Posted on 05/17/2006 7:47:58 AM PDT by Pukin Dog
Edited on 05/17/2006 8:30:59 AM PDT by Lead Moderator. [history]
"A house divided against itself cannot stand." – Abraham Lincoln, 1858
It is getting somewhat strange around these parts when not only the President, but yesterday the First Lady was personally attacked by someone claiming to be a ‘Conservative’. Can there be any doubt that there are forces among us looking to drive a wedge between us?
A few weeks ago, this forum’s owner attempted to remind all of us of the big picture, that regardless of any personal animosity towards the President or Republican Party over their adherence to Conservative principles, that they are still a clear choice over the alternative Democrat Party rule. At that time, I assumed that FReeper-sanity had been restored, and that some of the negative rhetoric aimed at those in Washington D.C. would be dialed back.
Free Republic is a political forum with a proud history and vision, responsible for dragging Dan Rather from his post, and providing countless radio-talk shows with their daily talking points. FReepers are unique in their determination and energy towards protecting and defending the goals of our Founding Fathers.
We are also quite a powder keg of emotion and anticipation, expecting our Republican majorities to take advantage of this opportunity to make permanent gains in our Conservative agenda. Some might argue that this opportunity has been squandered, but those persons would be ignorant of history, lacking understanding that change cannot occur overnight in Washington, and that this is the way our Founders designed our Republic.
In frustration, impatience, and ignorance, we have allowed this forum to become a haven for those who do not share our Conservative goals. I do not blame our enemies anymore then I would blame a scorpion for stinging me. If anger and stupidity were one’s nature, I would expect the trolls that infect this forum to be angry and stupid consistently, which also makes them somewhat easy to detect.
The trolls are not the problem, though. The problem is that so many of us are allowing ourselves to be taken in by those who seek only to prevent us from going to the polls in November to keep their stinking hands off our government for another term. There can be no doubt, that no matter how disappointing our current government has been in promoting the Conservative agenda, that the alternative, enabled by our staying home will be MUCH worse.
The way to deal with Republicans who have actively worked against our goals is to defeat them in Primary elections. We do not even have to defeat them all, only enough of them to send the message that we will indeed target them if they work against our agenda. It should be the goal of EVERY conservative to see that Lincoln Chaffee is defeated in November. His seat is one we can afford to lose. Were I a Rhode Island resident, I would vote for the Democrat if only to send a message to Snowe, Hagel, Collins, Graham, and especially that bastard Specter that their primaries just got a lot tougher.
We only need to get one of them, and Chaffee is the one to get. It does not really matter if a Democrat takes his seat; he will be junior and mute as long as we maintain our overall majority in the Senate.
The one thing that bothers me here like nothing else, is the simple disrespect of the President. Am I am Bush-Bot? Damn straight I am. If you want to know why, click on my handle to read Southack’s excellent list of Bush’s accomplishments in office. But if Bush had done almost nothing in office, it would be no excuse for some of the slights and disrespect he has received from some of us on this forum.
Some of the things I have read here this past week match in tone what one can find on our favorite Democrat sewer site. Someone calling himself or herself a FReeper was promoting shooting aliens at the border until they stopped coming. Is that what we are about? Obviously not, and that so-called Conservative has been eliminated from this forum.
I think it is important to remember that you and I have just as much responsibility as George Bush does in changing our culture to better reflect Conservative values. Right now, this very moment, Conservatives have the government they deserve. We put them there. They are not our mommies and daddies sent out to bring home our Conservative bread. That responsibility lies with all of us. These Republicans represent us, they don’t serve us. Our job is to pick the best individual and send him/her to Washington in the hope that their CHARACTER will see them through.
This is why it is such a nutty thing to consider punishing the Republican party, when we should be letting them know that we’ve got their back, but if they cant do the job, we will replace them with ANOTHER Republican, instead of handing the reigns of government to the party of anger, hopelessness and despair. We sometimes like to think that those people we send to Washington are different from us, that they are capable of meeting our every need and desire.
I want every one of you to think about what you would consider to be your perfect mate. Maybe some of you think you have found that person. If you are married and totally in love with another person, that is great. Now I want to ask you to think about the last time that person you love, who is PERFECT for you, completely pissed you off. Remember, this is your perfect mate, your one true love. Do they do everything you want them to do? Obey your every desire? If you answer yes, I am going to put you on my troll list.
Those people in Washington do not even cut your lawn, yet you expect perfection. Get over it.
I am issuing a challenge to every person who considers him or her to be a Conservative; why don’t we all commit to a return to HONOR? Do we honor our Conservative agenda when we comport ourselves in disgraceful ways? Is it an honorable thing to suggest that our President is a moron, as I read here a few days ago? Is it honorable to attack Laura Bush or any other person representing true Conservative values?
Some of you might argue that George Bush is not representing Conservative values to your liking. I would remind you that the first thing Bush said upon taking office, is that he was going to be President of ALL the people, not just some. You know that if you followed Bush from the beginning that he campaigned of the very immigration platform he is defending right now. Did you vote for him? Yeah?
If you have ever had a steak at a Ruth’s Chris restaurant, you know that sometimes they bring that wonderful steak to your table with a sprig of parsley on it. I hate parsley. Hate it. If I were to treat my steak the way some of us want to treat our President, I would have to throw out the steak, due to that nasty parsley that comes with it. I can deal with the parsley to get the steak, and that is what I am asking FReepers to do.
Expecting perfection from any person, group or team is a recipe for disaster. George W. Bush is my president. You can disagree with him, you can blame him for your problems if that is your desire. If you disrespect his office, his service, his risking his life to be with our troops in Iraq, his steadfast desire to bring a new tone to Washington, or if you just like the way he keeps Democrats so pissed off they lose their minds on a regular basis, I ask you to treat him and his wife with respect and cut the personal attacks. If you call him ‘Shrub’ or ‘Jorge’ consider yourself my enemy.
Right now, our real enemy are the Main Stream Media, the Democrat Party, and all who follow and support them. If you want to jump-ugly on someone, why not start with those leaky bastards and give our side a break?
Do it for Pukin.
I knew that you could.
"Wrong, and you want to know why? Because the President has already set the national agenda on border and immigration reform and all it takes is a quick scan through the numerous immigration threads on FR at this very instance and you will see it's not enough for this core of single issue voters."
The President has set his policies.
And those policies are the ANTITHESIS of everything the BorderBots have been saying they want for months and months.
So, what has happened is that the President has set an unnacceptable agenda to these people, and to the Republican House of Representatives, and he is going to be blocked in implementing that.
Now, as with Miers, he can either back down and retool and offer something acceptable, or he can be stubborn, put the plane into a jam dive, and we all crash and burn in November.
I don't want to crash and burn, but the President's immigration agenda cannot stand. It is too offensive to Border Conservatives. They aren't going to back it. And without them, there is no Republican majority.
That is why you need security in depth. A wall alone will not work. Remote sensing alone will not work. 100,000 boots alone will not work.
And even if you couple all three together, it still will not work UNLESS THERE IS A TRUE DESIRE IN THE GOVERNMENT TO SEE IT DOES WORK.
And IMO, that is the key ingredient that is missing here.
"And what happens, after that fence is built and the tunneling becomes more rampant?"
What happens?
Some illegals get through.
There will be border patrols, and aerial patrols.
Tunnelling across a triple fence line is not easy, and once you open a tunnel and people start to move, it doesn't stay open very long.
Sure, some people will always get through. But not 2 million a year.
Thank you. That is exactly what those of us being flamed and silenced by the Build-the-Wall crowd keep trying to say.
"2) Goofy-man entering as a 3rd party candidate on his personal vendetta against the Bushs."
"Goofy-man" got almost a fifth of the vote.
His biggest issues were trade, and Mexico.
Immigration and the Mexican problem was an issue even way back then. Now it's an issue that can't be kicked down the road anymore.
If we do not wish to repeat the result of 1992, we need to behave differently than we did then. Specifically, the leaders need to give the key elements of the base what they want and bring the party united into the election.
They show no inclination to do so.
Like 1993 and the Contract, they WILL after they have lost Congress in 2006. I'd prefer not to have to go through a loss in order to get to the same place that we ought to be getting to right now while we still have Congress.
Much of the time these publications are wrong. they never retract, or even correct their stuff, so it is really just opinion.
WND started out pretty good, but has since deteriorated as a good newsworthy organization, IMO.
"Many of them have been here for years pretending to be libertarians, reformers and pukananites and now see their opportunity. Do not automatically assume an old Freeper is a Conservative, especially if he uses insulting names for the President of the United States."
When I have reached my limit with these lying spinning leftwing electronic brownshirt trolling moles, I will often challenge them to show me a single reply or post where they have complimented our president or said something positive about him. Most of them can't. They have a electronic trail of years posting vile hatred of GW, his Father, his wife, his cabinet members, his Mother and of course those of us who really voted for him in 2000 and 2004.
Pukin Dog's thread has brought many of these trolls out. It reminds me of when our warriors were first in Baghdad and fighting the Islamofascists. Our psych ops warriors had our loud speakers on our tanks and Humvees, saying things in Arabic which drove the Islamo lunatics into suicide attacks against our warriors. Pukin Dog thread has done the same and brought many FR's Electronic Left Wing Trolling Moles out into the open.
When an old "Walk on the Water Conservative Freeper, trashes our President worse than a short lived DUer before its zotting, they are not conservative nor Republican. They are CINO/RINOS playing a deadly game with us. They proudly enabled the the Clintons to have 8 years to rape and pillage our country. We will not allow that to happen again.
"I do not appreciate those that chose to gamble with the future of this country over an issue."
I don't either, which is why the President and certain Republicans in the Senate, notably McCain, should knock off this crap and say that we're building a sea-to-sea barrier fence before we start discussing guest worker or amnesty.
Instead, they're chosing to gamble with the future of this country over an issue.
They need to stop it.
What I see as missing, is the understanding that there is a slew of other possible routes of entry and they will simply shift to those.
Trucks, air, sea........and the big one...."Overstayed visa's".
Then what do you do. Build ten thousand Coast Guard patrol boats? Cancel all foreign Visa's? Close, and or physically and tediously inspect every single vehicle entering through the gateways.....Close the airspace?
Hell, they could traverse the Gulf and enter as far away as Florida!(and probably are now)
The answer is a comprehensive one, and I can sure see it. Why is it that so many refuse to even look?
Amen George W.
Try explaining that to these knuckleheads on this forum
"Nope, hang the man for managing to get ANY further on a fence"
His was a policy speech, not a budget request.
What he needed to say was a sea-to-sea fence, not a partial fence and not a "virtual" fence, and he needed not to say "guest worker" until the border is secure.
He knew this too.
But he chose, instead, to not give the Border Conservatives what they say they want.
He chose to try and split the baby, which looks like rope-a-dope.
It didn't work, and it's not going to work.
He's not going to get credit for asking for something that the target audience says it doesn't want, while refusing to give them what they said they wanted.
The President is not a stupid man, and he is well advised. His speech was calculated to SOUND LIKE he was giving people what they wanted, without, however, moving off his original position.
The BorderBots were not duped, and they are angrier than they were before that the President tried to dupe them.
What needs to happen now, to save the GOP's bacon, is that the Congressional reconciliation committee needs to ignore the President and agree in principle to a border to border fence, without amnesty now. They can offer to discuss it down the pike.
That will keep the BorderBots voting GOP this November.
If they get status quo, or guest worker, or no sea-to-sea fence, enough will stay home that we lose.
Why are we doing this?
Why don't we just cave and give this key element of the base what THEY say they want?
What is the PRINCIPLE that we are standing on here to leave the borders open?
Do we just have a political death wish?
Sorry, but when President Bush is counting on nearly complete Dem support to get his guest worker program through the Senate and the House, and his guest worker proposal is causing a huge rift to form in the GOP that could well jeopardize GOP control of the House in the upcoming elections, he is deserving of just about all the criticism I have seen thrown at him over this issue. For all your talk of your opponents on this issue being closet Dems, OUR GUYS are not forming alliances with the Dems to get our agenda through. BUSH IS.
Good post. Give the approach to immigration laws since the early 90s, it's not encouraging is it?
Exactly, v13. I consider myself a Bushbot, but firmly beleive we need to build that damn wall/seal the border before we do another thing.
Bush the Elder did the same with his tax hikes. But the GOP losses in 1992 were not his fault, no. It was all the fault of the Perot voters.
Likewise, Bush's defenders on this issue simply cannot bring themselves to realize that Bush is willing to ally with liberal Dems and risk losing GOP control of the House to get his way - rather than take the PRUDENT step of holding off on a guest worker program for now. It is political brinksmanship of the worst kind - and it apparently runs in the family.
***************
Perhaps we should observe a moment of silence. Or not.
It is a shame that he went out that way, though.
They can disagree till the cows come home. This is not subjective. The fact is that the President always, or almost always, ends his speeches with "May God continue to bless America."
Now, to try to make something out of the word "continue" is to grasp for straws.
It's not. And quite frankly, Bush has given good reason to question his sincerity about sealing the border - with Exhibit A being his signing a bill for 10,000 more BP agents, but proposing funding for only a few hundred. That alone shows he will not back up initial commitments made. And trust on this issue will only return with concrete action - not by working with Dems to circumvent GOP conservatives in both houses.
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