12 February 2008
Can’t We Just Get Along?
Posted by Joy Bischoff under: Presidential Election 2008; Rejecting Herd Mentality; What's News .
Guest Blog by Cameron Snow
I love David Limbaugh. This is fabulous and just how I feel. He gets it. Let us have our differences, lets be civilized about it and get along. I can’t help it, I have to post the whole article:
Rein in the Rhetoric, McCain
Tuesday, February 12, 2008 8:51 AM
By: David Limbaugh Article
Here we are — the non-McCainiacs — just minding our own business and contemplating such lofty ideals as party unity while the McCainiac cabal lobs yet more rhetorical cruise missiles our way.
Hold your fire, boys, we’re trying to meet you at the peace table.
If I were just slightly inclined toward the conspiratorial, I’d wonder whether this were an orchestrated assault by the McCain forces against the recalcitrant. Could more be going on than meets the eye?
Given the aggressiveness of McCain’s soldiers, I’m thinking they are not as interested in a rapprochement with Reagan conservatives as they are in taking over the party from them.
If they were seeking reunification, would they be making their attacks personal? Would they be suggesting that those not-yet-warm to John are afflicted with “McCain derangement syndrome?” Would they be salivating over their delusional fantasy that Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin and Laura Ingraham are losing their influence?
You’d think they’d think twice before hurling invectives toward the very base of the Republican Party, whose support in the general election is indispensable to McCain.
Not to worry, say the McCainiac lieutenants. “We’re not directing our fire at the base. We’re just criticizing its self-appointed spokesmen: Rush, Sean, Mark, Laura, and assorted winger pundits. Those fire-breathing loudmouths don’t represent the base, but only a ‘very conservative’ group, which is statistically insignificant.”
McCainiac elitists should be careful not to discount the depth and breadth of the angst out there against this ongoing abandonment of conservative principles under the Republican umbrella. It’s not just Rush, Sean, Mark, and Laura.
If they could see my e-mails alone, they’d be shocked. Just think of what the others are receiving. To be sure, I’m receiving plenty from people chiding me — after misreading my columns — for refusing to support McCain and thereby facilitating the election of Hillary or Obama and all that entails.
Let me say it again, more directly: I will support McCain if he’s the nominee. So please quit putting words in my mouth. I won’t, however, stop trying to make him accountable to the base and to pull him to the right.
But it doesn’t appear McCain’s henchmen will be satisfied with the mere support of the base. And they darn sure won’t cotton to our efforts to keep McCain from straying further to the left.
No, what we are witnessing is a resurrection of the historical GOP turf war between the Reagan conservatives and the disgruntled Rockefeller moderates. This neo-Rockefeller branch of the GOP sees this moment, McCain’s inevitable nomination, albeit by default, and the politically confused state of evangelicals under the tutelage of Mike Huckabee, as an opportunity finally to retake the GOP from the Reagan conservatives.
Think of it as “GOP rearrangement syndrome.” And their strong support of the war has given them a narrative around which to forge their new coalition — as if they have a monopoly on hawkishness.
They want to remake the party in their image. They are the neoconservatives, the national-greatness types who profess to believe in conservative ideals but have no problem achieving them through liberal ends; i.e., more government. They apparently believe that history has passed traditional conservatism by, that big government is here to stay, and not to be resisted, and that Reagan conservatives should make the best of it and try to direct government toward conservative causes.
Reagan conservatives (and libertarians) recognize that conservatism through liberal means is still liberalism. They strongly reject that they must abandon their fealty to fundamental constitutional restraints on government.
This is just a humble suggestion, but perhaps John McCain should be less exercised about the recalcitrance of traditional conservatives to his liberal meanderings. Instead, he should worry about the silent coup being orchestrated in his name, as if his default ascension gives him some kind of McMandate to restructure the party. He should stop and consider whether he is being used to usher in a paradigm shift in the conservative movement and the Republican Party.
It will never work anyway since the very sizeable base remains overwhelmingly conservative. Just look at Huckabee’s victories and Romney’s unsolicited win of the Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll.
McCain has a choice to make and so do neo-Rockefellers presuming to do his bidding. They can either engage in a scorched-earth strategy against the conservative base in furtherance of their power play, in which case, they’ll never get to first base (pun intended). Or they can work with the base, most of which, I dare say, will work with them, especially toward the common end of a secure America.
The McCainiacs, instead of lecturing the right, ought to practice what they preach. Can’t we all just get along?
http://www.newsmax.com/limbaugh/mccain_rhetoric/2008/02/12/72028.html
7 Comments so far...
Chuck C Says:
12 February 2008 at 4:21 pm.
Its interesting that republicans are generally against entitlements. But what is interesting is that McCain is acting as if he is entitled! He came up through the ranks as a foot soldier and he is now the general. Its like, “shut up, don’t think, just get in line and follow me grunts!”
I wish he was someone I could “Ooh-rah” for.
Pickles Says:
12 February 2008 at 4:37 pm.
Oops. Chuck you uncovered John’s dirty little secret. You weren’t supposed to tell. And I am entitled to make my own decisions and not get in line.
Great article.
Cameron Says:
12 February 2008 at 5:52 pm.
This article shows how much momentum Barak is getting. We just had an amazing discussion on New and Comments about this. I can see what Joy means about energy being created and used to empower what is being focused on. I thought I would put this here because the other thread is too long:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080212/ap_on_el_pr/campaign_dems_analysis
Analysis: Facing losses, Clinton recasts
WASHINGTON - Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has found a lot of ways to explain her string of losses to Sen. Barack Obama.
Caucus states, the former first lady says, are undemocratic and cater only to party activists. Southern states, like Louisiana, have “a very strong and very proud African-American electorate” naturally predisposed to favor a black candidate. And so-called “red” states like North Dakota, Idaho and Kansas — all of which Obama won on Super Tuesday — will never choose a Democrat in the general election anyway.
By this logic, only certain states really matter, such as New Hampshire and New Jersey, states that Clinton has won. Or Texas and Ohio, states she must capture to stay in the race.
The list of excuses is long, but the justifications are wearing thin as Obama was expected to win primaries in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia on Tuesday after a four-state sweep last weekend plus the Virgin Islands. All the contests Clinton has suggested don’t count are proving in size and scope that they do.
Jesse Says:
12 February 2008 at 6:06 pm.
I probably don’t need to tell anybody why I like this article. Can’t we just get along and still hold onto our own views? Even in our party? I am no grunt.
Ghost Says:
12 February 2008 at 7:31 pm.
Obama is winning by a landslide in every state. Huckabee is a little ahead of McCain in Virginia. Hope, McCain definitely lacks a mandate.
Jesse Says:
12 February 2008 at 9:13 pm.
And what a mandate there will be…towards socialism. Obama, McCain are the winners:
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain Tuesday won triple presidential primaries taking Virginia, Maryland and Washingto DC, US media said.
Obama’s win delivered a huge blow to rival Hillary Clinton’s White House hopes after he also won a slew of weekend primaries.
McCain swept the trio of presidential primaries beating rival Mike Huckabee despite a spirited fight by the ordained Baptist minister.
Jesse Says:
12 February 2008 at 9:17 pm.
Looks like the Hillary machine is working hard. If this happens, then Hillary gets a ton of delegates that Barak didn’t even try for because they were banned. Any court that upheld that kind of a ruling would be screaming, “I’m in Hillary’s back pocket.”
NAACP head wants barred delegates seated
WASHINGTON — A prominent civil rights leader has told the Democratic National Committee that refusing to seat delegates from Florida and Michigan would disenfranchise both states’ minority communities.
In a Feb. 8 letter to DNC Chairman Howard Dean, NAACP chairman Julian Bond expressed “great concern at the prospect that million of voters in Michigan and Florida could ultimately have their votes completely discounted.” Refusing to seat the states’ delegations could remind voters of the “sordid history of racially discriminatory primaries,” he said.
The DNC penalized Michigan and Florida for moving their primaries to earlier dates in violation of party rules. Both states were stripped of their delegates, and the party’s presidential candidates signed a pledge not to campaign in either state. Florida lost all 210 delegates, including its superdelegates; Michigan, 156.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080213/ap_on_el_pr/delegates_blacks
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.