The Savage Republican

It’s 1:00 a.m. on 7 November, 2006, Election Day for the mid-term elections.

I’ve started the post mortem early with politicians and some RINO’s here locally in mind. The RINO’s I have in mind are not politicians. I’ve served with them on campaigns and committees. The keep trying to impress me with their credentials hoping that I’ll accept them as conservative. That being said, they only impress me as having the very same virus as the Republicans that are now in heavy spin.

I’m starting my day after my Bible readings and meditations, with coffee, and now am listening to Laura Ingraham. And her advice to the Repubs? Don’t wait until October 1^st of an election year to start paying attention to your base. It becomes pandering at that late date. She mentioned the Harriet Miers disaster, the Dubai Ports deal, no reform of Social Security, amnesty for illegals just to name a few. Here locally we’ve got the horrible stadium deal, fees instead of taxes, ethanol/E85 subsidies, and Republican senatorial candidates running ads against the oil industry. Laura has just had on Robert Novak who has written some great articles. I read where once again I’m being warned about the Senate and judicial nominations. I remember that same carrot being held out two years ago when I joined many others to work chasing the same carrot. And was given Harriet Miers.

There are plenty of articles and blogs that have warned the Repubs that the day of reckoning was approaching. Dick Armey wrote an insightful piece as did Fred Barnes. But then, there is this piece today from the WSJ by Arthur Brooks. Brooks refers to the rightward tilt of the country. That if right versus left were a seesaw, Nancy Pelosi would be doing an air dance and a Democratic House majority would just mean that her shoes are a few inches closer to the Mother Earth that she and the other lefties try to put on God’s Eternal Throne. The gross and overarching error in the article is that Brooks assumes that Republican = conservative. He states “long-term trends are still distinctly right wing.” I’d posit that what he really means is the long term trends are less left wing. When I see the federal register still growing, tax cuts not made permanent (or at least kinda’ permanent-remember the two tier tax levels from the Reagan Presidency and where we are now?) Now, to give Brooks his due, he has a book that really proves that churchy going conservatives really are more compassionate by what they personally give, not what they vote to force others to give to horrible, disastrous and evil government programs.

P.S. 11-07-06 1:09 p.m. I voted.