Posted on 11/12/2006 4:13:27 AM PST by nathanbedford
WHY WE LOST
We have three important questions to answer: 1) What happened? 2) Why did it happen? 3) What do we do now?
1) What happened?
The Republican Party in general and George W. Bush in particular sustained a stinging rebuke from the American electorate. The Republicans lost control of the house and of the Senate. The agenda moves to the Democrats. The power of the purse moves to the Democrats. The power of the subpoena moves to the Democrats. The power to impeach moves to the Democrats. The power to affect foreign policy by, for example, defunding the war moves to the Democrats. The power to appoint conservative judges has been greatly compromised as has been the power to confirm appointments such as ambassador to the United Nations and Secretary of Defense.
The Republican Party has ruptured the bond that held it to the majority of the people of the United States since 1994. When the polls say that the people trust the Democrats more than Republicans on taxes, it means, as Newt Gingrich has said, they fired us because they don't trust us. It is as simple as that, the party has lost the trust of the people.
The Democrat party is extending its tentacles into the red states and the Republican Party is in grave danger of becoming a sectional party with an ever declining census and a bunker mentality.
2) Why did it happen?
There is no need to fix Iraq. It was never broke.
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Boy oh Boy....that has to be the biggest delusional post i have seen on FR for quite sometime....i gotta a good chuckle over my coffee....i'm not even going to argue my point because it would make me look like a fool.
The "Why?":
We let the State Dept. run policy in Iraq.
- We didn't want to upset the Russians by exposing their role in dismantalling & hiding Iraq's WMD factorys.
- We didn't kill Al Sadr early in the war, even though he's been the most consistent source of sectarian violence.
- We worried so much about upsetting the "balance" in Iraq, that we failed to kill the troublemakers early.
I wish these people would read some history.
If you want to destroy your Party as the Majority Party, just attack your President from the Right when he gets elected.
We will go the way of the Federalists and Whigs very quickly.
[A conservative party would never, ever win elections. Not one.]
Disagree on this point. Pubs lost because they abandoned moral values and are the friends of liberal democrats and their socialist one world agenda of government is your parent mentality.
Conservatism works but the republicans have abandoned it and it shows.
To win elections in America, you need to appeal to a great diversity of voters.
A conservative party would not. They would lose.
Now, in some portions of the country, they could win local elections.
Please. Now is not the time for bickering.
Rather, it is time for thoughful analysis.
Which is exactly what this post by NathanBedford is.
And as a 100-percent supporter of the Iraq war, and of President Bush, I thought the post had some brilliant points, many of which seem spot on if the GOP wants to re-energize itself these next two years.
But please, stop throwing vicious words.
No "one" segment of FR is to blame for Tuesday's thumpin' of the GOP.
Last night I spoke to our local Christian Coalition leader, and she relayed to me how a large percentage of her members were totally demoralized over Republican incompetance and arrogance, and they simply opted to sit out this election.
These people make up about 5-10 percent of the GOP base, and that's how much many Republican candidates lost by on Tuesday.
And these people never even heard of FreeREPUBLIC.
Well, they heard of it, but they are not posters.
[You might be right, but as a conservative Christian, if Rudy is our nominee against Hilliary you can be sure I will not stay home!]
I won't either, but will not vote for Rudy. He is a neo con also. Maybe will have to vote for 3rd party conservative write in's. Tired of the moderate liberal pubs who are moving to the left.
"Another thing: Its time for a truly conservative party. The GOP was always a party of the elite and thier slaves. The GOP was never truly conservative."
This election showed what is in store for our country in the future. Either no one noticed it or everyone refuses to acknowledge it.
We are no longer a country of political parties. We have been turned into a country of issues voters based on ideology.
There are three sides to this:
1. Conservatives
2. Marxists
3. Liberals comprising the majority. Also knows as Moderates.
Neither the Conservatives or the Marxists have a clear majority and will require moderates to push their agendas. On the other hand, the moderates can become the majority and only need a little help from either side to take control.
What you saw on Tuesday was exactly that. Problem is the new leadership is Marxist where the old leadership was Conservative.
When the moderates finally figure out what to do watch out.
"Rove should have nationalized the local elections by attempting to educate these fools."
I agree. The Democrats did a good job of nationalizing the elections. In a word--Iraq.
Rove should have nationalized the elections and pointed out the horrific consequences of a Democratic controlled Senate and Congress. Would it have made a difference in Congress? Maybe not, but it could have very well helped us keep control of the Senate.
I still say it was the MSM that won the election for the Democrats. With almost 80% of the news stories being negative against the Republicans and less than 20% against the Democrats, what do you expect?
You need to use a bigger gun. ;-)
[...diversity of voters.]
There is that diversity again. Why not just become dems and forget the right wing conservatives? Diversity is killing America as it grows into the one world socialist order.
Thanks for that info!
It is quite normal for a political party in the sixth year of the presidency to lose the Senate and House seats. In some respects, it was to be expected that this would occur now. Clinton, however, was able to resist this historical trend but those were rather special circumstances.
The special circumstances were:
Clinton lost the house and senate in 2 years
not 6.
[Neither the Conservatives or the Marxists have a clear majority and will require moderates to push their agendas. On the other hand, the moderates can become the majority and only need a little help from either side to take control.]
This is the big tent republican party today.
One word covers the loss - duplicity.
I respectfully disagree. The major problem is that there were never measurable goals coming from the White House about how we would know we had won in Iraq. The goals actually articulated played into the hands of the Neo-communists by being vague and readily subject to reinterpretation. Clearly defining our objectives is the first part of a victory strategy (I view Exit strategy as defeatist), the second part is a clear assessment of our enemies, if you know who and what the opposition is this will greatly inform strategies and tactics.
Thus without a clear goal after the fall of the Baathist regime, there was no plan for what to do afterwards.
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