Are You Kidding Me?
May 22, 2008
Talk about pots and kettles!
Can you imagine receiving a solicitation letter from RNC (Republican National Committee) treasurer Tim Morgan asking if you’ve “deserted our Party”?
Who should be asking whom about desertion?
The very first sentence of the letter says it all, “I don’t want to believe you’ve abandoned the Republican Party, but I have to ask...Have you given up?”.
Well...yes and no.
Have I given up on the current Republican leadership and its goals (euphemism)? Yes.
Have I given up on my Conservative values (what the Republican Party was supposed to stand for)? Never.
The answer to the question about “giving up” is obvious when you take a look at the Republican Principles as posted on the GOP website.
Do “I BELIEVE government must practice fiscal responsibility?” Yes.
But do the Republicans from the White House through the Congress believe it when you look at national spending that ballooned to record levels during the “Republican Years”...even after you exclude Homeland Security expenditures?
From the decidedly Conservative Heritage Foundation, we get a glimpse of what has been going on under Republican rule, “From 2001 through 2003, the federal budget expanded by $296 billion...defense spending accounted for $100 billion of that amount, and other 9/11-induced spending on homeland security, international aid, and domestic rebuilding totaled $32 billion...That leaves $164 billion in new spending completely unrelated to defense and the 9/11 attacks.” Fifty-five percent of new spending from 2001-2003 went to “Unemployment benefit payments”, “Education”, “General government costs” and “Air transportation bailouts”.
Republicans gave us “guns and butter” during a very costly and protracted war.
From 2001 through 2007, federal spending (in inflation adjusted dollars) expanded from $1.8 trillion to $2.8 trillion.
From 2001 through 2007, US public debt skyrocketed from $5.8 trillion to over $9 trillion.
It appears that “our friends” in Washington DC Billed the taxpayer for a party that the taxpayer wasn’t invited to.
Again, we find the stated Republican Principles telling us that, “...the proper role of government is to provide for the people only those critical functions that cannot be performed by individuals or private organizations, and that the best government is that which governs least.”
If Republican leadership really believed in these words, then where did the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (which immediately increased spending by almost $100 billion and continued to cost $100’s of billions) come from?
Where did the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (with cost estimated by the Medicare trustees of $18.2 trillion) come from?
And speaking of paying for parties you never get invited to...pork barrel spending increased from $18.5 billion for 6,333 projects in 2001 to $29 billion for 9,963 projects in 2006 (the last year Republicans controlled Congress). Starting with the takeover of Congress by the Democrats in 2006, pork spending immediately declined by almost 55%.
That’s an embarrassment and an insult to all Conservatives.
So, Mr. Morgan, when you write that my past support “helped to advance our vision for America”...that’s not exactly the vision I had.
And, Mr. Morgan, shame on you for trying to frighten me into making a donation by fear mongering that “The Democrats are determined to...push our country to the left with their agenda of high taxes, big government and weakened national security.”
That is exactly where the Republicans have taken us starting with breaking every promise in the “Contract With America” up to, and including, the bailout of the subprime mortgage fiasco.
Every year at CPAC a legion of Party-hack Republicans duplicitously dress themselves as elephants only to act like jackasses. They patronize the Conservative base and then turn their backs on Conservative values.
When John McCain finally left Teddy Kennedy’s side long enough to attend CPAC 2008...he came looking for Conservative-base support and conveniently omitted his beliefs that pouring water on a terrorists face is “torture” and that he never saw an immigration amnesty bill (McCain-Kennedy Immigration Reform Bill et al) that he didn’t support. As recently as last week McCain still hoped that he could snow the “American people” into accept(ing) the practical necessity to institute a temporary worker program and deal humanely with the millions of immigrants who have been in this country illegally.” The same old amnesty solution.
This is the man who will secure our borders and bring some teeth back to the rule of law?
This is the man who, according to Tim Morgan, will calm my fears over what the “liberals” will do to America if elected?
Well Mr. Morgan...when you implore in your letter to “Please don’t turn your back on our Republican candidates” I have to fondly paraphrase Ronald Reagan, “I did not turn my back you...you turned your back on me.”
And no...I am not abandoning support of Conservative principles or Conservative candidates. I will be supporting the Conservative Congressional candidates and many other Conservative causes.
I will not be supporting “Republicans In Name Only” who, in the words of Peggy Noonan, “came to make a difference and wound up with their butts in the butter.”
And again to paraphrase Noonan, “you speak that language because you are a marketer, not a thinker. Not serious about policy. Not serious about ideas. And not serious about leadership, only followership.” And that is a brand of Republicanism that smells too much like a jackass for my taste.
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