If anger and stupidity were one’s nature, I would expect the trolls that infect this forum to be angry and stupid consistently, which also makes them somewhat easy to detect.
The trolls are not the problem, though. The problem is that so many of us are allowing ourselves to be taken in by those who seek only to prevent us from going to the polls in November to keep their stinking hands off our government for another term. There can be no doubt, that no matter how disappointing our current government has been in promoting the Conservative agenda, that the alternative, enabled by our staying home will be MUCH worse.
The way to deal with Republicans who have actively worked against our goals is to defeat them in Primary elections. We do not even have to defeat them all, only enough of them to send the message that we will indeed target them if they work against our agenda. It should be the goal of EVERY conservative to see that Lincoln Chaffee is defeated in November. His seat is one we can afford to lose. Were I a Rhode Island resident, I would vote for the Democrat if only to send a message to Snowe, Hagel, Collins, Graham, and especially that bastard Specter that their primaries just got a lot tougher.
We only need to get one of them, and Chaffee is the one to get. It does not really matter if a Democrat takes his seat; he will be junior and mute as long as we maintain our overall majority in the Senate.
The one thing that bothers me here like nothing else, is the simple disrespect of the President. Am I am Bush-Bot? Damn straight I am. If you want to know why, click on my handle to read Southack’s excellent list of Bush’s accomplishments in office. But if Bush had done almost nothing in office, it would be no excuse for some of the slights and disrespect he has received from some of us on this forum.
Some of the things I have read here this past week match in tone what one can find on our favorite Democrat sewer site. Someone calling himself or herself a FReeper was promoting shooting aliens at the border until they stopped coming. Is that what we are about? Obviously not, and that so-called Conservative has been eliminated from this forum.
I think it is important to remember that you and I have just as much responsibility as George Bush does in changing our culture to better reflect Conservative values. Right now, this very moment, Conservatives have the government they deserve. We put them there. They are not our mommies and daddies sent out to bring home our Conservative bread. That responsibility lies with all of us. These Republicans represent us, they don’t serve us. Our job is to pick the best individual and send him/her to Washington in the hope that their CHARACTER will see them through.
This is why it is such a nutty thing to consider punishing the Republican party, when we should be letting them know that we’ve got their back, but if they cant do the job, we will replace them with ANOTHER Republican, instead of handing the reigns of government to the party of anger, hopelessness and despair. We sometimes like to think that those people we send to Washington are different from us, that they are capable of meeting our every need and desire.
I want every one of you to think about what you would consider to be your perfect mate. Maybe some of you think you have found that person. If you are married and totally in love with another person, that is great. Now I want to ask you to think about the last time that person you love, who is PERFECT for you, completely pissed you off. Remember, this is your perfect mate, your one true love. Do they do everything you want them to do? Obey your every desire? If you answer yes, I am going to put you on my troll list.
Those people in Washington do not even cut your lawn, yet you expect perfection. Get over it.
I am issuing a challenge to every person who considers him or her to be a Conservative; why don’t we all commit to a return to HONOR? Do we honor our Conservative agenda when we comport ourselves in disgraceful ways? Is it an honorable thing to suggest that our President is a moron, as I read here a few days ago? Is it honorable to attack Laura Bush or any other person representing true Conservative values?
Some of you might argue that George Bush is not representing Conservative values to your liking. I would remind you that the first thing Bush said upon taking office, is that he was going to be President of ALL the people, not just some. You know that if you followed Bush from the beginning that he campaigned of the very immigration platform he is defending right now. Did you vote for him? Yeah?
If you have ever had a steak at a Ruth’s Chris restaurant, you know that sometimes they bring that wonderful steak to your table with a sprig of parsley on it. I hate parsley. Hate it. If I were to treat my steak the way some of us want to treat our President, I would have to throw out the steak, due to that nasty parsley that comes with it. I can deal with the parsley to get the steak, and that is what I am asking FReepers to do.
Expecting perfection from any person, group or team is a recipe for disaster. George W. Bush is my president. You can disagree with him, you can blame him for your problems if that is your desire. If you disrespect his office, his service, his risking his life to be with our troops in Iraq, his steadfast desire to bring a new tone to Washington, or if you just like the way he keeps Democrats so pissed off they lose their minds on a regular basis, I ask you to treat him and his wife with respect and cut the personal attacks. If you call him ‘Shrub’ or ‘Jorge’ consider yourself my enemy.
Right now, our real enemy are the Main Stream Media, the Democrat Party, and all who follow and support them. If you want to jump-ugly on someone, why not start with those leaky bastards and give our side a break?
Do it for Pukin.
I knew that you could.
You have your history backwards. Because the country DIDN'T vote Republican in 1986, the Senate flipped to a Democrat majority, which lead directly to the Borking, which resulted in Kennedy and Souter.
So, go right ahead and "teach them" another lesson this year, and it will be another 20 years before we get another chance to solidify a Supreme Court majority.
Look at the words they use, the tone of their posts, and if some posts read familiar, they're retreads.
Then maybe you should find a third party site rather than trying to drive a wedge in this site.
We are working with what we have and when a third party is up and running - then I might join in. But, I will not throw my country away because the GOP is not perfect.
Another thing - is the GOP to throw out those that are more liberal in their beliefs? Or, are we to try and add more voters?
Most people that join will come from a democrat background and must have time to learn conservatism. If we do not welcome in new people - we are insuring loss in elections.
>>We should stop calling people Bushbots. It's not fair.
How about Lemmings?<<
How about disagreeing on the issues instead of calling fellow conservatives names? I realize that's radical but I had that extra cup of coffee this morning and the energy's got to go somewhere.
I noticed .. heh ;)
I say, lets have a 3rd Term.
Laura Bush runs against Hillary.
I can hear the Democrats Screaming now.
As if we needed reminding...well, Hill is waiting in the wings.
No and your not likely to either. The PC Gestapo is every where. It could be unhealthy for your career if some lefty boss caught wind of your support for closing the borders.
President Bush has done many good things, the WOT in particular, and I'll continue to support him where I believe he's right, and continue to criticize him civilly where I believe he's wrong until it's time to choose a new leader.
Yes, he was listening to his Republicans base and the majority of Americans when he finally talked tough about border security. And he was listening to the foreign nationals/criminal invaders marching in marxist-led temper tantrums. He is not the President of the foreign nationals and illegal aliens. He is the President of AMERICANS. The "other side", the foreign nationals/criminal aliens do not deserve to be listened to. The certainly don't deserve to have half of the President's plan devoted to capitulating to their demands. Do we expect or would we excuse a President who listened to "both sides" of the War on Terror issue where he developed a plan that half of which met the demands of Americans and the other half met the demands of Al-Qaeda? I don't think so.
I have always counted you among those who know how to respectfully disagree with Bush, and I thank you for it.
Thank you. Oh, I've taken a few cheap shots at him out of anger and frustration at his refusal to see the reality of the situation, but I'm trying hard.
This is one where we may have to swallow some parsley to get at our steak. We can win them all, but maybe the House can dial things back a bit. The Senate screwed up yesterday, and I am hearing that the House intends to bring back the Border Security certification during reconciliation. We shall see.
A very apt analogy. Have you ever heard of Poison Parsley? It is another name for Hemlock. It will kill you or make you very ill if you eat it. That is what is being served with our steak. And the steak only looks like steak and there's an equal sized mound of poison parsley next to it. The President's plan as outlined in his speech and the current Senate bill is also poison parsley. If we don't first secure the border and prove that we can enforce our laws, then any guest worker plan or path to citizenship plan is doomed to failure. The result will be that the number of illegal aliens in our country will mushroom to incredible proportions. If you think it is hard to deal with 12 to 20 million illegal aliens, and if you think their marxist-organized marches were ugly, see what you get when the numbers balloon even larger and the marxists are empowered that much more.
We have an obligation as conservative activists to do everything that we can to stop the current immigration plan (as proposed by the President and being debated by the Senate) and ensure that what gets passed and signed into law is one that puts border security first and foremost. We may be able to compromise and put the guest worker plan and some sort of fair path to citizenship into the the same legislation but it MUST be contingent upon the success of the border enforcement efforts, the success of getting tough on employers who break the law and employ illegal aliens, and the success and deporting a substantial number of illegal aliens already here. It could set a metric for success that would trigger the guest worker portion. That is something that conservatives could work to get the Senate to pass. That is a compromise that the House may accept.
Nice post, Spiff.
That is the bottom line.
Ohio,
Your thinly veiled accusation is deeply insulting.
True.
"between 85,000,000 and 185,000,000 Mexicans"
In other words, between 85% and 185% of the entire Mexican population.
Boy howdy things are going to be interesting when Mexico is entirely devoid of people, isn't it? :p
***There is a way to disagree. However those disagreeing must understand the power of their words to destroy their own side also.***
***The dems must read FR with glee and find freepers their most effective minions because the complaining ranters are destroying the votes of those who will be electing the next president.***
Right on, Clancy. And I notice that the Bush Bashers never come up with an alternate solution to anything they don't like. Let me rephrase that: Alternate WORKABLE solution.
Yep and FR got exposure that year from FOX News over the exposure of the Dan Rather phony document scandal.
Thanks, Pukin Dog. Worthwhile rant again. You must have worked all night on this.
(THAT's why I'm so good all the time...........well, MOST of the time, anyway. :)
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