Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Why Republican Infighting Matters (Savvy conservatives win, fumbling moderates get clobbered)
National Review ^ | 6/22/2009 | Thomas Sowell

Posted on 06/23/2009 5:35:32 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-38 next last

1 posted on 06/23/2009 5:35:32 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
Unfortunately, the only political party with any chance of displacing the current leadership in Washington is the Republican party.

That doesn't bode well for Conservatives since the OP has moved to the socialist left far enough to merge its political ideology with the RATs. They are essentially one big socialist Republicrat party.
2 posted on 06/23/2009 5:42:04 AM PDT by Man50D (Fair Tax, you earn it, you keep it! FairTaxNation.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Democrats have mastered the trick of running as conservatives. Their base knows they don’t mean what they are campaigning on and too many conservatives buy it.

Republicans couldn’t get away with running as liberals, because their base expects truth in advertising.

Republicans have yet to find a good way to combat the two faced campaigning of Democrats.


3 posted on 06/23/2009 5:46:39 AM PDT by randita
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
Perhaps people who are busy gushing over the Obama cult today might do well to stop and think about what it would mean for their granddaughters to live under sharia law.

The United States government may surrender to sharia law, but Texas won't.

4 posted on 06/23/2009 5:57:01 AM PDT by Hazwaste (Liberals love the average American the same way that foxes love the average chicken.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: randita

Precisely.

Which is why we have no representation in the North East now

Conservatives have to allow our candidates to run as “moderates” in places like the Northeast, Western California and now Northern VA.

By “moderate” I mean allow them to essentially ignore social wedge issues for the general election in these areas.


5 posted on 06/23/2009 5:58:58 AM PDT by MadIsh32 (In order to be pro-market, sometimes you must be anti-big business)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Hazwaste

LMAO

There are 57 countries in the Organization of Islamic States

Only 2 have a Sharia system.

When there is Sharia in Karachi and ISB, then I’ll start to “worry” about Sharia in America


6 posted on 06/23/2009 6:00:11 AM PDT by MadIsh32 (In order to be pro-market, sometimes you must be anti-big business)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

The GOP is plagued like the Jimmy Piersall character in the stunning 1957 Tony Perkins film ‘’Fear Strikes Out’’.


7 posted on 06/23/2009 6:04:40 AM PDT by Theodore R.
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: randita
“Republicans have yet to find a good way to combat the two faced campaigning of Democrats.”

The trick is to call them liars. It has the virtue of being true, but unfortunately it offends dainty Republican sensibilities to be so direct. When, for example, Obama says that his health care “reforms” won't force anyone to change coverage, Republicans should be screaming liar at the top of their lungs. Instead they have to preface every remark with tedious disclaimers about the President's eloquence and good faith. By the time they get around to a criticism, the audience has gone back to sleep.

Please, dear God, send us a leader who doesn't mince words.

8 posted on 06/23/2009 6:06:34 AM PDT by fluffdaddy (Is anyone else missing Fred Thompson about now?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

I think the 400 lb gorilla in the room is the complete lack of RKBA in the platform. Look at the primaries last year; Guiliani? Romney? McCain? They should have never been on the ticket.

Palin in fact proves it; chosen as a “we can have a woman too” lynchpin, and as a weak bone to throw at the 2nd amendment voters, she becomes a star out of principle while the others crawl back under the rocks they use as shelter. Even Huckaby made a surprise showing, and really, at the time, could you blame the electorate? We were hungry for an RKBA candidate.

Cmon GOP, it isn’t a big tent, it is a big campground with lots of connected little tents, each one with a patriot inside ready to defend themselves and their country.


9 posted on 06/23/2009 6:16:07 AM PDT by Cobra Scott
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

bump


10 posted on 06/23/2009 6:20:28 AM PDT by Christian4Bush (The difference between Lincoln and Obama: Lincoln freed slaves. Obama is out to make them.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cobra Scott
I have two strong suggestions...

1. Republican primaries need to be CLOSED to pubs ONLY.

2. Voter fraud (ala ACORN) in general election MUST be stopped by any means necessary.

11 posted on 06/23/2009 6:22:56 AM PDT by newfreep ("Liberalism is just Communism sold by the drink." - P.J. O'Rourke)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: newfreep

Voter fraud should be stopped, absolutely, but candidate fraud needs to stop too. And now that some suspect that the sitting president himself is not eligibe due to country of origin, it becomes just the next bump on the slippery slope when non-citizens gain the right to vote in federal elections; that is after all controlled by the state, not the feds.

Time to say enough is enough, and use the holier-than-thou rhetoric of the Obama supporters against them. Now would be an excellent time to present a bill that required specific qualification criteria for candidates and their voters.

On your first point about primaries, I think that needs to be deferred to states, as the various and sundry laws, as well as timing, do not make for a one-size-fits-all solution, IMO.

gosh sorry for the rant. I guess I am finally feeling the long term stress of feeling politically helpless for so long.


12 posted on 06/23/2009 6:36:44 AM PDT by Cobra Scott
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Cobra Scott
I'm very sorry, but I'm acronym challenged.

What is RKBA? Really Kickin' Bad Actors? I promise to feel stupid if you tell me what it stands for.

13 posted on 06/23/2009 7:03:11 AM PDT by MaggieCarta (We're all Detroiters now.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Cobra Scott
Never mind. It is doubtless an RKBA.org 2nd Amendment thing. I feel stupid.

PS: Love the GOP "Big tent" vs "campground" theme! Nice!

14 posted on 06/23/2009 7:08:36 AM PDT by MaggieCarta (We're all Detroiters now.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: MaggieCarta

Sorry, RKBA = Right to Keep and Bear Arms.


15 posted on 06/23/2009 7:13:23 AM PDT by Cobra Scott
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Cobra Scott

Thanks. I stumbled on their website after I posted.


16 posted on 06/23/2009 7:25:20 AM PDT by MaggieCarta (We're all Detroiters now.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

bump


17 posted on 06/23/2009 7:32:40 AM PDT by dcwusmc (We need to make government so small that it can be drowned in a bathtub.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MadIsh32
By “moderate” I mean allow them to essentially ignore social wedge issues for the general election in these areas.

Even though we win on the social issues? The current consensus on abortion isn't 'pro' anymore. And the consensus on partial-birth never was.

And then, you'll have to show me an R-candidate who was soft on the social wedge issues who didn't also go soft on the fiscal issues in an attempt to pay for the social issues. And then show me a softie who has a lick of sense about border control.

I don't really care if we elect more Snowes or Jeffords in the NE. They vote the wrong way on the important issues, which means the Republicans get the label of being ineffective when they do have a 'majority'. I don't want the republicans to be a Majority-In-Name-Only, which happens if we need to rely on RINOs to make up the 51 Senators or 218 Representatives majorities.

18 posted on 06/23/2009 7:38:19 AM PDT by slowhandluke (It's hard work to be cynical enough in this age)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Cobra Scott
On your first point about primaries, I think that needs to be deferred to states, as the various and sundry laws, as well as timing, do not make for a one-size-fits-all solution, IMO.

Who is talking about not deferring it to the states? It would seem to me to be up to the state Republican parties to get behind getting rid of the cross-over vote problem in primaries in a manner befitting the respective state laws.

19 posted on 06/23/2009 7:52:34 AM PDT by slowhandluke (It's hard work to be cynical enough in this age)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: MadIsh32

meh...

The populations of those areas are not going to elect limited government type conservatives whether they attempt to ignore your “social wedge” issues or not. The local and national media will make sure of it.

SO... If your only going to get a socialist elected, there is no reason to compromise our ideology. What I mean by this is its pointless to elect someone whos ideology is the antitheses of ours. Get enough of them in the party and they will push out the limited government type conservatives and lobby for further “moderation” as a way of winning even more seats. (for socialists.. not conservatives)

Instead of fighting the socialists in the other party, we are now fighting the socialists in the other party and those in the GOP (whom of which now virtually OWN the GOP). No thanks... Been there done that... Still stuck there...

The path to reclaiming the freedom we so cravenly abandoned, doesn’t pass through the socialist slave states anyway. In fact, it doesn’t even pass through Washington, DC. The path leads through those states and peoples that are willing to retake the positions that were intended for them and declare their sovereignty from the federal governments usurpations through actions and not just resolutions.


20 posted on 06/23/2009 8:04:05 AM PDT by myself6 (.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-38 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson