Posted on 09/13/2006 10:45:32 PM PDT by goldstategop
How did our country stray so far from the founding principles of limited government, states' rights, self-reliance and moral integrity?
Most Americans blame it on Congress.
Americans have little faith in members of Congress, but we keep re-electing our own congressman and senators, often with little or no serious thought on the matter.
In 1994, after 40 years in the political wilderness, Republicans assumed control of Congress with the promise that they would get back to those founding principles. A few tried. Fewer are still trying, but we are torpedoing their efforts.
Even if we are alert enough to know that one or more of our elected representatives ought to be ousted and we vote accordingly, we often support efforts to keep the status quo.
How many card-carrying Republicans would purposely write out a check to elect someone who supports higher taxes, multi-million dollar pork barrel projects like the "bridge to nowhere" in Alaska, price controls, subsidies, abortion on demand, amnesty for illegal aliens, the death tax, gay rights and onerous environmental regulations that rob property owners of the right to use their land?
When you dutifully write out checks to the Republican Party, the Republican Congressional Committee or the Republican Senatorial Committee, and the political action committees of leadership, you are– more often than not – doing just that. These entities are committed to this one thing: keeping anyone elected to office with an "R" next to his or her name in that office.
If Satan himself managed to get elected to office as a Republican, the Republican Party would fight to keep him there.
Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island is a case in point. (Any resemblance to the fictional candidate mentioned above is purely coincidental.) The Republican Senatorial Committee spent $1.2 million dollars to keep this man from being dumped in the party primary by Stephen Laffey, despite the fact that Chafee stands against virtually everything the party is pledged to support. The RSC even ran ugly attack adds against Laffey – a dedicated conservative – because he dared to enter the race.
It is next to impossible to unseat an incumbent in a primary, largely because the party is committed to keeping those incumbents in office.
Laffey's near miss shows just how fed up Republican voters in Rhode Island are with their party. Forty-six percent turned a deaf ear to party leaders who told them – in so many words – that a "real" Republican can't be elected in Rhode Island. They simply refused to support a phony one.
Laffey was elected and re-elected mayor of Cranston because he made the case for the principles Republicans are supposed to believe in. No wonder less than 15 percent of voters in Rhode Island are registered Republicans. They've never heard these principles clearly articulated in their state.
"Oh yes, please raise my taxes again. Yes, yes, please tax away my inheritance. Oh, please steal my property rights so you can protect the insects in that mud puddle in my backyard!" Can't you just hear all those voters in Rhode Island clamoring for bigger government?
This lesson from the Rhode Island primary must not be lost on conservative voters. Better to throw your money down a rat hole than to give it to the RNC, the RSC or the RCC, or one of the leadership PACs.
Most people don't have a lot of money to donate in an election, so they want to make sure they get the most bang for their bucks. That's why they simply write out a check to the party, sit back and wait and wait and wait for things to get better.
If you don't know which candidates to support, then support Political Action Committees you can trust. Club for Growth is the PAC largely responsible for Laffey's near miss. It is dedicated to electing economic conservatives. It's tripled in size in just two years and has pulled off a number of impressive wins in primary elections this year. Club for Growth and the National Taxpayers Union Campaign Fund helped unseat free spender Joe Schwartz in Michigan's 7th Congressional District.
Yes, Republicans are running scared – scared of losing their majority, but a majority of what? As the old saying goes, "If you don't stand for something, you fall for anything."
What is the worse thing that could happen if Republicans lose the Senate seat in Rhode Island? It would be held by a real Democrat.
What is the worse thing that could happen if Republicans lose control of the Senate and/or the House? They just might go back to fighting for the things they have pledged to support
Correct. The Chafee debate is a nonstarter. The seat has been in the Chafee name for 30 years but there's no guarantee Lincoln Chafee will win in November.
If you want the damned Dems ( and don't tell me that there's no difference between the two major political parties! ) to hold the reins of power for the next 40 years, go vote for them and stop calling yourself a "conservative".
BRAVO!
"If GOP Stands For Nothing, It Deserves To Lose".
Simply put, he who has the majority, gets to head and run the committees. And yes, it DOES matter; that matters VERY much!
I feel your pain, but the Senate Republican Campaign Committee and the RNC exist for only one reason: to elect Republicans, and they don't care what those Republicans stand for...just as long as they get elected. It's baldfaced pragmatism, intended to keep their majority. Don't expect ideological purity from the SRCC or the RNC.
I wish politics were that easy.
JimRob has said this often. I tend to agree. Frankly, voting Democrat, or allowing the Democrats to win, is, IMHO, unAmerican.
Jane Chastain wants to elect rats.
You're last sentence is absolutely right. Thank goodness you posted it! :-)
That makes way too much sense!
I agree with you. Those who think themselves as purist sometimes forget about this. Or about the threat of Islamofacist.
Of course it does, which is why FR's perpetual doom&gloom "true conservatives" go nuts, whenever someone posts something like that. LOL
This Laffey-Chaffey betrayal of Republican
and core beliefs...deeply disturbs me about
the future of the GOP.
This is a bad thing that has been done here.
Don't get me wrong, I'm conservative to the core, and I long for another Republican in the mold of Ronald Reagan, but I can't stand the thought of our Congress reverting to Democrat hands (Reid, Pelosi, Durbin, Schumer, Kennedy, Clinton, etc.).
The thought of them being in majority power makes me absolutely shudder. Can you imagine Nancy Pelosi being third in line to the presidency? That's what a "principle vote" for a Democrat does!
If Chafee voted for Bush 70% of the time, I'd be doing cartwheels that he's in the Senate.
Unfortunately, he votes with Bush closer to 30% of the time, and about 0% of the time on major issues. He's not even a sure vote for majority leader.
However, having the RI primary as 'proof' that Republicans stand for nothing, deserve to lose, etc. is complete nonsense that'll appeal the mastubatory 'pure' crowd, but won't convince any thinking people.
Laffey sounds like a rino too in a lot of ways. So the choice is between Chafee a known rino and Laffey a rino we don't know. Better the devil you know than the devil you don't know the old saying goes.
Exactly so!
Your right. This is a hit piece. Chastain compares Chaffee with Satan.
If Satan himself managed to get elected to office as a Republican, the Republican Party would fight to keep him there.A real rat? and that's a good thing??? I don't want a real rat. A real Republican can't win in liberal RI. Only a fool like Chastain could believe voters in Rhode Island have never heard Republican principles clearly articulated in their state. Am I to believe they don't get Fox news, Rush, and the internet.Better to throw your money down a rat hole than to give it to the RNC, the RSC or the RCC, or one of the leadership PACs.
What is the worse thing that could happen if Republicans lose the Senate seat in Rhode Island? It would be held by a real Democrat.
Laffey would have bombed worse than Keyes.
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