Rules for Republicans
5. RINOs are better than real Democrats.
Yes, I get frustrated by Republicans In Name Only. I ran for Idaho State Senate two years ago because my state senator was well to the left of what I thought a Republican should be. If a RINO represents a conservative or libertarian district, by all means let’s challenge him in the primary. But there are parts of America where the choice is a RINO or a Democrat. We don’t want to ever get comfortable with a RINO representing us, but at least a RINO won’t be helping Nancy Pelosi remain speaker of the House or Harry Reid remain Senate majority leader.
6. DINOs are better than real Democrats.
Many Democrats here in the First Congressional District of Idaho are frustrated with Democrat Walt Minnick, who voted against the stimulus package and against the health care deform bill. I see them moaning that Minnick is a DINO, and I look forward to seeing these Democrats carry through with their threat to sit out the November election. But even if Minnick wins reelection, better a DINO who sometimes votes the right way than a Democrat who will be consistently wrong.
7. Be proactive with fixing problems.
One of my great frustrations with the time that Republicans controlled Congress and the presidency was their failure to be proactive. President Bush proposed a number of incremental fixes to the health care system that relied on tax incentives and free-market solutions. It was not perfect, but it was a step in the right direction. But the combination of Democrats doing what unions told them and many Republicans doing what health insurance companies told them meant that nothing was fixed. Similarly, Treasury Secretary John Snow pointed to serious mortgage regulatory problems that needed to be fixed in 2003 — but we couldn’t get the Republicans who controlled Congress to take the problem seriously. Look where we are now, at least partly because of waiting for problems to become a crisis.
8. Recognize the difference between “minority viewpoint” and wacko.
There are ideas out there guaranteed to marginalize everything else you say. For example:
I think people that don’t have health insurance should be left to die in the streets when they get sick.
While this might make you feel all self-righteous and ideologically pure, this position is held by very few, and is right up there with the 9/11 truther claims for its ability to turn people in the middle against you. Perhaps you believe that people who don’t buy health insurance (or can’t afford it) deserve to die. Say it loud enough and long enough and you will guarantee that Americans in the middle will vote for politicians who will use “compassion” as an excuse to loot the Treasury.
You can start pro – active by calling the “progressives” by the correct name. Not using their name (alias) or “liberal” to dissemble their true identity, i.e. totalitarian statists. Not so pithy, but… They no longer need to dissemble since their triumph in November 2008 over the gulled American voters. Odd isn’t it that the llberals now call themselves progressives. Reminiscent to that decade in which the salami slicing on the American Constitution began — in conjunction with world activities in Germany and the Soviet Union. These “progressives, erstwhile liberals, are the people who called censorship of public discourse “political correctness” and had right thinking persons compliant to their VERY~ SELECTIVE restrictions in public language. Writers and commentators, e.g. Orwell, Koestler, Conquest, et al recognised — and warned — that one of the first acts of “progressives” is to change the meanings of commonly accepted words and generally agreed more’s and behaviours to something quite different. AND THEN TO HAVE THE PATIENCE TO WAIT for the seeds they planted and nourished to bear fruit.
Sorry, but 5 and 6 are wrong.
Rinos are no better than Democrats. They destroy the brand, they use their incumbent status to block actual conservatives in the primaries. They wait until the most opportune time to betray.
Blue Dogs are utterly worthless. Besides Minnick, how many stood up to Pelosi on the stimulus and health care? The only conservative issue they can be relied upon is 2nd Amendment rights. Their votes are for sale for all other issues. Their party leader is Nancy Pelosi!
Contribute money to the people who actually ushered the Huns into the palace?
To Howdy Doody McConnel?
To Bozo McCain, son of a son of an admiral with a gigolo fortune, no brains and less resolve?
Suntan Orrin Hatch and all his look-alike mumble witted mild mannered milquetoasts?
Let the fat cats they supported for so long give the pseudo-Repbubs back some of MY tax money they stole.
Let their Country Club Treasurers provide for them. I sure as hell won’t!
A curse on ALL houses.
Whether you’re a Republican candidate or a man in the street witnessing the destruction of America rule #1 is to stop pulling punches when describing the enemy. The Democrats are statists. Call them that and then make it crystal clear that those who serve the state MUST destroy liberty. Of course for many out there liberty is just a word. Don’t waste your breath on them. Appeal to those who still have a memory of what it was to be an American, no matter how dim. They will be the army that takes back America. But they must be awakened first.
I have to take issue with pelaut at 3 above by pointing out that while I share his anger at sellouts like McCain and McConnel, there are worthy conservatives who deserve support.
I am giving no money to the Republican party, I resigned from the RNC in January 2007 after it completly F’d up the 2006 midterms. I am giving small contributions to multiple conservative candidates across the land, 18 so far. I have never done this before. I research the candidate and if they demonstrate they are conservative, I send a contribution. I am keeping a list of who has been backed as I intend to help them again as primaries near.
I am also giving money to conservative organizations like the Heritage Foundation. I have never done this before either.
This article puts it’s finger on the steps necessary for electing better candidates in November 2010. If you want to advance the conservative cause and rebuke statism, pry your hands off your wallet and join in.Commenting on blog pieces isn’t getting the job done. Clayton and millions of others who think and act as we are doing are helping to set the Dems up for one hell of a reality check in November 2010. We are going to stop the progressive agenda dead in it’s tracks and my bet is the results will make 1994 look like it was actually a good year for Democrat candidates. All objective data indicates a Democrat disaster awaits if we put forth the correct type of opponents.
HAMIZDAT:
“All objective data indicates a Democrat disaster awaits if we put forth the correct type of opponents.”
All objective data indicates that an American Disaster awaits if those who still believe in the majesty of a Constitutional Republic once again allow Bill O’Reilly and his Lapdogs at the Fox News Channel to select the next “Republican” candidate for President.
Victor Davis Hanson, General David Patreus, Mitt Romney. Three names that come to mind. What’s your plan to defeat the madness of “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs?” And now, “Wants”.
“I am giving small contributions to multiple conservative candidates across the land…”
That is what I intend to do too. My contributions may be quite small, I’ll have to figure out my budget first and then see who I want to support and how much each will get. But I will definately give at least a couple of hundred dollars to candidates this year.
Like you, I have never done this before.
I am also going to volunteer in my local primary and in my local general for the most conservative candidate at each step of that process. I’ve never done this before either.
I voted in the NJ School Board elections the other day as Gov. Christie had made it a big issue here.
I never did that before either.
The results in my district? Budget rejected and ALL incumbents tossed.
Is that a solution in NJ? Time will tell, but it has sent a heck of a message.
Let me do a mash-up of McLuhan & Miller and say: The message is attention must be paid.
I agree with the author that you have to examine the district before deciding who, if anyone, to support.
Sen. Brown from MA is, and will always be a RINO. However, I supported him for three reasons.
1) No true conservative will be elected in MA in my lifetime.
2) His opponent was way out to the left. This wasn’t a case where there was very little ideological difference between the two candidates.
3) He promised to oppose BarryCare.
I’m through with supporting candidates who are only a little bit better than their opponent. Such candidates usually “grow” in office, to steal the MSM term and become indistinguishable from a Democrat in a few years anyway.
The author of this article still owes me an apology, but obviously he is not man enough to admit he is ever wrong, even in light of obvious evidence of the historical as well as present value of industrial hemp and the American people.
Your petty desire to get publicly ego-stroked has no bearing to this article. There is this thing called “E-Mail”. Use that.
The public will know that the RNC has truly donned its sack cloth and ash in repentance when the leader of the party passionately promises to do the following:
1) Order the FBI to launch an investigative reign of terror on Wall Street and the mortgage industry for the massive criminal fraud there that stripped trillions of dollars of wealth from honest Americans.
2) Pass a balanced budget amendment in the very first session of Congress.
3) Repeal Cap and Trade and Obamacare and replace Obamacare with something like Karl Denninger’s 4 point plan for introducing real competition and accountability into the health care system.
4) Bring the military back home and put the Army on the southern border.
5) Pass a bill that would abolish the NEA, Department of Education, Department of Energy, TSA, ATF and DEA and break up the embarrassment that is Homeland Security simultaneously within 60 days of taking office.
6) Appoint Ron Paul as the Secretary of the Treasury and give him the authority to order armed Treasury agents to seize all of the records of the Federal Reserve and carry out a top-to-bottom audit.
CGW at 5,
I have some difficulty following your line of thought, however, if I am reading you correctly:
Patreus isn’t a candidate although some people want to draft him.
Hanson isn’t a candidate, or at least a viable one.
Romney is stillborn after Obamacare and the similarity of the Mass healthcare plan to it.He might make a great Secretary of ?, but he can’t win.
Please keep in mind that this is not a presidential election year, but a mid term election.
My plan to defeat the forces of statism, socialism, Marxism, progressivism, or what ever you want to call it is to aid in the election of as many conservatives in congress as I can possibly promote.
Aside from your negative diatribe against potential Presidential candidates, what is your plan?
We must support men like Lt. Col. Allen West who is running for a Congressional seat in Florida. This man is a LEADER in every sense of the word and he has a spine. Listening to him makes me believe there is a chance for this country to come back from the brink.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VP2p91dvm6M
Zsa Zsa,
I sent him a contribution last week. I agree that he is exactly what we are looking for in Congress. I hope others will follow my lead.
West and others like him are the future of conservatism in this country. There is no plastic with him, he reeks of authenticity. Obama, Pelosi, Waxman etc beget West and other energetic, commited conservatives who know the issues.
There is one hell of a storm brewing and I don’t think most liberals hear it coming. They still believe that the American people are going to warm up to Obamacare and that they can win by calling Tea partiers bigots. Meanwhile, the negative numbers on healthcare harden and 47% of Tea partiers are independent or Democrat.
You can’t fix stupid.
Yea for Allen West, but we’re not “on the brink” — we went over and are in free fall.
Because of the Republicans!
The Dems can’t help themselves, they’re criminal thugs followed by altruistic useful idiots. That won’t change.
Pray that guys like Allen West and Petraeus can man some “keeps” of civilization during the Mad Max dark ages coming.
RINOs in large numbers destroy the brand; Democratic majorities in Congress destroy the nation.
I will agree that RINOs may block actual conservatives in the primaries–but sometimes these are in places where conservatives wouldn’t have much of a chance. Would a conservative Republican have much of a chance running for U.S. Senate from Massachusetts? No. Other those circumstances, you hold your nose and accept someone a bit more moderate.
CLAYTON CRAMER: If you read #5 and #6 then you read #7 as well. It is commonly accepted that it is honorable to admit when one is wrong, and rather dishonorable, to not to be mature enough to do the manly thing and admit the error, and then apologize, when one is wrong. So far Mr. Clayton talks the talk, but he can’t seem to be man enough to walk the walk.
But there is no point.
A RINO votes like a Liberal so it makes the RINO little better except that they have an R rather than a D.
A Republican voting like a Liberal is just as bad as a Liberal voting like a Liberal.
A fiscally conservative Republican has a great chance of winning in Maine, Ohio, or Pennsylvania. Don’t get me started on Lindsey Graham.
No,I disagree.
The age old question:”Who watches the watchers?”
WE DO! This is our government,we now must stand watch.
We can no longer say “Let others do it”,that does not work.
We will have to give up some time and effort, become groups, analyze and evaluate government.
This government of both parties has shown it cannot be trusted, and if that means being a counter-intelligence against
fraud and waste and a host of other problems,so be it.
Let’s get our priorities in order:
Unless the Republican Party gets a majority in either the House or the Senate, 0bama’s agenda will roll on, crushing what is left of the Constitution.
A majority in either the upper or lower house will be sufficient to stop the excesses. I agree with Mr Cramer that taking steps toward a more conservative [ie: Constitutional] government is essential. We are not going to turn this nation on a dime. If our efforts put a roadblock in front of 0bama by changing the majority in even one legislative house, that will be seen as a victory at this time in our nation’s history.
People love winners. A change in Party dominance in the House would signal a major turning point to most people. Therefore, support the candidate(s) closest to your best interests, without demanding impossible litmus tests right now. Any win in November will be major. The Dems have everything to lose, and nothing more to gain.
The worm turns. Slowly. But it turns.
“Unless the Republican Party gets a majority in either the House or the Senate, 0bama’s agenda will roll on…”
100% correct and everybody better realize this.
Forget third parties and RINOS and everything else.
Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the REPUBLICAN party.
We’ll have time for fine tuning later.
Right! I will vow to skip lunch every day for twentythree years,and send the
60K or so to that dimwit, dingbat alaskan housewife so she can bailout her dysfunctional family. Or, maybe better to that intellectually deprived baptist preacher who believes that a mental affirmation of his credo constitutes a carte blance to do evil at will, with impunity.
On the other hand, do we really improve things by replacing the current Sociopath in Chief with these two schmucks? What do you think?