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This week's column by Peggy Noonan, with whom I agree on almost everything, succinctly makes the argument for Conservative revolt against Conservative candidates:
Congressional Republicans right now seem just like the liberal Republicans of the great Losing Era of Republican history, circa 1960-80. All the Republican congressmen in those days had good beliefs, and shared them at the Rotary luncheon back home. The government was getting too big and taxes were too high. Then they'd go back to Washington and vote for higher spending and higher taxes. But not as high as the Democrats, they'd point out. Their job was to stand athwart history and cry, "Please slow down just a little bit!"
Republicans on the ground back home got mad. Eventually they threw the old guys out and sent to Washington in 1980 a guy who meant it when he said he'd cut and contain.
...One gets the impression party leaders, deep in their hearts, believe the base is . . . base. Unsophisticated. Primitive. Obsessed with its little issues. They're trying to educate the base. But if history is a guide, the base is about to teach them a lesson instead.
There's a lot of discussion of this viewpoint among Conservatives. What explains this? Why are the Conservatives so ready to let their own candidates be defeated?
I think these are some of the reasons:
Do these reasons justify Conservatives in letting our own candidates lose our support?
John Podhoretz was on Hugh Hewitt yesterday, and made a powerful argument that this is "a hinge moment in history," and that letting Dems control the government would be devastating. Here are few quotes.
John Podhoretz: ...right now, what I'm seeing and what I'm hearing and what I'm witnessing is a Republican Party and a conservative movement that, as you are trying very hard in your own book to make clear to them, that is fracturing, that is falling into a temptation to purify, to attack itself, to heal and cleanse itself by potentially desiring loss in November, 2006, and pursuing loss in 2008 in pursuit of an ideological purity, that will leave this country in the hands of a party that will gut the Patriot Act, that will turn the foreign policy of the United States back over to the U.N., what will not pursue an aggressive war on terror outside our borders, that will not pursue sophisticated signal intelligence means of stopping terrorists within our borders, that will raise taxes by rescinding the Bush tax cuts, that will appoint liberal judges like Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer to the Supreme Court, that will appoint liberal judges at every appellate circuit, and every circuit level in the country, that will reregulate the economy, that will turn over agencies of the federal government into the hands of regulators, tort lawyers, and reformers who want to control American business, and control the economy who will pursue environmental measures that will harm our economy, and that will sort of put us on the track to the Kyoto Protocol. This is a very serious moment in time. A lot of Republicans and a lot of conservatives are saying things like I don't know what difference there is between the two parties. I mean, Republicans came to Washington, and they haven't eliminated agencies, and they haven't cut spending. And I agree with them. I'm disappointed with a lot of that work. But the truth is that there are huge differences between the parties, this is a hinge moment in history, our national security depends on it, our prosperity depends on it. And if we don't understand that they're ready to win, and we are ready to lose, and we need to change things up in order to win, we're going to reap the whirlwind.
He's right. Here's a list of the things he itemized in an easy-to-scan bullet list. Podhoretz states that if it controls the govenment, the Democrat party:
That is exactly what the Democrats say they will do, have historically done, and are sure to do if they get control of the government.
Podhoretz also speaks up for the astonishing achievements of GWB in powering the U.S. economy:
John Podhoretz: ...I think if you just take one very simple element, that people are for some reason forgetting about on the right, George Bush pushed through $1.5 trillion dollars in tax cuts. The main agenda item of the Democratic Party is to rescind those tax cuts. Now, George W. Bush came in, those tax cuts, the second transfer that went into effect in May, 2003, the economy surged to recover in June, 2003. We have had a roaring and astonishing economic recovery that shows no signs of abating, despite a huge inflationary spiral threat from gas prices that has yet not materialized. And of course, the incredible disruption of Hurricane Katrina. And yet, we hear from our Republican and conservative brethren that they don't like Bush, they don't like what he's done on immigration, they don't like how there's too much spending in Washington, and maybe we should lose just because that'll teach them.
I agree with Peggy Noonan on almost everything, but in this case, I think we Conservatives have to give ourselves a week off to rest up, and then get back in the game.
Update, 5-13-06: Welcome, Instapundit readers, and thanks, Glenn, for the link.
Update, 5-15-06: Don't miss the follow-up post, How to Show GOP We Mean Business on Borders, Budget Without Turning Gov't Over to Dems.
#1
#2Great comment, lastango. I hear you. The question is, how can we finish it without turning the government over to the Democrats for 4-8 years, which would have still more dire results, as argued by Podhoretz?
#3For myself, I won't stay away, I'll vote.
But to send a msg, I only donate to selected candidates. All the letters from GOP committees and RINOs get a response--
1) Win the war
2) Secure our borders
3) Cut spending
4) Confirm the judges
5) Then get to me about a donation
It's perhaps a small step but it's one that any of us can do.
#4I agree that Bush's biggest problem is his inadequate media capability, but then the hate level in today's media is not something Reagan had to deal with.
I think he deserves better from conservatives. Yes, he let the budget go, but he held the line on tax reduction. It's the Republicans in Congress who deserve blame. Bush is busy running a war and the executive branch. Why should he have to babysit Congress as well.
Bush's position on illegal immigration pretty much goes with the flow, but so does Congress. They all need to understand that if you can't control your borders, you don't have the right to claim sovereignty over your own territory.
I could go on, but suffice it to say that conservatives need to keep the Democrats, especially in their current idiotarian incarnation, away from real power. In the meantime, we should be letting them know what we think of pork, earmarks and walking close to the edge on ethics and lobbyists. Republicans get more small donations than Democrats. They should know that those will dry up if they keep taking free golf vacations from lobbyists and passing bills to benefit big donors, or bribers.
I just wish we had a vote on who controls the power of the press, but until then, I read blogs.
#5Jim, and ast, that's a great strategy. I think I'll post an article recommending it.
I am completely disgusted with people like Peggy Noonan. I remember Ronald Reagan and there is no way he would tell Republicans to stay home and let Democrats win. And he was not exactly a spend thrift either.
It is also true that Reagan not only did not support building a wall along the border, he gave amnesty to millions of illegals, raised Social Security taxes, and nominated the first woman to the Supreme Court, Sandra Day OConner. The truth is those same conservatives who made a Saint of Reagan would be screaming like banshees if Bush had a record like that.
I am not attacking Reagan I am simply pointing out that conservatives are acting stupid.
And I thought the treatment that both Bush and Miers recieved was terrible. It was nothing to brag about. Like the whole thing with Dubai Ports it showed a rather nasty turn of temper and a shallow disregard for fairness.
#8Ronald, what is the point you are making?
#10Jim, your strategy is echoed in today's column by Jim Geraghty. (I just posted about this.) Very cool. Are there any references you use to determine which candidates support our views on immigration, budget, etc.?
#11There is an untold story behind the illegal immigration story. People of good will and good intentions ferment a race to the bottom for all workers if they ignore this story.
The first question to ask is why is there a mass migration of workers to the United States? They came to seek jobs. Then what happened to the free trade that was supposed to provide the jobs in Mexico.?
The massive migration of workers demonstrates that free trade is one of largest failures in history. The U.S. Government sponsored and funded the moving of factories starting in 1956. It was supposed to be a temporary program to help the Mexican economy while providing cheaper goods for the U.S. consumer. The program became known as the Maquiladora program. The program never ended and evolved into so called free trade. By 1992, more than 2,000 factories were moved to Mexico. After the NAFTA trade agreement was passed in 1993, the number quickly doubled to more than 4,000 factories. After getting NAFTA passed, President Clinton had to rush billions of dollars to Mexico to save the peso. Thus there is a long history of free trade failures.
In the end, an impoverished, destitute working class was created in Mexico, and a working poor class replaced a vast middle class of workers in the United States. NAFTA proved to be a Trojan horse. President Bush says they come here to take the jobs Americans do not want. However, Mexico reports a low unemployment rate and so it is apparent that Mexicans do not take the jobs available in Mexico because of the very low wages. Now, however, many of the Mexican factories are moving to China for the sake of even cheaper labor while at the same time China contract workers in places like Jordan who work up to 12 hours a day for pennies an hour.
Illegal immigration speeds up the process in the race to the bottom and workers' dignity is crushed in both countries and in other parts of the world. Still the globalist free-traders call for more of the same.
Franklin Roosevelt said economic diseases are highly communicable. Today, they are an epidemic in more ways than none. Why do people of good will co-operate in the spreading these economic diseases?
But, this is not the end to the untold story. While politicians and other leaders debate about the controlling the borders, we have something else happening even more dangerous. The Chinese Liberation Army is rolling across the USA. How? COSCO, the large Chinese shipping company is owned in part by the Chinese Liberation Army. At a railroad crossing, you can see the COSCO logo flashing by on the large shipping containers on flat cars. Inside are the cheap imports. However, COSCO also ships military weapons and missiles across the globe including to places like Cuba. So why worry about the borders when this is happening across our land.
After all is said and done, the United States can not survive if only 20% of all control the flow of wealth. They have known this for hundreds of years in South America. The bottom line is this. You can not do business with people who do not have any money and grow and economy. An economy must be based on local value added levels from raw product up through about 5 to 7 levels to the retail level and then back down to the lowest levels in a reciprocal fashion.
View the Cross of 9/11 Tangle of Terror thought provoking artwork by Ray Tapajna asking who will now untangle the terror Globalization and free trade have bred. With economies being chopped up into pieces and moved around the world, countries acting as brokers find a need to protect their interests in a new kind of colonialism. This leads to terrorism and wars. ( See Tapart News and Art that Talks at http://tapsearch.com/tapartnews/ http://tapsearch.com/globalization/id5.html http://www.experiencedesignernetwork.com/archives/000636.html "communication by rank"
All people of good will should ponder all this and ask their leaders why they let this happened. Letting the migration of workers to continue will just foster all of the above.
#12Editor and Artist Ray Tapajna of Tapart News and Art that News now has some related articles at http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Ray_Tapajna
Conservatives must become Populists too or else they lose a great deal of perspective about our current economic problems. For example the average hourly wage is given at about $20 an hour but that is only on paper. The actual number of workers making that much in comparison with the whole is virtually nil.
We need to conclude that Globalization and Free Trade are failures and did not evolve in any natural economic way. They were driven by elite forces not in tune with how the work day balances out. The main issue of our times is real jobs for real people. The free enterprise system has failed its mission to make it easier for people to be good. In our city, an apparently good man who is a Conservative blames single mothers who can make only a few dollars a month for the crimes of their children. This is partitioning the real causes and effects.
Raw Capitalism has taken over and there is nothing left to replace it. It has devoured human dignity in the work day.
Conservatives must start connecting the dots or else radical liberalism will take over.
After World War 2, it was the shop foremen who took the young off the streets and taught them a skill. In turn the young were able to get married, buy a home and have children. They also had enough left over to help send their children to college. Why did we let this fade away?
Vik, you write:
·…This is probably the most important of all -- Conservatives feel GWB has dropped contact with them.
·As Noonan argues, Conservatives have been out of touch with the Conservative base on important key issues of immigration and budget.
Let me offer a thought: “dropped contact” and “been out of touch” do not capture what conservatives think the president and congressional leaders have been up to.
For clarity, I'll stick to just one example: the Miers nomination. Conservatives rightly recognize the pivotal role the Supreme Court plays in the nation’s direction, and worked decades to achieve a majority of constitutionalist judges that could put a stop to legislating from the bench.
The president and GOP leadership tried to swindle us by putting a justice on the court who would not interfere with their plan for big-tent Republicanism. (Judges with a constitutional compass would never accept the White House position on racial preferences in Michigan. Without the ability to pander, big-tent Republicanism can not move forward.)
Sam Alito sits today on the Court only because we conservatives smashed the Miers nomination with a firestorm of rage. We know that, and you know that. We have not forgotten what we were forced to do, nor have we forgotten the patronizing attitude, condescension and sneering insults about sexism from the GOP’s leadership.
There’s a war on for the soul of the Republican Party. The RINO’s started it, and we’ll finish it.