In January 2008, Salon.com published an article that pretty much captured the Democrats view of the GOP. It also captured the rank and file “conservatives” view of the GOP as well. When I say “rank and file” I do not refer to those who walk in lock step with the GOP but those who ultimately rose up and filled the ranks of the “tea party and town hall movements”.
At the time of the article it was apparent that the GOP was not the GOP of old but a new GOP that looked, felt and acted like the Democratic Party. Rush Limbaugh touched on his beliefs recently that conservatives need to back the GOP instead of being caught up in the hype of the tea party movement as a “third party” or else risk decades of Democratic rule. In a way he is correct up to the point of voting for GOP members to stop this phenomenon.
My wife and I have had this discussion about the concern of the lack of conservative candidates in the GOP line up. This discussion was ultimately held when John McCain was the ultimate choice to oppose Barack Obama.
Salon.com described it best:
“The GOP race is great fun to watch -- if you're a Democrat. The uninspiring candidates wander hat in hand from state to state, each being ritually humiliated in turn. If this process continues right up to the convention, the whole snooze-inducing crew may quit in disgust and the GOP will have to hold a mass séance to conjure up the spirit of Ronald Reagan.
Let's go down the list. This week's frontrunner, John McCain, is trying to create an aura of inevitability after his victory in South Carolina, but he is still viewed with deep suspicion by his party's true believers. The wailing and gnashing of teeth over McCain on conservative Web sites makes the Clinton-Obama dustup look like a love-in. Their posters can't forgive him for his stances on immigration, campaign finance and the environment, but what really drives them crazy is that he says things that they don't agree with. Sometimes he even commits the ultimate sin -- he sounds like a liberal!”
I believe that the resurgence of conservative principles began when McCain announced Sarah Palin as his running mate. It was the solid conservative beliefs (that Palin represented coupled with a personal history of behavior that could be verified) that woke up this beast that ultimately became the tea party and town hall movements.
You can track this resurgence of conservatism by the ferocity and disgusting full frontal attack from the left and their MSM allies against Palin. They knew she needed to be slayed because of the immediate appeal she generated that eclipsed the popularity (if you can call it that) of McCain himself.
Suddenly, people across America were talking about how strong Palin was when compared to the Presidential candidate himself. Yep, this figurehead needed to die before it gained any further traction.
So, it is true that the GOP (as it has become) is dead. The GOP is viewed as “Democrat light”. How many times have you heard that when you listen to GOP members of Congress and compare them to the liberal members of Congress they sound and act alike, thus the poor “favorable ratings”?
The tide is turning and the GOP is fearful. You have to give the Republican members of the House and Senate some credit though because they have received the tea party and town hall message loud and clear and have put up a united front of opposition in their voting against the massive legislation called health care.
In spite of this stance, some members of the House and Senate will be punished by losing their incumbency to the fact they voted for stimulus with the Democrats or have a liberal voting track record that will be too late for them to save their own seats.
I believe that the GOP will be purged of the RINO’s in their midst by those who act and sound like tea partiers and town hall’ers. The distrust of politicians in general will also mean that if you run on a conservative platform that is desirable to these groups, they will be watched closely to ensure that it was not just a means to an end to get elected.
I also believe that the weak field the GOP put up to counter the socialists in the last Presidential race then again in the NY 23’d congressional race when they backed Scarrafaza over the true conservative (Doug Hoffman) has ended. The outrage of the GOP backing forced the GOP to abandon Scarrafaza (albeit too late to matter) and subsequently back Hoffman. Additionally, the GOP was forced to explain itself as to why the GOP backed the liberal candidate at all.
Hoffman is the prime example of the vacuum of the GOP fecklessness that was created and ultimately filled by an unknown individual who came out of the conservative wilderness to rise to the challenge and competitiveness needed to unseat liberals and replace weak GOP candidates.
The left now advocates Palin to run for President in 2012 and there is concern that the GOP will field the same tired list of Presidential contenders in 2012 (Romney, Huckabee, Jindal and Guilliani).
That is about to change and in fact you can see glimmers of unknowns that will rise to the top of the possible pool of Presidential challengers to replace the old vanguard choices of the GOP listed above. For instance, as soon as the results were in and Brown defeated Coakley we were treated to headlines across America asking Brown if he was going to run for President before he could even cast his first Senate vote. Conservatives are not that stupid to get caught up in that rhetoric and speculation. Though Brown pulled off the impossible, he will be watched closely by the masses that elected him to keep him honest and true to the promises he made to get elected.
That said, it is exactly that “glimmer” to which I am referring to. This point is driven further home by the response to the “State of the Union” by the other conservative victor of recent by Bob McDonald.
McDonald invoked words from the founding fathers, espoused limited government and returning the power to the people. These are the exact sentiments of the tea party and town hall movements.
He said
“It was Thomas Jefferson who called for "A wise and frugal Government which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry ….and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned…" He was right.
Today, the federal government is simply trying to do too much.
Last year, we were told that massive new federal spending would create more jobs 'immediately' and hold unemployment below 8%.
In the past year, over three million Americans have lost their jobs, yet the Democratic Congress continues deficit spending, adding to the bureaucracy, and increasing the national debt on our children and grandchildren.
The amount of this debt is on pace to double in five years, and triple in ten. The federal debt is already over $100,000 per household.
This is simply unsustainable. The President's partial freeze on discretionary spending is a laudable step, but a small one.
The circumstances of our time demand that we reconsider and restore the proper, limited role of government at every level.
Without reform, the excessive growth of government threatens our very liberty and prosperity.
In recent months, the American people have made clear that they want government leaders to listen and act on the issues most important to them.
We want results, not rhetoric. We want cooperation, not partisanship.
There is much common ground.
All Americans agree, we need a health care system that is affordable, accessible, and high quality.
But most Americans do not want to turn over the best medical care system in the world to the federal government.
Republicans in Congress have offered legislation to reform healthcare, without shifting Medicaid costs to the states, without cutting Medicare, and without raising your taxes.
We will do that by implementing common sense reforms, like letting families and businesses buy health insurance policies across state lines, and ending frivolous lawsuits against doctors and hospitals that drive up the cost of your healthcare.
And our solutions aren't thousand-page bills that no one has fully read, after being crafted behind closed doors with special interests.
In fact, many of our proposals are available online at solutions.gop.gov, and we welcome your ideas on Facebook and Twitter.
All Americans agree, this nation must become more energy independent and secure.
We are blessed here in America with vast natural resources, and we must use them all.
Advances in technology can unleash more natural gas, nuclear, wind, coal, and alternative energy to lower your utility bills.
Here in Virginia, we have the opportunity to be the first state on the East Coast to explore for and produce oil and natural gas offshore.
But this Administration’s policies are delaying offshore production, hindering nuclear energy expansion, and seeking to impose job-killing cap and trade energy taxes.
Now is the time to adopt innovative energy policies that create jobs and lower energy prices.”
Does any of this sound familiar?
The rise of conservatism is starting to jell and solidify and politicians like McCain are soon to be replaced by more McDonalds, Hoffman’s and Browns. The 2010 elections are going to interesting indeed. It is not just Democrat seats at stake, but Republicans as well.
The weakness of the GOP’s choice in McCain as the frontrunner to Obama is indicative of things not to come (hopefully). During the campaign, McCain simply would not fight Obama. Remember the flap over Obama’s middle name and how McCain responded by publicly scorning those who used it and thus refused to go negative. McCain also refused to push Obama’s radical friends concern (Rev. Wright, Bill Ayers, etc). McCain was also weakened before he ran because of his aligning himself with those who were trying to give illegal amnesty and the “Maverick” status he had with snubbing his nose at Republicans to work with those across the aisle. It was obvious to most that McCain was a Republican, but was not a “conservative” Republican.
An irony in the past Presidential election was a prime example of this when the very bill that he co-authored with a democrat (McCain-Feingold bill) was just struck down as unconstitutional and an affront to “free speech”. The McCain/Feingold bill was one of the reasons Obama had the “funding” edge over McCain in the end.
McCain has now found his negative side that he refused to use against the socialist Obama and is employing all means of negativity against a true conservative that is running against him in the 2010 elections.
Powerful allies of McCain have mounted a campaign of threats and intimidation against JD Hayworth and the clear channel radio show he airs. The political machinations are hammering that station with threats of “campaign” law violations because they accuse him of using his role on the air that is tantamount to “free political airtime” against McCain.
At the same time, it is McCain that is utilizing his status on the “Commerce Committee” to mount this attack because the Commerce Committee overseas the FEC.
The McCain deception
There are many aspects of McCain that conservatives have a “beef with”. Specifically there are three that come to mind:
1) McCain/Feingold legislation
2) McCain support for Amnesty of illegal immigrants, and
3) McCain opposition to “enhanced interrogation” methods
The first and third are direct results of “his life experiences”! The second is simply to garner Hispanic voters in an attempt to align himself with their cause.
The life experiences I speak of in regards to McCain/Feingold come directly as a result of the criticism he experienced in his 2000 “Presidential run” as a result of his participation in the “Keating 5” scandal. To counter this negative blemish he “over-reached” in his attempt to show he is not the man he used to be when he was caught up in that event.
McCain/Feingold went into law on 11/6/2002.
Then, during the run up to the Presidential campaign McCain again reacted from his life experience as a POW to turn against the “enhanced interrogation” tactics that have shown to be effective in the war on terror.
Do not for a moment think that this author does not believe that McCain is not a genuine American hero for his military service because he is. His family, as well as himself have a long history of exemplary military service. He embodies the quintessential American spirit of patriotism in his service not only in the military, but in Public Office.
I am saying that his judgment has been “colored” by his own torture at the hands of the North Vietnamese captors and has played into the socialist dismantling of our intelligence capabilities which have been recently spotlighted in this Administrations handling of the Christmas day bomber as well as the Ft. Hood terrorist.
The three examples listed above is exactly why McCain will fight more aggressively for this re-election bid than he did against Obama. He is employing tactics against a true conservative (Hayworth) which he should have done against the socialist Obama. This is why McCain is toast. His political life is over and it will be telling who the GOP endorses as the candidate for the seat. Will it be with the traditional conservative that embodies the tea party spirit or will the GOP endorse a candidate in McCain that looks more and more like Scarafazza?
One thing is for sure, there will not be a lack of new faces coming out of the crowds that have been against big government. When the 2010 Congressional elections are over, there will be many stars which we can choose from to unseat the Marxist President. More important is the fact that we will have time to watch and see who lives up to the will of the people and those who elected by them.
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