Take a minute and let it sink in, what Mitt Romney said last night: “We need change all right, — change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington!” Explanation point. You can read the transcript here. It seems full of explanation points. It included a list of accusations each ending with, “It’s liberal!” Sort of like Dennis Kucinish’s “Wake up America. Wake up America. Wake up America.”, only, “It’s Liberal! It’s Liberal! It’s Liberal.”
But let it sink in: To root out this evil Liberalism that has gripped Washington, whose heads must roll? The fact is, the George W. Bush Republicans controlled the entire government for six years and two out of the three branches of the federal government the last two years. Bush will leave Washington, but the Bush Republicans will remain.
Gail Collins in her column at the New York Times said this: “Normally, in a democracy, the way you reform a party is by tossing it out of power until it learns its lesson and gets its act together. But the McCain-Palin plan is to reform Republicanism by keeping Republicans in control of the White House and most of the powerful posts in the federal government. That’ll show them”
I’m wondering if in this speech Romney was positioning himself to take the mantle of the far right — after, in most probability, McCain’s defeat.
Once again, “Republican” is falsely equated to “conservative” – either purposely or out of ignorance. Most Conservatives are Republican, but most Republicans aren’t conservative. The GOP is the “Big Tent” party ideologically, unlike the ideological purity seen in the coalition of society’s fringes in the DNC.
Conservatives have never controlled the Executive and Congress, let alone all 3 branches. We had Coolidge in the 20’s, Reagan in the 80’s, and the House for 4 years in the ’90s. Not coincidentally, the subsequent years were the halcyon days for the American economy and included the single greatest American foreign policy success – the collapse of the Soviet Empire.
I only wish George “LBJ” Bush was a Conservative with a conservative Congress; but a couple tiny tax rate cuts does not a Reagan make.
Romney had his head in the right place, although I found it ironic (and a tad psychotic) coming out of his mouth. He governed his state pretty liberally. He had, however, been campaigning during the primaries on Washington’s brokenness – i.e., the Bush administration’s out of control spending on education, foreign aid and bungled war.
McCain-Palin have done a great job of differentiating themselves from the current administration policy-wise. Hell, McCain didn’t appear too far from becoming a Democrat a few years ago. Reagan spent like mad, too – he was hardly conservative outside his values of God, family and personal responsibility. I just hope when McCain-Palin are elected they stand by their word of cutting spending, fiscal responsibility and FIGHTING corruption.
McCain showed poor judgment and no impulse control in choosing Puppet Palin. She’s desperately seeking power and lacks the qualifications for the office she currently holds. Sad, really. But, given that he didn’t seek treatment for melanoma until it was almost an inch across on his face, obviously he doesn’t have good judgment — a frightening quality under the circumstances. At 72 he seems out of touch – recently suggesting his wife would fit in as a contestant in a topless beauty contest in South Dakota (reported by the UPI). What next? Scary.
Palin is a Puppet, make no mistake. Reading the teleprompter seems to be her biggest accomplishment so far.
Cayla, you’re hysterical. Go kill a baby, and calm down.
Sarah Palin: Only a heartbeat away!
“desperately seeking power”?
Aren’t all politicians?
I’ve never seen Democrats so scared of the competition. I love it! McCain/Palin in ’08!
I don’t think there is anyone in there right mind that would say that America has a whole has shifted to the left in the last 40 years. Liberals are dead. The whole spectrum in decidedly redder than it was 20 years ago.
Bill Clinton was far removed from a liberal, NAFTA and Welfare Reform are some of his biggest “accomplishments” during office hardly traditional big government claims.
I think the definition of conservative and liberal really need to be examined because they mean varying things to different people.
Joe C wants to dispute whether conservatives have been in control. He can only cite Coolidge, Reagan, and the Gingrich congress as examples of conservatives in control.
Odd, however, that the “conservative” president gets credit and not his predominantly Dem congress, while the “conservative” congress gets credit and not the Clinton white house. Double standard, or just doubespeak?
And odd how the accomplishments of each, according to Joe, don’t happen while they’re in office, but in the subsequent decade.
I tend to judge people by their own standards. I keep hearing how “conservatives” are pro-family and how they want to promote individual initiative and private enterprise. Yet, again and again, conservatives have shown little regard for the sanctity of their own marriages: Reagan and McCain both committed adultry with their future trophy wives, and Gingrich is a serial adulterer–among others. They decry earmarks unless they’re the recipients (Palin took $27 million in special fed funds while mayor of her little Alaska town). They talk about levelling the playing field in the free market, but they play lobbyist shell games with Native Americans, energy corporations, pharmaceutical companies (Palin’s $27 million followed her hiring of a Washington lobbyist). They argue about the need for America to have a strong military, but then they undersize it and fail to equip it and run it into the ground through interminable, ill-defined adventures in nation-building.
Maybe Joe’s right; there are no real conservatives in the political arena. I personally doubt that there have been any national ones since Goldwater. Must be a bleak set of prospects facing that fringe this time around.