Bottom line is, Jim, even though I’m supporting the Romney/Ryan ticket after opposing Romney in the primaries, you have the right to have your opinion without being ostracized for not joining with the “in-crowd.” The GOP is supposed to be a big-tent party, right? This guy is actually insulting you for being a “minority?” How does that help the GOP’s image? Principles are about doing what you believe is right, not about doing what’s popular.
Even if Romney wins, I would be more comfortable with a Romney presidency if he and other party leaders are reminded as much as possible that the base will not accept him reverting back to the type of liberal policies he had in Massachusetts. Romney being scared of the base is almost certainly one reason we got Ryan selected as V.P. If Romney had felt comfortable about winning the normal constituencies, he would’ve surely picked a boring choice who was unlikely to make any waves or start any difficult battles on policy. Just as the elevation of Palin did a lot of good even though McCain lost, the elevation of Ryan is going to do a lot of good no matter what. So that is already something that the conservative base gained for themselves by being lukewarm or outright opposing Romney.
As far as I’m concerned, the biggest risk facing us is that Obamacare goes into effect and takes hold. Such a big government takeover presents enormous risks to our economy, our standard of living and American freedom. I believe Romney will repeal it and, like with all of Romney’s potential policies, I think conservatives have a better chance of influencing him to do something better than they do Obama. There are several other things I know Romney would do differently from Obama such as opening the Keystone pipeline, not forcing churches to pay for birth control and not bad-mouthing Israel behind their back. I think the Tea Party will face a test of strength in making sure they don’t let Romney get away with much if any liberal policy, but they have a chance at pulling it off, just as conservatives stopped Bush from nominating Harriet Myers to the Supreme Court. When it comes down to the old “lesser of two evils” choice, I think the fact that the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare more than anything else has resulted in Romney/Ryan being the clear lesser of the two this time around.
These other forums ought to work on developing their own identity. They’re going to fall in the Recycle Bin of internet history if their entire identity is built around whining about FR.
We did block Miers but got Roberts instead. Of course we were all happy about that at the time. No one could foresee that he’d turn traitor to the cause just as we needed him most. ObamaCare should already be dead by now and not even an issue. Bush was not a movement conservative, he was a “compassionate” conservative and McCain was even less conservative. I remember when we all swore, “Never again!”
But Romney’s an out and out liberal progressive leftist and flip-flopping, bald-faced liar to boot, but here they’re asking for our vote? We warned them that we’d never vote for an abortionist, homosexualist statist and I have no intention of ever selling my soul for the GOP.
Jedi, I respect your head a lot, but I stop breathing for a moment when I hear FReepers say, “ we can hold Myth’s feet to the fire once we get him elected. “ How, pray tell, do we get power to do that when we have just given him all of it, over us, along with our vote?