Phoney Republicans

[Hap]

Phoney as in fake or faux.  Less foreign aid.  State rights.  Less powerful federal government domestically (as opposed to state, county, and city government).  Big defense.  Avoiding entangling alliances. Lower taxes.

Where did those guys go?  Much of what I see in here is founded on the premise "since I'm not an evil Democrat, I'm a Republican."

However, I don't see the policies espoused and advanced in here that makes a conservative (fiscal or social?  don't hear enough of that discussion either) a republican.

Then, what would be way cool, is to see folks point to real live people whose political thinking and actions epitomize those political and try to advance them.

Are there real republicans in here, or anti-democrats merely.

Regards,

hap

[eagl]

Time magazine ran a good article about this exact thing a few weeks ago.  Basically the idealistic republicans got turned to the dark side and compromised traditional republican positions in order to simply stay in office.

It's well known that the best way to stay in office is to force spending into your district, and the repub politicians bought into it.

Yes, there are plenty of "real" republicans in here.  You don't see many (if any) people here trying to support the republican led congress.  On the other hand, we're pretty convinced that the dems aren't going to be any different.

[bsdaddict]

Originally posted by Hap
Less foreign aid.  State rights.  Less powerful federal government domestically (as opposed to state, county, and city government).  Big defense.  Avoiding entangling alliances. Lower taxes.

Where did those guys go?

to the Libertarian Party...  

[lazs2]

find me a republican like that and I will vote for him...

Me and six other guys... we will be cancelled out by 6,000,000 metrosexuals, socialists and women tho.

lazs

[rpm]

Originally posted by eagl
You don't see many (if any) people here trying to support the republican led congress.

You're joking, right?

[Sandman]

I'm not Republican or Democrat. I'm anti-Neocon.

[eagl]

RPM,

I've been slamming congress for around 15 years now, both dems and repubs.  I admit that the occasional republican congressman has gotten my respect, but the rest of them... ptooie.

Maybe you're thinking that when someone says a dem congressman did something wrong, that's the same thing as saying republicans are cool and all that.  Well... no.  It isn't.  The partisan bickering in congress is dragging the whole nation down because it makes people completely unable to see that the "other side" might have a point or might actually be right in some cases.  Dems like Pelosi and repubs like... well I don't know really, but certain repubs I'm sure, make it their life's work to oppose EVERYTHING the other party does, regardless of it's actual merit.

Yea I'm bagging on pelosi right now but that's because of the in-depth analysis Time magazine (bastion of right-wing thinking according to one dem in here) did on Pelosi's record of blocking everything repubs did and getting other dems to do the same thing, no matter what the actual issue was.

That's the thing that kills me about congress.  They're obsessed with partisan politics and re-election. They'll do quite literally anything to get re-elected and make the other party look bad, to the exclusion of everything else including passing good legislation of any kind.

People forget that the president doesn't make laws.  He suggests courses of action and signs laws that congress makes.  Every congressman who claims they oppose the iraq war but who also kept funding it is the worst kind of hypocrite.  It's obvious that more than 50% of both the house and senate oppose how the Iraq war is going, yet for the last few years they have funded more and more money towards it, all the time pointing the finger at the white house.  If congress wanted to halt the war, they could do it almost overnight by cutting the contingency funding and failing to pass the mid-year budget plus-up we've needed every year of the war.

Of course, to do so, to actually act on what they claim are their principles, they'd risk delaying passing budget items that funnel tax dollars into their own districts, and that might put their re-election at risk.  So you see, it has nothing to do with actual policy or principles and everything to do with partisan politics and re-election.

Ptooie.  Spit is too clean for most of them.

[DREDIOCK]

Originally posted by bsdaddict
to the Libertarian Party...  

Yanno its funny you say that.
In the last two weeks in talking to various people about the latest elections I've had no less then 5 Republicans and 4 Democrates all tell me they were sick of both parties and planning on voting Libertarian in 08

and that was without me even mentioning independants

[bsdaddict]

Originally posted by DREDIOCK
Yanno its funny you say that.
In the last two weeks in talking to various people about the latest elections I've had no less then 5 Republicans and 4 Democrates all tell me they were sick of both parties and planning on voting Libertarian in 08

and that was without me even mentioning independants

[Mace2004]

Someone's going to blast me as a "partisan" for saying this but here's my take on why the Republican congress fell so far away from their principals.

It's the Democrats fault.

Before some of you go off the deep end listen to my reasoning.  The Republicans rose to power because of a deeply flawed Democrat party that believed it was the only party "entitled" to lead the Congress and was driving the country to ruin.  The Republicans developed an agenda based on substantive changes needed to reverse the downward trends in the economy, military, social issues and the rise of government intrusion in everyone's lives.

OK, so the Republicans gain power based on these substantive arguments.  You can argue that you disagree with some of their positions but can't argue that the issues were not substantive.

So, what happens then?  The Democrat party basically went institutionally insane and, as a party, began attacking absolutely everything about Bush.  He was "illigitimate", he planned the war back in Texas, he did it to make his Daddy happy, he's worse than Saddam, he's the world's worst terrorist, he knew about (or planned 9/11), etc., etc., etc.  The Dems have yet to develop a substantive agenda or offer anything other than that they aren't Bush/Republican.  Totally insane.

So, now we get to why the Republican party lost it's way.  How many people here like football?  How many have seen powerful teams lose to losers because they didn't see them as true competition and couldn't conceive of losing to them?  We'll, that's what I think happened here, the Republicans became fat and lazy and began to feel entitled to lead.  By almost every measure the Democrat party didn't represent a realistic threat and the Republicans' felt too safe and began to feel they couldn't be defeated because the American public couldn't possibly elect a bunch of losers over them.  In other words they lost their way because there was no legitimate threat so they didn't have to toe the line and deliver.  What they forgot is simply the possibility that the American public that elected them would not stand for them to turn into the Democrat party of old, full of themselves and believing they're entitled just because they have an (R) listed behind their names.  So we ended up where we are now, an incompetent and agendaless party in control, and only in control because they aren't Republicans, not because of anything they stand for.

That's why I've always said that, while I don't like the Democrat party or it's various agendas, an insane Democrat party is worse than a strong one.  Being insane makes it easy to dismiss them, being strong would have forced the Republican's to stick to their agenda.

[Sandman]

It's an interesting theory but it completely ignores PNAC.

[Mace2004]

Originally posted by Sandman
It's an interesting theory but it completely ignores PNAC.

PNAC?

[lukster]

Maybe the best thing we can do is cripple our government with a democrat congress and a republican president who promises to thwart their socialist strivings. No government is better than the wrong government.

[Sandman]

Originally posted by Mace2004
PNAC?

http://www.newamericancentury.org/

[crowMAW]

All hail the mighty PNAC!  

Welcome to the world of neo-conservatism.  Take the worst of the Democrats (spend spend spend) and the worst of the Republicans (moral nannies) and this is what makes the neo-Republican Party...Republicrats.

Barry Goldwater...what has happened to the party we both loved??