And That’s Why….
John McCain was a terrible choice for Republicans in this election.Â
[...] McCain said, “I still am committed to comprehensive immigration reform.”
Had we had someone with true consrvative grit who actually believed in the founding conservative principles and could articulate them, as our candidate, the results from November 4th would have been much different.Â
What we needed was someone who was more interested in changing the minds of Americans and tapping into our unique Americanism. What we needed was someone like Reagan. I know we can’t dust off what Reagan did and find any old person to try it in the 21st Century, and that’s my point.Â
We ended up having McCain thrust upon us. The process by which he was selected still bothers me. I know you’re thinking, “The election is over Andy, let it go.”Â
Hooey!
If we don’t have an honest debate over what went wrong and work to prevent it next time, it will be the death blow of the Republican party. Look, if we are just going to try to steal enough issues from liberals and pretend we can do them with out raising taxes, but still increasing spending and entitlements, the voters are smart enough to pick the real deal.Â
Reagan is what we conservatives are clinging to because Reagan didn’t play the political game. He lead. He didn’t chase polls, he tried to move them. He had the ability to explain what made him tick (which happened to be the same as the conservative movement) and scores of Americans found out they held those same values close to their heart.Â
The economic times Barrack Obama is going to have to navigate will pose a tough fork in the road for Obama. Does he try to create a new socialist’s dream and make a New New Deal and punish the successful with oppressive taxes and regulation? Or does he try to fix the economy?Â
Meanwhile, what are Republicans going to do in gameplanning for 2012? Frankly if we let John McCain and the DC powerbrokers set our agenda with Amnesty, more deficit spending, more green Lunacracy, and the growth of government, we’re done for as a party.Â
This is what we need to consider as the framework for the reform of our party. We need to find a genuine Republican who doesn’t need to pretend they are a conservative. Frankly if you are a conservative you don’t need to have people run around saying you are. A conservative can spot a real conservative in a crowd of politicians.
I leave you with this, Ronald Reagan’s announcement speech from November of 1979.
Someone once said that the difference between an American and any other kind of person is that an American lives in anticipation of the future because he knows it will be a great place. Other people fear the future as just a repetition of past failures. There’s a lot of truth in that. If there is one thing we are sure of it is that history need not be relived; that nothing is impossible, and that man is capable of improving his circumstances beyond what we are told is fact.
There are those in our land today, however, who would have us believe that the United States, like other great civilizations of the past, has reached the zenith of its power; that we are weak and fearful, reduced to bickering with each other and no longer possessed of the will to cope with our problems.
Much of this talk has come from leaders who claim that our problems are too difficult to handle. We are supposed to meekly accept their failures as the most which humanly can be done. They tell us we must learn to live with less, and teach our children that their lives will be less full and prosperous than ours have been; that the America of the coming years will be a place where–because of our past excesses–it will be impossible to dream and make those dreams come true.
I don’t believe that. And, I don’t believe you do either. That is why I am seeking the presidency. I cannot and will not stand by and see this great country destroy itself. Our leaders attempt to blame their failures on circumstances beyond their control, on false estimates by unknown, unidentifiable experts who rewrite modern history in an attempt to convince us our high standard of living, the result of thrift and hard work, is somehow selfish extravagance which we must renounce as we join in sharing scarcity. I don’t agree that our nation must resign itself to inevitable decline, yielding its proud position to other hands. I am totally unwilling to see this country fail in its obligation to itself and to the other free peoples of the world.Â
Inspire Americans to make their world better, a shocking idea for many who covet Government more than they do the country it calls home. Too many in the Republican party have been coerced into believing Government is the answer.Â
In 2012 we will have an opportunity to see another Reagan-esque revolution. Obama and the near Super Majority Democrats in Congress will assault the very foundation of our society. It will look and feel a lot like Jimmy Carter’s reign. And guess what came after Carter.Â
The only problem is having the right kind of Republican there to capitalize. John McCain, his Maverick friends, and the new more moderate Republican Party strategists – are exactly the wrong kind of Republicans. McCain is a good man, he served his country well, but ….. Well, did you see what he and the professional pundit folks on the right did in the election? Nuff said.
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I’m still not exactly sure “what went wrong” in 2008, other then conservatives didn’t all get together and vote for their candidate of choice. Either there aren’t enough conservatives to win an election anymore, even a party nomination, or they fumbled the ball.
So, what can conservatives do? How about make sure to get behind a candidate instead of waffling until it’s too late. Voting in the primaries and participating in caucuses, even when it seems like a bother.
Conservatives have to get involved in the party during the ‘off-season’ too. You want the RNC chair to be a conservative? well, the people who vote for the RNC chair have to be conservatives. You want the state chair’s to be conservatives? The people who vote for the state chairs have to be conservative.
Think about it. You want it to be different in 2012? You seem to like to blame the wrong people for getting involved. Well, how about blaming the right people for not getting involved? Might that be the problem?
There you go again…..
Have a good turkey day.
OK, so McCain wasn’t your first choice. You probably voted for somebody else in the straw poll, and may even have sent them money or helped them campaign. Good for you. But your guy didn’t win the primaries and didn’t become the candidate. At that point, if you slacked off in terms of time and money and enthusiasm, as most of us did, shame on us.
It doesn’t matter what McCain’s stand on any individual issue is (and on immigration he’s actually right in his quote), he was in total better than the alternative and that requires your support, full bore. Having not provided that (or having Democrats best us in those many ways), NOW is the time to start making our candidates and party better and stronger, STARTING with our own ideas, efforts and enthusiasm and getting TOGETHER to do better next time.
BM, I think you’re right, but I’m starting to tire of the words “conservative” and “RINO.” Anybody willing to call themselves a Republican and wants to agree with a majority of us on a majority of the issues, is welcome in the Party, as far as I’m concerned. And those who are so quick to separate us into those two supposedly irreconcilable groups are working against their own best interest.
We have been heading down this path for quite some time so it shouldn’t have been much of a surprise. Some of us saw this after the 2004 election cycle at the local level and worked for change and got more involved in the process. At the State level, it took the 2006 thumping in order for them to wake up. The problem there was that the National party, which threw a lot of $$$ and the strings that go with them to our State party didn’t even think of waking up until now.
I’ve been seeing the same type of meetings at the National level today, that we had at the local level in 2004. It just took a few years to wake the sleeping giant.
We’ll start to see changes, both good and bad, starting Jan. 20, 2009. We’ll see good changes to the party as we “reevaluate” nationally, and bad changes as the Dems control the agenda.
True change will start then.
And that is the problem with the party and those who think the leadership is AOK.
So Andy,
You are saying that if a candidate does not meet your approval, the state party should pull resources?
So the state and national Republican party should ask all the volunteers to stop helping watch the recount because Norm is not a good Republican and needs to lose?
And if good conservative Republican will win no matter what because you will help them, please explain Michelle Bachman’s numbers? That’s your district – So where were all the strict conservatives and the Ron Paul worshipers. She should have won in a landslide but didn’t.
In fact if not for the evil state party, she might have lost.
You say the party leadership should not support candidates like McCain, yet you were head cheerleader for Joe “Veterans for McCain” Repya.
You call for local BPOU control, then demand that someone step in to defeat Olson because the local party made a bad choice. Then are upset when that replacement candidate loses and blame the state party.
Two other important points:
Like it or not, John McCain will have a seat during the immigration discussion.
Ron Paul, Mitt Romney will not.
The Dems have the Whitehouse, Congress and if we follow Andy’s advice and stay home will get 60+ in senate with Senator Al. So we can complain about how McCain isn’t good enough or hope he can make it less bad.
As for Regan, I will do something conservatives are not supposed to do.
Admit that Regan wasn’t perfect.
He allowed spending to get way out of control.
He passed pork barrel spending to buy votes of farm states with the stupid farm program of mid-80’s
He supported Amnesty program.
He did a lot of great things, but even Regan will fail the Andy conservative test.
And that’s the problem.
I agree would should find and support candidates who are conservative, but once our guy has won or lost, we need to support the guy who won the first race and beat the Dem.
The party is made of up of the people who vote.
If everyone agrees with you Andy, then why didn’t you win you CD election?
If everyone agrees with you, then why didn’t Joe win chair?
And if these folks are the great savior of elections, think about this:
If you can’t win every time with yourself as the candidate, what make you think you can tell someone else how to win their election.
Did I strike a nerve?
My point which none of you seems to understand is that we have been trying to RINO up the party in hopes of buying votes and chasing (so called) independent voters for a few cycles now. And look what it has gotten us. A lot less Republicans in office and a party so disgusted that voters sent a socialist to the White House.
I know, I know, you love to pretend that I am the enemy and full of shit, but well, who’d run this party into the ground? If you need a mirror, let me know.
No nerve, I am just pointing out the absurdity of this mantra that all we need to do is purge the party and all will be great.
Did Michelle Bachman RINO up? Is that why she lost votes and almost lost the seat?
Was Jan Schneider a RINO? Is that why Peterson’s seat went to then DFL?
Was Alison Krueger a RINO? Is that why the Senate seat went to the DFL?
Andy, your not the enemy. The enemy is accomplishing something.
Your more like a Viking fan. Always complaining that all we need to do is fire the coach and we will win.
Should the party move to the center to win votes – No.
But this obsession that if a candidate is not perfect, we must not help them is suicide.
Try and win in the endorsement and primary. But after that, act like an adult.
Like I said, based on your criteria, everyone should have stayed away from Regan’s reelection.
(Hmmm. Maybe that explains why Regan didn’t win MN, that was showing him – good work)
Um, when did I say purge?
This post, and since I know you didn’t really read it, is about how we can’t let a RINO lead the party. We need someone who is true blue (er red) conservative next time around. And our road back to the majority is paved not with squishy issues, but bedrock conservatism.
Oh and you may want to crawl out from that secret cave every now and then and head on up to the 6th. We picked up 51A and Bachmann won. I also think all the top candidates did fairly well up here. Why do I bring it up? Because that is a District that I just happen to be in and work in.
Not that I alone made it happen, but you can’t overlook that I was involved. Unless of course having a guy like me, one who believes in the principles that this party purportedly stands for, around now can you? Not if you are going to keep your job or name on that cocktail circuit list.
Hey one of my biggest wishes is to bring back the acceptability of the term: Liberal Republican. It is ok to be a liberal Republican in my mind. What I have a huge problem is people that run around saying they are conservative when they aren’t, and I have an even bigger problem with this party hanging the conservative phrase on any candidate with an (R) behind their name.
But then again, why are you saying the problem is conservatives like me who want to hold Republicans accountable and to the principles? Are you saying the party needs to NOT be conservative? In other words, more liberal?
Hey, have a good Thanksgiving. Eat up and get your rest, I ain’t going no where and I sure as hell ain’t going to stop trying to fix this party.
[...] BrothersJudd Blog wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptAnd That’s Why…. John McCain was a terrible choice for Republicans in this election. […] McCain said, “I still am committed to comprehensive immigration reform.” Had we had someone with true consrvative grit who actually believed in the founding conservative principles and could articulate them, as o… Read the full post from Residual Forces Tags: Politics, National, 2012, A.R.O.R.A., McPlenty, MNGOP Reform, Take Your Cob and Shove it, Lunacrats, It’s The Spending, 08 Post Facto, Redistributor In Chief via Blogdigger blog search for immigration. [...]
Andy,
Before I go to bed:
While I hate a lot of McCain’s policy decisions and am pissed at the financial services bailout and pork, etc., I really don’t see our recent failure(s) as a “moderate vs. RINO vs. conservative” thing.
John McCain himself was just a pathetic wanker of a candidate. The man just would not put up a fight- be it on the campaign trail, in the first two debates, or even making an attempt to explain the ACORN subprime loan fiasco. (Of course, Bush’s Treasury guy didn’t help much, either . . .)
And the reason we got him seems to me to have been:
1) Guiliani’s bizarre, half-serious campaign strategy
2) Our own anti-Mormon bigotry (against Romney)
3) Huckabee dividing the anti-McCain vote and otherwise drawing out the race in the vain hope of getting the running mate slot
As for the party as a whole, I think we just need to Abramoff & earmark-proof ourselves (though stopping this counter-productive purge of even the Lincoln Chafees would help, too).
OK, now I’m REALLY going to sleep. Z Z Z z z z z z z z z . . . . . .
Andy, you keep saying we need to have conservatives in the leadership of the party, and that we lose elections when we allow RINOs to lead our party– as party officials or candidates– and then:
a) Completely fail to define your terms. Is someone with a lifetime ACU (American Conservative Union) score of 84% a conservative or a RINO? That’s John McCain.
b) Completely fail to explain how we can attract 50% plus 1 of the voters to our candidate if we become more extremely conservative than we are? Which is better, a 65% conservative that wins the election, or a 95% conservative that goes back to work at the 7/11?
You are simply being too simplistic. There are as many voters who shy away from the “conservative” label as from the “liberal” label on a candidate, and perhaps rightly so. I don’t care what color your nametag is, are you competent to represent me and my interests?