The Republican Party - Selling Fear and Failure

steve-olson.com ^ | Steve

[alicewonders]

The republican and democrat parties have no fresh ideas. They are both bloated corrupt sows.

[KDD]

One more time...

It’s not isolationism he proposes, it is non interventionism.

Something that this site used to agree with him on.

Doesn't matter much now anyway...The hatchet job done on Ron and his supporters has been complete, but at a great loss to our country...and the G.O.P.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

I think Ron Paul would be supported, even by me, if his foreign policy beliefs weren’t so isolationist.

There you go again, with the "isolationist" strawman. You know he's a non-interventionist, which is a big difference than becoming a hole in the wall nation like North Korea. It's time we minded our own business and protect OUR interests, not the Saudi's or Israel's interests.

Ron Paul was the only Republican candidate who can defeat Hillary or Obama but yet he gets smeared and denigrated simply because of the war. Well, the troops have donated to him more than any of the other candidates, so what does that tell you? The GOP is completely out of step with the electorate and will get their butts handed to them because there's no way in Hell I'm volunteering or doing grassroots stuff for McCain. Paul was the only candidate openly talking about killing the Dept of Education, Housing, Energy, and killing the income tax. Funny, but I thought FReepers believed in limited government instead of cowering under their blankets hoping the government protects them from terrorists living halfway around the world in caves.

[bill1952]

This is nothing but self promotion from the fool that wrote this.

Its hardly even that.
To run on a platform of stopping the war on drugs is not going to get you more than three votes anyway.

Talk about stupid...

[Bishop_Malachi]

Why Obama seems preferable right now:
He is open to libertarian ideas
He is open to decriminalizing marijuana
He believes the 2nd amendment guarantees the individual the right to own firearms
_____________________________________________________

Yeah, which libertarian ideas? I could opt to give states much more authority in setting drug policy IF we can dismantle the federal welfare state. BUT as long as people are pushing “universal healthcare” and tax-payer funded medicare, medicaid, and a host of other entitlements that tend to subsidize the least productive members of society, then then I’m not subsidizing a bunch of losers who want to “light up” every single day. We’ve already got enough alcoholics to rehabilitate. Why do we wanna drastically increase the number of marijuana users to rehab too (at the tax-payers expense, of course)?

[End Times Crusader]

That’s a little harsh. Most Freepers are supportive of McCain, and I predict that come November, the vast majority will come to their senses. Most will not allow a Dim to waltz in and take the presidency despite their disagreements with McCain.

[eclecticEel]

You could send 10 addicts to rehab for the price of sending one of them to jail.

[Grunthor]

We have seen the party of entrepreneurship, small government, and personal freedom become the party of fear, war, and police power. After the party leaders mocked, sneered, and cackled at those of us who believe in a limited constitutional republic, they now ask us to hold our nose and support John McCain.

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You will likely get flambe’ed over this but I dare anyone to refute the part that I copied & pasted above.

[alicewonders]

This is taken from the Libertarian platform - it absolutely does not promote welfare and other social programs like it. The Republican Party should take note:

It is time to recognize that welfare cannot be reformed: it should be ended.

We should eliminate the entire social welfare system. This includes eliminating AFDC, food stamps, subsidized housing, and all the rest. Individuals who are unable to fully support themselves and their families through the job market must, once again, learn to rely on supportive family, church, community, or private charity to bridge the gap.

[impimp1]

This Steve Olson guy seems like a left-winger to me. I have no problem with going from “step 1 to step 5” with the drug problem - i.e. 1. it is a problem, 5. send the police after them.

[TigersEye]

The author lost me with the Obama BS. Obama is an empty suit.

But he is right about the WoSDs. Legal psychiatric drugs are more dangerous and doing more damage than street drugs. I can't see pouring more billions of dollars into a failed policy.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Doesn't matter much now anyway...The hatchet job done on Ron and his supporters has been complete, but at a great loss to our country...and the G.O.P.

Yep. The party elites and their sycophants can now go back to bloviating about big government & the loss of their Constitutional rights under Hillary/Obama. Today's conservatives don't want victory, which is what Paul would have given them, they just want to keep engaging in a never-ending battle fighting the Left, the globalists, and the Democrats/RINOs. I've always said that Booker T. Washington quote about how so-called black leaders treat blacks, apply it to conservatives like Rush, Hannity, and the conservative blogs because there's fame & fortune to be made in continuously fighting the Left.

[bill1952]

a bunch of drug-addled sour-pusses bitching and moaning that we’re all doomed because we don’t accept Ron Paul as our Lord and Savior.

LOL! Thats too funny. ; D
Although I sometimes have a view of Libertarians that borders on contempt, - witness the recount in Ohio that even Kerry didn't get involved with - I do find some common ground with what they could have become. - If they walked away from the kooky free drug and naive foreign policy stances.

How they ever let themselves get hijacked into their present tiatanic/hindenburg state of affairs, I'll never understand. Thanks - bill.

[org.whodat]

I predict that the Republican Party will fare better than Free Republic. I predict that this site will end up as a backwater sanctuary for a bunch of drug-addled sour-pusses bitching and moaning that we’re all doomed

Don't know sh88 about ron raul, but I'm sure no one will miss you!

[Ingtar]

Let’s dump the war on poverty first. It has been going on even longer and to less effect.

[org.whodat]

Obama thinks that individuals do have a right to own firearms; but that governments can also impose basically any restrictions on the right that they decide is fitting, up to and including outright bans on gun ownership.

Don't know about the obama part, but that statement is what jorge and the department of justice just file with the supreme court.

[TigersEye]

I think Ron Paul would be supported, even by me, if his foreign policy beliefs weren’t so isolationist.

That is my problem with him. I wish he would just elucidate them better. He's a Constitutionalist on everything else. I know the Founding Fathers wouldn't expect us to lay down and submit to the jihadis so it isn't a matter of running against the grain of Constitutionalism to create a policy to deal with them.

[ex-snook]

Why John McCain scares the hell out of me: * He said we will stay in Iraq a 100 years if necessary * He is planning more wars * He wants to step up police powers * His economic positions seem to favor large corporations, not free markets * He has a bad temper * He doesn’t offer anything new

Hey that is just to get the GOP nod. Now he tacks left for the general.

[TigersEye]

LOL Too true.

[KDD]

Perhaps we didn't appreciate fully enough the depth of the hatred and the complexity of the problems that made the Middle East such a jungle. Perhaps the idea of a suicide car bomber committing mass murder to gain instant entry to Paradise was so foreign to our own values and consciousness that it did not create in us the concern for the marines' safety that it should have.

In the weeks immediately after the bombing, I believe the last thing that we should do was turn tail and leave. Yet the irrationality of Middle Eastern politics forced us to rethink our policy there. If there would be some rethinking of policy before our men die, we would be a lot better off. If that policy had changed towards more of a neutral position and neutrality, those 241 marines would be alive today
Ronald Reagan

William F. Buckley once remarked that the defining element of conservatism is realism—realism about the limits of state power, the nature of human beings and societies, the complexity of international life. Yet many conservatives who believe that the state can do nothing right at home think that it can do nothing wrong abroad. (If things go badly, why, more money, bigger bombs and ground troops will straighten it out.) Many who are scornful of social engineering at home seem sure it will work beyond our borders. They seem convinced that good intentions and a burst of state power can transform the world. How conservative is that?

A Conservatives view of the Republican Party.