[Moseley]

Please spread this analysis everywhere you can. We need to get this message out.

[Always Right]

Conservatives need to re-establish the small-government traditional values as the GOP brand. The GOP has not distinguished itself from the Socialists Democrats in the last several elections.

[rabscuttle385]

(snip)

By 2008, the nomination of the Anti-Republi[c]an John McCain crossed the line. Only the prospect of electing far-left candidate Barack Hussein Obama gave conservatives any reason to fight for and vote for John McCain. Conservatives were shamefully guilty of staying silent for too long and allowing Republican "Moderates" to masquerade as conservatives. The fear of liberals like Al Gore or John Kerry winning election scared conservatives into biting their tongues.

But this argument has worn thin. Conservatives now realize that even if they do elect a "Moderate" Republican there probably won't be "a dime's worth of difference" from electing a Democrat. Meanwhile, the public image of Republicans will be smeared by having a Moderate Republican masquerade as a conservative. Ann Coulter promised to campaign for Hillary Clinton against John McCain. Christian leader James Dobson announced that he could never vote for John McCain.

McCain's frequent attacks on conservatives for decades, support for amnesty for illegal aliens, repeated swing votes for liberal policies, and infringement of free speech with the McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill made him completely unacceptable to many conservatives. As a result, some conservatives went "on strike" and stayed home... enough to result in massive election losses for the GOP. Faced with having the nation's first Black President, or a useless liberal McCain, many saw no benefit to voting for McCain. Elections involve more than just election day, but many months of hard work. Elections are decided by thousands of events months or a year before election day.

(snip)

The Juan McCain Truth File. "I have great respect for Al Gore." —John McCain, October 2, 2008 FR Keywords: mccaintruthfile, mcqueeg, mcbama Please tag all relevant threads with the aforementioned keywords. This can be a very high-volume ping list at times. To join the ping list: FReepmail rabscuttle385 with the subject line add  mccaintruthfile. (Stop getting pings by sending the subject line drop mccaintruthfile.)   Republican Commissar’s Warning: By joining this ping list, you may be subjected to the delusional rants and ramblings of McCainiacs, of "moderate" Republicans, of pragmatic conservatives resigned to voting for the lesser of two Democrats, and of countless RNC shills who simply want to meet a new overlord.

[Cheetahcat]

Every RINO every half a Republican has to go NOW. Steele has to earn his pay and De-certify these people starting with the NE click of Communists then McCain and Lousy Graham once these people are separated from us they will be defenseless and seen for the enemies they are.

[AuntB]

“(3) “Moderates” use conservative footsoldiers in election campaigns and then stab conservatives in the back in government policies. Conservatives will not continue to endure such persistent betrayal. It is as if the Conservative movement caught “Moderate” Republicans in bed with another woman. And we’ve got pictures.

(4) “Moderates” have a ferocious determination to sabotage the Republcian party whenever necessary to ensure the defeat of conservatives. “

---

Our first problem is on agreeing who the ‘moderates’ are. We can’t even get a consensus on FR on that. Some still think Bush, Cheney & McCain are ‘conservatives’.

[Albion Wilde]

[Bob J]

I get so tired of this navel gazing. Reagan won in 1980 due to Carter being inept. We lost the last election due to the Iraq intervention dragging on and the collapse of the economy. It was enough to swing the swing voters.

If 3.5% of the electorate voted the other way Obama would not be in the WH.

[Albion Wilde]

Ping — You will appreciate this article.

[donna]

RINO arrogance:

Lindsey Graham gets combative over GOP future [You’re a hypocrite! one man in the audience yelled]

“I’m a winner, pal,” Graham retorted. Moments later, after saying he wants to the party to reach out to independent voters, he said: “Winning matters to me. If it doesn’t matter to you, there’s the exit sign.”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2252653/posts

[garyhope]

“Fumigate”?

I was thinking of something stronger.

[cripplecreek]

Fumigate it, set it on fire, bury it, and cover the ground with concrete.

[Free_SJersey]

This very thing is going on in New Jersey right now; the New Jersey Democratic Party Ladies Auxilary Republican Party is backing RINO Christie who quite possibly could snatch defeat from the jaws of victory over an inept and unpopular Gov. Corzine. Lonagan is after real change instead of the same old same old.

[MCH]

Unless the Republican Party returns to its conservative principles, a number of conservatives will go on strike.

Rather than "go on strike," this conservative merely quit the party during the primaries last year once McCain was inevitable. Perhaps this is what is meant - not entirely sure. Anyway, McCain's nomination was the last straw in a long line, which has since accelerated (e.g. Bush starting the bailout/socialist takeover ball rolling). If the R's ever re-establish their conservative credentials and grow a pair in terms of standing up for them to the Socialist Democrats, I'll go back. In the meantime it's nice being unaffiliated and not continually embarrassed by the ineptitude and liberal leanings of the Republican party, which currently stands for absolutely nothing other than wanting power again.

[calcowgirl]

Excellent article. I would modify one point with respect to the following sentences:

• By contrast, if the GOP fields an awful candidate and runs an awful campaign, people will vote for the Democrat.

• Having a choice only between two bad shows on TV, people will watch the better show.

I would contend that given the choice of only an awful GOP candidate, voters will 1) leave the ballot blank, 2) vote third party, 3) vote democrat, or 4) not show up to the polling place, at all. Voter turnout is dismal with some 40% of registered voters not participating. Instead of adopting the moderates' misguided strategy, of leaning leftward to gain votes, they need to "inspire and persuade" (as you said) the non-participating voters. Those non-participating voters are the ones, who given the choice between two bad TV shows, will choose to not watch TV. They will turn the TV on when they find something of interest.

[Carry_Okie]

No, we should nominate our own candidates and force the "moderates" into a hard choice.

The key to that is to give up on nominating candidates upon the basis of "He can win" or "Electable Republican." It is to have no faith in our own principles.

[DTogo]

Conservatives need a new Conservative third party with a clear message to the GOP: Join or Die!

Liberal RINOs can then either leave the GOP to Conservatives, or the GOP can go the way of the Whigs.

[SaxxonWoods]

Eventually we conservatives will figure out that we have little or no representation in America. The brand is temporarily damaged. No one can “purge” either party of members. Everyone is free to join whatever party they wish. Liberals join the Democrats. Moderates join the Republicans. Conservatives can be Republican or independent, or join a fringe party. In any case they have very little political clout today.

The people defined at FR as “true conservatives” probably represent about 20% of the electorate. The definition keeps tightening, lowering the number.

Things will change when moderates are convinced to take more conservative positions. You can't grow the conservative movement by pushing people out, you must win moderates over. (Moderates are the only available source for new conservatives, liberals are goners, duh.)

And yet it is fashionable to bash moderates, who are politically closer to conservatives than any other group in America. (Libertarians and other fringers are too small to matter.) I understand the sentiment, but it won't lead to conservative power. I also understand that for some, purity is more important than power. That's fine with me, just dont’ expect purity to grow the conservative movement.

[SECURE AMERICA]

SHOULD CONSERVATIVES FUMIGATE THE BIG TENT TO REMOVE LIBERALS?

YES.. YES.. YES... YES...
ABSOULTEY POSITIVELY YES.................................

[GingisK]

I don’t believe it will be possible to recover the GOP. It is like an old and occupied house, fallen to rot and disrepair. It is time to found an new party based upon genuine conservative Principlies.

[x]

You do what works where you live and what people there think is right and let other people do the same where they live.

Some districts won't elect someone you'd recognize as conservative. Would they be better off with a Democrat, who, by your own view, would likely be more liberal than any Republican would be?

Almost all of the old Rockefeller Republicans -- the East Coast liberals -- are gone. Except for those two women from Maine, there doesn't seem to be very much of a liberal (or what the press would call a "moderate") wing of the party left in Congress.

Rather than the old liberal ("moderate") bloc, you have Senators and Governors who are a little more corporate, a little more country club than the rest of us. They may be a problem, but they're not the main reason Republicans are in such bad shape right now.

For example, every Republican in the House voted against Stimulus-Porkulus. To me that's a sign that this RINO thing is getting to be a red herring. People love to talk about it, beyond whatever real importance it has in politics today.

I didn't have time to read through your whole article. Some of it looked interesting. Two comments, though.

1) Sometimes it's not a clear-cut case of liberals/moderates vs. conservatives. Oliver North was carrying a lot of baggage that would likely make many Republicans and Independents hesitant to vote for him.

Sometimes the problem is the baggage a candidate has, not an ideological split. Whether or not you or I would have been enthusiastic about North's candidacy, it's not a good test case.

2) My guess is that very, very few Republicans voted for John Anderson in 1980. Most of Anderson's support came from liberals and Democrats who were disillusioned with Carter, or from those who were already ex-Republicans. There weren't large scale defections from Reagan to Anderson. At least, I'm not aware of any Republican elected officials who endorsed him.

Reagan was able to hold on to even very liberal GOP Senators. That's because he knew what was important and was able to prioritize. He wasn't distracted by side issues.

[MadIsh32]

Excellent piece until it started calling Tom Davis a liberal

I worked for Tom Davis. If we are going to label men like him “liberals” we will never win an election again.