Nov 15 2005
Can Conservatives Rally Together?
I am having my doubts conservatives can rally together and finish the war on Iraq, Bush’s agenda and expand control of Congress over the next three years. The reason is all the infighting going on. It is a low level problem, but it is pervasive and sapping our energy and focus.
What began with the harsh anti-miers rhetoric that stung moderates and independents (and I am not talking about anyone who opposed Miers and made reasonable arguments for their position) has continued with the ANWR drilling set back and now this silly Sense of The Senate resolution on Iraq. Conservatives are aligning against each other.
The roots of this run deep in the conservative movement, which became a winning coalition through a partnership of hard core, not so hard core (where I think I exist) and moderate conservatives.
What has been happening is frustrations have been given voice with derogatory monikers like ‘RINO’ and ‘Democrat Lite’ and ‘Rightwing’ (one I am guilty of using). These disrespectful lables have fractured the comaraderie of the movement. What was positive trust amongst the various groups has been replaced with wariness between ever distant factions.
This post at Ankle Biting Pundits made me realize we conservatives need to stop the infighting and invective. But I am not sure it is possible. We have some silver tongued devils who turn their rapier wits on anyone and everyone they disagree with.
I am proposing this to be an open linkfest where willing or interested conservative bloggers and pundits can publically commit to respecting each other and join battle against the left as a team. This is an opportunity to denounce harsh rhetoric towards our allies and reinstate the 11th commandment.
The enemy is not John McCain, it is John Kerry.
Miers is not the problem, John Paul Stevens is.
It is not thr Gang of 14, it is the liberal media.
The war in Iraq is on the verge of being won despite three years of handwringing and chickem little talk from the left. The Federal Judiciary is being remade into a more common sense, centrist reflection of this great country. But all this progress is now at risk because the movement is fractured.
Are there any takers on this challenge? Here is the final remark in the ABP post:
I’m looking for a reason to continue voting Republican. Can anyone think of one?
Yes I can think of one. When the terms ‘Republican/Conservative’ = respect towards all, honor to country, a drive for individual self-dependence, cherishing life and its gifts, and an attitude that says ‘Failure is not an Option’.
OK Don, how about getting this linkfest rolling! I think it is a little early to declare victory when 24 hours has not yet passed – but I would rather you be right than me.
I spent the morning calling every Republican representative that comes from my area and told them I was sick of caving to the Democrats and that they better start remembering just who put them into office in the first place. I reminded them that just because they are doing the old Potomac two-step doesn’t mean that we Texans dance to the same tune that they seem to have taken up and while they may want to just get along, we still have the same conservative values that they touted when they were running for office and that office is not a life time appointment. I reminded them that if the defenders of the Alamo had taken their attitude both they and I would be paying our property taxes to Mexico City. I also e-mailed a three page letter to Senator Frist and told him what was on my mind and it damn sure isn’t out of control spending, caving to the Democrats and standing by while the Dems bash our military, our nation and our President.
I knew when Bush ran the first time that he was not the ticket to Republican (conservative) Nirvana but the thought of Clinton-lite (Gore) being president made me want to buy a one way ticket to Ireland (the south of course).
I wholeheartedly disagree with Bush’s immigration policies, and his spending like the money comes from Heaven, but when it comes to national security, he is right on mark.
Part of the problem with Republicans is that we are the “silent” party. We take and take and take all the abuse the Dems dish out and we say nothing.
That has to change. We have to become vocal and let our representatives know that although they may alter their convictions to “get along” we haven’t. That is the one area the liberals have up on us, they are vocal.
When they start getting the phone calls, letters and emails that let them know that they were not appointed for life like a SCOTUS judge and if they want to keep their jobs, they better do what they are paid by the voters to do; REPRESENT THEIR CONSTITUENCY
and the values of same.
Retire05,
Good job!
Fighting The Fifth Column
AJ at Strata-Sphere asks Can Conservatives Rally Together?
Yes. But they need a leader. Nice to see we finally have one again named George Walker Bush.
“Silent” – Quick Test: Name 5 conservative talk show hosts. Finished? Good, Now – Name 5 liberal talk show hosts…. Take your time, finish dinner, take some more time. Can’t think of any? Now, just who is the “Silent” party?
The Dems are right in one regard–this is a Republican war. I, as a Republican am damn proud of that fact. They had a chance to make this a united country, and make the Iraq war part of America’s war against Islamist terror, but they missed that opportunity and decided to politicize our national security. Fine, let us as Republicans (or conservative independents, or moderates, or whatever. In the general public’s mind it all means the same thing, even if there is, in reality, a very big difference) stand together. It makes sense politically to support the president’s effort to defend and win the Iraq war as an integral part of winning the war on Islamist terror. Happily enough, in this case the politically savvy thing to do is also the right thing to do.
Hell, just let us put off all of the infighting until after 2008. The Big Tent has defined the Republican Party for nearly 30 years, and it has led it to success. Today, the Big Tent philosophy is necessary not only for political success but for victory in war.
To all religious conservatives, libertarians, conservative-leaning independents, Rockefeller Repbulicans, everyone not already mentioned who consiers themselves part of the RINO coalition, and anyone else in the middle to the right of the political spectrum not yet included (our prowar liberal friends need no mention since they are already displaying the type of behavior those of us who could consider themselves part of the Republican electorate should display by going against everything their peers are saying and supporting the most reviled Republican since Reagan, or possibly even Nixon), I beg you to remember Ben Franklin’s words to the Continental Congress before the signing of the Decleration of Independence: “We must hang together, for if we don’t we will surely hang seperately”. Only instead of meeting death at the end of a rope, our ends will come from the belt of a suicide bomber, a truck full of ammonium nitrate, or an outbreak of smallpox and will not include only ourselves but untold hundreds or even thousands of our fellow citizens.
Really sorry for the excessive length of this comment, I just felt it needed to be said.
I have slammed my senators and reps, plus the RNC and the RNCC (I even slammed my own RINO McCain even though I think it’s a waste of time, the guy is like a ping-pong ball). But I even thanked one rep who did NOT show up on the friends-of-Soros list.
The point that I always make though – and I think it is an extremely important point that they simply do not have a clue about – is that the playing field has changed. MSM no longer rules their life, their votes, their political conduct. Thanks to the internet, the blogs, courageous folks like AJ, JYB, LGF, etc, the people have a voice again. We have their backs and they need to go back to doing what they were elected to do. I think that if they hear this from enough people they will begin to understand that this insistent voice they keep hearing from the right is not their imagination, not a fluke – there is power behind it.
Slam them – they deserve it and they need to hear it – but make sure you get across why you know what you know – in spite of the msm-ocracy that has run this country for the last 40 years.
Man, I am getting psyched just reading all the great comments!
Observer,
Is this a parlor game? OK I got one. Name 5 freshwater fish that also survive amongst the thousands of species of fish in the ocean. Go ahead, finish your dinner (steelhead, maybe?).
A thousand species of msm-ocrats all spouting the same lib nonsense wall-to-wall on every alphabet news station, alphabet wire service, newspaper, magazine, etc, and you want to try to make a point about 5 talk show hosts who no one even hears? By the way, I can’t name 5 and I have never heard either of them on a talk show. But I can name many dozens of msm-ocrats who blather lib nonsense – and I don’t even watch MSM news.
Thank you, Bill in AZ. You took the letters right off my keyboard.
I’m also psyched by the great comments, and it gave me an idea: I’m in Illinois, 3rd Congressional District, so I really don’t have a chance of reaching a sympathetic ear, certainly not in the Senate (Durbin and Obama).
What to do? Well, I have a decent ability to put together a petition, and I know how to knock on doors. It’s only a couple of miles to a Kinko’s, where cost for 535 copies, even of several signature pages each, wouldn’t bring the wolf to my door. Assuming I get them into the mail before the January postal increase, I’m sure I can handle that expense as well.
If anyone is willing to put in the same type of effort in their own area, I’d be more than happy to post or e-mail a copy of the petition and I’ll also write up some hand-out material for whoever wants to use it.
Grass-roots efforts do work, as demonstrated in the 2004 RNC – Bush campaign.
I can be reached through the “contact” section of my almost-started-and-too-long-neglected blog, “Mach Polistew” (yeah, I know. I’ll get to it).
There’s a spam screener, so click the “request addition to address book” feature.
http://home.earthlink.net/~mjwhitney1/index.html
Merry
While we are sticking up for Republicans, does anyone know where we can send money to defend Scooter Libby from the VIPS and Wilson?
Everyone was so glad that Carl Rove dodged the bullet, but Libby and Cheney are the guys who I think have been defending us all from domestic and foreign terrorists.
When I see the VIPS and disgusting advocates for terrorists and liars like Ward Churchill attending the same Cynthia McKinney “Bush Did It” series of meetings on 9-11 and Able Danger, it makes me realize that these guys are trying to take down the government, our elected leaders, and really the USA.
They think they know better than the American people, so they are trying to crucify Bush’s guys in the media and courts.
If people like the VIPS and Wilson win, we are in big trouble.
They wanted to keep sending our oil money to that killer Saddam.
What’s “liberal” about that?
These people will persecute us.