Thanks once again for your service to our country.
You gladly admit when you are wrong ? Should come in handy. You know you shouldn’t worry to much about changing your mind on an issue or two either, I do sometimes. Here’s the thing though, you need to convince me I have erred. I follow my conscience, and try to take a principled position on the issues. If you convince me that I have erred, then it is in my own enlightened self interest to change my mind.
What your father taught you is a good place to start from, keep your passions at bay, and distrust those who surrender to them. As for finding truth by adding the extremist on one side of an issue, to the extremist on the other side of an issue and dividing by two, well that just wont work . First off we need to define our terms a little bit. Who gets to identify who is an extremists, what is an extremist, and by what algebra is it confirmed? The vast majority pays scant attention to political stuff, they’re busy living their lives. Most people take a moderate view in public, they act much like sheep in fact, most will swing to the side they think is going to win. Victor Davis has a book coming out on the Peloponnesian War where he makes this observation of human behavior. Hey we should both read it, then we can share our thoughts on it.
Anyway, I should think that I am wrong because the majority standing on the side lines pointed to me as one of the players on the field? Now what should I do? Abandon what I honestly think, and join you in the squishy center blowing hither and dither at the whim of popular opinion? How then do you know when to take a principled stand on an issue, a stance that puts you at odds with just about everyone else? When you take a stand on one side of the fence over the other, is it what you think in your head, or what you feel in your heart that convinces you, of what is right?
Now here is a WWII question for you. What was the biggest tragedy of WWII? Answer, that it need never have happened. If the world had only listened to the lone voice crying out from the wilderness, dismissed as an extremist and a war monger, Winston Churchill. The majority sure can get it wrong. If they had only listened., but hey majorities aren’t perfect.
I’ve found that by taking a step back, reading the arguments presented then deciding based on the light cast by my own conscience is the way for me to arrive at an opinion on any given issue. To be frank, I don’t care if the vast majority agrees with me or not. For me that is not a very useful measuring stick.
I am conservative due to certain core principles such that when addressed to most issues my judgment of what is the correct view end up on that side of the current political spectrum. I am not a conservative by design, but by default. Not a libertarian really a “classical liberal“ in all honesty, but to say so gives most the wrong impression due to the word liberal, staunch conservative works better. Libertarians can sometimes be useful allies within the conservative camp, but they tend to get caught up in utopian fantasies of their own. While I’m at it “neo-cons” can be great allies on the GWOT but, they can wring their hands and whine like a bunch of sissy girls sometimes. Talking about actual “neo-cons” as a conservative would understand the term. To describe disenchanted liberals who have joined the cause, not as moonbats use it as a stand in for nazi or Jew depending on the moonbat.
You fail to see how the president could be hurt by nominating a moderate? I don’t know what to say FF did you not follow my logic? Who has worked diligently for 30 years on behalf of Republicans? Who is it you think master minded the Democratic majority leader Tom Dachle’s defeat? Conservatives have raised money, volunteered, and generally manned the trenches so that the Republicans could control the Senate with a commanding majority. To what purpose do you think they have done all of this, and why should they bother if their vote is to simply be taken for granted? How many do you think will sit out the next election cycle just to send a message? The Republican party is controlled by conservatives not moderates that is how and why the president could be hurt by nominating a moderate and breaking a campaign pledge made to those working on his behalf. To be successfully tagged as a moderate Republican politician, is to have no constituency within the party, in fact it’s considered a slur. Gee you guys from the left coast sure are out of the loop.
The lesson you learned from the last election isn’t an observation it’s a platitude you hope is true but are afraid might not be. There are plenty of lessons to be learned from our last elections “that we are a moderate nation” although I do not necessarily disagree with the sentiment, it does not jump out at me as one of the lessons to be learned. Here is one that grabbed some of my attention, conventional wisdom used to hold that high turn out favors the Democrats, not any more. Democrats used to out number Republicans, now the parties are at rough parity, with the Democrats holding a statistically insignificant edge. Democratic pollsters have been trying to warn them, but there doesn’t seem to be any grown ups listening. If you take a look at the demographics, long term prospects are not favoring the Democratic party. Not to mention their odd need to commit ritual suicide. I thumbed through a study done by Pew Research while loading up for ammo to use over at THC. Some pretty interesting stuff, the only core constituency the Democrats have left is the black community. Here is a little tid bit I like to roll around in my mind. Black Baptists are 32% or 36% of the Black vote, and are as conservative on social issues as are core conservatives Republicans. Just the thought of that must give Democratic pollsters the willies. Do not delude yourself into thinking as a moderate in the Republican party that you sit at the head of the table, you do not. The Republican party is a big tent that allows differing opinions, you however are definitely the minority within the party and if I could trade every last moderate for the black Baptist vote, I’d do it in a heart beat and not think twice.
Election campaigns are just starting to begin to maneuver, candidates have tried to differentiate themselves from the White House. That’s to be expected, McCain has shown himself to be contemptuous, and minds are made up about him already within the Republican party. That he could garner a majority of Republican voters not to likely IMHO Those Republican Senators that followed McCain have hurt themselves with their voters back home. Hegel said something that was critical of the White House transparently motivated by politics, poor form. Besides why go for McCain light when you can have McCain the original. Hegel is McCain without the animosity. Right now I have my eye on George Allen although I am open to seeing what the Governors have to show me. My dream candidate would be, if a draft Condeleza Rice movement succeeded and Condi was our candidate in 08.
Yes but what about 06 you say, well the Republicans have a head start since there are more Democratic seats being contested. That they could recapture the house is out of the question, nor are they very likely to regain the Senate. I am going to be very interested in voter turnout and exit polls. The long knives are out within the Republican party, and they may use this election to make the direction of the Republican party clear to such liberals in the party as Arlen Specter. Where you gonna go to the Democratic party? There‘s the door don’t let it hit ya on the way out, ba-bye now. Specter’s not up for election just using him as an example.
The idea that conservatives within the Republican party are perceived to be the equivalent to the absolute moonbats parading naked in the Democratic party is piddle. MSM outlets have been pedaling that tired old line of malarkey for a generation now. No don’t nominate that Ronald Reagan he’s one of those conservative nuts from the fringe of the Republican party and completely unelectable, according to conventional wisdom, the moderates would be scarred off. Funning thing is when Republicans actually run un-apologetically as conservatives they win, yet when Democrats run un-apologetically as liberals they lose, hmmm what do you suppose that could mean? Does it make you want to lean a little closer my way?
You say you understand that the debacle that was Katrina was the result of failed State and Local leadership then go on to blame Bush anyway. Food and medicine was available for the Dome and Convention Center. State misfits said No we don’t want to encourage them to stay. That is what they told the Red Cross who had supplies loaded in trucks and ready to go. This is very off topic by the way.
Was going to continue with this post but it is long enough as is, so I will leave you with this little nugget of wisdom. The way to combat the perception of weakness as a politician is to act boldly. To accept your opponents views only serves to reinforce the perception of weakness.
