OK…So, We’re a month away from the Republican Convention and here’s my take on where we are!
Gas is over $4.00 a gallon and I’m paying $65 dollars to fill up my Mercury Villager, (It’s a Mini Van. Forget buying a tin can that gets 40 mpg since I have a wife and 3 kids). I’m reading polls approaching 70 % of the American People that want to drill here and drill now yet the Democrats are standing in the way of drilling in ANWR and on the outer continental shelf for oil. It’s been 30 plus years since a new refinery has been built in this country and the Democrats are standing in the way of building any new ones.
My electric bill is approaching $300 a month and the Democrats are still standing in the way of building clean coal fired power plants. They’re also standing in the way of building nuclear power plants. If that’s not enough, some Democrats want to shut down production of electricity from wind powered turbines because it ruins their views from Nantucket Sound and kills the little birdies that fly between the spinning turbine blades! Yet other Democrats oppose Solar Technology because it would pollute the landscape.
I’m reading polls where 60%+ of the American People are fed up with illegal immigration and want our laws enforced. Yet the Democrats still stand by their stated goals of open borders, bilingual education, free healthcare and welfare benefits for illegal aliens and Sanctuary Cities. Democrats in San Francisco are hiding Central American criminal aliens from the Federal Government which is finally working to deport at least criminal illegals. On top of this, Democrats are raising hell about feds raiding businesses that hire illegals. To add insult to injury, the Marxist Democrat Nominee for the POTUS stands up and makes a comment that American citizens shouldn’t worry whether immigrants to the US should learn English but make sure our kids can speak Spanish.
We’ve had four of the most obscene rulings from the Democrat’s favorite Judges on the SCOTUS, the first being McCain Feingold which strips citizens of their freedoms of speech, assembly and petition. The second is Kelo which strips away the rights of citizens to be secure in their property. The third which strips away the Constitutional War Powers of the Executive branch and bestows upon the enemies of the United State of America the same rights we enjoy as peaceful citizens. Finally, the fourth strips away the right of States to prescribe just punishment for child rapists who butcher their victims. On the state level, we’ve had appeals courts in California and Massachusetts forcing gay marriage on an unwilling population. All of these things have occurred because Executives and Legislatures on the Federal and State levels have abandoned their duties to uphold and defend their Constitutions and protect the powers granted to them under their respective constitutions.
We’ve had robust economic growth for the bulk of the Bush Presidency as a result of his economic policies despite inheriting a recession from the Clinton Administration and the attacks of 911 despite vocal and unapologetic opposition to those policies throughout the President’s term in office.
We’re winning the War in Iraq after the Democrats have spent the last 5 years trying to secure our defeat. This victory has been secured because of the surge policy pursued by our Republican President. Of course the Democrats had declared it’s failure after 3 months but hey…who’s keeping score? Recent reports also show the Democrats were wrong when they said the Iraqi Government was failing to meet the 18 political benchmarks included in the surge policy saying that 15 the 18 benchmarks have been met and there is considerable progress on the other 3. On top of that we see the Democrats systematically dismantling every protection we put in place after 911 which has prevented another attack on this country for the last 7 years! Worse of all, the Democrats have worked their behinds off to deny our troops badly needed equipment and attacked American Corporations who assisted our government with intelligence gathering after the attacks of 911.
Finally…and of greatest note…The Democrat Congress has an approval rating in the single digits.
So…after all that, you’d think this is a great year for Republicans right? This is the greatest opportunity the Republicans have faced since 1994 right? I mean…after all…Republicans gained 54 seats in 1994 when the approval of the Dem Congress was in the low 40s.
With all of these issues and more to beat the Democrats about the head, Shouldn’t the Republican Party be riding high going into the 2008 convention
Yeah…well.
So how are we doing issue by issue?
How are our leaders dealing with a 60% issue that plays to their favor concerning drilling anywhere we can find oil? Senate Republicans have decided to stop pushing a provision to allow drilling in ANWR http://www.mcclatchydc.com/economics/story/43594.html hoping that their Democrat masters will agree to drill off shore. Never mind the wind at their backs and the support of an overwhelming majority of the American people, Our Republican “leaders” have started a wholesale surrender on the issue of drilling on an airport sized piece of frozen bog in a state the size of 1/3 of the continental United States. Nobody in our leadership has stopped to consider the probability that were they to stand their ground the Democrats would be forced to fold like a house of cards as the American people come to realize that it is the Democrats that are responsible for this national crisis. But hey…Why worry about the fact that OPEC is using Oil to threaten us if we attack Iran to prevent a nuclear holocaust in Israel…We can’t drill in ANWR because “it would be like drilling in the Grand Canyon” wouldn’t it? So they make this compromise without a promise of anything from the Democrats in the hope the Democrats will respond in kind to this magnanimous gesture? How many times has this brilliant strategy worked for these guys? I would laugh at the idea if I weren’t choking back tears of frustration at these nutless wonders! To add insult to injury…I don’t hear anyone from the McCain Campaign, the RNC, the NRCC or the NRSC pointing out the Democrat’s obstruction on this issue! Oh, and if I see one more Republican sit quietly while some Democrat on some talk show says, “We can’t drill our way out of this, and any oil we find won’t come on line for 20 years anyway” I’m absolutely going to go insane! Just once I want to hear a Republican ask them, “If it’s going to take 20 years to bring any new oil production on line, we’d better get busy shouldn’t we?” And what about building more refineries?...As far as I know there have been no bills put forward by any Republican to clear the way for more refineries. That’s not to say there haven’t been any…but the Republicans have done nothing to tell people what they are doing to address the biggest issue facing this country this election cycle. I don’t want to here what you are going to do after November, I WANT TO KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING NOW!
How are we doing on the power front? Well…Republican leadership and their spokesmen at least have a “Let’s Build Nuke Power Plant’s” mantra but beyond that…I haven’t heard of any legislation that’s been put forward by Republicans in leadership or anywhere else to make it happen…Ditto Clean Coal plants, Increased assistance for wind turbine development or solar development…As with the Gasoline issue above…I won’t say there have been no bills put forward by Congressional Republicans…but if they’ve put anything out there…they need to let someone know about it!
Illegal Immigration? Well, all I need to say is “It'll, (comprehensive immigration reform will), be my top priority yesterday, today, and tomorrow”. Never mind that this is yet another 60-70%+ issue that plays to Republican Strengths. But just like drilling in ANWR, we can’t make hay on this issue because it sets us at odds with our nominee! This is a huge issue for us and again…from our so called leadership? ...crickets chirping.
SCOTUS and Judges? Has any Republican put out legislation that would correct the outrageous and criminal overreaches of our Courts? Has any Republican put forth legislation to overturn Kelo, McCain Fiengold, Boumediene, or Roper v. Simmons? Has any Republican put forth a bill threatening to put forth articles of impeachment if leftist judges continue to usurp power from the other two branches ot the people? If they have…I haven’t heard about it!
Economic Growth? To hear the MSM and the Democrats tell it…we’ve been in a virtual depression in this country since Bush took the oath of office. The Media/Democrat template is that the Bush economics policy has been an unmitigated disaster for this country! Nothing good has happened in the last 7 years and on and on. Do our Republicans point out the outstanding growth we’ve had until recently? Do they defend the Bush tax cuts that have been responsible for helping us to grow despite 911 and 2 successive wars in 7 years? Has any Republican put forward legislation to extend the Bush tax cuts so they can expose the Democrat’s plan to raise out taxes after the election? Again…are those crickets I hear?
The War in Iraq and the Democrats failed attempt to engineer our defeat there? Have there been any Republican Spokesmen or leaders making hay about the fact that we are on the verge of a great victory despite the Democrat’s attempts to defeat our efforts? How about submitting a sense of the Senate or Congress bill congratulating General Petreaous for his successful strategy? I know…some of you will say they’d never get it passed…but it would force the Democrats to publicly oppose it! How about anything that would force the Democrats out of the shadows where they have plotted and schemed for 5 years to destroy our fight against our enemies? Hello?...Anyone?...Anyone?
Here’s the biggest rub! The approval of the Pelosi/Reid Congress is at 9%! Again, 9%!...are you kidding me. As I mentioned earlier…Gingrich and Armey took 54 seats in 1994 when the Democrat Congress was a little over 40%. So, are we in a position to do it again…or make even bigger gains? Well…I’ve heard since before the primaries that this is a 8 year election cycle which is always bad for the Party in the White House. Why try….we’ll lose because that’s what always happens. No body has a chance of reversing a trend and a Washington tradition like that…right? Not only that…”we’re involved in an unpopular war and we’re on the brink of an economic downturn.” Ohh…and my personal favorite…”We might be able to defeat Obama and keep the White House and we couldn’t do that if it weren’t for John McCain who isn’t willing to die on principle!” Finally, in the words of our NRSC Chairman John Ensign, "If you have an R in front of your name, you better run scared," Oh…he also says the party will do well if it holds its losses to three or four seats in the Senate. What about that 9% approval rating…couldn’t fighting the Democrats with all the ammunition I’ve mentioned help us reverse the predictions and the traditional results of 8 year elections? I guess we’ll never know will we?
Bottom line is…if we lose everything this year and we have President Barry taking the oath of office in January followed by the swearing in of a veto proof majority of Democrats in the Senate and a 20 seat loss in the House…Will it be because we stood on principle and fought with everything we had? Or will it be because our leadership just laid down and died because they couldn’t, or wouldn’t get off their dead behinds and fight?
More likely Conservatives will be blamed for not towing the Party line?
NOT fighting for every seat we can win. This election is going to be unlike any other election in history.
These IDIOTS who try to look at past elections as trends, first of all, we have not had enough elections to make a real statistical working model, and secondly -- historical trends CHANGE.