I’m only surprised that he doesn’t complain about McCain putting him to sleep:
The McCain campaign has not only failed to enthuse Republicans, but left many conservatives depressed and ready for a November defeat, said Richard A. Viguerie, Chairman of ConservativeHQ.com.
“Senator McCain has never been a conservative, is not one now, and will not govern as one. From McCain-Feingold to cap-and-trade, he is a supporter of one Big Government scheme after another. History shows that, in the Oval Office, where almost all the political pressure comes from supporters of Big Government, he would only get worse.”
In a speech at Freedom Fest, a gatherigng of free market advocates, Viguerie harshly criticized Senator McCain’s past history and said he would not represent conservative values if elected president, reported Christian News Wire.
“You even have some conservatives who are considering voting for Barack Obama, because they fear McCain as president would destroy what’s left of the Republican brand and would finish off the conservative movement,” Viguerie said. “Their mood is that of the fatally ill patient who says ‘Let’s get this over with’.”
It’s impressive that the Republicans are so willing to go down with the ship. I always thought that politicians’ first instinct was political survival. Somehow this era’s breed of conservative was programmed to serve Dear Leader without regard to their own survival. A few voices here and there, like Viguerie, are documenting the atrocities, but it barely amounts to a whimper.
Have we reached some kind of turning point this year? The ideological activist base of both parties is loudly questioning the true identity of its presidential nominee. Dare I hope that my cherished dream of the Breaking of the Two Parties is on a roll?
I realize that there’s always buyer’s remorse, but this time seems different — partly because at least in the Dem case, the activists got their candidate, they thought. And on the Rep side, they somehow couldn’t find a credible figurehead.
So is there some kind of sea-change in the works, or am I just forgetting how it feels every election year?
There’s a sea change and it’s called political realignment. I think a pickup of 60 House seats is now a reasonable possibility and we’ll probably wind up with 56 Senate seats in a worst-case scenario. Topping sixty is looking increasingly doable.
And there isn’t anything the Republicans can do about it. They got their ‘maverick’ candidate but he’s running on a Bushist platform.
What you’re describing sounds more like a move to the Dems than a realignment, which would mean more of a rejection of both parties — or at least a change in the conventional wisdom about policy and ideology.
It’s good to see the lesser evil take power, but to me, realignment would mean some reason to expect a turning away from the evil. I have to wonder what happens if the Reps manage to rebuild a true conservative party out of their chaos while the Dems, flush with success, continue to dick around with “pragmatic” tactical diddling.
It makes my esophagus burn just thinking of it, but if that’s how it plays out, I can suddenly imagine ending my days as a Republican. May the gods forgive me.
Chuck Hagel is not about to go down with the ship.
The well connected Steve Clemons says
Hagel to Endorse Obama
glad to see that at least you picked up on this cause noone else has yet.
Well, for one thing, they don’t lose anything even if they lose. The 40 or so republicans in the US Senate will stop all meaningful legislation. The democrats, as just another wing of the bidness party will knowingly nod and wink and say what can we do. Of course, we can’t stop funding for the war. We have to cut social services, or the one or two that’s left, in order to be “fiscally responsible”. The result of there being no real opposition party is that things won’t change. So, the republicans will look fresh and new again in four years especially since we’re all agreed that we can’t and shouldn’t, for example, turn Act Blue into a third party effort. That would mean, if you were serious, and really wanted to scare the dnc, that you run your candidates Leiberman style in both the primary and the general election in order to make your point. But that won’t work, or at least we won’t even try to see if it could work. How courageous of us. Because it would be impossible to raise 1 million to seriously contest a house seat, or 2 million to seriously contest a senate seat, to fund a blog and canvass based campaign (theoretically cheaper) that would critique both parties. If only we had a heart…