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| Conservatives on why the GOP should lose in 2006 |
| 2006-09-12 |
| With Republicans controlling Congress and the White House, conservatives these days ought to be happy, but most aren’t. They see expanding government, runaway spending, Middle East entanglements, and government corruption, and they wonder why, exactly, the country should be grateful for Republican dominance. Some accuse Bush and the Republicans today of not being true conservatives. Others see a grab bag of stated policies and wonder how they cohere. Everyone thinks something’s got to change. Now seven prominent conservatives dare to speak the unspeakable: They hope the Republicans lose in 2006. Well, let’s be diplomatic and say they’d prefer divided government—soon. (Perhaps that formulation will fool Dennis Hastert.) Of course, all of them wish for the long-term health of conservatism, and most are loyal to the GOP. What they also believe, however, is that even if a Speaker Pelosi looms in the wings, sometimes the best remedy for a party gone astray is to give it a session in the time-out chair. |
| Posted by:Zpaz |
| #6 This is a collection of has beens, never was's, and wannabes. The only ones who listen to pretentious poseurs like these are Democrats that want to quote them. They represent nothing but their own fevered visions of intellectual acclaim. |
| Posted by: RWV 2006-09-12 22:33 |
| #5 Not a very impressive set of essays: not one of this gaggle of effete, bowtied fussbudgets seems to grok the notion that we're at war with an enemy who's determined to either force us to bow down before their hateful deity, or kill us. If this ship of fools represents the cream of modern Conservative thought, Conservatism is doomed. Sheesh. |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2006-09-12 19:24 |
| #4 yeah, THIS is WAY better Or this |
| Posted by: ex-lib 2006-09-12 18:45 |
| #3 Why not just hand the government over to the Taliban, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the PLO, Fatah, Al-Queda, or any of a number of other groups that want our very way of life destroyed? You say the libs don't want our way of life destroyed? Coulda fooled me. |
| Posted by: mcsegeek1 2006-09-12 15:09 |
| #2 The best thing conservatives could do is not hope for republican defeat in the short run, instead plan for republican reformation in the future. To do this, they must clarify the real splits in the republican party. It is not a hostile split, but it is there nonetheless, and should be recognized. The longstanding split is between "true" conservatives, who are just that, "conservative" in its classical sense; and "religious" conservatives, who are not true conservatives, in that they want radical reactionary change. The other split is between these two groups, on one side, and the liberal republicans on the other. A liberal republican may not be "socially" liberal, but they embrace government excess and are not "fiscally conservative." They are not the true RINOs, who are socially liberal as well, and are a tiny minority. It is important to understand the distinctions between these three groups, to reform the party. "Religious" conservatives demand change in their direction from a candidate; "true" conservatives demand that they support and maintain a healthy status quo in the country; and "liberal" republicans want candidates to spread government largesse as much as the democrats did. So what is entailed in a "reformation"? The true conservatives reassert themselves as the majority of the party. They allow *some* largesse to the liberal republicans, but keep it within reason, not the spending spree so many today find offensive. The true conservatives also give the religious conservatives *some* of what they want, in changing those aspects of our culture that are both terribly offensive to them, *and* are involuntary and intrusive. That is, true conservatives may not be opposed to homosexuality, but they agree that it is grotesque to force sexuality of any kind on young children in public school. However, true conservatives must struggle to prevent excessive spending (while realizing that "the business of America is business"); and also to deny the religious conservatives the ability to *be* intrusive into the lives of others, not just to be protected from the intrusions of others. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-09-12 14:38 |
| #1 AND THE ALTERNITIVE IS BETTER?!?!?!? Normally it might work. But we are in a fucking war, if you haven't noticed. Back stabbing traitors in charge of the government is not a real good way to go about not loosing. Vote different Republicans in during the primary and then vote Republican during the election. That is the way to change these idiots, not by surrendering to the surrender/run/hide/appease crowd. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2006-09-12 14:12 |