Peggy Noonan is one of my favorite writers and commentators. Her recent column ('Shrink to Win' Isn't Much of a Strategy) leaves me a bit disheartened though. I am seeing a growing trend with people that I consider to be quite intelligent falling more and more under the sway of the Obama. Ms. Noonan's fawning over Obama at the beginning of her column reminds me a bit of a young girl swooning over a rock star.
Though, in general I agree with much of what she says as to the state of the Republican party I disagree that all of it is self inflicted.
"A great party allows everyone in, and allows prospective members to self-define. If they say they're Republicans, they should be welcomed and helped to find a place where they fit. A great party has a lot of such places. A great party is expansive. A great party has give."
The Republican party is still a great and inclusive party. There are few within the party that have indicated otherwise. Most of the claim that the Republican party is not inclusive comes from the left, Democrats and the MSM (and I am being multiply redundant here). They are the ones that keep trying to ram down the throats of the American people issues like abortion and gay marriage. The left pillories our military might not the Republicans. It is kind of like a person who is bitten by a dog because they keep taunting the dog and do not heed its warnings. The dog is blamed and put down. Thus is the case for Republicans, we are accused of being none inclusive because we stand by the principles that are the "poles" of our tent - as Noonan likes to allude to. The Democrat party is the party of no principles. Noonan admires how easily the Obama morphs to fit the current poll results - well it is easy to do so when you have no principles that guide you. You can be anything any hour or day of the week. Yes, the Republicans are without a strong leader - it wasn't McCain - and that is not being uninclusive. He just didn't represent his party. That Specter left the party because he knew couldn't win re-election makes my point on standing on ones principles. Rats always leave a buring building. I do not recall ever being asked as a Republican do you adhere to all of the tent poles of our party. For a true Republican it doesn't matter your gender, your race or your sexual orientation as long as you acknowledge that they are not what define you - as in you are an individual not a member of an identity group. More and more true Republicans are coming out against the group identity movement - the left - and thus more and more are being called not inclusive - though they are quite the contrary.
GordianGuy:
ReplyDeleteYou wrote: "Most of the claim that the Republican party is not inclusive comes from the left, Democrats and the MSM "
You are correct, obviously, but in my humble opinion, that touches the periphery of the problem. I could be dead wrong, but I think the heart of why we are out of power is that the democrats are, and always have been, great gutter-fighters....junk-yard dogs.
We (Republicans) FINALLY learned how to outfight them when Trent Lott got into power. The democrats destroyed him for, in my view, a triviality. But they knew how to build a mountain out of a mole-hill. Newt Gingrich and Tom Delay got into power and brought about a revolution in how to handle the radical Left. The democrats knew this and aimed their entire arsenal on destroying them, too. They succeeded, again, on trivialities (in my view...nothing like Teddy Kennedy's disgraceful conduct all of his life, for which the Right gave him a "pass"), and from those days, the Republican party went downhill. Though still in power, we elected a succession of wimps to lead the House and Senate....the reason we are in the mess today. Warner was a total sucker, who, like McCain, thought he was a Grand Senator that could "reach across the aisle," and was suckered every time, as was McCain. Do you know of a democrat who ever "reached across the aisle" with sincerity? No! When they did, it was to pick the pockets of, or emasculate, the Grand Senator types, the "right thinking," "fair minded" dupes, like McCain. That excellent doctor, Bill First, a following Senate Majority Leader, was a nice guy, but a weakling who finished dead last. A total loss. Mitch McConnell was/is no better: a pleasant, fair-minded wimp. Specter, that fatuous ass, not only "reached across the aisle," but he crossed the aisle and was immediately emasculated yesterday by the junkyard dogs, stripping him of all seniority perquisites.of power..
In the House, Dennis Hastert, another "nice guy," was not up to the battle. Boener is no better.
It comes down to this: Look who lead in the House and Senate: Pelosi and Reid. Are they fair-minded? Do they reach across the aisle? Or did they rise to power by being the foulest type of back-stabbing, junkyard dogs and who now beat the crap out of Republicans, who reel in shock and timidity in the face of their arrogant brutality?
To close the loop, the main issue as to why we are out of power is not "inclusion." It is a side issue. In my humble opinion, Peggy Noonan has become a "loose cannon on deck." A sycophant who wants to be on the "winning side." Bill O'Reilly succumbed to that too, after Obama deigned to be on his show....or maybe O'Reilly was simply cultivating his own power, panting hopefully for more access to Mr. Obama.
The gut issue/determinant on who is in power now and why, is "who is the best gutter-fighter." Pure and simple. This is followed closely by "who is willing to promise freebees to the masses?"
Republicans lose badly on both points....though standing correctly on limiting freebees....a powerful addictive to the masses.
I was SHOCKED to hear (I think) at one time that Kissinger, as Secretary of State, stated privately that communism was a wave that could not be stopped and would conquer in the end; that the phony concept of "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need " was irresistible. Though the USSR has crumpled, that corrupting, unworkable concept is sprouting again, like a horrible mutation that keeps changing form, but leads to the same end. Kissinger may have been right after all.
In my opinion, that sickness is permeating the majority of the electorate, a sickness calculated, cultivated and nurtured by the Leftists, and it bodes ill for our country. The Left is only interested in POWER NOW (like that corrupt Specter), and the hell with the future of out nation. Republicans make the painful, but correct, long term decisions. Democrats do not. The "undecideds" in the middle who are unable to grasp long term consequences, remember the pain and vote accordingly. The Left knows this and feeds upon it.
No, abortion and homosexuality, etc., are not heartfelt issues to the Left. They could care less for either of them. They are the AMMUNITION to destroy the right. The bomb-throwers on the Left have only one heartfelt issue: POWER.
Fortunately, that "majority" of which I wrote has still a bit slender lead. There are, in my opinion, good-hearted, but shallow thinking folks at the margin who, like Peggy Noonan, are romantics, who have yet to learn that "falling in love with love is falling for make-believe." When the awful truth emerges in the next couple of years (or hopefully before the 2010 elections), as it did just before Newt was swept into power, we may see the slender reed bend our way. But we need, seriously, to get Newt and Delay back into power. I know of no other Republicans standing in the wings who can match even a SMALL percentage of their moxie A long shot, I know.
Newt tossed his hat into the ring for the recent presidential race, and the "Goodie Two Shoes" Republicans pooped into it. They ran McCain, a good, though misguided and easily deceived, man, instead. Consistent bad choices, that's the problem with us.
The Left are masters at demonizing the Right. We need warriors, not wimps.
Talk about rants....
El Greco