2008: Liberals vs Centrists
The 2008 presidential race is shaping up to be a contest between liberals and centrists. In other terms, true liberals vs faux conservatives.
Only two GOP candidates can truly claim the conservative label and neither of them appear to have a snowball's chance in Ecuador of winning the nomination. The remainder of the group doesn't have a clue about why Republicans lost big in 2006 and what conservatism means.
In 1980 and 1984, Ronald Reagan annihilated the liberals. Total landslides. In 1988, George H. W. Bush rode the Reagan wave and won 40 states over Michael Dukakis. But H. W. veered left from the Reagan philosophy and was handed his head in 1992 by Bill Clinton.
In 1994, after just two years of Bill Clinton and a Democratic Congress, Americans had had enough. Republicans, under the leadership of the conservative Newt Gingrich, took control of both houses of Congress for the first time in approximately 40 years.
After Gingrich was booted conservative leadership failed. So did the GOP. Republicans began losing seats in both houses. When George W. Bush was elected with a Republican majority in both houses, it appeared that a new day was dawning and America could finally be righted. Wrong. Republicans were timid, weak, and lacked the chutzpah to get the job done. As a result, they were tossed out of office in 2006.
This is where the problem begins. Candidates like John McCain, Mike Huckabee, Rudy Giuliani, and Mitt Romney think that Americans voted the GOP out because they didn't work with the Democrats. Nothing could be farther from the truth. They apparently learned nothing from 1994 and 2006. They are all centrists, moderates, and RINOs, and sound more like libs than Republicans.
They can claim the conservative label if they want but the proof is in the pudding.
1 comment:
You forgot Fred Thompson:
Conservatives who look to Thompson for salvation need to pause and consider his record—a record that includes these votes:
♦ FOR restricting the rights of grassroots organizations to communicate with the public. See ACU’s vote 3, 1998.
♦ FOR allowing the IRS to require political and policy organizations to disclose their membership—a vote against the constitutional rights of free association and privacy. (The Clinton Administration used such IRS intimidation against conservative groups that opposed them.) See ACU’s vote 11, 2000.
♦ AGAINST impeachment proceedings against President Clinton, specifically the reappointment and reauthorization of managers (drawn from the Republican membership of the House Judiciary Committee) to conduct the impeachment trial in the Senate. See ACU’s vote 1, 1999.
♦ AGAINST an accelerated elimination of the “marriage penalty.” See ACU’s vote 10, 2001.
♦ FOR handouts to politicians, specifically taxpayer funding of presidential campaigns. See ACU’s vote 6, 1995.
♦ FOR handouts to politicians, specifically congressional perks such as postage and broadcast time funded by taxpayers. See ACU’s vote 13, 1996.
♦ AGAINST restraints on federal spending, specifically the Phil Gramm (R-TX) amendment to limit non-defense discretionary spending to the fiscal 1997 levels requested by President Clinton. See ACU’s vote 6, 1997.
♦ FOR affirmative action in federal contracts. See ACU’s vote 9, 1995.
♦ FOR the Legal Services Corporation, the perennial liberal boondoggle that provides political activism disguised as “legal services” to Democratic constituencies. See ACU’s vote 16, 1995, and vote 17, 1999.
♦ FOR an increase in the minimum wage, which, of course, increases unemployment among the young and poor. See ACU’s vote 16, 1996.
♦ FOR President Clinton’s nomination of Dr. David Satcher as U.S. Surgeon General. Among other things, Satcher opposed a full ban on partial-birth abortion. See ACU’s vote 1, 1998.
♦ FOR open-ended military commitments, specifically in regard to U.S. troops in Kosovo. See ACU’s vote 8, 2000.
♦ FOR corporate welfare, specifically the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). See ACU’s vote 23. 1999.
♦ AGAINST worker and shareholder rights, specifically the Hatch (R-UT) amendment to require unions and corporations to obtain permission from dues-paying members or shareholders before spending money on political activities. See ACU’s votes 4 and 5, 2001.
♦ AGAINST property rights and FOR unlimited presidential power, specifically by allowing President Clinton to implement the American Heritage Rivers Initiative, which he established by executive order, without congressional approval. See ACU’s vote 20, 1997.
♦ FOR restricting the First Amendment (free speech) rights of independent groups. See ACU’s vote 23, 1997.
♦ FOR the trial lawyers lobby, and specifically against a bill that would put common-sense limitations on the medical malpractice suits that increase health costs for all of us. (Of course! He’s been a trial lawyer himself for some three decades.) See ACU’s vote 18, 2002.
And, last but not least:
♦ FOR limitations on campaign freedom of speech, by limiting contributions to national political parties to $2,000 and limiting the rights of individuals and groups to participate in the political process in the two months before elections. See ACU’s vote 7, 2002.
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