Why the GOP Must Lose: Nothing short of defeat will put it back on its limited government track

Reason magazine ^ | October 22, 2008 | Radley Balko

[grundle]

Voting for Obama to get rid of big government is like shooting yourself in the head to get rid of a headache.

I said I am voting for Ron Paul, not for Obama.

[TheFreeRight]

Gave us Clinton, and overall, what good did that do for the party?

What good did it do? Two years after he was elected, the republicans - running on a small government, reform minded, common sense conservative platform - stormed back into Congressional leadership, and spend the duration of the next six years of the Clinton years beating back the size and scope of government to the point where Clinton tried to out-do them on their conservatism, going as far as to declare the "era of big government has come to an end"...

It gave us Welfare Reform, balanced budgets, surpluses (all due to REPUBLICANS in congress) and most importantly a strong congressional check to presidential power - allowing us to say "no" to the excesses of Clinton.

It wasn't a perfect time, republicans failed a lot then too - but what did it give us? It gave us control of what mattered - Congress, for the first REAL time since 1933 (aside from a couple congresses that we regained power, then quickly lost, or were split even briefly).

I think many of you are missing the point of the article - and that is that without any kind of significant "wake up call", the republicans will just keep doing what they have been doing since Bush got elected - and that is acting like Democrats. Spend. Bloat the governemnt. Deficits. On and on... what the living hell is the difference? Abortion? Wow, congratulations, we are now officially ONE ISSUE voters...

Sorry, that's not what I signed up for.

I agree with the article... I say "let it burn" - start a purging fire that will leave the ground fertile for re-growth... positive growth. Right now, if we maintain the status quo, it will be nearly impossible to reform from within.

Besides everyone... whoever takes over the presidency is going to have a VERY rough 4 years... I say let the chosen one get the blame for it while we take care of our sorry, pathetic little party.

[rmlew]

Another person confusing the silver lining of a hopeful conservative resurgence with the quicksilver reality.
In 2006, the Deocrats won Congress. Our polity moved left, including the GOP. If the Democrats win the in 2008, the GOP will be pushed to become more "centrist". That is political reality.