Democratic Socialists believe that both the economy and
society should be run democratically—to meet public needs, not to make profits
for a few. To achieve a more just society, many structures of our government and
economy must be radically transformed through greater economic and social
democracy so that ordinary Americans can participate in the many decisions that
affect our lives. (From the
web-site http://www.dsausa.org/dsa.html )
This is the "change" all Democrat candidates are promising in
their campaigns. Beyond the obvious personality differences between Hillary
Clinton, Barack Hussein Obama and John Edwards, there is no ideological
difference between the candidates. So Democrats are voting for one or the other
on the basis of personality alone. If individual personality decides the
Democrat nomination, Barack Obama wins. If Hillary wins, it’s based on Bill’s
personality, not Hillary’s.
No matter which of the three Democrats you support, you are
supporting wide open Democratic Socialism. We have even renamed it "progress" so
that you can feel patriotic about it.
Republicans in 2000
The Republican Party nominated George W. Bush not knowing
exactly what he meant by his campaign slogan "compassionate conservative." Seven
years later, we all know that "compassionate conservative" means Republican
Socialist.
Over the last seven years, it wasn’t Democrats, who passed
McCain-Feingold against the First Amendment, who grew federal social spending at
a historic rate, who fought for an open society via wide open borders and
demanded legalized illegal immigration, it was Republicans. Yes, many Democrats
were quite pleased to support these compassionate Republican policies, which had
been adopted from the liberal Democrat playbook. But it was a Republican White
House and a Republican congress which advanced the very agenda Bush was elected
to defeat.
Bush was elected as the lesser evil to Al Gore in 2000. He was
re-elected in 2004 as the lesser evil to John Kerry. And even though there
remains little doubt that both Gore and Kerry would have indeed been far worse,
seven years with Bush makes many Republicans wonder how much worse it could
really be… They are about to find out.
Republicans in 2006
Independent and Republican voters attempted to teach the
Republican National Committee a lesson by tossing nearly ever incumbent
Republican up for re-election, from office in 2006. Based upon early Republican
primary results, it appears that nobody has learned a thing from that 2006
lesson.
Republicans in 2007
Convinced that they had to take matters into their own hands
and less than impressed by the National Committee choices, core conservatives at
the base of the Republican Party went outside the system, at odds with the
National Committee and drafted their own candidate for the 2008 presidential
contest. That candidate is Fred Thompson.
Believing that the nation can not be united other than on
socialist policies, which will only further bankrupt an already financially
troubled nation, core conservatives decided to draft a real true traditional
conservative leader that had the potential to re-unite all factions of the
Republican Party and rally American conservatives of all brands, around a fully
conservative platform in the tradition of our founding fathers.
Conservatives were not looking to unite the nation which can
not be united. They were looking to unite their fractured party around the
principles it was built upon, and lead the nation away from the socialist
abyss.
Republican voters in 2008
But in 2007 and 2008, the Republican electorate is proving to
be more ideologically confused and politically divided than ever in U.S.
history. I’m not sure that anyone had a good grip on just how divided the
Republican Party is at present, until the early primary results started coming
in.
No less than nine Republicans announced their intentions to
become president. And the Republican electorate remains divided between the
nine, including those who have already dropped out of the race and those who
have never had any chance of winning.
We had three different winners in the first three primaries,
none of them with even 40% support from their own voters, which means, each
opposed by more than 60% of their own voters. The Republican Party is as far
from united as it has ever been.
Divided, they will fall
Even the most foolish voter knows that their party can not
succeed in November with a completely divided party electorate. Yet few include
themselves in the need to consider all options and find a way to unite with
other Republicans behind a truly Republican agenda.
Our choice of candidate is divided by our divided individual
agendas. The Republican Party was once the home of the conservative agenda.
Republicans didn’t always seek to cherry pick which items to be conservative
about and which to be compassionate about. But today, the party has been cherry
picked to pieces.
Only Two Types of Republicans
Though the current division leads many to believe that there
are many different types of Republicans, there are in fact only two types.
Type One – Believes that the Republican Party is Americas
Conservative Party, built upon conservative principles and values aimed at
protecting and preserving founding principles for future generations at all
cost. For this type of conservative, the notion of uniting the nation is a silly
idea. Recognizing the Yin and Yang, the left and right, the wrong and right, the
principle of opposing pressures and the reality of polarizing political extreme
oppositions, means that uniting these opposing forces is an earthly
impossibility.
This means that one side must win and one side must lose. For
type one Republicans, they see only a need to stick to fundamental principles
and values in an effort to unite their party, in an effort to defeat their
opponents, rather than try to unite with them for some false greater common
good.
For type one Republicans, if you’re not conservative, you’re
not Republican. Type one wants a candidate like Fred Thompson or Duncan Hunter,
who promises to stand on conservative values and principles, and beat back those
who seek to drive America further into the socialist abyss.
Type Two – Believes that it is possible and more important to
unite the nation, than to unite the party. So type two seeks the opposite type
of candidate sought by type one. They seek a candidate who offers to work with
the left, compromise with the left, sometimes even side with the left, for the
purpose of uniting the nation, even if it tears the party apart.
Type two Republicans prefer a candidate that they believe
appeals to moderate voters, be they Republican, Democrat or Independent. They
seek a national leader acceptable to all political ideologies, in the name of
uniting the country. This is the thought process behind candidates like McCain,
Huckabee, Romney and Giuliani.
The driving question in the mind of voters behind these four
candidates is, which can unite the most moderate cross section of voters in the
general election to defeat the Democrat candidate. Of course, to a degree, the
main purpose of the campaign is lost the minute this thought process begins,
because one trying to appeal to all voters, must compromise all principles and
values to do so.
In the end, even if they win, they lose. Even if they defeat
the Democrat, but adopt Democratic Socialist policies in order to attract
Independent and Democrat voters, what have they won?
The Lesser Evil
Type One Republicans drafted a candidate that was not going to
be a lesser evil for a change. But the Republican electorate is failing to unite
behind their core principles and the candidate who was drafted by the people to
represent those principles. This is a principle driven core of the Republican
Party.
Type Two Republicans are willing to sell their principles for a
winner in the horse race, even though winning the race will be a hollow victory
with another lesser evil being the best possible outcome. This is the populist
driven "big tent" of the new Republican Party. Type Two Republicans bicker over
which of their four moderates has the best chance of defeating Democrats in
November. But Type One Republicans have already given them the answer they don’t
want to hear, none of the above, because the core of the Republican Party will
not vote for any of them.
For any of the four Type Two candidates to win in November,
they will have to do so without the base of the Republican Party, which means,
they much attract enough liberal Democrats and Independent voters away from the
DNC to win.
Democratic Socialism vs. Republican
Socialism
If Type One Republicans win the nomination process, the general
election will be a clear and obvious choice between Democratic Socialism and Old
Fashioned Americanism. Now that Hunter has dropped out, Thompson is the only
remaining conservative in the GOP race. Pundits are pushing him to drop out at
every opportunity.
But if Type Two Republicans win the nomination process, the
general election will be a much less obvious choice between Democratic Socialism
and the lesser evil of continued Republican Socialism. This is exactly the kind
of battle the leftist press and Democrats are hoping for in 2008.
Hillary was never going to win in 2008 without a divided
conservative vote. Republicans are committing suicide in this regard. They are
guaranteeing a divided Republican electorate by nominating a Type Two candidate
that will leave the base of the party out of the booth on Election Day.
Before the Republican Party can challenge the left across the
aisle on anything, it must leave the leftist ideas itself and nominate a
candidate driven to defeat the left, not compromise with the left. But they have
failed to heed the warning shots fired in 2006.
Sadly, it appears Republicans are not yet prepared to choose
conservatism. It seems they will have to endure another Carter-like era before
they will remember why they were Republicans to begin with.
America is headed for tough times and this time, Republicans
will be to blame. They had a chance to unite on conservative principles behind a
conservative candidate and they passed.
History will prove this to be a costly mistake… GOP suicide.