Before The Storm"I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And .....moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!" GOLDWATER 1964 acceptance speech
Posted on 02/24/2009 6:40:31 AM PST by St. Louis Conservative
"The Republicans have a simple choice. If they want to continue to define themselves as conservatives, they'll be defining themselves into oblivion. If they want to save themselves, they may have to create a third party of moderates."
-- Pollster John Zogby, November 16, 2008
"The Republican Party has paid a shatte ring price for the erratic deviation from our soundly moderate 20th century course. That ill-advised, badly-led swing to the extreme right has been decisively vetoed by the American voters, hundreds of thousands of Republicans among them."
-- Fred Young, NY GOP State Chair, November 5, 1964
"The undertakers are premature"
-- William F. Buckley, November 5, 1964
By now, the refrain insisting conservatism is a loser is, well, embarrassing.
To people like John Zogby.
Yet with the all-out assault of the Obama-ites on capitalism and the core tenets of a free market system, it is vital to remember the very relevant history of modern conservatives and liberals and just how we got here. It is important to look back to understand how to move forward.
The latest election of the day lost by Republicans is always said to be lost (as Mr. Zogby has done) because conservatives insisted on, well, conservatism. With the annual gathering of the Conservative Political Action Committee upon us, this year's gathering headlined by Rush Limbaugh, let's spend a moment documenting just how old and how very routine these anti-conservative diatribes are. Mr. Zogby is far from alone.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
Yea! John McCain was a booming success.
a good portion of Republicans in congress don’t realise they are Republicans...they think they are Democraps....or Dhimmicrat lite.
I remember many pundits in 1980 stating that Reagan could not win as he was too conservative for the nation
Pundits engage in hyperbole as a general rule, but has America fundamentally changed and moved away from Conservatism in the realms of finance, social issue, and national defense?
I’m not certain to be honest about it, Conservatism was mainstream American Thought, now in the GWB aftermath we are stuck with his hangover and will suffer the slings and arrows for it.
Zogby is an idiot. It was biased, corrupt media and corrupt Acorn vote rigging that lost the election, not ‘conservatism’.
Some of that blame also falls on RINO’S in the party that ALLOWED this media corruption to continue unchallenged for the past 8 years, as well as the vote rigging scams by Acorn.
“”The Republican Party has paid a shatte ring price for the erratic deviation from our soundly moderate 20th century course. That ill-advised, badly-led swing to the extreme right has been decisively vetoed by the American voters, hundreds of thousands of Republicans among them.”
— Fred Young, NY GOP State Chair, November 5, 1964 “
It was this right wing “extremism” of Goldwater’s that made George and Mitt Romney storm out of the convention in public protest.
Moderates cost us the Presidential election and also the last two congressional elections. George W. Bush governed as a lefty, government did nothing but grow under his watch.
If it’s true that the U.S. has become a custodial nation with a large minority population who only concerns themselves with getting a free ride from the government, then let’s go down with our principles or start considering secession.
Mob rule is a poor form of government and that’s what democracies are at their core. The left knows they can sway the stupid and dependent custodials of the democratic party - those guys care only that they’re going to get something for nothing - the future means nothing to them.
The principles of the republic may actually be lost. We’ve got an activist marxist as our president and no clear alternatives.
Maybe the U.S. is getting ready to break up into smaller countries and what’s wrong with that?
If only we could find people in the republican party who actually were conservatives and acted conservative. Instead we get Bushed, they tell us they are conservative, get elected then show their true self and sell us down the road to socialism.
We cheered when the Soviet Union disolved and 15 nations emerged. So, bigger isn’t always better. It’s usually the other way around.
Ask yourself these questions:
Isn’t a diamond more precious than a large hot air balloon?
Wouldn’t you rather drive in a small red Corvette or sit in a public bus?
Is a 1500 sq foot house in the country by a beautiful lake superior to a section 8 apartment building with 600 occupants (half of them felons)?
Would you rather have an 8 oz. rare steak from Ruth Cris or a three pound rump roast from a discount grocer?
Would you rather spend the night with a 115 lb Victoria’s Secret Model or with the 225 lb. Roseanne Barr?
Bigger isn’t always better. Bigger is usually worse.
Before The StormI can think of at least two exemptions.
Good post. The GOP has run a moderate at least the last three Presidential elections. We are a worse party because of that.
In 1972, McGovern pulled in 46% of the 18 to 29 year old voters, while Nixon won 52% of those same 18 to 29 year olds.
So did Stalin!
The republican party needs to become more discriminating. Not everyone who shows up with an elephant on his lapel should be admitted. People running for office, especially at the national level, need to be colloquized into the party. Republican need to be conservative, in thought, word, and deed.
Conservatism has never been and will never be mainstream. Conservatism is a disciplined way of thinking and acting.
It's tough love.
Liberalism is the natural drift of society. Toward sloth and corruption. As Limbaugh has said repeatedly "liberalism is easy".
Conservatism is hard. Conservatism reemerges during tough times when liberalism fails us, as it always will. That's when we return to daddy.
Conservatives make up about 35% of the electorate. If yo throw everyone else out you have permanent minority status. The moderates should be welcomed but they need to find ways to become responsive. Just as conservatives need to understand that Philly suburbs and just about every major geographical area north and east off their simply will not accept down the line conservatives anymore. we will have to develop a conservative line of thought that reflects the needs and cultural predisposition of that area. And they will have to find way to be responsive to the rest of us and we to them. Their is just no other way.The strength of the Reagan coalition is that it included those persons.The weakness of the present party is that it does not. Part of it was because The Dem’s lost the independents and the moderates and we have now made the same mistake. you have to appeal to a majority their is just no other way. McCain was a perfect example of how not to run the party he was not a moderate he was just a backstabber who stabbed his own people in the back.
Giuliani for instance found ways to relate his views to the majority of the people where he lived. But, he was responsive to conservatives when he lowered the taxes and the cost of government banned porn in times square and yelled bloody murder about the “piss Christ”. He also went law and order and did something about Crime. he was also responsive to most of the people in NYC who were not conservatives and Republican’s. he actually ended up with more actual accomplishments on conservative principles then the idiots we have in congress. In most areas of the country he would not have to take so many lib positions.
So there is an example of how to make conservatives responsive instead of just turning over large Dem areas to the ‘crats.
No we don't. We are Conservatives first. The party is merely a vehicle to advance Conservative Principles. Because those principles work.
As Goldwater said "we need a choice not an echo".
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