At first blush I didn’t like it. I’m on board with cleansing the Republican party of the big Rs and replacing them with little rs. But I can’t help but think this may not be a bad idea.
Republicans are getting inspiration on how to rebuild their party in the U.S. Congress from an unlikely source: White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.
California Representative Kevin McCarthy, the chief recruiter for House Republicans, said he wants his party to select candidates based less on ideology and more on their chances of winning. The goal, he said, is to seek out prospects who are ethnically diverse, female, less partisan and even supportive of abortion rights. So far, these efforts are more concept than reality….
“Have you read ‘The Thumpin’?” McCarthy, 44, asked, citing a book about Emanuel’s brass-knuckles approach to winning control of the House for Democrats in 2006. “This isn’t original thought.”…..
In the 2006 election, Emanuel, 49, recruited anti- abortion, pro-gun candidates such as Brad Ellsworth, 50, a sheriff in Indiana, and Heath Shuler, 37, a former NFL quarterback, in North Carolina. The premise: identify candidates whose views best mirror those of their districts’ constituents rather than Democratic Party orthodoxy…..
House Republican Whip Eric Cantor, an anti-abortion rights conservative from Virginia, didn’t appear to rule it out when asked if he would back pro-choice candidates.
“The essence of being a Republican is the belief in free markets, the belief in individual responsibility, the belief in the faith of the individual,” he said. “This is what our party is about.”
The republicans are taking a beating, but I don’t think it has to do with the abortion issue. A new poll shows that more Americans think of themselves as pro-life. If you ask me, that issue is a distraction. When a majority of Catholics vote for the most radical presidential candidate on abortion, you know people are thinking of other things when they head into the polling booth.
Do I think Roe v. Wade is bad law? Yes. Am I pro-life? Yes. But I do believe it’s an issue that should be left to the states? Yes. It’s the same thing with gay marriage. The federal government should stay out of it. The United States is a REPUBLIC, made up of 50 sovereign states. That’s what the REPUBLICAN party should be focused on! Social issues are state and local issues.
Social issues should be battled at the local, not the federal, level. I know, the Supreme Court can turn any local issue into a federal issue. They shouldn’t, and Americans should know that, but they don’t. That’s why Barack Obama was elected. I remember when the Kelo decision came down, a number of people wrote to our local paper blaming it on Bush. They thought that a conservative SCOTUS decided to violate property rights of Americans. The newspaper they sent their complaints to did a horrid job of informing them – they failed to mention that the four conservatives on the court dissented.
Americans worry about their future, they worry about the future of their children, and yes – they are guilted into worrying about every other poor soul out there in the world. And, unfortunately, they believe their newspapers.
If a candidate is “moderate” on social issues, but conservative when it comes to fiscal issues and matters of law, why not give him or her a second look? Our republic is beying destroyed before our eyes. We are being forced into collective bankruptcy. That is the most important issue of the day.
Trust me - I hate to break it to you - if the statists have their way you’re going to wish you were aborted.
It would certainly make us feel better for the GOP to kick ass and take names, but I’m afraid the metamorphosis will require more subtlety than that!
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I think it’s what the GOP has to do. Because some of this ‘no room unless you’re ultra conservative” did not win an election for them. And I think a liberal conservative is less dangerous than a conservative liberal!
Listen, Rahm managed to get elected the most liberal, unabashedly Socialist, American-heritage hating president of our lifetime! Even the British noted that he was a Socialist and that in America it was impolite to say so–that Team Rahm had managed to do that.
I may have to hold my nose, but if it works–do it.
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I prefer to lose more seats next time around if we have to, because by the time fill seats with moderates, we’ll NEVER get them out. If it means we have to compromise, this is the time to do it. By then, perhaps conservatives will be so sick and tired of liberalism and moderation sucking the life blood out them that we vote in true conservatives.
I consider myself conservative but I’m not ultra-right-wing. I want smaller government in every aspect of my life. That takes care of most issues.
I posted on this article yesterday. I felt defeated when I read it. It was a terrible way to close-out the evening.
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