Feb 06 2008
The RINO “Pseudo-Conservatives” Trounced The “True Conservatives”
I told you so. Yep, had to get that out of the way finally. Ever since the Gang of 14 and Harriet Miers I have warned the angry right that their purity wars against Bush and all who dared to disagree with them (which continued through issues like Dubai Ports and Immigration) was going to end on this day – they are out of power. They are not out of influence, but they could be soon. The core problem with how the hyper-right acted on all these issues is they did not debate issues, the demeaned people. el Presidente Jorge Bush and his gang of RINO traitors were the political enemy to these people and they were led by conservative talk radio.
The answer to their anger was to destroy the conservative governing alliance. They went around calling their one-time GOP allies Republicans In Name Only (RINOs). The screamed about the “open borders’ crowd when their issues was really “Shamnesty” – or what to do with the long term illegal immigrants who have woven themselves into our society and have been generally law abiding neighbors. Bush and McCain and Kyle – all great Americans – were traitors and quislings for daring to disagree with these ‘true conservatives’.
And so the civil war began between conservatives. The “Pseudo-Conservatives” or “Faux Conservatives” were going to be taught a lesson. First Tancredo, then Thompson and then Romney was going to show the country what a ‘true conservative’ is because that was the only way to win elections. It seems Senator McCain (a.k.a McSnide and McClame as the ‘snide’ Laura Ingrahm and ‘lame’ Mark Leving love to call him) has shown us something else.
McCain was my second to the last choice (recently only Ron Paul was lower on my list) because he is not conservative enough for my tastes. But I am not so blind I cannot see he is preferable to Hillary or Obama. I had my own pet name for McCain (Obacain) which noted his policy closeness to the left. But mine was not a hit on his honor or passion for America, it was solely to note the obvious – he was closer to dems on big issues than any other candidate. But he won on Tuesday and won big. Romney’s 3rd place showing in the South was devastating. In some states he was so far back he did not even get delegates (AL, GA, OK). McCain took all the winner-take-all states. As Ed Morrissey notes McCain has a commanding lead and Romney has no realistic way to catch up. The RINO beat the “True Conservative”.
Now the question is what will the “true conservatives” do? Sean Hannity and other talking heads expect to see McCain go to CPAC tomorrow and kiss their butts. Forget about it. You don’t kiss the butts of people who have lost all their political clout because the American people have decided to reject them. The ones who need to reach out are the ones who started the purity wars and demeaned and attacked their allies. The ones who need to rescue their political futures are the ones who have been taking a beating for two years now and won’t admit they are losing support. I am not worried about McCain reaching out as much as I want to see the political knives thrown away on the right. I have no interest in vesting my life’s energy and time into a wasteful purity war.
This is not the time to keep gouging at moderates and independents. It is not the time to enforce purity on those who are not interested in kowtowing to group-think. Now is the time to salvage Iraq, keep the Bush tax cuts, get more conservative judges seated, stop the killing of young humans for spare parts and do something reasonable on immigration. It is not about what has America done for you but what we can do for America while were are blessed to spend our short time on Earth here. The “true conservative” is dead. Either we are an alliance of imperfect conservatives all (with respect for each other) or liberals win. THAT is the Reagan revolution – alliance over civil wars. The test of leadership is on the GOP and I am not confident it can pick it up. To do so means starting with admitting mistakes and being humble and respectful. Can those who were going down the wrong path for years now change their ways? That is what I want to see at GOPAC – understanding reality.
Live blog of Super Tuesday here and the big winners and losers post here.
Coulter Watch: Has any one heard if Coulter is still planning to campaign for Clinton now that McCain is heading towards the GOP nomination? I understand some total malcontents on the right plan to sit out the election and let Hillary win by default, but I am wondering if Coulter’s derangement was so severe she will make good on her threat?
I was told that if I supported comprehensive immigration reform I was a traitor. Now how am I supposed to respond to that something like that?
“The right went too far too often. That is their problem. For the last two years there was a major meltdown about something. They are wearing people out. ” Terrye’s got it right.
If these people could not trust George W. Bush, a president with the most integrity we have ever had, imho, then they can’t trust ANYONE. Which tells me alot about THEM….
Untrustworthy. And they have proven that to us over and over.
If you think McCain can win without the base – the conservative base – then you’re clueless.
The dems – the whole lot of them — liberals, far left commies, anti-war peaceniks, global warming “hawks”, anti-free traders, anti-big business, pro unions, pro big govt programs, wealth re-distributionists, anti-semites (Israel), socialists, pro U.N,’ers, etc. — are energized as never before (at least in my lifetime). Especially with Obama as their nominee, they’ll get their share of indies and moderates. I hope I’m proven wrong, but I just don’t see it with such a weak GOP field remaining. The best hope at present is for world events to wake up U.S. voters to the real dangers we face.
(Some think the Bhutto assination may have helped McCain in NH, which started his momentum.)
AJ,
Whining, huh? So that’s what they call disagreement and opinion these days…
You abandon your party of JFK which allows it to fester and rot into the radical anti-american party it has become. Instead of staying to fight for its core principles you move on thinking that you will be more valuable as a moderate with hopes of moving it to the center.
That hasn’t worked too well for you, has it?
You find that many of your actual principles are pretty conservative but not quite as conservative as the base of the Republican party so you continue as the moderate as an Independent with hopes of moving the conservatives further to the left.
Then you have the gall to blame those, who have been supporters of the Republican Party and who have every right to disagree with their party as you do, with being the only ones responsible for the rise of a John McCain? With the loss of a coalition of moderates and conservatives? A coalition that has been tentative at best and at the whim of moderates who don’t know where their core principles fall? Those same moderates who almost helped to elect Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2006? Some strong coalition.
I have been a registered Republican since I was old enough to vote. I have supported every Republican President through their grand accomplishments and even their embarrassing failures. And I still support President Bush and would vote for him again and again.
So forgive me if I don’t shed a tear that my lifelong Party did not value your views as much as they value mine. They can count on me but the moderates and Independents have proven to be as elusive as the wind.
Give it a rest Whippet1 – no one forces you to read here. Like I said, enjoy the purity of the minority.
Wiley,
Actually, McCain can win with out the hyper-partisan right and left. “The Base” is much more diverse than you can ever imagine. And the country is right of center primarily (you can see this in the Lieberman-Lamont race).
So what happens when the GOP starts winning without the far right? It survived the departure of Buchanan and many others who tried to enforce their will on others.
LOL! Everyone thinks because I note how McCain is the byproduct of the far right going overboard that is what I prefer? Well that is just denial – not to mention silly. I did not spend two years warning of this day because I wanted it to happen. Break the code folks – ‘warning’ is not the same as a gleeful prediction.
I wanted to be wrong. I did not want McCain. So how is it that when it all I feared came true it is all of sudden my fault and something I wanted??
Too funny.
AJ – you clearly do not understand what has happened. McCain is not the “by-product” of the far right hyper-ventilating or whatever term you have in vogue (“purity”, etc.).
There’s a multitude of variables – from the large initial field to the way the states lined up, to how each competed better/worse against one another, to how each candidate presented themselves, to how the campaigns were waged and strategized, etc. But the biggest reason why McCain is the presumptive nominee is because, after he got some early momentum in NH, the GOP establishment (yes, McCain is the GOP establishment candidate, not Romney!) gravitated to him because they agreed with notion (fueld by MSM) that he had best chance to defeat the dems. If Fred had waged an animated campaign from the start, there’s no doubt he would be far ahead with the conservative base firmly in his corner. As it is, McCain has cobbled together voters from left of center, the moderates, and enough (not many) conservatives to pull out wins. Come Nov, these indies and moderates won’t be there in the same numbers (nowhere close), and without the base conservatives, he has no chance.
That being said, I do plan to vote for McCain in Nov. (Although I’ll be voting for Mitt in the VA race next week.)
One more … just how does one very liberal Senator (Lieberman), save for one issue (Iraq), winning against an incompetent, far-left whacko in a liberal state prove the country is right of center? Ans- it doesn’t. (I happen to believe that a slight majority are right of center, but your logic doesn’t hold. The problem is the biased filter that is the MSM, and the left wing indoctrination of the young in our universities.)
Wiley,
Sorry, but that is just BS. He is the least conservative with supposedly the amnesty albatross around his neck. Don’t pretend GOP voters are easily swayed by the MSM – that is an insult to them. And if that worked then how is it we had Reagan and Newt, Bush and a GOP Congress? Why is it all of sudden this year the waning MSM all of a sudden gained the ability to brain wash GOP voters?
Like I said – Pure BS.
It’s hard to debate an over-the-top reply that mis-states. Clearly you know that many issues get framed by the biased media in a manner that favors one side or candidate over the other. That is how voters can be influenced – it happens and that’s not an insult.
As you should know, there are many who voted in the GOP primaries who are not conservative in the least. And there are many, many who do agree that McCain is best chance to win in Nov– you hear it daily. I don’t agree with that. Sometimes you have to look at the candidates themselves — there just weren’t any compelling conservatives in the race. The one who had all the issues (Fred), came across tired and lackluster. Rudy had baggae but otherwise had solid credentials except he strategized his way out of the race.
What Newt & Reagan and Bush had going for them was their conservative approach to the issues and ability to communicate them! (inability to communicate later hurt Bush badly) And, Bush & Reagan were obviously very likable candidates.
You can call this BS all you want, but then you remain ignorant.