The enormous elephant in the room is the obvious fact that Americans are heading towards conservative democrats and away from ‘true’ conservatives. Many conservative voters are deciding the far right is too toxic and are heading to the center. So many that a GOP party of only the ‘true conservatives’ would be a miniscule minority with no power do anything.

Rush is right, but it is not conservatives who were dumped on, they are simply being dumped for something closer to the middle and farther from the fringes.

The war for the GOP is over, Americans have decided it can be a small party of the pure instead of a true Reaganesque coalition.

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The GOP Dumps on Conservatives, Then Blames Us for Their Losses
(Rush Limbaugh transcript)

snippets:

“In two of the three of these cases, in two of the three of these House Republican congressional losses, they have been beaten by conservative Democrats, big-time conservative, social conservative Democrats. The Republican Party is ceding conservatism in the South to the Democrat Party.”

“Did you see all the conservative Democrats Pelosi ran in the South then and skunked your incumbents? With what? Not McCainism. These Democrats were not running as McCain. They were running as Reagan conservatives, and that’s how they won, in Reagan conservative districts.”

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_051408/content/01125108.guest.html
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It is a long rant…..and, there is no denying that some of his points are accurate. I’m not saying he is 100 per cent accurate. No one is. Just food for thought.

The majority of Republicans don’t seem to always agree with them on some issues, including immigration. The response used to be to try to focus on issues where there was common ground, or to at least come up with something both sides could live with.

Instead, conservatives now say, it’s not good enough.

I’ve been called “traitor” and “unprincipled” by their likes long enough. When people like Ed Morrissey get off their holier-than-thou pedestals about principle and make a serious effort to work with people like me and AJ-Strata, and when they stop trying to go after people like congressman Chris Cannon because they do not toe the line, maybe they might have an easier time of winning some of these elections.

As it stands now, I’m disinclined to stick my neck out for them.

It was local politics. And, the author says “(A warning for Childers: Democrats in Congress will not accept him and his philosophy. He will be an outcast from Mississippi). “

————————-

excerpt:

They lost those mid-term elections not because voters stopped supporting conservative principles, but because the House GOP stopped supporting conservative principles. Look at who won these special elections; they’re all Blue Dog Democrats, running in support of conservative themes such as gun rights. Now look at the Republicans who last held those seats, such as Hastert and Wicker — Republicans who spent other people’s money on waste and personal ambition.

Did the House GOP caucus take a hard line on pork-barrel spending or adopt policies to cut federal spending? No. Republican voters and conservative pundits begged the House and Senate caucuses to make dramatic breaks with the previous six years and adopt real conservative policies of fiscal responsibility and federalism. What did they do? They offered to stop earmarking only if Democrats followed suit, a deal everyone knew would never take place. Instead of appointing one single anti-pork activist to the House Appropriations Committee in Jeff Flake, they appointed Joe Bonner, a good Congressman but a well-known earmarker, and mostly because Flake’s anti-pork crusade irritates his colleagues.

http://hotair.com/archives/2008/05/14/the-lesson-for-republicans-they-didnt-learn-the-lesson-of-2006/

Chiders said, “We can’t just continue to spend and spend with no plan of paying for it. Everything has to be prioritized. I intend to have a plan to pay for it.”

The blue dog Dems have been pretty strong on rejecting even Dem plans that call for increased spending programs without cutting other programs to pay for it. Repubs up in DC continue to spend out of control even after the 2006 slap in the face.

Is that why Dems are winning? Is that the message the people are hearing the most? Just a thought.

On immigration, I found this about Chiders:

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“Finally, Childers was asked his views on immigration.

“Illegal immigration has to have immediate attention,” he responded. “I think this Congress and administration has taken an out-of-sight, out-of-mind approach.

“We have to close our border to illegals,” he continued. “We can’t provide services to people who aren’t our citizens. Good government begins at home. We have people in North Mississippi who don’t have access to health care and, by circumstance, illegals are getting access to health care.”

Childers suggested enforcing laws already on the books and giving “border patrols resources to do something about it.”

“It’s a serious problem,” he added. “I’m keenly aware of it.”

http://www.cdispatch.com/articles/2008/02/08/local_news/local02.txt
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By AJ’s definition, Chiders was an Amnesty Hypochondriac, wasn’t he?

Macsmind Blog has been giving the other side of the analysis of these losses if anyone is interested. Here’s the one on Chiders:

Childers win not a indication of Jack Squat
http://www.macsmind.com/wordpress/2008/05/14/childers-win-not-a-indication-of-jack-squat/

Macsmind Blog has several posts on all of these losses if you scan it.

I suspect the truth is somewhere between AJ and Mac. Oops, guess that makes this “Amnesty Hypochondriac” sound centrist. Sorry.

Several of the bloggers have also cited some dirty Dem politics with the dropping of flyers spreading a lie that Davis was tied to the KKK on the eve of the election. I don’t know if that had any effect or not.

Karl Rove was asked about these turn overs a few days ago and said…..

you can’t win elections with bad candidates no matter which party.

AJ can only see “immigration” ; but, the whole picture tells many different stories (it’s not one dimensional). There are ethics problems surrounding one candidade, conservativdes turned off by another candidate did not show up to vote, Dem dirty politics, etc.

The GOP is voting like Democrats right now. And, that ain’t conservative; nor is it centrist. I think that’s why they are losing.

The Dem strategy in 2006 was to run blue dog dems in conservative areas (politics are local). It worked. It may make it hard for the liberal Dem leadership to push through their agenda. But, the Repubs of today don’t even seem to have an agenda. What do they stand for? Do their votes show it?

But, conservative values are still winning in many, many ways — and the country is still center right. Does it matter if it comes about by Dems or Repubs?

——————

“Georgia’s victory is the third big win for school choice this year. Louisiana enacted a tuition tax deduction during Jindal’s first special session. Last week, Florida increased the cap on its corporate tax credit program to $120 million. Importantly, that win came with strong support from Democrats. Democrats are also sponsoring school choice measures in Maryland and New Jersey. I wouldn’t be surprised if a couple more states pass bills this year. All in all, 2008 is turning out to be a good year for school choice.

05/14 05:23 PM
http://corner.nationalreview.com/
=———————————————–

I doubt it. Hello all. It is so ‘not over’ that I just had to take another little vacation from politics.

Since I am leading the Bush parade of 29%, that means I can’t tolerate much more. He is the only one of the bunch I still like. If it was not so darn important with enemies within, breathing down our necks, I would love to kick them all out. Only thing I dislike more than MSM (who really drives the train) is what the whimpy GOP Congress managed when they decided to not stand up to the Dems when Bush needed them. Add the enlightened immigration experts that decided this was the time to wage the war on Mexicans, what do we expect? Mix in all the constant disgust from various pundits over Bush, be it from Katrina to Israel to pork. I can hardly wait to see who they all manage to get into office that is so much better for us as a group.

I expected McCain. Not one of the immigration hardliners dislike that man more than me. Impossible. So I try to keep my mouth shut these days because we need him to appoint Supremes. Not easy (taping the mouth) when I see him in New Orleans, when I listen to him on Global warming, and add a dollop of ‘no drilling’……mix it with torture……..oh well…….and that does not even touch his stabs at Bush. Supremes. War. Sense enough to understand that we can not evict 12 million people. That will have to be enough. I will vote McCain.

But can he win? He needs someone to actually like him.

People like Obama.

Republicans have a hard road even with Wright and Farrahkan. Obama holds the magic. MSM’s Silence and the Voice. He scares me chitless. Can anyone even imagine who he and his Dem buds will place as Supremes?

Nope….it’s not over. Sorry, will try to go back into my hole

I agree with a lot of what you say in this post. The problem is I am noit sure the Democrat that won position on immigration reform was any different

BTW, you forgot to say LOL.