Nov 15 2006
Extremists Are Rampaging
While the far right is pushing for party purity and punishment to illegal immigrants (ignoring the entire war on terror issue), the far left is also out to show which party is the most extreme. The troop pullout demands show a liberal mindlessness that is stunning. And the fact the Clintonistas want to purge the Democrats of KosKids, etc, shows their is a purity putsche going on in the Democrat party as well. What in the world is going on in DC? Have these people all lost their minds? The worst thing I heard today was on the Laura Igraham show, and illustrates the intolerance of extremists on both sides. It was the news that San Francisco has banned Junior ROTC from their schools, denying those who want to participate in this marvelous program the opportunity to do so.
This decade will be known as the purity wars. Liberals want purity by banning Boy Scouts, JROTC, religious symbols etc. The far right wants purity in illegal immigration, Arab/muslims, the conservative ideaology. And Al Qaeda wants purity of Islamo fascism….
Where do those of us who want tolerance and diversity go now? As I posted earlier, sanctity of life is not just a right to live. But a right to live out your life, express your life, be an individual. All these forces to tamp down dissent are sickening. Has partisanship consumed our society this much?
Kathie, quoting you;
“I have a theory about why there are so many far left and far right nuts out there. When the planes hit the World Trade Center it was like the American population was thrown up into the air like confetti. Some of us returned to earth”
Now I’m just asking, but at the end you say “some of us returned to earth” Does this mean you are exempting yourself from the ‘far left and far right nuts’ categories?
Now that’s funny, I don’t care who you are. (quoting Larry the Cable guy)
Kathie
Your mired in the confetti. The jobs shouldn’t get done if they require unassimiable aliens-or the employers can meet the
wage demands of the native market.
As far as the Middle East, if it depends on American presence
for stability, it’s doomed. American can’t even keep its
large cities stable.
Man I didn’t read any of the above comments but you are making an excellent point. I am just about sick of someone screaming about what they can’t stand. Would someone please find a little dadgum tolerance? I cruise around to the different favorite blog sites, mostly conservative, and I just feel like I’m overloaded with information. Someone is always wanting to preach about something they don’t want to put up with. I would like to see more constructive information about what we can do to solve the problems we are currently facing. There is a tounge lashing around every corner I turn.
Enforcement, yes I think that I’ve come back to earth. How about you? You don’t think I have?
“A few examples of which there has been little to no nod to the middle:
The Terry Schiavo affair
The South Dakota Abortion ban
The constitutional gay marriage ban”
This brings up an important point. In order for Republicans to be elected in such places with large populations as NY, Chicago, Los Angeles, etc. the party must be flexible. Places like this represent a lot of votes. Rudy couldn’t be elected by NY twice if he had been hard right. If the Republicans want to really represent the entire country, to some extent they need to be willing to accept that there is a broad cultural diversity and candidates need to reflect the culture of their electorate if they intend to be elected. You can’t go telling 80% of a population their their beliefs are wrong and expect to get elected.
A better approach is to remove the debate from the federal level and let the various states handle them. That way no matter who is elected at the federal level, you will have some degree of confidence that they are not going to try to shove their cultural values down your throat. For a party to be successful it must win votes from all areas of the country. A party is also going to be a reflection of cultural values in those areas, not a dictator of them, if it is going to succeed. Once people feel they are having things shoved onto them against their will, they will toss that party out on its ear.
The key is to find a way to allow yourself to be flexible. If you become rigid and too narrowly focused you will find yourself alienating needed voters.
I’m disillusioned by right wingers that have exposed intolerance by the left, (correctly so) and then turn around and exhibit the same if not worse behavior including the alleged “religious” right. It simply is appalling.
Bigotry, Intolerance, Hatred – neither side should have a hat in this ring, so why do they?
Kathie, yea, I think you’ve got your feet on the ground. As proof, Ken didn’t like what you had to say. What better endorsement can you have?
Heck, they might even try to keep him there after he dies.
Crosspatch, at the very least he could still vote (after he dies, that is). It is, after all, a Democrat tradition, heh, heh.
BTW, I like your idea of a Common Sense Party. What do you have left after you carve off the 20% or so on the far Left and the 20% or so on the far Right? A veto-proof majority. Where do I sign up?
Okay. Pelosi’s moves look like she’s a real kook is in charge of the HOUSE, right now. And, if murtha becomes her majority chair; whose to say he works to “unite” anthing, ahead? Doesn’t it handicap the donks? LOSING POPULAR SUPPORT isn’t exactly the same as being on a happy honeymoon, is it? 8 days after election day. Show me the honeymoon?
No one expected these manuevers. When they went to vote last Tuesday.
Sometimes, when management does things (like overpaying Katie Couric), in time you see these gambles were DUMB.
So far? Pelosi’s lineup looks DUMB. Look at her victims: Hoyer. Jane Harmon. And, in their place? Alcee Hastings. Conyers.
While the President, seeing two years left to his term. And, nothing much anyone can do about it. Resurected the Baker “team.” Including Gates. Having seen Bush the elder whalloped out of office after his first term; now why would junior now do this?
If people wanted the “old team” they wouldn’t have voted in Clinton. And, they wouldn’t have given Ross Perot 19% of the vote, either.
You mean real politicians don’t care about popular support? “We’re at war” calls out Murtha. So why give a crap about ethics.”
Hey. Let Murtha win. See if I care?
AJ,
Aren’t you being a centerist to the extreme, while accusing others who do not agree with **ALL** of your opinions of being extremeist?
Do you really think this is helpful dialogue? How do you see this position of yours playing out?
You refuse to bend and yet you want to criticize others for not bending. You can’t do that and maintain credibility, AJ.
If you want others to bend, you have to bend some too.
Apache IP
Wow.
Speaking of extremists, if you want a faceful of what AJ is talking about from the right side of the aisle, head on over to Flopping Aces and read the rant about Mel Martinez. First sentence: “Apparently that is what George Bush thinks as he tries to shove “F$#% the Border, let em all in†Mel Martinez as RNC Chair instead of the very popular black Conservative Michael Steele.” This missive then quotes lots of bloggers screaming about what a horrible choice Mel is, and at least one person quoted says that no one other than Michael Steele is acceptable (and yes I like Michael Steele too), and another claims she will never vote GOP again because of this. Apparently this is gearing up to be Harriet Miers times three.
And here I am not even understanding WHY I need to be so upset about Mel Martinez. What, are Democrats going to take over Congress if Mel is the RNC head? Are we going to end up pulling out of Iraq? What’s the problem?
If **I** decide not to vote GOP, it may well be because it’s driven by people who decide every six months that Bush is ass-reaming the base again.
Apache,
I do bend – constantly. While I think the border Fence is not the best investment, I was more than happy to include it in the package. While I was not for Harriet Myers, I was simply for her having a chance to be heard in hearings. I am actually quite easy going.
So – no, I am not being an extremist. By definition if there is a good idea out there I could care less what party it comes from. That is what makes me an independent.
AJ Please read the Sun- sentinel page 7a in todays paper 11/16/06. It looks like your posts on stem cell reaserch was right on!!!!!!!
As a Republican I am as committed to lower taxes and immigration controls as all my far-right friends. The difference between us is that I am willing to get there without tearing up the country. Those issues do NOT trump fighting this war. All this cut-and-run from W, leaving him hanging out to dry, is going to damage us. By taking out W all it will do is give the left/MSM/Jihadis more reason to bash and burn America. How any of my fellow Reps can believe that removing the CIC will be good for our fight against terrorism is beyond me. The Dem leadership is making a run for the end-zone and we are arguing with each other as to who is covering who. Makes me sick.
No one expected these manuevers. When they went to vote last Tuesday.
They didn’t, Carol? Hell, I did. It’s who these people are. As the late Ann Richards would say, “they just can’t hep themselves”. I thought I wasn’t going to have to stock up on popcorn until January. Guess I was wrong.
For Enforcement, I’m not sure how to get it to you, but I’ve got a really funny exchange with my Retired Intel buddy in California about the Chinese sub that you would get a chuckle out of. Why don’t you e-mail me at PSWFZ BUFBS UIMJO LEPUO FUZZZ
ama055131,
I cannot find what you are looking for? I did see an ad for implanting fetal stem cells into patients as if that magically work without any concern. Since when did injecting dead baby parts cure anything?
ama055131,
Never mind – I found it! Thanks.
AJ it was the 2nd artical on the same page which was released by the ap of all news org.
http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=OWVmMjM3NjYzODVjZDE5ZDI4NDBlMjNhYmI2MTA4OWY=
Excerpts:
Last week, our friends acquired a new myth. The 2006 elections were, on their telling, a decisive rejection of immigration control.
The myth is being spread by veteran pro-immigration conservatives such as Fred Barnes, Michael Barone, Linda Chavez, and the Wall Street Journal editorial page, along with Tamar Jacoby and Arlen Specter. The White House, an easy sell for this kind of thing, appears to have bought it, judging from clues in the news coverage of the appointment of Sen. Mel Martinez as general chairman of the Republican National Committee.
Arizona voters also approved, by wide margins, three ballot measures cracking down on illegal immigration, plus one declaring English the state’s official language. The Journal noted only the last of these, writing that it “suggests to us that what Americans want isn’t so much restricted immigration as it is a culture of assimilation.†We continue to find the Journal’s breezy confidence that continuous mass immigration, much of it from a single source, can coexist with a “culture of assimilation.†But the state’s voters were clearly also saying that they want tougher policies against illegal immigration.
A final piece of mythology concerns the Hispanic vote. Exit polling found that 30 percent of Hispanics voted for Republican House candidates, down from 38 percent in the 2002 midterms. To see the significance of this drop, it has to be put in context. The percentage of white voters who picked Republicans fell from 58 to 51 percent over the same period. Hispanics just followed the national trend.
Senator Martinez was a lead sponsor of the amnesty bill that the Senate approved earlier this year, without the votes of most Republicans. His immigration views appear to be part of the rationale for his selection. A Center for Immigration Studies analysis of the bill, extrapolating from the experience of the 1986 amnesty, conservatively estimated that more than 14 million people would gain legal status and move toward citizenship because of the measure’s various amnesty provisions —— and this estimate didn’t even take into account the bill’s huge increases in future legal immigration.
So the White House’s answer to last week’s losses appears to be to pass a bill that most Republicans dislike, in the service of a policy that will import more Democratic voters to the country. Get ready for a long spell in the minority.
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?print=yes&id=18081
Excerpts:
“Martinez is going to lead the fight for amnesty that Bush could not win when Republicans controlled the Congress,” one angry RNC member told The Washington Times’ Ralph Hallow.
According to NumbersUSA, while Republicans lost 11.5 percent of their House seats, or one in nine, the Immigration Caucus of Tom Tancredo, the House hawks, lost 6.7 percent of its complement, only one in 16. Among Republicans given an “F” by immigration hawks, however, fully 25 percent lost their re-election bids, a bloodbath among the open-borders-and-amnesty-now crowd.
More significant, Arizonans voted in landslides on Nov. 7 to deny bail to illegal aliens, to bar them from receiving any punitive damages in lawsuits and make English the state language. Among Latinos, 48 percent voted to make English the official language, just as, two years ago, 47 percent voted to cut off all welfare to anyone who could not prove he or she was in the country legally.
Latinos are patriots, too. They don’t like their country’s laws trampled on with impunity or their tax dollars going to support scofflaws, no matter their nationality.
The relevant truth: The GOP vote fell 7 or 8 percent among all voters. But the seven-point plunge among white voters is more ominous than the eight-point drop among Hispanics. Why?
Because the white vote in America, 80 percent of the electorate, is 13 times as large as the Hispanic vote, which accounts for only 6 percent of all voters. It is the defection of its white vote that is killing the GOP.
The Reagan Democrats are going home.
SteveWS,
Yep, us white folks are sick of how the hard right deals with those 6 percent…..
Or did that never occur to the geniuses over at NRO? This is what we call \’rationalization\’. People in denial spin a theory around some highlighted facts (ignoring all the other evidence) and conclude it cannot possibly be what they are seeing. But as I just pointed out, all those little facts can be woven into completely consistent story to everything we are seeing.
The \”fence only\” folks are out of power for two years. And immigration reform will pass – because Bush knows it is in this nation\’s best interest. That is what happens when a minority view is rejected.
BTW, you do know that mandating English was in the comprehensive Bill. As was cracking down on immigrant crime and those who did not want to participate in the guest worker program. And there were penalties for employers who did not abide employment and tax laws. All those things were in the comprehensive Bill. So is NRO just not informed???