I Am Awesome
Written by Andrew on November 9th, 2006
I’m absolutely the last person to toot my own horn…but check out this post from a year and a half ago. Wow. I might have been a little bit pessimistic, and I predicted similar losses in 2002 and 2004, but whatever. I’ve been similarly down on things for the past month, but I didn’t want to be accused of being unpatriotic by talking down the president or anything like that, or heaven forbid that our activism hurt some RINO’s chances for reelection and we hear holy hell from the Republican Wizard’s out there. Well, now the election is over and that BS can stop.
First of all, I literally don’t care that the Republicans lost power last night. Sure, when I look at it at an individual level, candidate by candidate, it’s a bit different. For all of their faults Senators Dewine and Santorum were pro-life warriors, and at heart decent men. It’s possible that Sherrod Brown will be beatable in 2012, but I believe Bob Casey Jr. will be in the Senate for thirty years. Jim Talent sold out needlessly on embryonic stem cells, which ironically cost him the election and ensured the legalization of government-funded harvesting of cloned embryos. Conrad Burns and George Allen were fools, either corrupt or inept, and honestly deserved to lose. I hope that this puts an end to Allen’s presidential ambitions, but some things know no bounds. I imagine that someone will whisper in his ear that all is well, and the establishment will still try and run him in 2008. Lincoln Chafee is at least an affable man, a truly amiable dunce. As far as I’m concerned, the one Senator coming up in 2008 that needs a stiff primary challenge is none other than Liddy Dole for wasting so much money to keep him in the club.
We learned a lot about the Republican leadership from this election. The deafening sound of silence on judicial nominations was the most notable, I personally would have bought hours of air-time, looping Nancy Pelosi’s “Almost as if God has spoken” comment on the Kelo decision over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again and again and again and again. Do you think a single home-owner, a single small business owner, even a small business attorney would vote for a Democrat once they heard that? You want to tell me that Democrat plans to steal citizens’ homes to build strip malls doesn’t poll well? Ahh, but the GOP is bought by the same people, and they want the same sweet deals for their contributers and themselves, so we had better play nice.
Getting Mike Pence elected Minority Leader is now the number one mission of conservative activists in America. If he loses his bid, and make no mistake that President Bush and his cronies in the House will stop at nothing to prevent it, then our mission becomes to get him the Republican nomination for President in 2008. The stakes are too high to go with any of this two-bit tribe of go-along to get-along governors and senators that have come forward. Winning with almost any of them is no better than losing. They can blame conservatives all they want for costing the Republicans this election, but the truth is that their actions have nearly cost us our future.
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Amen, amen, amen. I hope there is much wailing and gnashing of teeth in DC tonight as they realize the disaster they have created. Bush of course (and a great many other members of the GOP) are thrilled that immigration, the minimum wage and other items are now on the agenda.
I think Bush tilts so far left it makes even biggest party tools blanche, even if only a little.
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Bush didn’t say he wanted to raise the minimum wage. As President of the United States, he isn’t going to pick fights over non-issues. Who cares if the minimum wage goes up to 7.15? 7.55? President Bush has a war to fight for heaven’s sakes!
I say, let Mike Pence run for President! If his agenda is exactly what he gave us in that letter, he loses the general election in a Bob Dole-landslide. You need someone who has an aggessive agenda to be elected President of the United States. Americans like action. Americans like ideas.
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“Who cares if the minimum wage goes up to 7.15? 7.55?”
Certainly not you, Bush or Pelosi.
“President Bush has a war to fight for heaven’s sakes!”
Yes vetoing a bill is sooooo taxing we might be distracted from not getting OBL in Waziristan or our non-engagement of the enemy in Iraq or we could be too tired to ignore North Korea any longer . . .
“Americans like action. Americans like ideas.”
Mike Pence has both, what is your point. Action and ideas are not enough to get elected president and this is why the GOP got slaughtered this last cycle. They had action, they had ideas. The action was in the wrong direction and the ideas were crap.
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You guys just keep up with more ways to divide this party. You “primed” up Lincoln Chafee and cost us that seat. Next you “primed” Tom Stevenson in the Pennsylvania House and cost us that seat. Pat Toomey strikes again, indeed.
You “primed” up Kolbe’s successor and got Randy Graf on the ballot. We lost in the biggest blowout on the West Coast. In a border state, no less!
Now, you want to “prime” up Liddy Dole?
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Yes. Clearly you would have supported Ford against Raegan. Liddy Dole is a damn liberal, I want her out so we can reduce the size of the government. NC is a conservative state, why is it so hard to understand that a conservative should actually be representing it?
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What have you done? Do you realize we just lost the Judiciary committee in the Senate so that PAT TOOMEY could be a force in American politics?
Do you realize that this could cost us Roe v. Wade? So that Pat Toomey could wreak havoc against Chafee?
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What have I done? I voted, against the RINOS against the Democrats. I gave $$ to four different Republicans.
Cost us Roe v. Wade? Joe abortion has been legal in this country for a long time, restricting abortion is a lifelong goal, but it is not a goal that should be placed before LIMITED GOVERNMENT. Screw Chafee, he was as liberal as any Dem and would have flipped if the Senate were close.
People like you are ruining the Republican party. Look what just happened? Do you think conservatives had anything to do with the bloodbath that just took place?
It was Bush, Delay, Abramoff, Hastert, the liberal RINOS in the Senate and the like that brought this on us.
I will fight very hard to drive Bush and his ilk out of the party they have twisted the GOP into a vehicle to support the very things it was meant to stand against.
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Joe, retract the Tom Stevenson comment immediately, it proves that you know nothing.
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Joe, your endless rants that drive further and further away from any semblance of sane thought are an excellent example of the thought process of party hacks, and furthermore comments like yours which place blame on everyone but yourself for an election loss show no responsibility and no willingness to think beyond RNC press releases.
You can blame conservatives all you want for unseating liberal Republicans in primaries, but the true tragedy is oftentimes (as we have just seen with Mark, Randy Graf, etc.) once true conservatives back a conservative and get him to win the primary, the party refuses to do anything to help the candidate since he beat their golden boy candidate. Tell me, Joe, if the primary voters in a district chose with their vote to run a more conservative candidate for an office, and the party tools chose to look the other way and offer no support whatsoever, who is doing the real harm? Is it the voters and people like SaveTheGOP and the Club for Growth who are ismply trying to run real Republicans, or is it the party itself for acting like a 2-year-old brat, crying, “If I don’t get what I want I’m taking my ball and going home” ???
Listent to what you are saying man. A Party that puts personal politics above principle, that won’t graciously affect defeat in a primary and work to elect their candidate (whoever it may be) in the general election, is nothing more than a manifestation of all the childishness we encounter in elementary school, all the immaturity we encounter in middle school, and all the senseless stupid drama we encounter in high school
I graduated from high school 2 years ago. You may have your high school diploma, Joe, but your sheer immaturity and unwillingness to open your eyes just a little bit shows that yo ustill haven’t left that place. You don’t have to agree with everything we say - but you incredible ignorance of what just happened this cycle, and defense of the national party, and rantings and ravings about a judicial decision that was made over 30 years ago, and on and on is giving me a headache. Grow up and try to at least open your eyes and have an intelligent discussion.
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Joe, Even if Roe is ever overturned, abortion will not be outlawed. It would only allow each individual state to make their own policy.
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“Joe abortion has been legal in this country for a long time, restricting abortion is a lifelong goal, but it is not a goal that should be placed before LIMITED GOVERNMENT.”
Mike, overturning Roe and restoring limited government go hand in hand. There is nothing more important for conservatives than to confirm judges who will faithfully interpret the law to Supreme Court, otherwise you will get a government that can arbitrarily seize your land for private use and cannot utilize a line item veto to cut budgets (not that Bush would have utilized that option much).
And Michael, abortions would decrease by hundreds of thousands per year if states were allowed to provide legal protection to the unborn. Being pro-life is about saving lives.
And Joe, Tom Stevenson would have lost in the general election, probably by a lot more than Mark did. Mike Veon, one of the Democrats who voted for the payraise lost to a Republican challenger by 8 points.
Also, if Chafee was willing to hold John Bolton hostage for political purposes, do you think there is any doubt that he would do this for the next supreme court nominee who would flip the court? Good riddance to him. I think that there’s a healthy mean between blind party allegiance and foolish unbending ideological purity, which does not take into account a candidates chance for success.
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And Joe, a higher living wage for some is a starving wage for others, as I’m sure you know.
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“And Michael, abortions would decrease by hundreds of thousands per year if states were allowed to provide legal protection to the unborn. Being pro-life is about saving lives”.
I hope your right, but I see very few states, save 3 or 4 Southern states, outlawing it altogether. Other states I would hope would restrict it further. My point above was that there is till more work to be done afte Roe is overturned.
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Look, I welcome a rabid fight for the platform at the Republican National Convention. I can tell you, if we become the anti-Medicare party, we have no future. The key word in senior citizen is “citizen,” and they have earned their seat at the table my friends. If we become the anti-immigrant party, we have no future and we deserve no future. Put up a wall, make em’ learn English by statute, have a big debate over Bush’s guest worker proposal.
But have an idea how to retake those two houses of Congress and hold the White House before you pick a fight with another conservative Republican senator who voted against you on some spending bill.
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“I can tell you, if we become the anti-Medicare party, we have no future. The key word in senior citizen is “citizen,” and they have earned their seat at the table my friends.”
So if you are a citizen it entitles you to medicare? That is a basic liberal talking point. It is unconstitutional! Medicare goes against the core bedrock ideals of this country and I won’t stop fighting it, ever. You lack a basic understanding of the principles upon which this country was founded. It is infuriating that the party is full of people who share your ideas.
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I agree with you that Medicare goes against the core bedrock ideals of this framers of the Constitution. However, it does not go against the core bedrock ideals of the voters.
So here’s what we need to do about it: conservatives must keep making the case that Medicare is not the government’s job. At the same time, either the Republican Party must work with Medicare or.. we probably can kiss the oval office goodbye until you and I are fifty eight years old.
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“I agree with you that Medicare goes against the core bedrock ideals of this framers of the Constitution. However, it does not go against the core bedrock ideals of the voters.”
Oh no you didn’t.
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“However, it does not go against the core bedrock ideals of the voters.”
Scenario 1: You are right and are suggesting that we sell out our principles for power. Sorry I am not going there.
Scenario 2: You are wrong and have no idea what most voters want.
Either way you are suggesting we slide to the left. Other conservatives and I are having none of it and will not let our party fall into the hands of those who think like you. We tried to warn you this last Tuesday, but you weren’t listening. Maybe when we purge our ranks of liberals you’ll get the message.
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I’m not saying we abandon our principles at all. What I’m saying is that the status quo does not reflect our principles. We must work with the cards we have, or we don’t govern.
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Like I said, you don’t “get it” and until you do you will face violent opposition to your ideas.
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Michael, rape and incest account for less than 1% of all abortions. Many states would ban abortion in all situations except for these, and most states will take some moderate steps like banning abortion in the third trimester.
Some will say, well it doesn’t matter much because people will just go to different states, and there’s ways around it. But Economist Dr. Michael New has shown that laws in indvidual states such as partial-birth abortion, parental consent, informed consent, and taking away tax money for abortions all reduce the number of abortions.
An analogy may be drawn to building a fence on the border. Yeah, maybe half of people will still get in the country, but half won’t.
Aside from the costs that laws place on an individual seeking to get around them, laws do have moral force. Laws change culture as culture changes law.
If this is an issue you’re concerned about or would simply like to have a better survey of the political climate, I highly recommend Ramesh Ponnuru’s recent book The Party of Death.