im_a_pepper
08-18-2007, 06:35 PM
Groin kicking and then uplifting article. IS this finally the turning of thought the we have been waiting for?:eek:
Stick with the article, it drags you through the almost undeniable fact of Hillary crushing any Republican against her in the Primary then dips in the horrid vision of the Clinton dynasty grabbing the reins of Bush's out-of-control powered presidency and the power she would wield.
But wait..... who is that off in the distance riding in on his Iron Horse of Constitutional Truth and Liberty halfway through the article poised as our only savior?
AMERICAN CHRONICLE: TO SAVE HOMELAND OR EMPIRE?
Kent Nowviskie
August 18, 2007
In November of 2006, the citizen-voters of the United States swept a Republican majority out of the Congress and handed dominance of that august body over to the party of the Democrats. In one fell swoop, the GOP, which had been riding high on having a Commander in Chief in the White House and a majority in both houses of Congress, found themselves suddenly under the sway of a Democratic majority.
It is unlikely that this election was fought over social policy, as a number of the Democrats taking seats from incumbent Republicans were socially conservative or “Blue Dog” Democrats, like Virginia’s Jim Webb, whose narrow slide into the Senate tilted that house's balance toward the Dems by one vote. It is fairly clear that people weren’t looking for moral leadership from the Democrats. So on what issue was this election decided?
Depending on which set of partisans you ask, you’ll get different answers, but by many indices, the election essentially amounted to a referendum on the Bush administration’s policies on the Middle East. The financial and human costs of carrying on an undefined war on Islam were mounting, and the middle class was beginning to chafe under the weight. When the election finally came along, it was as though the plebeians had sent a message to Rome which read, “We are tired of carrying your Empire.” As neatly as that, the Republican majority was undone.
Even so, the new Democratic majority quickly proved itself ineffectual. Resting on their laurels, the Democrats have accomplished virtually nothing since attaining their majority, with the notable exception of raising the minimum wage. On the war front, they have merely blustered and played games with “Non-Binding Resolutions”, all while continuing to avoid actually doing anything substantive to end the war. One of them, Senator Hillary Clinton of New York, even stood in front of a crowd in Iowa and admitted that she had no intention of bringing our troops home from Iraq because "we cannot lose sight of our very real strategic national interests in this region.”
Meanwhile, on the Home Front, they’ve been happily colluding with their Republican colleagues to hand unconstitutional domestic spying powers over to the President. They’ve also been following the lead of their friends in the media by keeping their mouths shut as President Bush issues executive order after executive order, each one dismantling our civil liberties piece by fragile piece. They quietly acquiesce, simply biding their time until their gal roundly defeats Mitt Thompson or Doug Romney in the 2008 presidential election, takes the reigns of the Empire, and assumes those unconstitutional powers for herself.
But is the resurrection of the Clinton Dynasty assured? Is it certain that Hillary Clinton will defeat Doug Romney in the 2008 election? Well, if the the president’s approval ratings, public opinion about the war, and the results of the '06 election are any indicators, it is almost guaranteed that no Stay-the-Course Republican can defeat Hillary, who pays lip service to the public’s feelings on foreign policy, even if she then turns around and says something entirely different out of the other side of her face.
But therein lies the rub! Though one would have no inkling from watching the smirking suits on the evening news, reading the hot-off-the-AP-newswire stories of your ‘local’ paper, or listening to the disembodied voices of talk radio, there is a huge undercurrent of dissent within the Republican Party. Even as its leadership tries its best to present a unified front to the public and – perhaps more importantly – to its Democratic foil, the Republican Party finds itself locked in an existential struggle over how to retain relevance in a changing world.
On one side are the aforementioned Stay-the-Course Republicans, those who believe in (or claim to for matters of political expediency) the Wilsonian notion of “making the world safe for Democracy” by force of arms. This camp has been loudly trying to drown out any criticism of the Empire and vocally attempting to rationalize the disappearance of their own civil liberties. Until now, this camp has been dominant, having all the money and might of the Empire at its behest and the cheerleaders of talk radio and Fox News urging it on.
But the free exchange of ideas facilitated by the Internet has allowed for an opposing camp to mobilize within the Republican Party. Troubled less by bogeyman fears of third-world terrorists than by the workaday backdrop of growing domestic turmoil, financial insolvency, and totalitarian consolidation of federal power, they have more or less festered under the surface of the GOP’s smiling, unified visage, remaining invisible to all but the most politically aware. Many had found themselves marginalized and relegated to third parties, drifting away from the belligerent Republican Party faithful toward the Libertarians or the Constitution Party, but they are now migrating back into the Republican sphere.
What is drawing these erstwhile Republicans home? What is energizing the anti-Empire movement within the GOP? The answer is clear: the 2008 presidential election has introduced an exciting new element, a rallying point for these dissatisfied opponents of the Empire. The announcement of a presidential bid by Ron Paul, a congressman from Texas, has given vent to an eruption of anti-war, anti-Empire sentiment not seen among Republicans since the days of Barry Goldwater, and it is challenging the very definition of “Republican” on a daily basis.
Paul, a medical doctor whose ten terms in Congress have earned him the nickname “Dr. No” for his refusal to vote for any legislation not specifically authorized by the Constitution, has a consistent, principled record that no other candidate in either party can match. Unlike Clinton, he can honestly say that he had the foresight to vote against the Iraq war and the so-called Patriot Act.
If the Stay-the-Course Republicans are allowed to continue defining the party, it will be viewed just as it is now: a warmongering, authoritarian pillar of the Empire. They will continue to become increasingly difficult to distinguish from the Democratic Party on their domestic and financial agenda. They will also continue to push for expanding the Empire to the point of bankruptcy. It will cost them the election, and things will carry on just as before, only under a Democratic president.
On the other hand, if the constitutionalist wing of the Republican Party is allowed to set the tone, the party will find itself revitalized. Through the Beltway-outsider candidacy of Ron Paul, the Republicans will be able to capitalize on a growing dissatisfaction with the status quo all across the political spectrum. By framing themselves as the party of civil liberties, domestic prosperity, and peace, they can reap the benefits of being the only real anti-Empire party. They can then zero in on Clinton’s lackluster record on civil liberties and the war, and in so doing assure her defeat come November of ‘08.
But whether or not the Republican Party is truly capable of such insight remains to be seen. If they allow themselves to be lulled into complacency by the lullaby song of the Empire and convinced to “stay the course”, they will surely guarantee their own irrelevancy; however, should they prove themselves capable of the introspection required to change their course of action, they could find themselves riding a wave of populist fervor all the way to the White House.
To save Homeland or Empire? Which shall it be? This is the crossroads at which the Republican Party finds itself. Let us hope they choose the right path.
Hillary Slayer '08!
quoted from:
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=35398
Stick with the article, it drags you through the almost undeniable fact of Hillary crushing any Republican against her in the Primary then dips in the horrid vision of the Clinton dynasty grabbing the reins of Bush's out-of-control powered presidency and the power she would wield.
But wait..... who is that off in the distance riding in on his Iron Horse of Constitutional Truth and Liberty halfway through the article poised as our only savior?
AMERICAN CHRONICLE: TO SAVE HOMELAND OR EMPIRE?
Kent Nowviskie
August 18, 2007
In November of 2006, the citizen-voters of the United States swept a Republican majority out of the Congress and handed dominance of that august body over to the party of the Democrats. In one fell swoop, the GOP, which had been riding high on having a Commander in Chief in the White House and a majority in both houses of Congress, found themselves suddenly under the sway of a Democratic majority.
It is unlikely that this election was fought over social policy, as a number of the Democrats taking seats from incumbent Republicans were socially conservative or “Blue Dog” Democrats, like Virginia’s Jim Webb, whose narrow slide into the Senate tilted that house's balance toward the Dems by one vote. It is fairly clear that people weren’t looking for moral leadership from the Democrats. So on what issue was this election decided?
Depending on which set of partisans you ask, you’ll get different answers, but by many indices, the election essentially amounted to a referendum on the Bush administration’s policies on the Middle East. The financial and human costs of carrying on an undefined war on Islam were mounting, and the middle class was beginning to chafe under the weight. When the election finally came along, it was as though the plebeians had sent a message to Rome which read, “We are tired of carrying your Empire.” As neatly as that, the Republican majority was undone.
Even so, the new Democratic majority quickly proved itself ineffectual. Resting on their laurels, the Democrats have accomplished virtually nothing since attaining their majority, with the notable exception of raising the minimum wage. On the war front, they have merely blustered and played games with “Non-Binding Resolutions”, all while continuing to avoid actually doing anything substantive to end the war. One of them, Senator Hillary Clinton of New York, even stood in front of a crowd in Iowa and admitted that she had no intention of bringing our troops home from Iraq because "we cannot lose sight of our very real strategic national interests in this region.”
Meanwhile, on the Home Front, they’ve been happily colluding with their Republican colleagues to hand unconstitutional domestic spying powers over to the President. They’ve also been following the lead of their friends in the media by keeping their mouths shut as President Bush issues executive order after executive order, each one dismantling our civil liberties piece by fragile piece. They quietly acquiesce, simply biding their time until their gal roundly defeats Mitt Thompson or Doug Romney in the 2008 presidential election, takes the reigns of the Empire, and assumes those unconstitutional powers for herself.
But is the resurrection of the Clinton Dynasty assured? Is it certain that Hillary Clinton will defeat Doug Romney in the 2008 election? Well, if the the president’s approval ratings, public opinion about the war, and the results of the '06 election are any indicators, it is almost guaranteed that no Stay-the-Course Republican can defeat Hillary, who pays lip service to the public’s feelings on foreign policy, even if she then turns around and says something entirely different out of the other side of her face.
But therein lies the rub! Though one would have no inkling from watching the smirking suits on the evening news, reading the hot-off-the-AP-newswire stories of your ‘local’ paper, or listening to the disembodied voices of talk radio, there is a huge undercurrent of dissent within the Republican Party. Even as its leadership tries its best to present a unified front to the public and – perhaps more importantly – to its Democratic foil, the Republican Party finds itself locked in an existential struggle over how to retain relevance in a changing world.
On one side are the aforementioned Stay-the-Course Republicans, those who believe in (or claim to for matters of political expediency) the Wilsonian notion of “making the world safe for Democracy” by force of arms. This camp has been loudly trying to drown out any criticism of the Empire and vocally attempting to rationalize the disappearance of their own civil liberties. Until now, this camp has been dominant, having all the money and might of the Empire at its behest and the cheerleaders of talk radio and Fox News urging it on.
But the free exchange of ideas facilitated by the Internet has allowed for an opposing camp to mobilize within the Republican Party. Troubled less by bogeyman fears of third-world terrorists than by the workaday backdrop of growing domestic turmoil, financial insolvency, and totalitarian consolidation of federal power, they have more or less festered under the surface of the GOP’s smiling, unified visage, remaining invisible to all but the most politically aware. Many had found themselves marginalized and relegated to third parties, drifting away from the belligerent Republican Party faithful toward the Libertarians or the Constitution Party, but they are now migrating back into the Republican sphere.
What is drawing these erstwhile Republicans home? What is energizing the anti-Empire movement within the GOP? The answer is clear: the 2008 presidential election has introduced an exciting new element, a rallying point for these dissatisfied opponents of the Empire. The announcement of a presidential bid by Ron Paul, a congressman from Texas, has given vent to an eruption of anti-war, anti-Empire sentiment not seen among Republicans since the days of Barry Goldwater, and it is challenging the very definition of “Republican” on a daily basis.
Paul, a medical doctor whose ten terms in Congress have earned him the nickname “Dr. No” for his refusal to vote for any legislation not specifically authorized by the Constitution, has a consistent, principled record that no other candidate in either party can match. Unlike Clinton, he can honestly say that he had the foresight to vote against the Iraq war and the so-called Patriot Act.
If the Stay-the-Course Republicans are allowed to continue defining the party, it will be viewed just as it is now: a warmongering, authoritarian pillar of the Empire. They will continue to become increasingly difficult to distinguish from the Democratic Party on their domestic and financial agenda. They will also continue to push for expanding the Empire to the point of bankruptcy. It will cost them the election, and things will carry on just as before, only under a Democratic president.
On the other hand, if the constitutionalist wing of the Republican Party is allowed to set the tone, the party will find itself revitalized. Through the Beltway-outsider candidacy of Ron Paul, the Republicans will be able to capitalize on a growing dissatisfaction with the status quo all across the political spectrum. By framing themselves as the party of civil liberties, domestic prosperity, and peace, they can reap the benefits of being the only real anti-Empire party. They can then zero in on Clinton’s lackluster record on civil liberties and the war, and in so doing assure her defeat come November of ‘08.
But whether or not the Republican Party is truly capable of such insight remains to be seen. If they allow themselves to be lulled into complacency by the lullaby song of the Empire and convinced to “stay the course”, they will surely guarantee their own irrelevancy; however, should they prove themselves capable of the introspection required to change their course of action, they could find themselves riding a wave of populist fervor all the way to the White House.
To save Homeland or Empire? Which shall it be? This is the crossroads at which the Republican Party finds itself. Let us hope they choose the right path.
Hillary Slayer '08!
quoted from:
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=35398