Posted on 04/26/2009 6:03:07 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
In GOP base, a 'rebellion brewing' By: Ben Smith and Jonathan Martin April 26, 2009 07:03 AM EST
A quick tour through the week’s headlines suggests the Republican Party is beginning to come to terms with the last election and that consensus is emerging among GOP elites that the party needs to move away from discordant social issues.
There was Sen. John McCain's daughter and his campaign manager who last week demanded that their fellow Republicans embrace same-sex marriage. Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman – the most devoted modernizer among the party's 2012 hopefuls – won approving words from New York Times columnist Frank Rich for his call to downplay divisive values issues. The party’s top elected leaders in Congress, meanwhile, spooked by being attacked as the “party of no,” were recasting themselves as a constructive, respectful opposition to a popular president.
But outside Washington, the reality is very different. Rank-and-file Republicans remain, by all indications, staunchly conservative, and they appear to have no desire to moderate their views. GOP activists and operatives say they hear intense anger at the White House and at the party’s own leaders on familiar issues – taxes, homosexuality, and immigration. Within the party, conservative groups have grown stronger absent the emergence of any organized moderate faction.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Then the rest of us can start running conservatives...
“It’s dead, Jim”
The self-destruct sequence alpha, alpha, alpha, one has been activated.... The Enterprise will self-destruct in T-minus 2 years.
“Did anyone ever come up with a good explanation of how John McCain ended up with the nomination? He was tied for last choice in my book.”
Same here. I am not a conspiracy guy but that was fishy.
CLOSE THE PRIMARIES.
A quick tour through the week's headlines suggests the Republican Party is beginning to come to terms with the last election and that consensus is emerging among GOP elites that the party needs to move away from discordant social issues... But outside [the NY Times op-ed pages and] Washington, the reality is very different. Rank-and-file Republicans remain, by all indications, staunchly conservative, and they appear to have no desire to moderate their views. GOP activists and operatives say they hear intense anger at the White House and at the party's own leaders on familiar issues -- taxes, homosexuality, and immigration. Within the party, conservative groups have grown stronger absent the emergence of any organized moderate faction.
I know EXACTLY how the GOP can start winning again:
Stop apologizing for policies they know to be both Constitutional, and that work.
If they can’t comprehend that, they can try this instead:
Stop apologizing.
Yeah, most capable of critical thought saw the GOP as being dead some years ago. After Bush, and then Schwarzenegger heading up the GOP here, it only helped finish off what was left of that party.
lol...If you believe that, you'll believe anything.
Their lying, corruption, they're arrogant, big government, big spending, and open borders positions, is exactly what sent that party into the toilet.
My point is, there was no opposition from the Republican insiders.
They already have one. It’s called the Democrat party.
The MSM lavishing praise on him plus a split conservative vote.
Your objections to the side, you will stop *nothing* without the Christian Right. They are, by far, the largest voting bloc in the country. There is *no* Conservative way to victory without them. It is mathematically impossible.
On the other hand, it is relatively easy to support a candidate who is both a libertarian, and thereby supports your views necessarily, and supports the basic principles that the Social conservatives require, not to mention also supporting the principles of the Fiscal and Defense conservative factions as well.
That is the agreement which brought us Reagan Conservatism, and it's vast success. *No* conservative principle need be compromised, including the prerequisites of the Christian Right.
To demand that any faction must take a back seat, or be thrown under the bus, is not Conservative, is not good, and will not be successful.
This is a good sign, and indicative of rallying the base in the way Reagan did. Who will step up nationally to do so? 2010 comes first however.
It is also false. The moderates are still very much in charge of the Republican party - both the leadership in Congressional houses, and the RNC. The Republican message is certainly being crafted, and certainly has not changed from before the election, unless it has become even more liberal than before.
If the Republicans hadn’t turned into an extension of Jerry Farwell then we wouldn’t have half the kooks we have in Congress and certainly not a Socialist in the White House.
Republican party has been ruined by the all of gay rights, abortion crap.
Let’s worry about governing and teaching our kids right from wrong rather what some perverts are doing.
John
Have the doctor check your meds, you’re out in left field.
That voting bloc did a really good job of stopping Obama.
They stayed home in 2006 and gave up Congress and then set on their hands doing the last election.
How do you like having an illegal alien and Communist in the White House?
The majority of Republicans in Congress, and our last Presidential candidate pander to the gay mafia, and think abortion is a “crap” issue. As did the Republicans under Bob Michel years ago.
And the evidence shows they cannot govern, cannot lead, have no spine, no principles, and battle the rightwing more than the commies.
They are useless.
Yes... hmmm. For the first time since Reagan, the Republican candidate and VP candidate did not support the full Pro-life agenda, and both candidates were less than stalwart on battling the homosexual agenda. The traditional Value Voters forum was ignored, and intentionally replaced with Rick Warren and the inarguably liberal Saddleback forum. And you WONDER why the Christians didn't show up in strength?
They stayed home in 2006 and gave up Congress and then set on their hands doing the last election.
That is not just the Christian Right, but ALL Conservatives. Every faction, including libertarians and the Reaganites too. Conservatives vote *FOR* Conservatives, not against others... That is a quintessentially Conservative trait which Republicans have never been able to understand, and will never be able to control with bogeyman politics.
That is why the politics of "pragmatism" never work. If a candidate cannot successfully harness all three pillars of Conservatism (which is done in the ability to stand upon the principles of all of those factions), the factions which are *not* represented will fall back into the turbulent ocean of the general electorate. There is *no Conservatism* without *all of Conservatism*.
That IS the lesson of '06, which has been reiterated in '08.
How is that question related to your specious bullfeathers spittled out to insult people of Faith and those opposed to slaughtering alive unborn children? Again, have your meds adjusted.
Iowahawk skewers the better class of Republicans in his T. Coddington Van Voorhees VII pieces.
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