I’ve already pointed out that the party platform is schizoid compared to the left.

And not only is it schizoid, it is also dead wrong; e.g. smaller government and/or fiscal conservatism doesn’t exist and never did.

What kicks things along is technical progress, and this is almost invariably funded by government (typically DoD.) Some of this progress filters into the civilian world. Computers were created to help solve ballistics problems; computer chips were needed to guide ICBMs, GPS was needed to position troops, the internet was a failsafe communications backbone, and so on. Every one of these things that drive the modern economy was kick-started with massive government funding.

Had the “fiscal conservative” approach been taken since WWII we’d just now be able to take our cool new AM transistor radios outside with us on battery power and the punch button princess phone would appear by 2030. I for one am quite happy that a fiscal conservative approach has never been taken.

Instead, we have the conveniences of modern life because a fiscally conservative approach was REJECTED, and rightfully so. Perhaps you should google “Strategy of Technology” for your education at this point. It was written by Reagan’s SDI advisors.

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Essentially all of you dittohead koolaid drinker types who think you stand for something have no idea what you even stand for except that it’s not the left. It isn’t the moderates who are devoid, it’s YOU.

I applauded Bush wildly in 2004. Kerry ran on a platform of “I’m not George Bush” and got his lunch eaten. Bush ran on a platform of strong defense and won. Campaigning on “I’m not the other guy” doesn’t win. Just ask Dole. What wins elections in a technological society is *always* a strong science/technology message. Reagan won in large part because of the oil problems and vowed to rebuild the military using high tech. The star wars speech followed shortly thereafter. (Bear in mind that military and technology are fungible terms.) Obama won in large part due to energy once again; in this case he sold the concept of green as “new” and McCain was for drilling which was “old” and *not* high tech minded. McCain didn’t lose because you abortion clinic bomber supporters stayed home. He lost because the average guy in the street wants to see progress and new high paying jobs.

So what you’re advocating is a party of multiple conservative positions, none of which have proven to have ever resonated with the majority of the public nor having been implemented in a proven and working fashion. Worse, these positions are schizoid: the anti-statist position re fiscal conservatism basically shuts the technology pipeline down, and the social message is heavily statist. Not only is there no consistency, the positions don’t even make any sense.

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Where the republican party will win — and by win I mean trounce the left forevermore — is to drop social statism and embrace the actual GOP history (as described in the first couple of paragraphs) and proudly take ownership of the fact that the GOP is responsible for technology and modern life as it is known today. By embracing this the party will also drop the idiotic dittohead position of smaller government and/or fiscal conservatism (things that the party has **never** stood for since the 1920’s.) Rather, the party promotes RESPONSIBLE government, investing into America’s future (just as Reagan did!) and PERSONAL FREEDOM. That’s how to win.

Everybody knows he did it because he was down 21% in the polls leading-up to the GOP primary for his seat- and Joey Pluggs made a deal with him, he already admitted as such. The sad truth is that this hack has spent three decades in the Senate, while accomplishing little.

And Barack and him have a lot in common- as unprincipled political opportunists, I’m sure they’ll get along just great. Just a little over a month ago, the Senator said in an interview that he wouldn’t switch parties due to the importance of checks and balances.

And back in 2001, Sen. Arlen Specter, then a Republican, proposed a rule forbidding party switches… he was upset when Vt Sen. Jim Jeffords’ left the GOP to become an independent.

Who knows what the truth is with this guy, you’ll never get it from him.

With all due respect, Senator- don’t let the door hit your butt on the way out. Nobody on our side’s going to miss you.

http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com

You’ve already done that. You’ve decided on guns, gays and government. And you’ll continue to lose as a result. You want to forbid your gay son from getting married. Go ahead. You want your daughter to have the baby of her rapist. Go ahead. You want to force me to do the same? Fat chance. Here’s what the conservatives don’t understand – liberals are all about freedom and liberty. That concept is anathema to conservatives.

How did we get here? We can blame George Bush and an unpopular war which has some merit. We lost the last election by losing the moderate vote. McCain could have and probably should have won. However, we’ve been alienating the moderate base of the party and it cost us dearly. Increasingly the more radical right has been taking control of the party. We are now pigeon holed as the group who is anti-abortion, anti-birth control, against a woman’s right to choose, against stem cell research, revising text books to reflect religious points of view and staunchly anti-gun control. We look like a bunch of right wing nuts.

Spector lost 200,000 Republicans who changed to become Democrats.
He was facing a primary where he would have lost to a right wing Republican, his base had left the party. By switching he regained his base and added the rest of the Obama Democrats to his side. The last election was the first time Pennsylvania went Democratic in ages. The reflects strongly the unpopular positions the Republicans continue to advocate.

Here is a few facts. The average American is a moderate/conservative. If we can’t attract these people back, we will continue to lose and lose badly. If we don’t step out of the box we have put ourselves into, we will become a party of the past.

Look at the tea parties. They signs people carried attacked Obama and they also attacked the Republican party. The Republican party was an unwanted entity at these rallies. Look at the issues the people were demonstrating for, that’s where our future lies. The right wingers who can’t understand that, should not be allowed to lead the party. Dump the old garbage before we drown in it.

This isn’t the end of the GOP – but it helps confirm the Democrat’s lock on the North East and that security allows the Dems to take the fight to states that turned blue in the last election. The party needs to change – change in ways that would allow it to acknowledge legitimate differences of opinion, rather than engage in internal ideological (or worse – theological) witch hunts. The GOP cant win with just the south and the mid-west and so long as the party practices social intolerance at the national level, they will fail to gain traction outside of these areas since they wont field a candidate in line with local values. The only good news is that now that the party has completely lost control of the financial apparatus of the state, the electorate will have time to forget the fiscal mis-management of the last 8 years.

As for those who would clutch this ideological purity to there chest in defeat, I recommend reading a good biography of a Roman who did the same. And ultimately his ideological purity came at expense of the Republic – Cato the Younger.

Arnie could have been the standard bearer, but has blown it in California over the last 5 years.

Not only that, smaller government and energy independence may well be mutually exclusive concepts. e.g. if Bussard’s project works, who’s going to fund the builing of a few hundred of these?