I was in the process of writing a long-ish post about why I’m voting for Senator Obama next month, and who knows – maybe I’ll still finish and publish it. But if you want a good idea, just go visit The Corner on the National Review Online site. The amount of pettiness, paranoia, and hate filling that page is simply appalling.
Our world is facing some of the biggest problems in at least 50 years, and these idiots are actively ignoring them while encouraging John McCain to ramp up his public support of Muslim/Socialist/Terrorist conspiracy theories. This only serves to motivate the completely illogical hate spouted by McCain/Palin supporters like this:
I’ve been a conservative Republican for at least 16 of my 30 years (yes, I was and still am a huge political nerd), but I’m sorry – The Republican party does not deserve to win this Presidential election. The movement (if you can still call it one) is bankrupt of ideas and is pursuing the same losing strategy (Nobama) the Democrats used in 2004 (Anyone but Bush). And don’t even get me started on Sarah Palin…
I agree almost completely with Culture11’s David Kuo who wrote the following in a recent post:
…John McCain has no real idea why he should be president. He knows that he has grueling contempt for his opponent. He knows, intuitively, that he is a better, more tested man. But when it comes to specific policies and solutions he is intellectually, philosophically, and politically vacuous.
In that he is a perfect reflection of conservatism in America today.
Today’s conservatism is lost. It is so lost it doesn’t actually know if it lost at sea, lost in space, or lost in a desert. It lacks moral courage, a philosophical core, and intellectual certitude. McCain’s defeat will help change all of that because his defeat will lead to a debate within conservatism unlike anything in several decades.
I welcome that debate, and hope it revitalizes the movement and allows it to break free of the political dogma currently plaguing it. Until then, however, I’ll be voting for That One.
3 replies on “The Republicans Are a Sad, Pathetic Political Party”
There needs to be a concerted effort for another party altogether. I’d love to see a reform of the Green Party and make it viable option in our political system.
What ideas does Obama have? More taxes? How original. And get out of Iraq. More originality. That’s been the Democratic platform for years. Apart from that and the trumpeting of “change”, no other specifics, just change (McCain says change, but he’s been more detailed), he has offered what?
So as a conservative, you are willing to abandon the country to his insubstantial ideology for the mere sake of change?
BTW, I think he has an ideology, he’s just doing an Hillary move and hiding his agenda. Please reply if you think other and I’d love to hear your argument. No diatribes or rancor, just a little online discuss…
Randy:
Sorry this reply is late – some of my comment notifications ended up in my spam filter.
A lot has obviously happened in this country since your comment, but I’ll try to keep things relevant to when you wrote it.
I don’t think either campaign had a lot of original ideas – there rarely are any these days. The important thing Obama had going for him was that the ideas he campaigned on were distinctly different from McCain’s – the same ones we that mostly failed during the Bush administration. And if you think Obama ran (and won) a two year campaign on “change” without any specifics, you need to dig a little deeper. His policy proposals were well covered by newspapers and other media outlets.
And to answer your question, no – I don’t believe I’m abandoning our country to Obama’s “insubstantial ideology”. He has a liberal philosophy, no doubt. But based on his history in Illinois and his time in the Senate, I feel pretty strongly that he is not a partisan hack, and will in fact govern as a left-leaning moderate. He’s very much an intellectual (refreshing after the Bush years), and is very thoughtful about understanding all sides to an issue. I could be wrong about this, but I’m willing to give him a chance. I’ll hold him to it in 2012.
As for the Republicans, we deserved to lose this year. The party is bankrupt of ideas (it turns out tax cuts aren’t the answer to every problem), and desperately needs the debate happening right now. It is becoming increasingly old, rural, white, and religious, a niche that, if well served, looks forward to years of marginalization.
David Brookes was dead on when he said the immediate reaction to the election by some Republicans would be that the party lost because it “wasn’t conservative enough”. Frankly, the conservative principles that once won elections haven’t kept up with a changing country. Retreating to a core message of God, Guns, and Gays is not the answer. And neither is populism and anti-intellectualism.
I want, and we need, a healthy Republican party in the country. But, I don’t think that it’ll look like the one that’s currently out of power. I don’t know who will be the one to lead it out of the trench its currently in (Newt, again?), but I hope it happens sooner, rather than later.
Thanks for the comment,
Jason