What with all the talk of how conservatism has veered wildly off course, and with the thought in mind of the loss three special election seats that once upon a time would have been easy GOP wins, I thought a little temporary escape was warranted:
People talk about how electrified the Dem race is now, and how Dem voters are registering in record numbers due to the excitement, but can you imagine how really electrifying it would be if we had a nominee who we agreed with much more than we disagreed with? One who could energize the base in ways McCain probably never will be able to? A nominee conservatives wouldn’t have to “reluctantly” support?
Gonna be an uphill battle this fall.
Sigh …
I know, ST. He’s been out of office nearly 20 years, and gone almost four years, and I still miss him too.
Comment by Great White Rat @ 5/19/2008 - 10:04 pm
ST, he went ahead and then others followed. Today, too many let negatives get in the way.
Comment by stackja @ 5/19/2008 - 10:45 pm
The pattern by now is depressingly familiar:
Step 1: A state Republican Party comes up with an brilliant ad.
Step 2: The Messiah throws a temper tantrum.
Step 3: Within hours (minutes?) Washington-centric GOP politicians wet their pants and trample each other in a frightened rush to squash the ad and carry out the DNC’s benchmarks.
This little dustup shows why the GOP has lost three special elections in formerly safe Republicans seats and will likely get their clocks cleaned in November despite a booming economy, two successful wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, no terrorist attacks on US soil since 9/11, and the Democrat-controlled Congress racking up the worst approval ratings in history. With friends like Corker and Alexander one really does not need enemies.
Someone needs to remind the two Sir Robin wanna-bes from Tennessee that if they they don’t take their marching orders from Howard Dean they will not be struck by lightning sent by the Messiah.
Comment by Mwalimu Daudi @ 5/19/2008 - 10:50 pm
It’s all well and good to remember Reagan, but he’s the past. Conservatives and Republicans need new ideas and better ways to sell them to the public. We need to convince voters that making government smaller and less expensive will benefit them. Then when we get into power we do what we said we’d do. Figuring out the problem is the easy part. What’s tough is finding and selling new, conservative ideas. Using Reagan as a crutch won’t cut it.
Comment by Sean Hackbarth @ 5/19/2008 - 11:46 pm
People talk about how electrified the Dem race is now, and how Dem voters are registering in record numbers due to the
excitement,excrement…….[fixed it]Sean:
In a word NO Sean, we don’t. We don’t need NEW ideas at all! Though Reagan the man is no longer breathing, his conservative concepts and principles will NEVER die! As to selling them to the public…………it aint a flippin bake sale! IT is a life style that is not purchasable by the twits and nits that make up the vocal hacks, which have infiltrated America over the years! IT survives through the DNA and can not be bought or sold!
A crutch? Are you kidding? You don’t really think she/we would waste time with frivolous window dressing, do you?
Sean from what I’ve seen, you are smarter than that.
Comment by forest hunter @ 5/20/2008 - 4:06 am
Sean, this has nothing to do with using Reagan as a “crutch” - I don’t know where you got that idea from.
Reagan may be dead, but his ideas are both real and timeless. We can add on to them, figure out ways to sell them, but the principles he stood for are alive and well today in many of us. It’d just be nice to have someone representing us who embodied more of those same type of small gov’t principles. In fact, when you see someone invoking Reagan, as I did last night, nine times out of ten they’re doing it for the same reasons I mentioned, and they have nothing to do whatsoever with “crutches.”
Comment by Sister Toldjah @ 5/20/2008 - 8:35 am
I suspect the Reagan v No Reagan debate is a generational thing. I’m a few years older than Sean, so I came of age at the tail end of the Reagan administration. Indeed, in my case, Reagan was the reason I became a conservative.
The problem is that now, unlike 28 years ago, we’ve gone past the point of having half of America get more money from government than they pay to it, with that point among those that care enough to vote rapidly approaching. If I knew how we battle back from the “point of no return”, I’d be a rich man.
Comment by steveegg @ 5/20/2008 - 9:07 am
As for the ‘Rat race, forest hunter summed it up pretty nicely.
One point of order; the 3 successful ‘Rats in the special elections, and much of the freshman class in Congress, ran relatively-far to the right.
Comment by steveegg @ 5/20/2008 - 9:10 am
Here Here!!! 1st, we should quit blaming a light bulb for our energy problems. 2nd we should allow independent oil well owners to pump as much as they want. There are thousands of oil wells in this country that are capped or are not allowed to pump to there full capacity. There is big money to be made right now, let these people make it, without government getting in the way. 3rd we should institute new policy about special blends of gasoline reducing the refined blends from over 60 to 10. If a state can’t get along with the blends that available, let them build their own refinery, and they can blend whatever gasoline they want. 4th allow colleges to allow more medical students, and allow medicines to be imported from other countries. 5th truly analyze where the Federal budget is being spent. There is absolutely no reason this government can’t survive on 2 trillion dollars.
If Republicans want to stay in power so badly then let them start by doing the right thing, not just this go along to get along policies that we have been seeing. The 2006 elections were ours to lose, and we did it handily, because Reps were acting like a bunch of free spending liberals. We need to get back to conservative basics or we are going to lose in 2008 also and lose big. - Lorica
Comment by Lorica @ 5/20/2008 - 10:53 am