You know, I don’t know if I can abide seeing one more mailer (such as the one above that came in the mail today) or yard sign trumpeting to the world that the candidate in question is a “Conservative Republican.”
You know, as opposed to all those liberal Republicans running around over here in Lexington County.
This is not new, but in the era of Nikki Haley and the Tea Party (which I’m considering using as the name of my new band, if Nikki will agree to front it), I’m hearing it more and more. And in the more extreme cases, such as with Nikki herself, “Conservative” is being touted as something apart from Republicans, mere Republicans not being worthy, you see.
Set aside the appalling notion that to the voters these folks are reaching out to, ordinary South Carolina Republicans just aren’t right-wing enough. I mean, think about that for a minute…
That’s long enough. Thankfully, S.C. Democrats aren’t given to this sort of redundancy, this rococo gilding of the ideological lily. If I saw one sign in my community that claimed to be for a “Liberal Democrat,” I believe I’d run for the hills. That would be just one extremism too many for me.
Remind me, if I run for office, to put “liberal republican” or “conservative democrat” (note the lower case; God forbid I should be mistaken for an adherent of one of those granfalloons). And I think I’ll refer to my opposition as “fascist anarchists,” to use Ferris Bueller’s term.
Anything for a little variety.
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What does his father and grandfather have to do with him getting elected? If I cared, I’d vote for them. This just confirmed that I will not vote for this idiot.
If you ever see a sign in West Columbia for a liberal democrat, look over your shoulder and you’ll see the Tin Man, Lion, and Scarecrow following you down the yellow brick road.
How about “idiot” Republican. Or “out of touch” Republican. Or “stupid” Republican. Or. “pandering” Republican. The GOP is a party without any common sense, answers or integrity. It’s policies have led to massive deficits, high unemployment numbers, environmental catastrophies and a whole host of other calamities. Conservative Republican just doesn’t seem to capture the true horror of the policies these people foist on the voters.
What we need is a good dose of true liberalism. High taxes on the wealthy. Huge cuts in military spending, including an absolute ban on any troops serving in foreign countries. A ban on offshore oil drilling. Tough regulations for the financial sector. If we were to impose these common sense, pragmatic solutions at all levels of government we would likely see a prosperous American and South Carolina. Too bad the crooks, mostly Republicans, are standing in the way.
Yeah, Michael P., I wondered that myself–I think it’s code for “we’ve been living here for at least three generations.” — or we love our “Doctor” of optometry labels….then I read on and he hammers home that he’s the fourth generation in Lexington County. I feel like quoting the punchline from a Polack joke here: “In that case, I’ll speak very, very slowly.”
I want a liberal conservative to run.
On further reflection, you sell what you got, and if what he’s got is a string of ancestors who lived in LexCo. and that he’s a really really conservative Republican, really, well, bless his heart.
What I read in Crouch’s mailer posted above:
Yada, yada, yada.
All talk, no substance; much like the Jerry Seinfeld show as he called it, A Show About Nothing.
don’t forget radical moderate
Hey, that’s what I am!
And folks, give Mr. Crouch a break — it’s hardly fair to judge him just on that one bit of his mailer that I scanned. I can’t vouch for the rest of it being better because I haven’t read it (and it’s not with me at the moment), but that’s not all he had to say.
As for the “3rd generation” stuff… that’s a common thing in Lexington County politics. I’ve seen candidates run for school board in Lexington 2 who essentially give no other qualifications other than their pedigree. I remember one candidate awhile back who put out a flier, and one whole side of it was a list of her relatives who had been involved with Lex2 schools.
This did not endear her to me, but it was but an extreme example of something I see all the time.
At least they’ve stopped using “compassionate conservative,” which always seemed to me to be an admission that modern conservatism had become, at its core, heartless. (And why “bleeding-heart liberal” should be an epithet always amazed me, too…if your heart does not contain blood, that means it is a stone. A lifeless rock. Again, modern conservatism.)
As for the generational thing, I’m a 7th-generation American on my dad’s side, whose people have been on this side of the Atlantic for 260 years, so this anti-imperialist-anti-neocon takes a back seat to no one when it comes to love of country.
Well, maybe it’s time to make fun of candidates who do this, so we can change it. Yesterday’s The State article about the pros and cons of the AG candidates listed that Leighton Lord is from Delaware and went to Vanderbilt Law School, but, whew, he’s married into a local family with deep roots. They don’t make the rules, they just report them, but isn’t it sad that we still want to know “who’s yer daddy?”
Just for Bud… how about “bud-Republican”, because everything you’ve said in that second paragraph is either “stupid”, “out of touch” or “idiotic”. I just went back and reread your post, you said that stuff on purpose just to be sarcastic… I hope?
Phillip’s a newbie. The first Warthen came to America in the 1630s. Although here’s a shocker: He came to Maryland, not SC!
My only defense is that three-fourths of my family tree goes way back (1700s at least) in South Carolina. Only my father’s father’s family has roots in another state. My dad’s mother’s people — and all of my mother’s ancestors — are South Carolinian to the core.
Michael, let’s just do an honest evaluation here. Who was right about the war in Iraq? The liberals claimed we’d spend hundreds of billions and at least 1,000 American soldiers would die. They were laughed at in 2003. Yet, as it turned out, they far under-estimated that disaster.
Then we have the oil spill. The drill baby drill folks blithely suggested the safeguards were foolproof and that it was impossible to have a major leak in the Gulf. Foolish liberals. They warned over and over again about the dangers of off-shore drilling, only to be laughed at. Who’s laughing now. Conservatives were wrong about that just like they are always wrong about everything.
Then there is the financial sector. Liberals warned that derugulating this industry would lead to trouble. With unemployment stuck at 10%, thanks to conservative reliance on the free market to make everything ok the liberals once again are right and conservatives, as usual, just look stupid.
And so it goes with most issues. Conservative philosophy gets put into practice. That philosophy fails miserably. Liberals come in on their white horses to save the day. It happens over and over again. Sadly the public gets fooled over and over again. Too bad we can’t have a true liberal government.
I almost forgot to respond to this, but something I was reading today — something I wrote long ago — reminded me.
I have to take issue with Bud’s characterization regarding conservatives and liberals and Iraq.
The invasion of Iraq was NOT a conservative act, by any stretch of the imagination. It was a liberal enterprise, and for that reason most uncharacteristic of President Bush. If you’ll recall, hard-core conservatives, from Pat Buchanan to George Will, were against it from the start. While for me, the Wilsonian arguments presented by the likes of Tom Friedman and The New Republic were the persuasive reasons to go in.
From a column I wrote in the spring of 2003: