GOP Must Go - The American Concervative

[applegrove]

GOP Must Go
November 20, 2006 Issue
Copyright © 2006 The American Conservative


"Next week Americans will vote for candidates who have spent much of their campaigns addressing state and local issues. But no future historian will linger over the ideas put forth for improving schools or directing funds to highway projects.

The meaning of this election will be interpreted in one of two ways: the American people endorsed the Bush presidency or they did what they could to repudiate it. Such an interpretation will be simplistic, even unfairly so. Nevertheless, the fact that will matter is the raw number of Republicans and Democrats elected to the House and Senate.

It should surprise few readers that we think a vote that is seen—in America and the world at large—as a decisive “No” vote on the Bush presidency is the best outcome. We need not dwell on George W. Bush’s failed effort to jam a poorly disguised amnesty for illegal aliens through Congress or the assaults on the Constitution carried out under the pretext of fighting terrorism or his administration’s endorsement of torture. Faced on Sept. 11, 2001 with a great challenge, President Bush made little effort to understand who had attacked us and why—thus ignoring the prerequisite for crafting an effective response. He seemingly did not want to find out, and he had staffed his national-security team with people who either did not want to know or were committed to a prefabricated answer.

As a consequence, he rushed America into a war against Iraq, a war we are now losing and cannot win, one that has done far more to strengthen Islamist terrorists than anything they could possibly have done for themselves. Bush’s decision to seize Iraq will almost surely leave behind a broken state divided into warring ethnic enclaves, with hundreds of thousands killed and maimed and thousands more thirsting for revenge against the country that crossed the ocean to attack them. The invasion failed at every level: if securing Israel was part of the administration’s calculation—as the record suggests it was for several of his top aides—the result is also clear: the strengthening of Iran’s hand in the Persian Gulf, with a reach up to Israel’s northern border, and the elimination of the most powerful Arab state that might stem Iranian regional hegemony.

.............. SNIP"

http://www.amconmag.com/2006/2006_11_20/feature.html

[Aviation Pro]

1. Four words....

Son of a bitch.

Welcome to the party, pals, it's about time.

[applegrove]

2. Who says this race is closing. It is opening up I think.

[noahmijo]

3. These people seem like "Real" Conservatives to me

I just checked out their site. I could see myself disagreeing maybe with alot of their economic sentiments, however, they appear to be very far removed from the religious nut neo-con movement that holds us all in a chokehold today...hopefully this changes after this week's elections.

Seriously though, the people on this site to me seem like the type that I would enjoy a stimulated debate with that would involve true intellectual viewpoints and hearty handshakes and beers later. Much like a Cubs and Cardinals fans gathering as opposed to a Yankees and Red Sox get together.

[applegrove]

4. Was on huffington Post. I don't agree with much on old fashioned conservatives..

but they are not nearly as scary as the *WH.

[noahmijo]

5. Neither do I, but at least a dialogue can be made

This appears to at least be a group that has an open mind and ears and that's what this country needs. We can disagree on issues, but the point is compromise can be worked out. There are millions of Americans out there who would call themselves "Conservative" but would balk at calling themselves lockstep with the bush neo-con PNAC backed movement.


These are the people I think we need to reach out to more. They don't harbor the religious right mentality and most likely differ in small degrees when it comes to economic views, but at least it appears as though some sort of Nash type equilibrium policy could be worked out if the nation was made up of people like us and people like them....and people who back PNAC and Bush could be kicked the hell out to the curb where they belong.

[applegrove]

6. Win Win...but there is always concession in democracy. So we could

live with the concessions. Cause in a democracy nobody should get everything they want. Some policies go to business, some to children, some to health care (helps productivity)and some to the poor. But mostly you just fight to grow the middle class with policies. And you don't humiliate or purposely endanger anyone (Katrina).