Jan 30 2008
Initial Talk Radio Reactions To McCain’s FL Win
Chris Corr (sp?) seems to have figured it all out this morning. He noted that McCain is the probable GOP nominee after his win in FL and really questioned those who would sit out and let Hillary become president. He also took Rush and Hannity to task for their demeaning comments about independents and those who reach out to us in order to create a governing coalition. While talk radio – initially this morning – is heading the warning not to continue to alienate natural (if imperfect allies) the ‘base’ is upset and still screaming “RINO”.
Laura was also interesting this morning and trying to moderate her comments. Sometimes her anger and frustration broke through, but she did recognize there is a force out there that supports McCain on earmarks, Iraq and (this stunned me) comprehensive immigration reform. She understands the civil war between the moderates and the amnesty hypochondriacs was becoming a losing effort and was damaging the conservative movement. She did make the comment it was time to determine which way the party was going, and whether the Reagan revolution was dead. I hate to tell her this, but that determination has been made as we can see in McCain’s continued rise.
I and many others (like The Anchoress, Harriet Miers, etc) are products of the Reagan Revolution. He brought moderates into the conservative fold. It was the ugly and demeaning actions of the far right which broke Reagan’s 11th commandment and broke the coalition. Former dems were not trusted. The impure were badgered and heckled. “RINO Traitors” was the call that told moderates Reagan’s welcoming message was gone and a new, angrier GOP had risen from his optimistic and open views.
Those who who became ugly and told their allies they were un-American, frauds, traitors for following El Presidente Jorge Bush (and McCain, Kyle and a bunch of other life long Republicans) are now stunned they have no allies. OK, sometimes it takes a 2×4 to the head to wake some people up. The answer to rebuilding Reagan’s coalition is to bury the egos and dump the hate and treat allies with respect. Learning to lose with class would be a critical element to rebuilding the coalition. Is the conservative community capable of this? We will know soon enough.
Whippet:
Conservatives can not win without those horrid RINOs either.
The thing is, it is not the RINOs who are threatening to sit out the election. It is not the RINOs who have said they will not vote for Romney in a general election.
My biggest problem with Romney is that I don’t think he can win the general. My second biggest problem is that he did not just be himself. When he did an about face on immigration and pandered himself into an endorsement from Tancredo, I lost a lot of respect for him.
They just want the chance to vote for the person they prefer for the primary and they should be able to do that without being blackmailed.
As for Michelle, she is toxic.
And McCain is not a liberal. The man is a centrist. That is part of the problem, too many conservatives seem to think that there are two kinds of people. The far right and the far left. The truth is, most people are somewhere in the middle.
Reagan was in the middle too.
When I say they just want a chance to vote for whoever they want in the primary, I mean the moderates, the Republicans who do not take their talking points from people like Rush.
Terrye,
I said that the conservatives can’t win with out the moderates either.
And of course the RINO’s (as you call them) aren’t threatening to sit out the election because McCain is closer to their ideology. And yes some conservatives will sit out just as they did when Bush ran for office. And Democrats will sit out because they either think Obama and Hillary are either too far left or too far right for them. It happens every election.
And if Romney’s position changes bothered you and you lost respect for him then you’ve probably lost a lot of respect for McCain too, right?
You think that people can’t vote for who they want to in the primary because they’ll be blackmailed? By who? And how?
Terrye,
“Reagan was in the middle too?” Sorry, no he wasn’t.
And centrist is just a fancy name for the crossover between liberal Republican and conservative Democrat. They believe many different things from both parties but not enough of one to fit them ideologically into any one category. No matter what you call it-liberal or centrist – it’s still McCain.
Whippet:
So the only real Republicans are fanatics?
That is simply not true. Have you ever read any of Reagan’s old speeches? He talked about the need to be inclusive, to reach out. He also said the most frustrating people he had to deal with were the ones he called the “radical right”, because they preferred starvation to part of the loaf.
By your definition most Republicans are not real Republicans. My Senator Lugar who has been a life long Republican would not be the real thing.
Bush was a strong conservative and the right turned on him anyway. So why pretend this is all about McCain? If Romney gets in there and crosses him they will do the same thing to him.
Reagan was not a fanatic. He did not overturn Roe V Wade. He put Sandra Day on the court. He raised taxes. He did not respond to the murder of our Marines. Rogue elements in his administration cut a deal with the mullahs. He signed an honest to God amnesty deal. I can not imagine him getting involved in the whole marriage is between a man and a woman debate.
The right has moved right since the days of Reagan. They think the country has moved left. They are wrong. An old union organizer, Democrat turned Republican like Reagan would not be able to make it in the party today. One of the reasons for that is that he was too willing to compromise. And as your post demonstrates people who are compromise are mushy. People with principles just draw a line in the sand and refuse to budge. Screw everybody else. Isn’t that right?
There goes half your party.
I got an email this morning, from Ann Coulter, the opening
sentence was something about she would rather have Hillary
than McCain. Can’t be bothered, I deleted it.
So far, “the filter of the many” seems to be doing not a bad job.
I would have preferred other candidates, but the ones that
got rejected, I am not shedding any tears.
The one guy who is still worrying, Obama, with all his
connections to Farrakhan (see the LGF link), still has the
memories of the 1930’s and charismatic demagoguery,
but the rest, bye bye and no worries.
One notes that Newsweek has published an article about
Jihad, eg. why won’t we name the enemy? Wot? Newsweek?
But most of the candidates who couldn’t have won are gone.
Our system will likely not always get it right.
Just because it is 1938 doesn’t mean we will get a Churchill.
But a better system has not yet been discovered.
I had to send an absentee ballot in early, to California,
as I work overseas, I voted for McCain. My selection criteria
were, firstly could he win the nomination fight and secondly,
did he have a chance of beating the democrats, and no other
selection filters were involved.
I am not unhappy with my vote. Survival before political
luxury.
Terrye,
I am tired of your broad generalizations and misinterpretations of things that I say to try and prove some point that makes absolutely no sense. I swear if I said the sky is blue you’d say no the grass is green. Very confusing…
Pick a party that you want to support and figure out why you want to support it. Don’t move from one party to the other and get frustrated because they don’t conform to you alone.
And I don’t need to go back and read any of Ronald Reagan’s speeches…I lived them. And if only he could come back and lead the nation he would be the Republican nominee in a heartbeat. And if you don’t know that basic fact about the Republican party then you have a lot of things to learn. And Reagan didn’t compromise on his conservative principals, he was able to communicate those principals to others and bring them on his side. He wasn’t called the Great Compromiser – He was called the Great Communicator.