David

Karki

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March 31, 2008

John McCain Leads the Gutless Old Party

Increasingly, it seems that the Republican Party would rather quit or simply embrace liberalism than fight for the conservatism in which they used to believe. It doesn't seem to matter how little they have left to lose. They'll find some reason or other to keep going along in the same leftward direction as the Democrats, just a tiny bit more slowly.

They would apparently rather be the Vichy Republicans, named for the puppet government of France that Nazi Germany appointed in the city of Vichy during its World War II occupation. Just as some Frenchmen sold out their country and brethren for the trappings of entirely phony “power” – as if they could really do anything of which the Nazis disapproved – so too are many Republicans more than willing to adopt and implement the policies of their erstwhile “enemy” just so they can pretend they have more influence than they really do. As if they could really pass anything of which the Democrats disapproved.

And when it appears they cannot obtain even that, well then they simply quit. Some 29 House Republican members are not running for re-election this year, the second-highest total ever. I guess we know what their commitment to the conservative cause is. When the going gets tough, they get going – home.

Sadly, this is all happening at a time when Republicans ought to be thanking the Democrats for all the softballs they're tossing right down the middle of the plate. And yet, inexplicably and maddeningly, the GOP refuses to lift the bat off its shoulder and swing for the fences.

The Democrats tried to ram the biggest tax increase in history through, and this before the expiration of the Bush tax cuts, which itself represents another gargantuan tax increase. They are completely disconnected from reality on Iraq, and unable to loosen the choke-chain their far-left base has wrapped around their throat. And their two presidential candidates are both vociferous, hard-core anti-capitalists, determined to exterminate the private sector once and for all. And they are about to commit mutually assured destruction of each other with the nomination as the trophy going to the winner – or survivor, as the case may be.

In years past, Republicans would have fallen on their knees crying “Thank You, Jesus!” if handed such a situation, so ripe for exploiting. They'd have jumped all over the Democrats for their obsession with massive tax hikes, perhaps even quoting Reagan: “I have only one thing to say to the tax increasers: Go ahead, make my day!”

They'd flambé the Democratic leadership for their utter inability to be anything but the submissive to their base's dominant. (Hey, Democrats are into kinky stuff, right?)  And they'd raise hell over their blatant trashing of liberty and free markets. It's not Big Oil and Pharma you should fear, it's the EPA, FDA and the dozens of other alphabet soup bureaucracies forcing themselves into every aspect of your daily life.

Most of all, they'd be gleefully encouraging the impending meltdown on the other side and using it as the most illustrative example of all as to why Democrats are unfit to hold power – because they can't even manage their own party machinations without royally screwing them up. Instead, it's left to Rush Limbaugh to stage Operation CHAOS (Crush Hillary And Obama Simultaneously) so as to keep the port-side fur flying as much and as long as possible.

But alas, the GOP is instead neck-and-neck with MLB Commissioner Bud Selig in the impotence rankings. The silence coming from the right side of the aisle is deafening. They have so thoroughly wrecked their own credibility with their pork-a-holic spending while in power that even when handed this glorious opening, they can't bring themselves to make like the Prodigal Son and finally come the heck home.

Worst of all, you have the ostensible standard-bearer for the conservative cause openly parroting if not outright agreeing with many of the Democrats' positions! From border security to global warming to giving terrorists constitutional protection, he is indistinguishable from his “opponents.”

Senator John McCain, who will be the Republican presidential nominee, is no conservative and has spent the better part of the past decade sticking it to conservatives every way he can. He'll still reach out to his base, all right – moderates, independents, Democrats disliking both of their options and the mainstream media. But substantively, he's scarcely better than they are. And he's counting on a sufficient number of conservatives who feel they have no alternative voting for him with one hand while holding their noses with the other.

What does this say about a once-great party? The nation itself hangs in the balance, with the inmates a whisker away from taking over the asylum. And to top it off, they are very much divided against themselves, with two candidates who are equally appalling. The situation fairly screams for going strongly on offense.

And what are Republicans doing instead? Mimicking them, quitting and nominating the singularly worst-equipped presidential candidate to take advantage of the gift the Democrats are trying to hand them.

Perhaps it's time to change the acronym: GOP – Gutless Old Party.

© 2008 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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