RSS Feed MenuI am a 41-year-old small business owner in the financial energy space. I went to the University of Illinois, started as a clerk on the Chicago Merc and now am a well to-do-businessman (I even appear on Fox Business every Tuesday as an oil analyst of sorts). My father was a wounded Marine veteran of the Korean War. I have military members of my own family. So I understand well what conservative values are all about. I give thanks for my success (knock on wood) to the opportunity afforded me in this country. And for the economy, I give credit to the policies of Ronald Reagan, as much as any one individual can have an impact on such a complex engine. I believe in low taxes, less government spending on social engineering, school vouchers, freedom to opt out of the Madoff-like coerced Social Security scheme, a strong military, killing terrorists, etc. Yet I often feel the need to present my bona fides so to speak before having often heated discussions with unlikely foes lately… other conservatives.
I tell them I am old enough to remember Jimmy Carter — Obama is eerily reminiscent — but I really came of age under Mr. Reagan. I consider myself a true conservative and I do believe that the government that governs best governs least, as Jefferson said. (Although I am hardly a libertarian). I have watched in dismay how the Republican Party has been rendered impotent by straying so far from what I consider to be its apogee — the Contract with America — while appearing to be a bunch of gun-toting yahoos and religious zealots. (For the record I am a gun owner and am active in my Catholic Church…again more credentials). Since 1994, I have watched the party decay from a vibrant, energetic force of conservative values and policies into a consummate Washington insider behemoth, no more fiscally responsible than the Democrats they so often chided for their “tax and spend” ways. A group that seemed more concerned with Terri Schiavo than the fact that its party leader lobbed a placating health bill that Ted Kennedy could love! With “conservatives” like Bush, who needed liberals!
I remember when Zell Miller lamented in the 2004 convention, about what happened to the Democratic Party he once knew and loved. I now ask the same question today. It is a shame.
sinz54 // Mar 22, 2009 at 10:22 am
HollywoodBill: Polls taken in California in July 2008, *before* McCain picked Sarah Palin, showed him already trailing Obama by 24 points. Only 30% of Californians said they planned to vote for McCain. (http://tinyurl.com/culfpv) It wasn’t that McCain was doing relatively well in California until he picked Sarah Palin. McCain was already doomed there by the housing crisis–California had been hit particularly hard. There had also been a huge defection of Hispanic voters to Obama. I attribute that to the nativism displayed by many congressional Republicans in the fight over the immigration bill.
HollywoodBill // Mar 22, 2009 at 2:54 pm
McCain never was popular in CA. He was never able to help take any canidate over the finish line. His strong pro life stance was a real turn off to Independent and moderate voters. Palin’s religious extemism will always put California and libertarian Western states out of reach for her.
anderbilt // Mar 23, 2009 at 11:36 am
There’s an effective network of media and government figures that make up what is a very capable power politic “combine”, to apply the title given to the bi-partisan power-sharing scheme in Illinois. Until you fully realize the powerlessness that any “new” movement has in the face of that cabal, you can not hope to defeat or circumvent it in any appreciable way, and the speechifying and debating which ties up valuable time and thought in here is only drained away and made to serve the combine. I would again submit in here that the failure of 2008 was LEAST of all due to “conservative neanderthals” and MOST due to the way the system had been frontloaded to deliver two senators to the Presidential race. Please consider it, at any length.
barker13 // Mar 23, 2009 at 3:40 pm
re: bschaeffer2; 3/20/2009; 12:18 PM — Brad. Sorry for taking so long to get back to you. Had company over this weekend. Anyway… yeah… we agree… the GOP did indeed need a good housecleaning. I’m hoping that governors like Sanford and Palin and legislators like Coburn and the most sincere members of the Republican Study Committee can retake and remake the GOP back into a Reaganite, Gingrichian Party. Take care. BILL