Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down Half This Wall
As all principled Democrats are pounding their uncompromising collective fist on the GOP’s big tent, demanding that conservatives compromise their principles, and even Colin Powell has joined their unanimous opinion about the glaring lack of diverse opinions among Republicans, conservatives are clearly left with no other choice than to move their big tent down from the moral high ground to where the progressive majority is, so it can be better monitored by the media and have easy access for morally disabled persons with diverse opinions.
Everyone knows that this country was built by great moderates who made history by compromising their ideals and principles. So let us take a moment and look back at great compromises throughout history. This is now the correct narrative. Please update your past.
The great compromiser Ronald Reagan was always careful not to offend people. In June 1987 he famously issued the following moderate, inoffensive statement: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down half this wall.” This made everyone happy and didn’t drive moderates out of the party, which could have happened if he were to make a more categorical demand. Fearing he would alienate centrists, Reagan also changed the original characterization of the USSR as “the evil empire” to a more moderate “misunderstood commonwealth,” for which he was forever extolled by the White House press corps.
In 1862, another Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, was also working hard to reach a middle ground between pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in his party. Aware of the need to get along and compromise on sensitive issues, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, in which he gave slaves freedom from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays, after which time they needed to return to their masters.
In 1773, a group of about 200 agitated Bostoners, some wearing Native American costumes and whooping war chants, marched two by two to the wharf, descended upon three ships, and dumped half of the crates with tea into the harbor. The rest of the crates they took home, forming a long line at the customs house to pay the proper tax set by the British crown. Most colonists applauded their compromise and it didn’t antagonize London enough to pass the Intolerable Acts, which might potentially close the Port of Boston.
Comrades! I half-applaud you!
Let’s see, what else would have been done better in moderation? The D-day invasion (we should have stormed every other beach); the half-repeal of Prohibition, to be fair to the Capone gang and the Kennedys; only half of the women should have been allowed the vote; Patrick Henry really said, “Give me liberty or give me…whatever”; and voting for Obama.
History runs over anyone walking the road of moderation!
Democracy is on the stroll!
We don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cap.
It is unknowable how long that conflict [the war in Iraq] will last. It could last three days, three weeks. I doubt three months.
All things in moderation, most especially moderation. So at the next election I will have the opportunity to vote against that great go-along-to-get-along RINO Charley Crist. But I won’t, no I won’t. In the spirit of moderation and half measures I will not vote against him. I will simply not vote for him. Thank you.
Yah, how about:
“You can tread a little bit on me.”
Battle-cry of the moderate.
You are too rigid in thought. Contemplate
the sound of one hand clapping Grasshopper.
Then you will be able to understand the Way
and follow the Path.
@4. sheesh:
WTF? Incoherence must be your speciality.
Republicans should not panic, times always change, this present bunch will screw things up so bad people will be clamoring to swing back to the right. Remember Carter, well Obama will be worse. Republicans bounced back after Nixon with Ronnie, and they really need to be open and ready for the next big shift to the right and this time don’t screw it up by putting another Texan in office. Two lousy presidents in my life, Johnson and Bush, both from Texas. God knows how I hate blowhards from Texas.
Give me liberty, or give me a cold!
Yes, we might!
All men are created equal. But some are more equal than others.
Today, I will jump half the Grand Canyon on my unicycle.
You’ve got it right on milquetoast moderates, Oleg. Stand for nothing, fall for Obama…..
I’m in it to wing it. (sorry Hill, could not resist)
bin Laden – Wanted: Dead or Outtasight.
I’d like to thank the author(s) for their humor. The point is made far more easily with humor than with a serious essay.
In both the 2000 & 2004 election cycles, the presidency was braznly stolen by the GOP working behind the scenes with the Diebold corp. and their Saudi Arabian handl…
Oh wait; that’s been done.
Brilliant! Classic! LMAO @ “…Class 1 felony…”!!
And incidentally, the “half that wall” bit is oddly apropos:
Moderation is compromise. And compromise with leftist, moral adolescents is cultural and social suicide.
Comrades,
Thanks for the praise.
Both myself and Oleg emigrated here to pursue the great “American Dream”. However we learned to compromise our hard line principles.
We now pursue the great “N.A.F.T.A Hallucination”
You know, there IS room for compromise — or rather perhaps the term “tolerance” is more appropriate. Yes, there are the liberal fascists, with which no compromise is possible. These are the lefties who embrace zero tolerance for any views outside of their own. The right side has their equivalent who have zero tolerance.
But in this financial crisis, where we are loosing our country, there is room for compromise with “democrats” and “liberals” if we employ a little bit of tolerance. I am talking about those who fall on the left side of this partisan divide, yet nonetheless love our country, its rule of law (with blindfolded justice for all), the Constitution and what it all stands for. These people are liberal, but not extreme intolerant types. There are plenty of democrats/liberals who are becoming increasingly horrified at what is happening with our economy and where our country is going. Regardless of whether the Repub party broadens its tent or not, all of those who believe in our American Republic need to pull together so as to unite against the real cause of this problem — liberal fascists. This partisan culture war is a distraction that gets in the way of this happening.
#2 Leigh B: “Give me liberty or give me … whatever.”
LOLOL! My new mantra.
Great article.
“A day that will live till we rewrite the history books”
“GOD so liked the world that HE almost sent HIS SON……….”
I used to tell my history classes that the wonderful Byzantine Empire built by Theodosius the Great, fell into disrepair under his son, Sylvester the Not Bad.
… and there’s Alexander the Mediocre
Dear Conrade Oleg:
I give it a “C”.
Regards;
And let’s not forget that Ivan the Terrible assumed power on the coattails of his father, Ivan the Not So Bad.
There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in Canada as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation many never come again. But why, some say, Saskatchewan? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the hill? Why, 35 years ago, fly to Long Island? Why does Rice play piano? We choose to go to Saskatchewan. We choose to go to Saskatchewan in this century and do the other things, not because they are hard, but because they will only piss of the Canadians, because that goal does not piss off the Mexicans, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.
And so on. Maybe. Never mind.
If bin-Laden was a “moderate”, would that mean we’d still have one tower of the WTC standing?
Every hair-brained idea is worthy of implementing as long as it’s only a half-@ssed attempt. Plus, it’s so much easier to flip-flop on an issue!
Lefties/Progressives are great fence-jockeys though, ya gotta give ‘em that. No color exists in their warped, dreary rainbows…only shades of gray.
Great article! Thank you for the chuckles.
Great Moderates in History– Dr. Martin Luther King, who said he had a dream that white people would only sort of notice the color of his childrens’ skin, but give somewhat greater weight to the content of their characters, except under extenuating circumstances in which skin color counted for somewhat more than half of their value, character being somewhat less than half..
but mostly, their character would be more noticed than their skin color, all other things being sort of equal.
Obama is actually a moderate.
Remember during the campaign, when he told that little girl America should get back to the days when it was better? He also spent time telling people we were going to be better in the future than we’d ever been.
So we were better in the past, and we’ll be better in the future. Totally moderate.
And like all moderates, his liberalism shines through during the moment of practical application– RIGHT NOW, America SUCKS.
RINO Arnold Schwarwhatever when he was “youngest” said he vas a moderate, that on politikal spektrum he seated to the left of Hitler, a little to the right of Gengis Khan.
Actually, the Emancipation Proclamation was more moderate: It only freed the slaves held in the Confederacy (which didn’t recognize Lincoln’s authority anyway), but those in Missouri, Maryland, Delaware and Kentucky remained in chains until the 13th Amendment was passed.
That a boy Aaron. It takes determination to not get the point.
Shields up!
Churchill: We will fight them on the beaches, we will fight them on the hills, we will fight them on the streets, we will never surrender until the press starts asking difficult questions or the polls show declining support for the war.
if anyone thinks that soviet communism is not there any more
you should get this reality check:
Yes, it is about their enormous advantage in strategic weapons of mass destruction
http://www.financialsense.com/stormwatch/geo/pastanalysis/2009/0508.html
http://www.nti.org/e_research/profiles/Russia/index.html
http://thebulletin.metapress.com/content/t2j78437407v3qv1/fulltext.pdf