Feb 06 2008
The RINO “Pseudo-Conservatives” Trounced The “True Conservatives”
I told you so. Yep, had to get that out of the way finally. Ever since the Gang of 14 and Harriet Miers I have warned the angry right that their purity wars against Bush and all who dared to disagree with them (which continued through issues like Dubai Ports and Immigration) was going to end on this day – they are out of power. They are not out of influence, but they could be soon. The core problem with how the hyper-right acted on all these issues is they did not debate issues, the demeaned people. el Presidente Jorge Bush and his gang of RINO traitors were the political enemy to these people and they were led by conservative talk radio.
The answer to their anger was to destroy the conservative governing alliance. They went around calling their one-time GOP allies Republicans In Name Only (RINOs). The screamed about the “open borders’ crowd when their issues was really “Shamnesty” – or what to do with the long term illegal immigrants who have woven themselves into our society and have been generally law abiding neighbors. Bush and McCain and Kyle – all great Americans – were traitors and quislings for daring to disagree with these ‘true conservatives’.
And so the civil war began between conservatives. The “Pseudo-Conservatives” or “Faux Conservatives” were going to be taught a lesson. First Tancredo, then Thompson and then Romney was going to show the country what a ‘true conservative’ is because that was the only way to win elections. It seems Senator McCain (a.k.a McSnide and McClame as the ‘snide’ Laura Ingrahm and ‘lame’ Mark Leving love to call him) has shown us something else.
McCain was my second to the last choice (recently only Ron Paul was lower on my list) because he is not conservative enough for my tastes. But I am not so blind I cannot see he is preferable to Hillary or Obama. I had my own pet name for McCain (Obacain) which noted his policy closeness to the left. But mine was not a hit on his honor or passion for America, it was solely to note the obvious – he was closer to dems on big issues than any other candidate. But he won on Tuesday and won big. Romney’s 3rd place showing in the South was devastating. In some states he was so far back he did not even get delegates (AL, GA, OK). McCain took all the winner-take-all states. As Ed Morrissey notes McCain has a commanding lead and Romney has no realistic way to catch up. The RINO beat the “True Conservative”.
Now the question is what will the “true conservatives” do? Sean Hannity and other talking heads expect to see McCain go to CPAC tomorrow and kiss their butts. Forget about it. You don’t kiss the butts of people who have lost all their political clout because the American people have decided to reject them. The ones who need to reach out are the ones who started the purity wars and demeaned and attacked their allies. The ones who need to rescue their political futures are the ones who have been taking a beating for two years now and won’t admit they are losing support. I am not worried about McCain reaching out as much as I want to see the political knives thrown away on the right. I have no interest in vesting my life’s energy and time into a wasteful purity war.
This is not the time to keep gouging at moderates and independents. It is not the time to enforce purity on those who are not interested in kowtowing to group-think. Now is the time to salvage Iraq, keep the Bush tax cuts, get more conservative judges seated, stop the killing of young humans for spare parts and do something reasonable on immigration. It is not about what has America done for you but what we can do for America while were are blessed to spend our short time on Earth here. The “true conservative” is dead. Either we are an alliance of imperfect conservatives all (with respect for each other) or liberals win. THAT is the Reagan revolution – alliance over civil wars. The test of leadership is on the GOP and I am not confident it can pick it up. To do so means starting with admitting mistakes and being humble and respectful. Can those who were going down the wrong path for years now change their ways? That is what I want to see at GOPAC – understanding reality.
Live blog of Super Tuesday here and the big winners and losers post here.
Coulter Watch: Has any one heard if Coulter is still planning to campaign for Clinton now that McCain is heading towards the GOP nomination? I understand some total malcontents on the right plan to sit out the election and let Hillary win by default, but I am wondering if Coulter’s derangement was so severe she will make good on her threat?
Romney lost the south because he was a Mormon — it was not because he was a conservative. If you think it was because he was a conservative it shows how little you understand about what is going on.
Klimyt,
That is pure BS denial. So you are saying the south is full of religious bigots? Are you TRYING to piss off every conservative group out there???
1) No illegal immigrant resident here should be granted amnesty.
They should go home and start over. If any amnesty is granted
it must be with the withholding of lifetime voting rights.
2) The Dubai Ports Deal was a Trojan Horse. It’s defeat has
spared the country yet another easy entry point for terrorist nukes.
3) I support and will vote for John McCain.
What’s the problem?
Get over it guys. Stop the “purist”/”RINO” war. As a moderate conservative I welcome both voices, and am offended by neither. In each separate battle the consesus usually wins out. I am against amnesty; did not see Dubai ports deal a problem (in fact, it gave us the opportunity to have spies in foreign ports while helping a moderate Muslim country become more moderate). Things are always multi-dimensional .
As a Republican, here’s what offends me:
Another Republican scandal ready to break out:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8349.html
I would suspect, there are any number of scenarios here…could be a Letterman top 10 countdown…reasons why Romney lost:
10. He’s a Mormon
9. Because of LIberal bias in the media
8. McCain is a Liberal
7. Because he’s got George Jetson hairdo (aka, the silky effect)
6. He’s a Mormon
5. Because people in the south are bigots
4. McCain is a Liberal
3. Huckabee “stole” his votes
2. Huckabee is a liberal
1. And the number one reason is…..because people didn’t vote for him.
What can I say? For the man who’s all about responsiblity. His campaign did a terrible job, introducing Mitt to the rest of the country and appealling to the kind of voters he needed to win. The entire ” I should be winning right now if it wasn’t for you/them” campaign….really wasn’t very appealling ..IMHO.
AJ, I have to admit that his embrace by the Ingraham/Levin/Malkin axis of venom hurt. I know one person who switched from Romney to McCain because a Romney supporter (talk show host Rick Roberts) decided to re-hash an old, discredited story against McCain.
But the religious bigotry waged against Romney on behalf of Mike Huckabee has been documented very well by Article6Blog.com, and Vanderbilt University seems to back up that blog’s anecdotal evidence with a study showing that 57% of evangelicals held anti-Mormon bias. It’s kind of insulting to be told I’m not seeing the bigotry I’m clearly seeing – be it anti-Mexican bigotry in the immigration debate (usually from the likes of Malkin, etc.), or the anti-Mormon bias aimed at Romney.
We’re going to need those “true” conservatives come election time not only to elect a President but also members of Congress.
AJ, I believe your efforts would be better utilized if focused on getting those true conservatives to the polls instead of antagonizing them, regardless of how ridiculous Ann Coulter sounds when she says she’ll campaign for Hillary.
“That is pure BS denial. So you are saying the south is full of religious bigots? Are you TRYING to piss off every conservative group out there??? “
Actually, that is the truth on the ground.
I work with several who fall into this category. They voted Huckabee because they couldn’t / wouldn’t pull the lever for the Mormon.
In fact, my spouse falls into the same category. We discussed the issue at length and in order to keep peace at home we simply agreed to disagree.
I voted for Romney.
My spouse did not.
Danking,
You are correct.
McCain will not win the Presidency without support from the base.
Ok…there is a bias against Mormans in the deep south. Evidently there is a bias against McCains religion there too. As well, I believe you’ll find there bias against Catholics, Muslims, and pretty much…any other religion and or denomination that is practiced by someone other than you.
I’m from the deep south. The Baptists think the Methodists are going to hell…just not quite as fast as the Catholics are.
btw: my parents are both VERY religious and VERY conservative and both of them voted for Romney. They aren’t trying to elect a president to lead their church. They are electing someone who will understand and represent their “values”.
Well, if you have any class maybe you don’t kiss their butts but you do try to make amends.
Dave, that is NEVER going to happen. It is a physical impossibility. You are never going to get 15 million to cross the border and MAYBE come back. And those 15 million are filling a role with jobs in our economy and we don’t have enough people to replace them … it isn’t a matter of doing jobs Americans won’t do, it is a matter of filling jobs that there aren’t enough Americans for! There aren’t 15 million unemployed to take their place.l
I do know some conservatives who think…that the mutually assured destruction nuke option is the best play they have right now. Which would be…to turn over the entire gov to the DNC ass clowns and let them run us off a cliff…as everybody shouts NO from their living rooms, rather than have another “Republican” that they can blame everything on. That would give them time to regroup, conceive a new contract for America and ready for the next elections.
And mark my words, there WILL be amnesty within 2 years and it will be more comprehensive than what the original Senate compromise bill had. That old Senate bill required people to hold a job and stay out of jail for 10 YEARS and learn English and pay fines before they could START on the road to citizenship. The Democrats are now going to give them a much easier path.
Watch and see, by 2010 there will be a massive amnesty that won’t require waiting 10 years or learning English.
I’m also curious to see if Coulter decides to start campaigning for Hillary.
(At the very least, that threat made me seriously wonder what the hell all the screaming about the Clintons was about, if our own candidate is so horrible that the Clintons are suddenly actually preferable. Aren’t these the same Clintons who went after private citizens who got in their way or who spoke out against them too loudly?)
Wow, Mr. AJ…
Your expression is so overt, rather juvenile.
As if you want to say ‘nanny nanny boo boo’.
As a firm supporter of GW BUSH, this was not all about super conservative convictions.
I am not a part of this conviction…
John McCain is unethical.
He smeared his opposition in Florida and at the Reagan Library.
Senator McCain, and old Keating 5 Member, has absolutely NO CEO experience.
He is a Washington Beltway Insider, who foolishly gave us Campaign Finance Reform, which limited freedom of speech.
John McCain got off a helicopter, riding in Alaska with Hillary Clinton, and said he could see the effects of global warming.
When asked about a question of economics, he references Senate Associates.
John McCain actually said Social Security was fixed in the 80s, thus he is the one to fix it in the future.
It is misguided, and part of the folly of the Senate Club of errors…
You mistakenly believed the only opposition to McCain was his mindless embrace of liberal policy.
You failed to realize John McCain is a lousy candidate for the JOB.
HE is the symbol of the Washington ‘FAILURE’ he references…
John McCain will lose in great fashion in the General Election.
Even the MSM is calling him ‘old’ now…
Sorry Mr. STRATA, you could not be more mistaken.
John McCain is a repeat of 1976 and 1996, with a more lackluster candidate.
It is no wonder the Liberal Democrat Partisans are thrilled.
Danking,
I am not a ‘true conservative’, so why would I want them at the polls??
I am open to a mutually beneficial and respected alliance. But I have no interest in purity wars. Maybe the ‘true conservatives’ should make amends so they can have a seat at the table again?
I gotta agree with what’s been said about the southern states results: the mormon thing killed Romney. Maybe if he had been more charismatic, he could have gotten around it. But most every evangelical I know and am related to said that they weren’t crazy about McCain, they weren’t sure about Huckabee but thought his heart was in the right place, and that they damn sure weren’t going to vote for a mormon. I guess in other parts of the country mormons aren’t disliked as much as they are here, but them’s the facts and there’s no point denying it.
I don’t think any of McCain’s votes came from people who cared about the Mormon issue – but I think the vast majority of Huckabee’s did. In fact, I have no doubt about that since I personally know several people who’ve asked me to support Huckabee for exactly that reason.
HNAV,
I have no idea where you are coming from. I do not support McCain or want McCain. The problem is the far right has so poisoned the well with moderates we now have McCain in answer to all their venom and anger.
I you look back you can see I have grave and serious doubts about McCain – but I was not the one who trashed Bush and McCain and the Gang of 14. Don’t look at me, I did not repulse the GOP and conservative moderates so much they went for McCain.
I am just noting the results – I do not like them.
AJ,
“I am not a “true conservative”, so why would I want them at the polls??”
And there is the arrogance of your own little “purity war.”
I’ve read some references to the 1976 GOP convention where it was a brokered convention and the net result is a damaged GOP party. Some bloggers predict that if the Democrats had to have a brokered convention, then that would be a disaster for them.
What happened in the 1976 GOP convention to have done some long term damages?
It’s funny how the liberals say that we have been so damaged in the last seven years. Man, are they really hoping for Utopia and all they can think of was that Bush repressed us, was a fascist, took away our civil liberties, went to war, and so on? Gee, if Bush ran as a Democrat, they would be standing by him all the way.
It’s so disgusting. What the Democrats are planning to do…universal health care, re-enactment of the Fairness Doctrine, tax hikes, increasing deficits / debts, unbalanced budgets, bring our troops home, be attacked again, imagine the damages they will inflict to our own country. The Republic Democracy will be replaced by communism / fascism / pragmatism / socialism / statist / populist / etc. and become so weak that we would not be able to defend ourselves.
Think we might see the rising of the individual to revolt to begin defending our own country – not our federal government if the Democrats get the WH and both houses.
It’s disgusting.