Why I Am Not a Republican

This election shows why I am not a Republican, and why I am unlikely to become one again any time soon. Look at the winning issues the Republicans just totally missed:

1. Wall Street bailout. Republican President Bush even created this issue for the Democrats, as establishment Republicans undermined their supposed message by supporting socialism. Senate Repubicans (I really am sorry they did not all lose) even went so far as to pass a bill including a possible windfall for ACORN!!!!, without a whimper. I can't tell you how badly I think of Senate Republicans. I put them just a shade above "journalists" in my estimation. Sure, once President Bush sabotaged the Repubican Party (again!!!!) by starting a panic, an guaranteeing this economic meltdown that might have been avoided, it was high risk for McCain to stand on principle. He lost anyway, didn't he? I rest my case.

2. "Global Warming": At the end, Obama was caught in admitting that the leftist "global warming" legislation he supports would bankrupt a good part of our economy, and drastically raise energy costs. Obama directly admitted that the aggressive "cap and trade" tax system he supports would bankrupt utilities with coal plants, and thereby bankrupt the coal industry. Problem: McCain basically supports the same type of legislation. See previous entry this week. So how could McCain make a big issue out of the fact that "global warming" legislation will ruin the economy, and already is ruining the economy? Yet, this is a winning issue. There was one of those polls that showed that Americans (like about 60% of us) are unwilling to pay even 10 cents more a gallon for gasoline to combat "global warming". Americans may have been brainwashed into the idea that "global warming' exists, but we are too smart to really believe it is necessary to sacrifice to "cure" it. This is a winning issue that Republicans refuse to fight. Too bad for them. They will not win my vote until they start fighting it.

3. Drilling and domestic energy development. Yes, Republicans tried to make an issue of this. However, they were undermined by McCain, who opposed drilling in ANWR to the very end. If Republicans had aggressively sought domestic energy production, including, nuclear plants, over the years, instead of tamely accepting narrow defeats (McCain being responsible for some of those defeats on ANWR), this would have been a more successful issue. Unlike leftist Democrats, Republicans (with the biased mainstream media having something to do with this) just don't seem to have the ability to keep pushing their issues, even when they controlled Congress.

4. Illegal immigration. This could have been a huge winner for Republicans. Instead, McCain, Bush, and the entire Republican establishment have totally undermined Republicans on this. Yet, it was clearly at least a short term winner. I actually think it was a long term winner. But Republicans have blown it so badly that they need an Obama type Messiah to resurrect the issue at the present time. The entire Republican "establishment" wants to go the other way.

5. Abortion. No, I am not saying that entirely outlawing abortion is necessarily a winner, although I don't think ending abortion on demand is really a loser. The winner here is to actively do what Obama did to McCain: highlight dramatically the stupidities in the radical Obama position (whether he says they are "lies" or not, and they would not be). Obama favors the Planned Parenthood position of allowing abortion up to the moment of birth (or thereafter, according to that Obama vote in the Illinois legislature). Where were the ads both highlighting McCain's support of a creature (nine month fetus) that everyone (other than radical Planned Parenthood types) understands to be a baby (because there is no scientific or logical difference between a viable fetus and a baby). Yes, where are the ads calling Obama a "baby kiler"? You can put it more nicely than that, but this is a winning issue. There was little attempt to seriously exploit it.

6. Gay marriage and societal approval of the gay lifestyle. Yes, McCain was again part of the problem: refusing to vote for a Constitutional Amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. Establishment Republicans want this issue to go away. Evangelicals, who voted for President Bush and seemingly elected him, know when they are being tooled around. Republicans are not going to fight for what evangelicals consider important. Republicans just want their vote. Well, I am not an evangelical, but Repubicans are going to have to whistle for my vote (and not get it, even then), unless and until the conservative takeover. Yes, gay marriage remains a winning issue in most of this country. Republicans will not aggressively pursue the issue, or the whole issue of gay demands for approval of homosexual conduct. So be it. But then what do Republicans stand for, besides using conservatives?

7. Big Government and Spending. This is an lol item, when Republicans claim to be against Big Government? In what universe? Not in this one. It is not only the Wall Street bailout. Republicans, under President Bush, have totally joined the Big Government, big spending crowd. Even in yesterday's Senale election, Republican minority leader Mitch McConnell won re-election by promising more "earmarks". McCain is actually less of a big spender than most, but he is just as much a Big GBovernment guy--accepting the idea that it is the responsibility of the Federal Government to solve all of our problems. Again, the pubic seems to instinctively recoil from socialism (Wall Street bailout), and government giveaways. This is a winnter Republicans have turned into a loser by so confusing their "message" that no one knows what it is any longer.

8। Taxes. This is a winner that Republicans have almost turned into a loser, at least until Joe the Plumber exposed the "redistribution of the wealth" ideology of Obama. President Bush 41 first betrayed the simple Reagan concept, and ever since Republicans have failed to make a simple case on this winning issue. Republicans have pretty much abanodoned the Reagan point that higher tax rates do not mean more government revenue.

I could go on, but you get the idea. What does the Republican Party stand for? There is no coherent message anymore, whether on economic issues or "family value" issues. The Republican Party no longer stands for much of anything. Rank and file Republicans may. Butt he Republican establishment is fully ready to accept Obama as the new "center", and try to adapt the "new" Republican philosophy to the "Age of Obama" (to quote Gwen Ifill). You don't win elections that way. Since FDR, the Democratic left has been pretty consistent in advocating government solutions to all problems. they have never quit, even when losing elections. Except for the time of Ronald Reagan, and the Gingrich revolution against Bill and Hillary Clinton, Republicans have consistently lost power by "fighting" to lose gradually, instead of for any distinct principles (beyond a general advocacy of business--country club Republicans and big buisness/Wall Street Republicans).

I could go on, but this should give you a good idea of why I am not a Repubican I do not expect to be one during the rest of my lifetime, although I live in hope. I did not expect to see Ronald Reagan as President either, or the fall of the Soviet Union he caused. I did see those things, and leftist excess will probably cause them to rise aganin--over the (figurative) bodies of "establishment" Republicans.