Posted by
philosophocon on Tuesday, June 03, 2008 11:58:10 PM
I was over at Rush's website today, and he and I agree on
many things when it comes to how the conservative movement should be
rebuilt. Of course, what makes life more interesting is our little disagreements.
Rush: I have a fear that John McCain secretly wants to destroy
the Republican Party. After he gets the election, if he does, he's going
to take out after conservatives. I just think he's going to come after
conservatives as much as any liberals would. Where we are is we have
squandered every victory we had since 1993, 1994, the House Republican freshman
class taking over Bush winning in 2000 and 2004
with a majority Republican Congress for much of his two terms, we squandered it.
Me: That's an understatement.
Rush: The first midterm election
is the target here. Not 2012, but 2010.
Me: Again, correct. We need a new wave of conservative lawmakers
akin to those elected under the Contract With America.
Rush: The first order of
business, regardless who wins the presidency, 'cause it's not going to matter,
the first order of business will be to continue to discredit liberalism in the
eyes of as many people as possible. They, liberals and liberalism, must
and will be the continued target, because they're moving the agenda that our
side is accepting.
Me: Sure, and between Rush, GunnyG and the Crawfish we've got that pretty much
covered.
Rush: Well, there's a second reason for
voting for McCain -- I hate to say makes sense -- but there's another reason to
put in that column, let me put it that way, and that is taxes. (The first was
foreign policy, identified by a caller)
Me: While Rush is hardly endorsing McCain, I
personally have a strong belief that who the next President is does matter because a McCain Presidency is antithetical to the
goal of rebuilding the conservative movement through the election of
conservative representatives.
First of all, one of the reasons why the
House Republican freshman class was successful was because they had Bubba to
run against. There’s no Contract With America if the
sitting President had been a Republican.
How can there be a Republican revolution in Congress if the President is
also a Republican (even if he really should be a Democrat)? Also, the reason they were able to continue to be successful, both in terms of what was accomplished legislatively and in the following elections was there ability to define and fight for who they were and against who they weren't , i.e. Bubba and the Dems.
Once Bush was electing he did the defining of who the Repuclicans were, which turned out not to be very conservative, and they couldn 't/wouldn't fight against Bush when he wasn't being conservative. How would that be any different for elected members of the Houses under McCain?
Secondly, by virtue of his becoming
President, McCain redefines the image of the party, both publicly and in terms
of its internal machinery. Also, the
term conservative gets to be further redefined by McCain and more significantly
the media. It’s hard enough to be
conservative now, how many of us would still wish to be called conservative
when it means being like him?
This is the greatest of all potential
disasters. I give you two words, Brian
Mulroney. He was a Conservative Party
Prime Minister in Canada for two terms (1985-1993), and when he was elected for
his first term led the largest majority government in Candian history.
However, by the end of his second term his
image was so tarnished that in the following election his party was reduced to
just two seats from 151 in the House of Commons, two out of just under 300. Things were so bad that a second ‘conservative’
party was formed and had a member elected even before the general election in 1993. Yep, those votes were sure thrown away. And the Conservative party was effectively
banished to the wilderness for 13 years, not returning to power until 2006, and
then only with a minority government.
So to all those who say Obama must be stopped
at all costs so hold your nose, with both hands if necessary, and vote McCain,
I say the following. We all know that
Obama will only have one term, well unless the stupid party manages to help
re-elect him. The same is likely true of
McCain. And it is also probably true
that Obama will inflict slightly more damage to the country than McCain over
the course of that term. However what is
worse, the incremental damage from Obama for one term or the damage done by the
raft of successive Democrat Presidents and Congressional majorities that a McCain
Presidency would be very likely to engender?