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The ironic thing that no one seems to see or believe is that at least on the Presidential level fundmentalists are cultivated and then left out in the cold once a Republican takes office. What part of the supposed agenda of the religious right has been adopted in the last thirty years?
Your analysis could not be more ridiculous. President Bush did absolutely everything Christian conservates wanted during his administration.
1) He closed down funding for abortions and abortion ed overseas 2) He refused to allow more lines for embryonic stem cell research. 3) He promised excellent conservative SCOTUS justices and delivered two excellent ones 4) He was outspoken against gay marriage 5) He proposed a federal ban on gay marriage
Leave it to leftwingers to get it wrong on nearly every count.
You are so completely and totally right that it seems impossible to me that more people don't realize this. Just take one issue of great importance to many Evangelicals and Catholics...Abortion. The neo cons have used the issue of Abortion for decades as a fund raiser and vote getter. And yet during all the years when they had the White House and Congress firmly in their grip.....and were able to rubber stamp virtually everything they proposed.. they NEVER proposed or passed a law against abortion. They fully well know that were abortion no longer an issue they would lose one of their big fund raisers. I think more and more Christians are waking up to the fact that we have been used.....and we don't like it.
Wow. Another ridiculous leftwing analysis. The issue of abortion has cost Democrats steady erosion of the Catholic vote they once owned. Since Roe, the exodus has begun. And please don't try to use last year's election as a rebuttal. The stars aligned to get this complete socialist moron elected. Two conservatives knocked each other out, and the GOP ended up running a liberal. Then the media gave the circus clown a total unscrutinized pass.
Unlike Democrats, Republicans don't take positions just to have an issue to run on. We want abortion to go the way of other barbaric practices like slavery. We don't take positions on the votes they will get us. That's what Democrats do. Hell, if fetuses could vote, Democrats would rush to the front of every pro-life march. The fact is, there was enough obstruction that an abortion ban wouldn't pass Congress. But we indeed made progress and have made progress. The Manchild's term will be a two-year setback, but no biggie. America is moving inexorably away from the savagery of abortion, away from the neanderthals, and toward enlightened educated sensible just compassionate treatment of the most defenseless among us.
Noonan's piece in the WSJ is another GOP voice saying 'hey, what's going on here with you schlums running the party.'
All the GOP voices, including hers, calling for a rebirth of the party don't seem to have gotten the message that seems to be emerging from the GOP. That message is that we are the party of the religious right, no one else is welcome, either adopt our rigid doctrines (religious and political) or go elsewhere. We are willing to wait it out for however many years it takes until we regain majority status, on our own rigid terms, take it or leave it.
That's the message I get from the recent "purging" of moderates from the party, and that purge includes all of those who chose not to stand for re-election in 2006 or 2008 and the upcoming election in 2010. The religious right has now kicked out everyone but themselves, they are circling the wagons and they will shun the two female senators from Maine, whether or not those two senators stay in the GOP or switch.
Get ready for a 2012 ticket of Gingrich and Palin.
It's interesting... they are shooting themselves on the knees but I have a feeling that 2010 won't be as bad for them as it should be... I think Americans are going to be weary of total domination by the Democrats... it all depends on the candidates on the ballot of course but in a close race, I think folks who may have gone for the Dem candidate will choose the Rep candidate.
We [republicans] don't take positions on the votes they will get us.
Obviously.
Keep the same positions and you'll get more of the same.
You'll end up just like the South after Appomattox - you'll be smug and insist that you were right, but it won't make a bit of difference in the outcome.
I think Obama is trying to syphon off some of the religious bloc for his party, and I think the past election proved that he did so. I think he's crafty by turning the faith-based initiative thing into a committee of about 25 or so different points of view. IMO, Obama and Rahm know quite well that ANY committee of 25 DIFFERENT views will get NOWHERE. I think he's banking on that committee becoming a tower of babel and foundering, at which time he can dissolve it and get the government's nose out of religion and vice versa. I'm hopeful that he takes the counsel of people of faith but that he makes no promises and pursues no agendas. I hope Obama can get the religion genie back in the bottle and Aladdin back in the lamp. Time will tell.
That's one thing I really don't worry about too much... he does make reference to religion but he always chooses, for lack of a better phrase, commercialized verses (e.g. house built on sand, when I was a child, I spoke like a child, etc.) and he's made the explicit argument that religious teaching can never be translated into public policy unless they speak to a non-religious, societal benefit. I think he's far from a Bush on the religion issue.
No one seems to understand that trying to be dem-lite has resulted in a lot of those moderate republicans being thrown out of office. The reason so many so-called conservatives lost in the 2006/2008 elections is because they did not adhere to fundamental conservative values and they paid the price.
So, calling for moderation and dem-lite populace agenda has not worked for the (R) - the evidence of that is crystal clear.
Perfect example - Sen Chafee, a northeastern left-of-center republican - look where it got him.
Incredible the lessons you learn. Chafee lost because of how radical the party was... not because of anything he did... he tried to vote against the party whenever he could and his left-of-center state still punished because the Republican party has so drifted to the right. Are you content with only winning solidly conservative states? Do you think a DeMint, Vitter or Graham has a chance in the NE? Are you serious? That's like the Dems blaming Bayh or Nelson for losing after they've veered completely to the left!
Reagain campaigned as a hard conservative as did George W. Bush. Dole and McCain had histories of being moderates. Both got their heads handed to them. The way you 'reach out' is by being forceful about your conservative principles. Centrists, if there really is such a thing, will follow your energy and convictions.
GWB, the compassionate conservative who wanted to stop the gridlock in Washington and used his success in reaching out to Dems as his credential, ran as a solid conservative? Ok.
GWB, the compassionate conservative who wanted to stop the gridlock in Washington and used his success in reaching out to Dems as his credential, ran as a solid conservative? Ok.
Bush said he would lower taxes, nominate strong conservatives to the bench, and protect America. All rock-hard conservative. He did all three.
Bush said he would lower taxes, nominate strong conservatives to the bench, and protect America. All rock-hard conservative. He did all three.
So he bankrupted America running the Iraq debacle on the cuff outside the budget, nominated his personal attorney to the SCOTUS, and protected America somewhat, except for at least one notable day, not counting, of course, the three years out of eight that he was on vacation.
So he bankrupted America running the Iraq debacle on the cuff outside the budget, nominated his personal attorney to the SCOTUS, and protected America somewhat, except for at least one notable day, not counting, of course, the three years out of eight that he was on vacation.
"Almost" is now "Good Enough", eh?
No wonder the GOP can't get arrested.
LOL. The entire Iraq war has been cheaper than any of the Manchild's bailouts.
The nomination of Miers was a decoy from the get-go. It was such brilliant strategy. I'd actually heard 'something interesting' was planned from an associate of Karl Rove whom I know personally. Here's what happened. Bush had promised to strong conservatives seated on the court in the mold of Antonin Scalia. Fast forward. He had just successfully gotten uber-conservative John Roberts seated. Now he faced a tough fight. The Democrats pledged to filibuster any conservative Bush nominee. So what does Bush do? He catches Kennedy, Biden, and all these other Democrat self-important bloviating idiots off guard by nominating Harriet Miers. The Democrats create such an uproar about her being unqualified, they go to all the news sources to complain, they make such a big hullabaloo. So Bush gets her to withdraw, as planned. THEN when he nominates SUPER uber-conservative Samuel Alito, the Democrats who promised 'Armaggedon', are forced to approve Alito with nary a whimper because they don't want to look like tantrum-throwing two-year-olds twice in a row. Endgame? Bush got the arch-conservative he'd promised. It was classic George W. Bush. Brilliant.
And funny what you say about vacations. You know, this isn't 1909 when a president had to be in one location only in order to do his job. He has what he needs anywhere he is. But the other thing is, Bush, ever the disciplined man, was on the bike or treadmill at 6am and in the office at 7:30 sharp. Contrast that with Clinton who, after chasing chubby interns all night, sauntered into the office at noon. And as we know, Clinton accomplished almost nothing in 8 years, except his impeachment trial and allowing Bin Laden to smuggle a veritable army within our borders, taking flying lessons, and planning 9-11. Bush has had the most ambitious agenda in history, and he accomplished a great deal of it.
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