Not even “Fake News” Bill O’Reilly believes the crazies, how funny.

http://belowthebeltway.com/2009/10/29/bill-oreilly-slams-orly-taitz/

To all the birthers in La, La Land, it is on you to prove to all of us that your assertion is true (TOUGH WHEN YOU KEEP LOSING CASES), if there are people who were there and support your position then show us the video (everyone has a price), either put up or frankly shut-up. I heard Orly Taitz, is selling a tape (I think it’s called “Money, Lies and Video tape”). She is from Orange County, CA, now I know what the mean when they say “behind the Orange Curtain”, when they talk about Orange County, the captial of Conspiracy Theories. You know Obama has a passport, he travel abroad before he was a Senator, but I guess they were in on it.

In my opinion the Republican Party has been taken over the most extreme religious right (people who love to push their beliefs on others while trying to take away the rights of those they just hate) and that’s who they need to extract from their party if they real want to win. Good Luck, because as they said in WACO, “We Ain’t Coming Out”.

I heard that she now wants to investigate the “Republican 2009 Summer of Love” list: Assemblyman, Michael D. Duvall (CA), Senator John Ensign (NV), Senator Paul Stanley (TN), Governor Mark Stanford (SC), Board of Ed Chair, and Kristin Maguire AKA Bridget Keeney (SC).

Well, the sentiment is mutual. Don’t let what I wrote concern you overly much. You can separate out from my rant those (few) who fit your description of politically aware/active “GDIs”.

Above I’ve probably conflated so-called “moderates”, “unaffiliateds”, “independents”, the “middle” and those who are just plain apathetic or ignorant of civics but who take up space and resources in society and vote anyway. Just write any confusion off to aggravation, annoyance and exasperation on my part.

- BTW, a GDI is a “G-d D— Independent”, …
Include me in the GDI crowd as well, then, although I don’t label myself “Independent” any more than any other political title.

GDI’s, as I understand your definition, would be in direct contrast with a good friend of ours who considers herself a “lifelong Democrat”, and who votes the party line irrespective of the facts. She goes to great lengths to rationalize the inconsistencies in arbitrarily voting Democrat and, for instance, has jumped high onto the socialized medicine bandwagon despite the fact that it’s never been an issue for her until the left made it one earlier this year. So I have first-hand experience with the lock-stepped-lemming-left you described.

- … the political process [has] has become a food fight for imbeciles.
Exactly. And this is precisely the aspect of all this that is so frustrating, annoying and exasperating.

- The GDI “principles” may FEEL “mushy”…simply because this nation rocks back and forth from one party to the next…
Well, from one party to the other, at least during the last century. And this is part of my point.

For a century, America has been ratcheting back-and-forth down a stack of Pachinko pegs toward one of 5 holes labeled “Xxxx-Socialism”. The two-party system is broken because no one understands or wants to take responsibility for fixing the underlying cause of the breakage. Running for office and/or supporting principled candidates (or even reconstructed parties) is no longer an effectual course. You declared as much by writing that “[t]he two party system is broken. Badly.”

It’s not specifically (only) the party system that’s broken, though, unfortunately. It’s the polity itself. In fact, we’ve identified the various ways in which this polity has become broken, but hardly anyone seems interested in taking steps to fix them. Rather, they want to “get back” political power, and now try to do this by reacting to and/or discrediting the hypocritical and/or logically flawed actions taken by their ostensible opponents. Your accurate characterization of the ineffectual Republican leadership is a perfect example of this. This is analogous to two nine-year-olds wrestling over the reins of an elephant they’re riding on – an elephant which is insane and long ago chewed through and spit out the bridle.

The problem is that the process of getting candidates elected and getting political power has now become an end unto itself and pursuit of the Republican form of Government guaranteed by our Constitution has become an afterthought, if that. I like you short definition of this: food fight. This is a type of war at which the leftist moral adolescent excels: s/he has no scruples – only a chimerical notion of ‘fairness’ that is driven by a narcissistic value system unfettered by any respect for authority or history (see myth buster’s #88 for a pretty accurate description).

The left is the portion of modern society that can’t or won’t grow up, morally, and that portion is increasing with each generation. The overarching challenge to “postmodern” society, if there is one, is how to address and correct this phenomenon before it drives the entire culture into social suicide over a few more generations – as it’s currently already doing in Europe. Politics isn’t going to do it.

- What they should be doing instead, is galvanizing this nation around the notion that rampant, unchecked leftism…is a disease of distortion and corruption…
Exactly. The question is how to do this. Clearly, we’re not going to cure the disease by treating the symptoms. Our political system and our broken economy are symptoms. The cause is much deeper.

- If he sits out the election, he is called a cynic by both sides. And, if he tries to run his own candidate…the system grinds him down…and both sides call him a “spoiler”.
I’ll reiterate here that the answer, IMHO, is no longer to be found in pursuing politics at this level.

- There should be moral outrage over this by any American with a conscience.
And yet there’s not. Why? Perhaps because the problem we’re trying to solve is much deeper than party politics and the media propaganda it requires. Those, again, are symptoms.

- Independents or more specifically GDI’s…are those who are not going to be indoctrinated…into anything. Ever. Again, that’s not a lack of “principle”…that’s not “mushy”…that’s a group of intelligent people not wanting to become someone else’s sheep herd.
True. And I’ve replied to this statement in particular to let you know I agree. See my first note on conflating independents with the herd. The problem is, again, that the group of people you’re describing here is a tiny minority of the electorate and, more importantly, an even tinier minority of the citizenry. GDIs don’t determine elections. These people do. Until this changes, conservatives can pursue any political, symptom-focused strategy they like. It won’t make any difference.

So… my apologies for not being clear. I will say this: I’m no longer optimistic about the Republic’s chances. Some people assume we passed a tipping point with the recent unpleasantness last Novemeber. I don’t. The tipping point was passed when Americans almost silently allowed their government to seize control over large portions of their economy and increase federal spending by an amount unprecedented in all of recorded history. In a society worthy of saving itself, these actions would have had people rioting in the streets and marching on D.C. by the millions. That didn’t happen.

As such, there is now virtually no leverage available to wrest back control over the three causal factors of the disease that is killing the Republic: corrupt academia, corrupt media and corrupt elected leaders. Any economic pressure brought to bear on these institutions by those who represent America’s shrinking conscience, in an effort to root out that corruption, will simply be cancelled out by the general government’s newly minted authority – which is to spend without restriction. That authority was handed to them by American citizens, who are now comprised mostly of shrill and/or irretrievably indoctrinated leftists, an enormous, amorphous “middle” that does what it’s told, and a marginalized, classical liberal minority who – if they see what’s really happening at all – waited far too long to do anything about it.

This will not end well.

“Since you have nothing to add to the conversation you resort to personal attacks like the one you did on Beck and his son.”

I didn’t know Beck had a son. And if he does, how did I attack him?

Any honest person will admit that the human heart is inherently corrupt; we would not have nearly so much crime or divorce if evil was an aberration rather than the default tendency of humans.

Great blog, BTW. Cheers!

The next step is we keep talking about the PLEDGE until they ban us from the site, get our own columns on it on this site, or we somehow get it to be a main rallying point of the conservative/libertarian/teaparty movement.
We talk about it on every single new posting on this site for starts-and when one of us brings it up the rest of us jump on board for the conversation.

I will always disapprove of abortion and gay marriage. I do not separate fiscal from social views as a conservative. The GOP is abandoning that platform in favor of a more centrist and indy comporting one. But that will alienate us conservatives. And the left will win in perpetuity.

If abortion and gay marriage mean more to you than America then we are all doomed. We are the best chance you and libertarians have at living in a limited-governing nation where liberty and freedom is unabridged; a nation that is fiscially prudent, morally centered and culturally sound.

Is believing that life is sacred an extreme view? Is believing that is is morally repugnant that a viable baby, born with the exception of its head and then killed an extreme view?

Is paying for the education, health care, and welfare of illegal aliens who could care less about being Americans more suitable to your sensibilities?

But, many looked at McCain and saw a bumbling, stumbling, rambling campaign. I didn’t like many of either of their ideas or platforms.

I saw both as weak leaders…and thought their reasoning on several issues was beyond ignorance. On balance, I thought that the Obama administration was far more unvetted and unknown…but gave off several extremely troubling signs and signals.

I wrote consistently about those things.

But, the entrenched media did the country an enormous disservice and basically stole the election for Obama. They watered down every negative and they pumped up every positive. For independents who still get their “news” and “facts” from the entrenched media…it had an impact. More than the difference between a McCain win and loss.

However, you should make a distinction for me, if you would. GDI’s are a type of independent. (Just as there are faith-based conservatives and non-faith based, I suppose). GDI’s did NOT FALL for the rhetoric and did NOT vote for the Obama administration. Other independents did, however.

Those that did, held their noses and tried to believe the “centrist” act. They were duped.

I do NOT agree, however, blotto…that one has to accept EVERY tenet of the conservative platform…and stand behind it…in an either/or manner.

I take issue by issue and decide what makes sense. I despise leftism…actually despise all forms of extremism. If that leaves me out of the tent…then I think the conservatives are making an enormous mistake.

I don’t ask them to change their platform, I only ask that they align with natural allies.

Don’t mistake my issue by issue resolutions to be “indifference”. If you go back and read my comments over the past several months, I’m hardly “indifferent”. I just refuse to have my food chewed for me and don’t want my opinions spoon fed from some political playbook.

As a GDI, I recoil from being given “forced choices”. Leftism is a disease and needs to be dealt with, immediately. But, if forced between one lockstep march and another…I just say no. Let me be an ally against leftism, don’t lock me out of the tent…just because I refuse to align with every single issue…is all I’m saying.

Excellent post on #75. The marketplace of ideas (and parties) is the solution to our countries political problems