Monday, March 9, 2009

Take The Poll!

Greetings,

On the right (of course!) is my poll asking why you are voting Republican in 2010.

Feel free to add any comments on my blog and as long as they are civil and on topic, I'll post them.

TTFN,

Jim
Posted by at

2 comments:

Robert McKay said...

Actually, I might not vote Republican. I've already changed my registration from Republican to Constitution, since the whole leadership of the party has gone RINO. As Ronald Reagan said of a different party, I didn't leave the RINO Party - it left me. However, I will - as I've been doing since I first registered to vote at 18 in 1978 - vote conservative.

March 11, 2009 at 6:05 PM
Jim said...

Robert, I understand and share your frustration but voting for a party that cannot win even small, local elections is a waste of voting power.

What I would truly like to see is that every person who has been voting Constitution, Libertarian, etc., come back to the Republican party.

I have seen 2 sea changes happen to the GOP since the 1980s. One was the fall of Bill Clinton's Democratic centrists. The other was the 9/11 error.

Recall that when Bill Clinton ran, he ran as a centrist Democrat and he attracted centrists back to his party. When the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke conservative and centrist democrats changed party affiliation all over the country. Remember? I recall listening to Rush and hearing him tell of Democrats all over the country who were switching to Republican as their party label. Something like 400+ did. That was both good and bad.

It was good because it gave us control of congressional seats, senate seats, etc all over the country. The problem is it dragged the party leftward. Many of those democrats who switched were socially conservative but pro-big government.

This drift toward more comfort with big government was a BAD development for the party and the country for that matter. After 9/11, Bush and that newly constituted GOP followed their instincts to it's logical conclusion. Protecting America was the right thing to do but did we really need to grow government like we did? No. Protecting America against terrorists = GOOD, growing government by leaps and bounds to do it = BAD.

Now many of those areas that 'converted' Republican have gone back to Democratic control (except in the south) and the last 2 cycles have flushed the worst RINOs out of office except in the upper North-East where they are the only kind of Republicans you can find.

Many Americans rejected Bush-style Republicanism because even many liberals aren't comfortable with big-government, statist policies. Bush is an honorable guy but he was far too comfortable with a police state type of conservatism. Couple that with Bush's open Evangelical Christian views and he looked like the anti-Christ to any ACLU-type liberal.

Michael Steele recently stated he will not protect RINOs from primary challengers. I say good, let's hold him to that promise and promote conservatives on the Republican ticket rather than waste time, money and talent on candidates who cannot win on 3rd party tickets.

When conservatives show strong leadership (as Reagan and Bush 43 did at 1st) and 'accentuate the positive' (as Margaret Thatcher used to say) we win. When we sound shrill, talk about 'conspiracies' and take a generally negative tone - we lose.

During the last months of the McCain-Obama race (McCain's own liabilities aside) we sounded like a hut of conspiracy nuts harping about Obama's birth certificate and his ties to Ayers, Wright, etc., while he stayed mainly positive and looked very presidential and sounded inspirational.

Republicans also need to learn to put the inspiring guy at the TOP of the ticket. History shows that putting the boring person at the top and the cool person at the bottom is a loosing strategy EVERY TIME:

*Mondale/Ferraro
*Dole/Kemp
*Kerry/Edwards
*McCain/Palin

Obviously there was more to it but in each of these cases a rather starchy presidential candidate picked a more exciting running mate and they lost.

What the GOP needs is principled conservatives with charisma and a vision. Then we will win.

Matthew 10:16 Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.

As Jesus said, we need to be wise like the serpent and harmless (blameless maybe a better trans) like the dove. Joining a 3rd Party may assuage your convictions but it is not being worldly-wise.

To effect change you have to have your hands on the steering wheel. 3rd parties are protest parties, they are not governing parties.

The 1st step is joining a county party. The county party is the 1st building block of all national parties. That is why I am a county chairman in the Republican Party.

I'm basically a 'family-values' libertarian. I want religious freedom, strong values, small, unintrusive government, low taxes, a strong defense, low crime (but not a police state), etc.

And the less government programs and agencies the better!

The Constitution Party and many Libertarians espouse that but they cannot deliver that. That is why I am a Republican. When Republicans have their heads screwed on straight, we can deliver those things. When we deviate from that we lose elections and the support of ordinary folks like you and me.

Peace Be With You,

Jim

March 12, 2009 at 3:52 AM

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