THANK YOU, Pukin Dog. We sure needed this thread.
Agreed.
No conservative I know is asking for perfection. We are not asking that everything turn out our way or that our President fight the Democrats on every small issue.
We do expect, however, for our "conservative" President to not actively campaign against conservative principles like he has been doing recently when it comes to the domestic realm.
We ARE asking to not be treated like fools and bigots. One cannot forget the Miers debacle and the cries of sexism that came out of Mrs. Bush and certain people in the administration. One cannot help but cringe at the thinly veiled accusations coming out of the Republican Congress that one is a racist if he opposes the guest worker program.
Like it or not, a lot of Bush's base is very upset right now. Do not treat us like we are spoiled children crying because we did not get a candy bar. Such accusations are very insulting.
All I can say is that if this administration and this congress continue to act arrogant and not only ignore, but fight against, their base, there will be a Speaker Pelosi soon. Not because any conservative is going to vote Democrat, but because too many of the average conservative Joes will just not care enough to go to the polls and vote for RINOs.
"Expecting perfection from any person, group or team is a recipe for disaster."
Perfection?
No.
But suppose, for a minute, that September 11th had happened, but President Bush had responded the way Clinton did to the first World Trade Center attack. Suppose he had refused to declare war and sought a "law enforcement option".
Could you continue to support the Republican Party even then?
Suppose he appointed open pro-abortion judges to the Supreme Court.
Could you continue to support the Republican Party even then?
What he just did on the Border was give a speech that says that we will have no effective fence, and have a de-facto amnesty...and that if we can't get that, we will be left with the status quo of an open border. Which means that we are going to lose our country itself.
To people who see this clearly, what the President AND MOST OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY (the House Republicans excepted) have done is to hand over America to a steady foreign invasion. It is the equivalent of the President and the Party having done either of the two aforementioned things.
It is not a matter, for the Border Conservatives, of demanding perfection. It is, rather, a matter of maintaining certain MINIMUM STANDARDS that cannot be gone below. And on the fundamental matter of the survival of the nation itself, long term, in the face of a Latino invasion, the President and the Republican leadership have chosen to go with allowing the progressive invasion of the US, without any effective resistance.
It was not hysteria of perfectionists when the low-tax portion of the Republican base walked out on Bush's father in 1992 after he broke his "read my lips, no new taxes" pledge. It was the enforcement of discipline and minimum standards. It was normally Republican men and women all across America saying that there is a level below which they will not stoop, and there is behavior that they will not accept, and that if the Republican Party insists on selling out a core constituency, they will withhold their votes from the Republican Party until it meets those minimum standards.
Yes, the principled anti-tax Republicans, by walking away, DID result in Clinton's election in 1992. But they ALSO were the catalyst that provoked the Contract With America and the sweeping Republican victory in 1994. And ever since then, the Republican Party has never once even suggested raising taxes. Republicans get it: taxes are a MINIMUM. Raising taxes will result in Republican voters abandoning them. Republican voters don't demand PERFECTION, but they DO demand that Republicans not violate basic minima. Raise taxes, and low-tax Republicans would rather see the Republican Party lose ONE election, to get the message that they can never win ANY elections, ever again, if they don't STOP the unacceptable behavior.
The Republicans GOT IT on taxes.
No pro-abortion candidate has any real hope of ever being the Republican nominee. It is not because pro-life voters demand PERFECTION. No. PERFECTION would have been no Arlen Specter at judiciary. It would be a constitutional amendment against abortion. It would be investigation of abortion mills, and prosecution for poor health practices. Pro-life Republican voters are willing to accept a good deal less than perfection. But they, too, have minima. To a pro-life voter, if the Republican Party nominates a pro-choice candidate for President, or raises a pro-choice justice to the Supreme Court, it is PREFERRABLE to stay home and let the Republicans be horribly defeated in ONE election cycle, to teach the lesson that such behavior is unacceptable. The Party has a lot of latitude, but if it falls below the MINIMA of a core constituency, then it is imperative that such constituency intentionally PUNISH the Party, by a defeat in a national election, to teach the election that the discretion of power and leadership DOES NOT PERMIT Republican leaders to go below the minimum.
Raise taxes, and Republican tax hawks WILL cause the party to lose the next election. Everyone knows that. Which is why Republicans haven't suggested it since 1992.
Elevate a pro-choice Presidential candidate or Supreme Court nominee, and the pro lifers WILL hand victory to the Democrats in the next election, to teach the lesson to the Republican Party that they cannot win if they betray this core constituency on its fundamental concern.
I am not a Border Conservative, but I think that what President Bush and the Republican establishment, the House Republicans excepted, have done is clearly go far below the basic minima that Border Conservatives would tolerate.
What were they saying all along: THE WALL is THE KEY.
They have said, above all, "Build a Fence; seal the border". And they said no amnesty. Bitter-enders said many other things, but most thinking "BorderBots" said that the WALL was the key. Stop the flow, and the problem of illegals already here can be dealt with in time. Over and over, relentlessly, the Border Conservatives said this.
What have the Republicans offered them?
No wall, no internal enforcement against business, and a backdoor amnesty by another name.
The BorderBots were not just not given EVERYTHING.
They weren't given ANYTHING.
The Republican leadership (House excepted) gave them the back of the hand, the equivalent of a tax hike for border hawks and a pro-abortion presidential candidacy and Supreme Court nominee for the pro-lifers.
Of course the BorderBots have to walk.
Their core issue has been ignored, not just on some points, but on EVERY point. They have been completely disregarded, and their concerns overridden.
Simple self-respect and the honor of which you spoke requires them to sit out an election, knowing that this will indeed hand power to the Democrats, just like in 1992. It is the only way to focus the mind of the Republican leadership to understand that a closed border is the MINIMUM that Border Conservatives will accept. Go below that, and they can't be Republicans anymore, because an open border means the slow motion destruction and dissolution of the American culture, and eventually the unity of the nation itself.
That's what they were saying BEFORE Bush's speech.
Now they're angry.
But it's what they will continue to say now.
Hopefully, after two years of misery under a Republican Congress, there will be another "Contract With America" moment, and the Republican Party will understand that NO NEW TAXES, NO PRO-ABORT SUPREMES OR PRESIDENTS, and a SEALED MEXICAN BORDER are minima below which the Republican Party cannot let itself go, because the result if they do is Democratic rule.
Were the tax hawks wrong in 1992?
Are the pro-lifers wrong on their minimum?
No, and no.
Are the BorderBots wrong on theirs?
It's tough for me to see how they are.
And it's tough for me to see how their own self-respect will allow them to vote Republican this year, except for firm seal-the-border candidates of WHATEVER political party.
Your appeal was sincere, Pukin Dog, but it won't work.
It won't work because it CAN'T.
Appeals to party unity were made after George Bush 41 raised taxes, but they were in vain. And in the end, it is better that they failed. The Republican Party learned, through electoral disaster, that they do not have the power to raise taxes if they want to hold onto power. Their own base will execute them.
In 2006, the Republican Party is going to be executed by its Border Conservative base. At this point, it is unrecoverable. The President made a fatal error, and the Senate yesterday made it unrecoverable by refusing to agree to enforcement first. The pieces are now in motion, and they can't be stopped. BorderBots cannot swallow their pride and maintain their dignity if they vote GOP this year, and the GOP cannot win without them.
The Democrats will win in November because of what George Bush said Monday night, and what the Republican Senate did on Tuesday.
But this is not the end of the world.
It is a teachable moment, or November will be at any rate.
The recovery that will follow thereafter will be to add a Sealed Mexican Border to the list of UNTOUCHABLE Republican policies. The Republican nominee in 2008 will support not a virtual fence and backdoor amnesty, but an Israeli-style wall. And with that, the BorderBots will come back in force, just like the tax hawks did with the Contract with America.
It's too bad we have to be defeated in November, but we do. BorderBot self-respect, and yes, honor, demands it.
That doesn't mean that I approve or accept blindly everything said or done here or in D.C., but the alternatives are worse. Much worse.
"A house divided against itself cannot stand." – Abraham Lincoln, 1858
"Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and a house divided against a house falleth." - Jesus of Nazareth, circa 33AD?
Go DOG!!!
Nics, please to read this and comment.
Nothing would give me more pleasure, except that my representative is a RINO, and unopposed.
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, PD!!
GREAT RANT....I agree wholeheartedly.
Great job! You have made some excellent points we all would be wise to heed over the next 5-6 months.
AMEN!!
Tell it on the MOUNTAIN!!
Proud to SUPPORT OUR PRES and FR!
I give feedback to the Pres that I don't like the parsley!
G
Thank you for attempting to bring sanity back to the table. This food fight has been one of the nastiest I've ever witnessed here. And I've seen a LOT. Everyone is frustrated right now, and no one particularly likes what's on the menu. It's nothing compared to what will be served us IF the dems. take control. Regards, SVITW
Thank you! I've been increasingly annoyed with the division and the attitude among some that we ought to volunteer to put the Marxists in office for a time because we didn't get, to borrow your metaphor, steak without a sprig of parsley.
Thank you as always for the timely rant.
PS: See my tag line for the last several months.
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 Massachusetts 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.
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VERY EXCELLENT POINTS! THANKS. I couldn't even find anything to quibble with. Shocking.
--Qx w a broked puter still borrowing JM's