Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Fear and Loathing in the GOP

Somebody called me the other day. "Who are you voting for?!" They said. "Umm, I guess McCain now that Giuliani is out..." I said. "Whew. Okay, good." Was the reply.

Wow. What an emergency. But then on the talk show side everybody is piling on McCain. Note, they aren't exactly pumping up Romney, just tearing out McCain's throat.

Whose fault is it? Mostly McCain's fault because he hasn't sworn a blood oath to conservative ideals. He's been on the wrong side some of the biggest conservative vs. progressive fights--and he's called it "standing on principle." Really, he comes off as somebody that thinks if they had the power everything would be fixed. This guy's got a principle for where to cross the street.

Still, Romney comes off as a phony. I don't know how somebody can claim to be the true conservative that has flip-flopped on abortion and other staple issues. Regardless, he couldn't beat John Edwards in a national election.

Hey, I don't hate either of them and I don't love either. But some people aren't indifferent.

Romney isn't some Nazi. And, hey, he's not terrible on the campaign trail. But every time he speaks I'm reminded of John Kerry if he had a personality. He's had some foot in mouth moments, but he's generally conservative--and that's a good thing. Bottom-line, if you wanted a conservative that could win that bad maybe you should have slipped some no-doze into Thompson's water.

McCain isn't a Marxist. McCain is good on security, abortion, and government spending. But let's be clear: he's been disloyal and mean in the past. If you could have dealt with a moderate but just not this one, maybe you shouldn't have scared the mods with that whole Huckabee fling.

Ultimately, Bush was not that far from McCain in a lot of policies. Immigration, the War (whatever that denotes), and (some) tax cuts. Bush isn't deconstructing big government nor spearheading prayer in school. But he's got most of the conservatives' faith. McCain probably never will, but who endorsed him? Giuliani and Schwarzenegger, the same guys that gave speeches with him for Bush at the convention. Yeah, that was a hint he was running.

Frankly, many people are scared. Scared the progressive are taking over (they are), scared the GOP will cut off it's nose to spite it's face; scared that non-social conservatives will give the party over to RINOs that care not for stopping the cancer of socialism.

Be scared, but not of losing the election or losing the identity of the party. Be scared of losing the people, because Obama, even if he loses, will be back in four years and maybe more. Here's a guy who thinks national health is a moral right. I'll take little comfort if we stay conservative or even keep the White House if the American people become commies in the meantime.

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