Sharpe
03-23-2005, 09:28 AM
Brian Rucker said in the Terri Schiavo thread:
It's looking to me like the reign of the religious right will only be ended if the "enablers", meaning moderate, libertarian and process conservatives just threaten to walk away from the party. Anything short of that means they'll just continue to be tolerated as propagandistic meatshields, worth trotting out only to convince the public the GOP aren't all complete nuts, for the religious right's agenda.
This is something I've been thinking since last year: I continue to be frustrated that a lot of the level headed libertarian or moderate/conservative types in the Republican party don't seem to have noticed (or don't care, or at least don't care enough) that the group in power in Washington under the guise of the Republican party is actually a coalition of fringe elements from within the Republicans, not united by conservative principal but by a weird combination of power, religious belief and idealogical fanaticism.
Without the libertarians and mod-conservatives to give them intellectual cover and to add to their voting numbers, the extremist coalition driving the Bush administration would be a pack of weak fringe groups, not a powerful force ramming special laws down our throats.
I understand the Democrats are not the answer for most of the libertarians and mod/cons (due to the Demo's own problems with idiotic socialist or PC or pacifist fringe groups, as well as the Demo's lack of a coherent message, and weak choices in recent candidates). But just b/c the Demos are not an option doesn't mean you have to accept Bush/Rove/Santorum/Delay as the ONLY option.
Change the balance of power within the Repubs. Vote out DeLay and get a more ethical (and more articulate) Speaker. Choose a better candidate in 08 than Frist or Brownback or Santorum. Don't just slavisly follow Bush even when he blows long held conservative principals to shreds on the altar of political expediency.
Unless you guys take your party back, we're all in for a long next few years.
Of course one alternate option is for the Demos to control their own loony fringe, get their heads out of their asses on a clear and workable message, and field some good candidates. But I'm not too optimistic :).
I left the Demoratic party several years ago and now I just vote for the best candidate. Nowadays, I probably vote Demo 50%, Republican 25% and third party 25%. Maybe some of you Repubs ought to think about that too.
Holding your nose and voting for Bush b/c you feel Kerry is a shitty option just empowers Bush to keep pandering to the extremists. Libertarian dislike of liberal big government is just empowering religious / social conservative big government. It's political co-dependancy.
It's looking to me like the reign of the religious right will only be ended if the "enablers", meaning moderate, libertarian and process conservatives just threaten to walk away from the party. Anything short of that means they'll just continue to be tolerated as propagandistic meatshields, worth trotting out only to convince the public the GOP aren't all complete nuts, for the religious right's agenda.
This is something I've been thinking since last year: I continue to be frustrated that a lot of the level headed libertarian or moderate/conservative types in the Republican party don't seem to have noticed (or don't care, or at least don't care enough) that the group in power in Washington under the guise of the Republican party is actually a coalition of fringe elements from within the Republicans, not united by conservative principal but by a weird combination of power, religious belief and idealogical fanaticism.
Without the libertarians and mod-conservatives to give them intellectual cover and to add to their voting numbers, the extremist coalition driving the Bush administration would be a pack of weak fringe groups, not a powerful force ramming special laws down our throats.
I understand the Democrats are not the answer for most of the libertarians and mod/cons (due to the Demo's own problems with idiotic socialist or PC or pacifist fringe groups, as well as the Demo's lack of a coherent message, and weak choices in recent candidates). But just b/c the Demos are not an option doesn't mean you have to accept Bush/Rove/Santorum/Delay as the ONLY option.
Change the balance of power within the Repubs. Vote out DeLay and get a more ethical (and more articulate) Speaker. Choose a better candidate in 08 than Frist or Brownback or Santorum. Don't just slavisly follow Bush even when he blows long held conservative principals to shreds on the altar of political expediency.
Unless you guys take your party back, we're all in for a long next few years.
Of course one alternate option is for the Demos to control their own loony fringe, get their heads out of their asses on a clear and workable message, and field some good candidates. But I'm not too optimistic :).
I left the Demoratic party several years ago and now I just vote for the best candidate. Nowadays, I probably vote Demo 50%, Republican 25% and third party 25%. Maybe some of you Repubs ought to think about that too.
Holding your nose and voting for Bush b/c you feel Kerry is a shitty option just empowers Bush to keep pandering to the extremists. Libertarian dislike of liberal big government is just empowering religious / social conservative big government. It's political co-dependancy.