Speaking as a RINO, (and there are lots of different kinds) I'm willing to let the label die. I happen to like an old school of Republican that got kicked in the teeth by knuckleheads like Tom DeLay and Trent Lott who did nothing but strongarm Congress into something resembling the WWF instead of a deliberating intelligent body. And what did that get us? Zero. Zilch. Nada. Nothing.
There is no legislation out of Congress that any Republican is proud of, and it's the job of Republicans, not ideologues like Viguerie or private citizens like Dobson, to make the government work. And applying ideological tests to the practical business of running government is IDIOTIC. Smart people know this because they are rightly scared to death about Obama micromanaging battle tactics in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The right thing to do is leave it to the professional experts on the ground.
The problem with the Republican Party is that we have failed to generate interest and accountability to professional experts on the ground. Every Republican rightly blames Barney Frank for presiding over foolishness at the GSEs. OK so who was our man? Some tried to say it was John McCain, and he did have his differences, but they were differences of opinion that in the end didn't make the critical difference. Republicans have over-relied on the Executive, and the executive branch has not worked well enough with Congress on a professional basis. That leave Party politics with nothing to talk about but ideological issues which are now flat-footed and impractical.
It is facile and false to assert as some do, that conservative ideas are bankrupt as evidenced by the failures in our financial system. It is fair to say that Republicans fixated elsewhere and left the professional jobs to political stuff. In other words, Republicans paid so much attention to what hay could be made on politics and cranking out majorities from the base, that we took our eyes off the ball of content. For example, we talked for MONTHS about fired lawyers in the DOJ without ever thinking about what those lawyers were even supposed to do. Now I tell you what's going to happen, because I'm going to be part of it. That is that Republicans and Democrats are going to adopt economists, just like we adopted experts on terrorism, and the ideological battle is now heading toward Keynes vs Hayek. It will be on Obama to DO, but the wars of ideology will continue.
For Steele to get the GOP in order is a no-brainer. All he has to do is knock on more doors and get more money from more people. Obama won the White House with no ideas whatsoever. Ideology is nice, but the party lives and dies on votes and money. Fighting your own team is what losers do and right now we're the losers. The new larger GOP will be happy when it starts winning congressional races for whatever reason. And when Hugh Hewitt stops spitting on the ghost of Lincoln Chaffee it will be a welcome relief.
The Conservative Movement, chapter one is complete. We won. It's over. Everybody knows what those values are. They're alive. They're everywhere. They're correct and they're boring. Everybody wants a tax cut. So what? Everybody can live with smaller government. So what? People who value life will continue to and those who don't won't have real families, they'll have institutions and dysfunction. So what? As soon as America gets attacked, the hawks have their way like they always do, we roll up our sleeves and kick ass. So what? Companies who can't compete in the free market will die because at some point every American will revolt against taxation. Entitlements will bankrupt the system. So what? Everybody knows these things, but only a few people can fix them. And the Republicans have not been COMPETENT to make the conservative ideas that EVERYBODY KNOWS work in American government.
Talk is cheap. Wino, RINO, albino. I don't care. Show me some Republicans who can get the job done for America.
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