Real Clear Politics Cuts To The Chase
Yes, we're all back together today. The Three Musketeers in straight-jackets took the field today like a whirlwind. Two posts from each of us; Marcie posted three. It's good to see she's doing all right, and is back in the swing of things. The vanguard was taken by our fearless leader this morning when Thomas made an extremely important post. That post was a hope for the future of the GOP. Thomas has seen what's happening to the GOP, and he isn't happy. None of us are. This unhappiness has spread through the collective base. Below is a piece by Tom Bevan or Real Clear Politics.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/blog/2005/12/the_agenda_dead_zone.html
The Agenda Dead Zone
So Democrats are in general disarray. They're scrambling (so far unsuccessfully) to come up with a coherent position on the war and seem content to treat their total lack of a domestic agenda like a movie studio whose next feature doesn't open for nine more months: COMING FALL 2006: WHAT WE STAND FOR AS A PARTY.
Republicans, on the other hand, aren't doing much better. The White House has all it can handle trying to prop up public support for the war in Iraq, and the Republican Congress is bogged down with ethics investigations and squabbles over spending. Big ticket agenda items like Social Security reform have been tossed overboard without being replaced by anything new. The President recently took a stab at pushing immigration reform and the House just passed another round of tax cuts yesterday, but still there is a distinct sense of a loss of momentum and lack of direction.
Clearly, part of this is the season. We're at the end of another long, tumultous year. But it feels like there's more to it than that. David Brooks senses it as well, and today he argues that the conservative movement has just about run out of steam for six reasons:
1) most of the issues that propelled conservatives to power have been addressed.
2) conservatism has been semi-absorbed into the Republican Party making it less creative and energetic.
3) conservative media success has led to intellectual flabbiness.
4) conservatives have lost their governing philosophy. They arrived in D.C. in 1994 with a core purpose of shrinking government and now they've become institutionalized.
5) conservative Republicans have lost touch with their base. Republicans offer almost no policies that benefit white rural and suburban working-class voters making $30,000 to $50,000 a year.
6) conservatives have not effectively addressed the second-generation issues like income inequlity, wage stagnation and social mobility.
As usual, Brooks is right about a lot of this. For a movement and party that enjoys control over two of the three branches of government there has been a surprising lack of innovation, thought, and effort coming from Republicans recently. Who in Congress has been effectively articulating a vision or agenda to the American people in the last few months? Certainly not Bill Frist in the Senate. Not Tom DeLay or Denny Hastert in the House.
At the White House, George W. Bush's election theme of an "ownership society" was fresh and interesting, but it's been hidden away in a cryogenic freezer somewhere along with its mortally wounded cornerstone (the aforementioned Social Security reform).
Republicans in Congress can only reap the electoral rewards of Democrats' weakness on national security for so long. At some point they'll need a reinvigorated agenda of their own or risk squandering decades worth of effort - something they already seem to be well on their way to doing.
Now, I don't want to beat a dead horse, but Brooks is right. So is Thomas. The GOP need to adopt a simple platform for the coming years; one in which America believes in, and wants it's leaders to abide by. It's simple and it's effective. Above all, it counters the Democrats constant leftist agenda of giving away the house, the home, and throwing the baby out with the bath water. Look at what the Democrat party stands for (and congratulations if you can find a platform or message; they can't seem to agree on one) and then look at the GOP. The Republicans are doing a decent job despite the constant attacks and withc-hunts launched on prominent members of the party. The liberals have wanted to lynch President Bush since 2000 when he won the election. They've gone after Cheney, Rumsfeld, slandered Rice and Gonzales, and professed our troops in harms way to be no different than the terrorist animals that they're fighting.
Every judicial nominee brought before them they've grilled over their views on Roe v. Wade, protecting that all important made-up right to abortion. They've accused practically everyone in the administration of lying about the war, blowing the cover of non-covert CIA analysts, and initiating torture on detainees. Get the picture? The Democrats are all about personal attacks and their petty desire to retake the power they believe they rightly deserve. (Reminds me of Sen. McCain, and his belief he's owed the presidency.) The GOP used to be about ideas and conservatism, and they've lost their way in a foolish attempt to beat the Democrats to the punch on issue after issue.
I think that perhaps the biggest problem facing the GOP right now, more than any other is the fact that they're acting like a bunch of spineless wimps. Oh sure, there are a few from either side of Congress that have guts, but shortly after they show them, a "linguini-spined" colleague steps up and takes their legs out from underneath them. This is more evident than ever in the White House's backing down from opposing McCain's torture bill. This isn't the white House I elected in 2000 and 2004. I elected fighters, not appeasers. The White House, and the GOP in general, is all a part of the "too little, too late" mentrality right now.
The president is firing back over the war, but where has he been for the last two years? If CBS wants a story, there's their AWOL story. Ken Mehlman is launching an ad campaign slamming Howard Dean on his comments that this war is unwinnable. Bravo, but I'm still unimpressed. My money's better spent on individual candidates rather than dumping the money into the GOP kitty, and allowing it to be divied up to representatives that I dislike and distrust. And as Thomas pointed out in his second post of the day, there's a list of them in the Senate, and I'm sure the list is equally as long in the House. These people have to go. They're mucking up the works, and stabbing the party in the back.
Don't get me wrong, moderates aren't all that bad, except when they can't seem to remember which party they belong to. These RINOs have no clue what it means to stand with their party. They're much happier on the Democrat side of issues. Fine. Treat them like a Democrat when they come up for reelection, and get rid of them. We're in a two-front war here, right now. We have a world war against those wishing to do us and ours deadly harm, and will stop at nothing to achieve that. We also have a domestic war going on where the heart and soul of the nation is at stake. It's time to take a stand, and change the GOP back to what it was. The old adage says "You can never go home." I beg to differ. We can always go back. It was Pres. Reagan's exit from the Oval Office that signalled the birth of the moderates, led by a moderate conservative in Pres. George H.W. Bush. Clinton's eight years in office did nothing for the GOP except make it fat and lazy. The Gingrich revolution of 1994 was short-lived as many of those swept into office then are still in the House, and do little to reinforce the party's message in the open. We see little of Hastert, DeLay, or others combatting the lies of the liberals. The same is true for Frist, as Mr. Brooks points out.
We need a new revolution. We need a GOP willing to stand up for the ideals they professed 25 years ago. It's time for a change, and 2006 and 2008 stand as the two main battlefields that could determine the course of the party for the future. Will they end up being the victors, or simply the "also rans?" It's not just our decision that matters in this. It's the party's decision. Let's hope and pray they listen to the base, and make the right choice.
Mistress Pundit
Yes, we're all back together today. The Three Musketeers in straight-jackets took the field today like a whirlwind. Two posts from each of us; Marcie posted three. It's good to see she's doing all right, and is back in the swing of things. The vanguard was taken by our fearless leader this morning when Thomas made an extremely important post. That post was a hope for the future of the GOP. Thomas has seen what's happening to the GOP, and he isn't happy. None of us are. This unhappiness has spread through the collective base. Below is a piece by Tom Bevan or Real Clear Politics.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/blog/2005/12/the_agenda_dead_zone.html
The Agenda Dead Zone
So Democrats are in general disarray. They're scrambling (so far unsuccessfully) to come up with a coherent position on the war and seem content to treat their total lack of a domestic agenda like a movie studio whose next feature doesn't open for nine more months: COMING FALL 2006: WHAT WE STAND FOR AS A PARTY.
Republicans, on the other hand, aren't doing much better. The White House has all it can handle trying to prop up public support for the war in Iraq, and the Republican Congress is bogged down with ethics investigations and squabbles over spending. Big ticket agenda items like Social Security reform have been tossed overboard without being replaced by anything new. The President recently took a stab at pushing immigration reform and the House just passed another round of tax cuts yesterday, but still there is a distinct sense of a loss of momentum and lack of direction.
Clearly, part of this is the season. We're at the end of another long, tumultous year. But it feels like there's more to it than that. David Brooks senses it as well, and today he argues that the conservative movement has just about run out of steam for six reasons:
1) most of the issues that propelled conservatives to power have been addressed.
2) conservatism has been semi-absorbed into the Republican Party making it less creative and energetic.
3) conservative media success has led to intellectual flabbiness.
4) conservatives have lost their governing philosophy. They arrived in D.C. in 1994 with a core purpose of shrinking government and now they've become institutionalized.
5) conservative Republicans have lost touch with their base. Republicans offer almost no policies that benefit white rural and suburban working-class voters making $30,000 to $50,000 a year.
6) conservatives have not effectively addressed the second-generation issues like income inequlity, wage stagnation and social mobility.
As usual, Brooks is right about a lot of this. For a movement and party that enjoys control over two of the three branches of government there has been a surprising lack of innovation, thought, and effort coming from Republicans recently. Who in Congress has been effectively articulating a vision or agenda to the American people in the last few months? Certainly not Bill Frist in the Senate. Not Tom DeLay or Denny Hastert in the House.
At the White House, George W. Bush's election theme of an "ownership society" was fresh and interesting, but it's been hidden away in a cryogenic freezer somewhere along with its mortally wounded cornerstone (the aforementioned Social Security reform).
Republicans in Congress can only reap the electoral rewards of Democrats' weakness on national security for so long. At some point they'll need a reinvigorated agenda of their own or risk squandering decades worth of effort - something they already seem to be well on their way to doing.
Now, I don't want to beat a dead horse, but Brooks is right. So is Thomas. The GOP need to adopt a simple platform for the coming years; one in which America believes in, and wants it's leaders to abide by. It's simple and it's effective. Above all, it counters the Democrats constant leftist agenda of giving away the house, the home, and throwing the baby out with the bath water. Look at what the Democrat party stands for (and congratulations if you can find a platform or message; they can't seem to agree on one) and then look at the GOP. The Republicans are doing a decent job despite the constant attacks and withc-hunts launched on prominent members of the party. The liberals have wanted to lynch President Bush since 2000 when he won the election. They've gone after Cheney, Rumsfeld, slandered Rice and Gonzales, and professed our troops in harms way to be no different than the terrorist animals that they're fighting.
Every judicial nominee brought before them they've grilled over their views on Roe v. Wade, protecting that all important made-up right to abortion. They've accused practically everyone in the administration of lying about the war, blowing the cover of non-covert CIA analysts, and initiating torture on detainees. Get the picture? The Democrats are all about personal attacks and their petty desire to retake the power they believe they rightly deserve. (Reminds me of Sen. McCain, and his belief he's owed the presidency.) The GOP used to be about ideas and conservatism, and they've lost their way in a foolish attempt to beat the Democrats to the punch on issue after issue.
I think that perhaps the biggest problem facing the GOP right now, more than any other is the fact that they're acting like a bunch of spineless wimps. Oh sure, there are a few from either side of Congress that have guts, but shortly after they show them, a "linguini-spined" colleague steps up and takes their legs out from underneath them. This is more evident than ever in the White House's backing down from opposing McCain's torture bill. This isn't the white House I elected in 2000 and 2004. I elected fighters, not appeasers. The White House, and the GOP in general, is all a part of the "too little, too late" mentrality right now.
The president is firing back over the war, but where has he been for the last two years? If CBS wants a story, there's their AWOL story. Ken Mehlman is launching an ad campaign slamming Howard Dean on his comments that this war is unwinnable. Bravo, but I'm still unimpressed. My money's better spent on individual candidates rather than dumping the money into the GOP kitty, and allowing it to be divied up to representatives that I dislike and distrust. And as Thomas pointed out in his second post of the day, there's a list of them in the Senate, and I'm sure the list is equally as long in the House. These people have to go. They're mucking up the works, and stabbing the party in the back.
Don't get me wrong, moderates aren't all that bad, except when they can't seem to remember which party they belong to. These RINOs have no clue what it means to stand with their party. They're much happier on the Democrat side of issues. Fine. Treat them like a Democrat when they come up for reelection, and get rid of them. We're in a two-front war here, right now. We have a world war against those wishing to do us and ours deadly harm, and will stop at nothing to achieve that. We also have a domestic war going on where the heart and soul of the nation is at stake. It's time to take a stand, and change the GOP back to what it was. The old adage says "You can never go home." I beg to differ. We can always go back. It was Pres. Reagan's exit from the Oval Office that signalled the birth of the moderates, led by a moderate conservative in Pres. George H.W. Bush. Clinton's eight years in office did nothing for the GOP except make it fat and lazy. The Gingrich revolution of 1994 was short-lived as many of those swept into office then are still in the House, and do little to reinforce the party's message in the open. We see little of Hastert, DeLay, or others combatting the lies of the liberals. The same is true for Frist, as Mr. Brooks points out.
We need a new revolution. We need a GOP willing to stand up for the ideals they professed 25 years ago. It's time for a change, and 2006 and 2008 stand as the two main battlefields that could determine the course of the party for the future. Will they end up being the victors, or simply the "also rans?" It's not just our decision that matters in this. It's the party's decision. Let's hope and pray they listen to the base, and make the right choice.
Mistress Pundit
posted by Syd And Vaughn | 9:16 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home