OK, after this one I won’t pick on the parties any more today. But I have to tell ya this release from something called NetRight Nation grabbed my attention with the headline, "The GOP: Losing its Own Soul?"
First, I had to deal with the concept: Parties got souls? You couldn’t tell by me. Then there was the specific hand-wringing about the soul of this particular party… you know why the author thought the GOP was in danger? Because McCain and Graham met with Obama Monday. I kid you not. The very sort of thing that gives me hope for the country, this guy equates with damnation. A sample:
Unfortunately, the GOP didn’t get off to a very good start in Chicago yesterday, where President-elect Obama and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) met to “seek common ground” and “move on” from the past election season, according to an article in TheState.com. Alongside Mr. McCain was close friend, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). According to the report, Mr. McCain and company intended to bring a more bi-partisan tone to the Republican platform.
Now, no shock there, Mr. Graham mentions that there are “areas of bi-partisan solutions [that] are needed.” And there goes the ballgame.
Earth to Mr. Graham: To the Democrats, “bi-partisan” is a code word for “vivisection.” Republicans must not buy into the narrative that their political adversaries have written for them, which is little more than a preemptive obituary.
When Republicans win, the Democrats launch holy war. There is no insult, attack or underhanded assault that could possibly be considered out of bounds. But when the Democrats and liberals win, both parties are supposed to join hands and sing kumbayah. Sure, the Democrats want to bury the hatchet—right in the Republicans’ backs. This is a prescription for disaster and a generation of irrelevance. Mr. Obama should be challenged and fought every step of the way.
Did you notice the reference to thestate.com? So did I. So there’s a South Carolina connection here somewhere. But back to the topic, there’s something else you may have noticed. Yep, it’s that language about "When Republicans win, the Democrats launch holy war. There is no
insult, attack or underhanded assault that could possibly be considered
out of bounds…"
Sound familiar? It should. It’s the mirror image of the stuff I’ve been passing on from the DSCC. Each party says it HAS to engage in partisan warfare because the OTHER side is so mean and nasty. And so it is that the two sides prop each other up and "justify" each other in their efforts to tear the country apart.
They are so unified in that purpose, I don’t even distinguish them any more. Sometimes I get briefly confused, and have to think for a second which brand the more virulent practitioners are advocating. You know it has to get confusing, say, at the Carville-Matalin household. They’re both in the family business; they just have different clients.
One thing I do know, though: I’m against all of ’em.
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Well, then, why do you support, endorse and vote for ANY of them? You can’t be “against all of ’em” and then vote for some of ’em.
THE PEOPLE have to abandon BOTH parties; all parties. And, vote for???
Seems to me NetRight had it about right.
“According to the report, Mr. McCain and company intended to bring a more bi-partisan tone to the Republican platform.”
In other words, McCain & Co. suck up. Not pretty.
“When Republicans win, the Democrats launch holy war. … But when the Democrats and liberals win, both parties are supposed to join hands and sing kumbayah. Sure, the Democrats want to bury the hatchet — right in the Republicans’ backs.”
As evidenced by these comments here:
* “It’s a good start. Thankfully we only have a few more days of Bush tyranny to deal with.” – bud
* “My God! Isn’t it wonderful that the president-elect stands revealed as someone who reads books!! What a change from the idiotic incumbent of the White House!” – Rich
* “The GOP is the party of greed for the few and tyranny against the many. … They need to re-invent themselves into something that actually cares about the average American rather than a gigantic mafia family interested only in feathering the nest of the super rich.” – bud
* “Three Amigos? Three Stooges is more like it. Or perhaps given the election results – Three Losers.” – bud
* “By all appearances Jim Martin has run a relatively clean campaign against a total scumbag. Even a large percentage of folks in conservative Georgia understand just what a creep (Saxby Chambliss) is. Martin will probably come up a bit short in the runoff, which is a shame, but at least he’s an honorable man.” – bud
Having won, the Democrats twist the knife with the lust of a child by a new toy possessed, to the applause of the mainstream media so smitten with Obama they join in the Democrats’ knifing orgy, as did Chris Matthews on Jay Leno a few hours ago:
“The American people would not put up with this team we’ve had. This country has not been well served. We’ve not had good leadership. The President looks like he’s already in the locker room with a towel around his neck. It looks like he’s taken off, and we need a president pretty soon.
“By the way, I’m getting worried because it’s about another couple months before we get a president. And I’m worried about this country falling between the cracks. Because we’ve got one president who’s sort of already retired and we got another president who’s politely tip-toeing around the job. Who’s leading us right now? It scares me.
“…No, it’s a real problem because you know they used to have presidents sworn in March and they moved it up to January. But now we got… I think we’ve got too much time between elections and taking over.”
It is time to rejoice at the victory of a party that knows how to govern rather than slander and smear. The Democratic party, after floundering in irrelevancy for years has now found it’s way. The 21st century version of the GOP had it’s chance and they failed the American people. They failed to keep us safe. They failed to keep us prosperous. They failed to work with other nations of the world. They especially failed to work with Democrats in any meaningful way to advance the American way.
Now that the GOP of Limbaugh/Coulter/Hannity is effectively dead I say to all my Republican friends look at this as an opportunity. Learn the lessons that the Democrats learned. In order to be effective you must earn the trust and respect of the people. You can’t do that based on flawed domestic and foreign policy models. Try to be reasonable about the effectiveness of trickle down economics to benefit most Americans. We’ve tried that approach now and it has only worked to enrich the few.
Re-think the Bush Doctrine and it’s failures to keep us safe. Haven’t we tried this endless war of occupation business long enough to know it only makes us look like an imperialist aggressor state? Maybe our intentions were good but the millions of dark skinned people who have suffered as a result of our aggression will not easily forget.
The GOP has a chance to be a party with a soul, a party that has a vision for the welfare of all people not just the few. This is a wake-up call to become a party that understands the realities of the world not just the greed of the few. It’s time for all Republicans to turn their backs on the flawed political model espoused by talk radio and embrace a new model that will serve the party and the nation well. If not the GOP will find itself relegated to the dustbin of history.
Look at this: an entire generation of Cinderellas and there’s no slipper coming.
To the extent that a PARTY is in power, there is NOTHING to rejoice about. To the extent that sensible individuals who rise ABOVE power are in charge, there is hope.
If Hillary Clinton were president now, I’d see no hope, because she appealed to the people who were all about the party. But Obama rises above that, and he’s got the clout right now to keep the party animals in check, as he did in the case of Joe Lieberman. (Of course, as I pointed out, it was also in the Democratic Party’s interest to back off from “punishing” Joe Lieberman, but I don’t expect parties to act rationally, even in their own interest.)
There would similarly have been hope with a President McCain — but not with a president Giuliani or Romney, who would have appealed to the same impulses on the GOP side that Hillary appeals to among Democrats. The people who want to keep fighting, no matter what, and to hell with the country.
Spoken like an educated Gamecock, bud.
Grandiloquent, bombastic, fustian, yea, even orotund, but still you’re on message, kicking the GOP while it’s down, blaming the GOP for sins in which the Democrats were complicit or completely at fault, praising what has yet to happen as though it were a done deed, just like you did yesterday and the day before.
But, today, to your credit, you spelled all the words right for a change. You omitted a couple of hyphens and a comma or two, but why be picky, particularly when someone’s feeling particularly full of himself.
For Democrats, Obama manifests the preseason national championship that the Gamecocks win every year but never follow through on. One win over the Republicans is like one Carolina win over Clemson. Now you Democrats think you know so much you can give lessons — before you have governed on your own for so much as one day.
If you think the Russians and the Chinese and Al-Qaeda will roll over and play dead because you got 52 percent of the vote, think again.
If you think you can speak to Republicans the way you did above and call them friends, you should rethink that, too.
But do be happy, because your writing has improved, and for a couple of years, or at least until you have a wreck, you’re gonna get to ride without training wheels.
We’re keeping our fingers crossed.
I think it’s a little melodramatic and silly to speak of a party losing its’ soul, but in a very real sense the Republican party has lost its’ way. And this is in very large part due to the burning desire people like Grahamnesty and McCain have to cooperate and get along with democrats and liberals.
Conservatives didn’t leave the republican party, the party left them. The sell off of principles and the negotiation away from conservative values as are presently practiced by the moderate wing of the republican party essentially guarantee that party the minority/opposition position for the foreseeable future. Heavy emphasis on ‘minority’ and very light emphasis on opposition, since Bush, Graham and McCain haven’t really been opposed to liberalism in the last 8 years.
Conservatism did not lose on November 4th, it was not on the ballot. John McCain/Lindsey Grahamnesty moderate-ism lost on November 4th. It will continue losing.
Faust
Faust gets it exactly backwards. The Republican party embraced the principals of conservatism and it failed. That’s why we’re in such a severe recession right now. Trickle down economics failed us. The Bush Doctrine, a very conservative idea, failed us. Conservative has been tried, and it has failed.
Conservatives didn’t leave the republican party, the party left them.
The Republican party embraced the principals of conservatism and it failed.
What is a conservative anyways? I used to consider myself one, but not anymore. There are just too many conflicting definitions that come up when one says “conservative” for me to identify myself with the term.
I’d like to see a breakdown of what is considered a conservative position on today’s issues if anyone wants to explain it.
To me modern conservatism is this:
Trickle down economics.
Huge military budgets and the wars that go with it.
Government interference in what should be personal decisions (abortion, video poker, gay marriage).
Extensive borrowing instead of taxing to pay for the big military/war budgets.
Extensive corporate welfare for drug, oil and weapons manufacturers.
A religious fervor when it comes to market solutions for all problems, especially health care and retirement.
Denial of the existense of global warming.
Denial of the existense of peak oil.
If you think the Russians and the Chinese and Al-Qaeda will roll over and play dead because you got 52 percent of the vote, think again.
We’re keeping our fingers crossed.
Posted by: p.m.s. | Nov 19, 2008 12:05:15 PM
Oh, Knave…Dave…I mean p.m.s…whatever alias you want to switch to this week because of the embarrassment you bring on yourself, the “man” in your man-crush, Babybush, was the one who met Putin and from that moment, was reassured by the “sense of his soul.” Seriously, you can all stop laughing now.
The Russians also didn’t “play dead” when they invaded Georgia, but where was your almighty, already lame duck when that debacle blew up? Wasn’t the Connecticut Yankee supposed to be a tail-kicking cowboy?
Like you seem to be, he talks tough from a distance, but there is very little grit to him when his bluff is called.
bud was making an honest appeal to your obviously absent reason, but you’re too partisan and poo-pooed by the election (as you see it) loss. Instead of crossing them, well…we’ve previously covered what you can do with your fingers, so let’s ride on past redundancy, “partner.”
At least wait and see what Obama can do before you bushwhack him. You might find out that you “won”, too (since that idea seems so valuable to you). Show some true grit.
Until Obama fails you, maybe you could distract yourself trying to discover a way to reanimate the tobbaco-tarnished, moonshine-pickled corpse of Danny Ford? With any luck, that will be a long time coming, but Clemson fans already are experts concerning unfounded, bloated expectations and waiting for the never-return of corrupt, supposed saviors.
Credit where credit is due, Cap. You wrote six or seven paragraphs without getting anything right or expressing a single coherent thought.
I’m still keeping my fingers crossed. We’re going to need all the luck we can get.
This is a test.
p.m. said there was something wrong with this post so that he couldn’t comment, so I’m trying it out…
Well, now it works for me. No “To advertise on Brad’s blog, click here” at the top of the page followed by a search engine.
Must have been voodoo.
Sounds like a one small step for artificial intelligence to me. In reference to the blog engine that is, not p.m.s…
It is new subject, so i have followed this subject
Christena
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