Saturday, November 8, 2008

BURNING DOWN THE TENT

As we survey the exit and other polls from the Tuesday Massacre of the McCainiacs, Conservatives can find one bright spot from the 2008 Presidential Contest.

9 weeks ago in Detroit, John McCain gave the Conservative Movement the "Best Thanksgiving Gift" we could have possibly been given. And probably the "Best Gift" John McCain ever gave Conservatives, period.

Generally, McCain's "gifts" to Conservatives have been his contempt, his anger and his harsh words. And legislatively, we all remember McCain/Feingold and McCain/Kennedy.

That one bright spot? Sarah Palin, Rising Star of the Conservative Movement. - a potential Heir Apparent to Ronald Reagan and Newt Gingrich.

Pollster Scott Rasmussen has shown us the results of his exhaustive polling on the Presidential Contest and Sarah Palin.

Here's the link to Scott's analysis; Please, read it for yourself, it couldn't be clearer.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/election_2012/69_of_gop_voters_say_palin_helped_mccain

However, as losing the Presidential election along landslide proportions wasn't enough, it would seem that some "bitter dead-enders" in the McCain Campaign, not only want to take this gift back, they want to destroy it in the process.

TO THOSE MCCAIN STAFFERS ATTEMPTING TO DESTROY SARAH PALIN

1. You should be ASHAMED OF YOURSELVES. Very, very ashamed. Having foisted the McCain Candidacy on Republicans and Conservatives by using Dirty Tricks including, but not limited to, stirring and/or tolerating anti-Mormon Bigotry, denigrating Evangelical voters and their concerns about issues such as Border Security, ignoring the potential Open Borders' dangers to traditional American culture and values and then, first using Mike Huckabee as a Meat Puppet for your candidacy and then discarding him like a dime-store doll, that wasn't enough, Now you are trying to destroy the only positive thing to emerge from your 3rd rate campaign.

2. BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR - YOU JUST MIGHT GET IT. AND THEN SOME
These McCain staffers know that they are, correctly, being awarded the responsibility for the failure of McCain's lackluster, theme-challenged, vaguely-messaged, "High Road to Nowhere" campaign.

So, by preemptively attacking Sarah Palin while cringing anonymously behind the skirts of the media, McCainacs are trying to play one of the oldest games in politics - shift the blame on to someone else in order to change the conversation and avoid the assignment of blame directly where it belongs, to them and their candidate John McCain.

YOU ARE BEGGING FOR A ANOTHER CULTURE WAR WITHIN THE GOP THAT YOU WILL ***LOSE***

The history of the Goldwater/Rockefeller Culture Wars within the Party, in the aftermath of JFK's razor-thin 1960 Presidential victory, are well known. To some extent, the Culture War had already started preliminary skirmishing well-before the 1960 nomination fight.

The results of that culture war?

By the time Barry Goldwater was nominated at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, in July of 1964, the vicious and highly personal exchanges between their respective Wings of the GOP resulted in a Barry Goldwater candidacy that was so battered, bruised and bloody in the Public's eyes, that the unpopular Lyndon Baines Johnson was easily reelected, in an Electoral blowout of 486 - 52.

The primary responsibility for Goldwater's catastrophic loss was assigned by the other factions of the GOP to Nelson Rockefeller and his Fellow Travelers. There wasn't a reconciliation between the warring factions until 1980, when Ronald Reagan made a "Peace Offering" to the Rockefeller Wing, by giving his Vice Presidential slot to George H. Bush.

This rejection of the Rockefeller wing, by the other elements of the GOP, would result in the transcendence of the very young Conservative Movement into the dominating faction within the Republican Party. This Conservative dominance started with the Goldwater/Rockefeller Culture Wars and lasted for nearly 3 decades.

If the McCainiacs don't back away from their Anti-Palin Pogrom, they are risking splitting the GOP apart, AGAIN.

This will, AGAIN, reduce the Rockefeller Wing's power and influence within the GOP, and will substantially lower the GOP's national competitiveness, across the board.

By law and now custom, both national political parties are "fusionist" (the so-called "Big Tent"), they are numerous factions within the GOP; Evangelicals, Social Conservatives, Fiscal Conservatives, Libertarians, States' Rightists, Pro-Lifers, and , YES, Big Government, Big Tax, Big Spend Liberal Republicans, and nearly endless combinations of the above (and more).

For this Party to function and be competitive NO ONE FACTION should insist on power or influence disproportionate to what they bring to the table in resources such as; money, volunteers, organization or ideas.

The McCainiacs failed this year, and badly. Go home, lick your wounds and come back with better ideas, better candidates and all the other things that electing a President require.

Destroying the ONE GOOD THING your Candidate and Campaign produced will merely make you pariahs and outcasts. Accept your failures and the responsibility attached thereto.

We are ALL in this Republican Party together. As was once observed by a great American patriot, "We must all hang together or assuredly we shall all hang separately."

If the McCainiacs INSIST on "Burning Down The Tent", they may well find, that after the fires die down, they have nowhere left to come home to.

5 comments:

rosie said...

just to comment further with a latino flavor: my catholic family felt great admiration for sarah palin. my mom respects her strong pro-life values. my dad, well, never mind; he's too macho to say he likes her. he really does, but ended up voting for the other guy--go figure! Hispanic catholics in California i am very sure voted for prop 8 overwhelmingly, and that's why i continue to insist that something went terribly wrong. latinos are pro-life and against same-sex marriage, and are aware of the failures of a socialist/liberal agenda ( latin america has been a victim of it for a very long time). Mccain could have won nevada and new mexico had he focused on latinos more effectively.

lynmeryl said...

I am nearing 70 & have observed the political scene since the '60s & voted in every election since I have been eligible to do so. I have watched the sweep of history since 1960 (voted for Nixon), got bitten by the '60s 'bug' (voted for Johnson...), recovered from the '60s bug (voted for Nixon, also...) & have been a conservative since. I too support Sarah Palin, 110%!!! There are fine young conservatives groomed to take on the mantle of conservative leadership. I pray that the Republican Party does NOT eat it young, our hope for the future, both of the party & of the country.

chill1019 said...

I was at a school function today, when I walked into the faculty dining hall to grab some java. A group of my colleagues was sitting around taking part in the new sport of "Palin Bashing". My tongue at this point is raw from biting it - trying to take the high road, stick to the issues, etc. when I hear, "What a joke, my seven year old even knows that Africa is a continent". I'm thinking get out, don't engage, but my voice has escaped and I am asking,"Didn't Obama say someting about visiting our 57 states? What was I thinking?? Whoa! Did he really say that? Did you hear him say that? She was attacking me trying to get me to defend what she felt was my criticism of the One. How dare I? I replied that I just thought Obama must have been exhausted and I thought nothing more of his remark. The point is that she didn't hear Sarah Palin say anything about Africa being a continent either, but from the derisive tone of the coffee klatch conversation whatever screed is being spread anonymously about Gov. Palin is harmful not only to her but to all of us as conservatives trying to find our way out of the wilderness. I find the McCain operatives's insidious efforts aimed at destroying this fine public servant appalling. She needs to be uplifted, encouraged and at the end of the day thanked for energizing the conservative base of the Party. I hope Sarah Palin has just begun to be an important voice as we try to put Humpty together again. Sarah, we are just beginning to know you!

Unknown said...

So where is McC to defend Sarah Palin. His silence is deafening!.

As to the GOP. The party needs an overhaul and a new leader. Who is to be the face of the new GOP, and what is to be the message?

2010 is only around the corner and we have zilch to work with.

TommyO

julienne said...

Well said and Hear,Hear!
I would just like to add....
That I think social-conservatism has somehow become synonomous with Evangelical Christianity; as a result many who would be a natural fit with Republican principles are driven off.The anti-Mormon bigotry practiced by Huckabee and McCain, created the impression that Mormons need not apply...or were not welcome ( except for their cash donations of course. Everybody was perfectly willing to have Romney go out and raise money...) and I imagine this left the impression that active participation was only open to the "right" kind of believer.Hard to believe "big tent" language under those circumstances.In typical McCain fashion, Pres.Elect Obama's Black Liberation theology was strictly off limits ...but McCain was fine using religous bigotry to gain advantage over the Republican (Mormon) candidate, and it worked...ask yourself why? I doubt that such a tactic would be successful in the Democratic primary.
For the future of the party, I think Huckabee(who zelously encourages religous identity politics) should go home, and the Republican party should focus on secular social conservatism as reflected in its platform and principles,but apart and distinct from any particular theology...and obey the strictures of Art. Six.!!!