I'm thoroughly disgusted with the Republicans right now.
The Republican leadership in the Senate, House and Oval Office has done NOTHING to curb govt. spending, intrusions in our personal lives, or decentralize govt. power through a return to federalism. It has rather expanded them. The shift in the religious right to the deplorable Dobsonites has been most unwelcome too. Here via Jerry Pournelle is a hardline social conservatives take on this. This is Dick Armey on religion in politics!
I'd like nothing more than to throw them under the bridge and let them kick the Rockefeller types out and come back again as the party of Goldwater and Reagan. Unfortunately the stakes are rather too high for that.
The Dems are not a viable option anymore, even as caretakers. The abysmal VA Senate race is a case in point. George Allen was a good governor and he is likeable. His campaign has been a comedy of errors though and even allowing for the much harsher treatment Republicans get he has not done well in selling himself against Webb.
Webb is a guy I'd hoped would run for something for some time. A genuine war hero and very smart guy, if one had to vote for a Democrat he'd certainly be the one to punish the Republicans with....even a year ago I'd certainly have voted for him, been happy to do so, and sent a message to the K street GOP that the Contract With America that got them elected was indeed a CONTRACT and to get their acts together.
The problem is that Webb has aligned himself with the most extreeme wing of the DNC. He is the darling child of Kos and the netroots loons. These are the same people who got Lieberman thrown out of their party. Their whole strategy is cut and run. That's not just a cliche', it is what netroots wing of that party want to do. To them that Iraq will fall into utter chaos if we leave is a feature, not a bug. They relish being able to crow "I told you so" even if they brought about the tragedy by leaving. To them the proudest moment of the left was the fall of Saigon, and aside from a few occasional croccodile tears they will care no more for the dead Iraqis than they did for the 3 million who died when we abandoned SE Asia.
It gets worse....
Even if the party leadership are secretly reasonable, hardnosed anti-terrorist geniuses,a Dem victory can only be seen in the Middle East as a victory for Al Quaeda.
This is on the face of it rather unfair....On the back of it it is TOTALLY unfair.
The American people have legit greviances with the Republicans and all but the most blinkered Hannityesque Myrmidons recognize this. Yet, a change in government NOW, while the opposition preaches defeat is precisely the type of 'victory' that keeps the Islamist types going. They gained considerable stature after they successfully threw the Spanish election a few years back (with that terrible train bombing). It is not good civics, but it is reality that this election will embolden our enemies or give them pause. They are banking on the US going to the left and leaving. That has been what Bin Laden predicted and what he hopes for. The natural response of even good faith, loyal-opposition-type Dems is that foreigners should not be interfering in our elections so ignore them....but the fact is that we are in a war and a particularly information intensive war at that.
There is also the fact that in my view the Dems are worse in every way in which the Republicans are bad. More spending, less freedom ultimately and since the late '60s anti-capitalist. They crow about the Patriot Act, which seems on theface of it to be a principled stand....until you remember that both the Department of Homeland Security and many of the feature of that most troubling legislation were proposed by lefty think tanks in the '90s. The DHS at least was opposed by Bush initially until he agreed to it as a sop to congessional Democrats....in exchange for what exactly?....support for the war?....hah! One theory is that the Republican wobblieness on domestic issues is in fact due to trying to get Dems on board with the war...if that is the case (and I rather doubt it) then it has been political theater poorly played....apeasement NEVER works.
The Left is not particularly good on the civil liberties front either. Peggy Noonan covers just the last weeks list of leftie tolerance and outreach here. The travails of Conservative videobloggers since Google bought You-Tube has been blogged-about-elsewhere. This jives the deep seated suscpicions I have of the left in general regards freedom of speech issues if they don't approve of the speech. I base this on my own experiences as well as these recent news items.In a related vein Boortz has a nice piece on getting conservatives to try and float Air America hereand here. I fully suspect that some legislation like the "fairness doctrine" will be pushed down our throats.
There are a host of other issues too, the space program, nuclear power, Kyoto, gun control, copyright law, eminent domain and so forth that I firmly believe the Dems are on the wrong side of....
Still, the Republicans are such a vile choice now I can forgive people for sitting on their hands.
I am not optimistic about November no matter who wins, but I'm actively fearful of a Dem victory.
Therefore I'm a tad depressed.
Hugh Hewitt is more optimistic though his last paragraph is indeed the rub.
Win the war. Confirm the judges. Cut the taxes. Control the spending. Secure the borders.
The GOP is committed to all five, the Dems to none.
...Well at least the first three...one hopes.
The only person I seem to agree with right now is trashcat...
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