Redstate

By Hooah Mac Posted in Republicans — Comments (10) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

I've had enough. I can listen to the nonsense no longer. We are on the brink of disaster. This is a plea for us all to step away from the ledge.

We are on the brink of disaster, but we have not yet fallen into the yawning chasm of socialism before us. I am tired of hearing the whining, complaining and finger pointing. What I'd like to see is some problem solving and maybe even a little common sense and intelligence applied to the problem.

First - John McCain. How about you all just stop. He is the nominee.
If you hate him, I don't care, and neither does he. Not a single post or comment or recommendation on this board is going to change the fact that he will be the Republican on the national ballot this November. Nothing said or done here is going to change his stances. Let's just let it drop.
If you think John McCain is the greatest thing since sliced bread, I don't care, and he probably doesn't either. You can argue until you are blue in the face and a good portion of the base, including many posters here, will never change their mind. It is beyond inconsequential. John McCain's strategy doesn't rely on a good portion of the base either, so it's not like he is going to lose any sleep over what RedState posters think of him.
*The arguing just distracts us from other things, so lets drop it.*

Second - Doom and gloom. If you think that Republicans are going to have a bad year, and nothing can be done to change that, then please shut up and take up knitting or basketweaving or whatever. You are not part of the solution, and you just tick off those of us who want to be.
1. Doom and gloom predictions hurt us in 2006. People are far less likely to put their energy into a losing cause.
2. Doom and gloom predictions - many of them here at RS have hurt recruiting. Who is going to put themselves forth as a candidate, complete with all the personal difficulty that entails, if they have no chance?
3. Look through your mental rolodex of historical leaders - Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt, Churchill, Reagan - every one of them faced overwhelming odds in one form or another. Even when times were darkest, how many of them do you recall ever saying that all was lost? Hint: Rhymes with mero.

Third and most important - The R brand is tarnished, but the frequently proposed solution of imitating D's is not only counter-productive, it is stupid. Conservative values are not tarnished, the Republican party is. Acting like Democrat-Lite only loses our base, it doesn't add anything else, because again it is not the values of the party in trouble, it is the people who were supposed to champion those values.

We need to stop apologizing for being conservatives(conservatism having the distinct advantage of being demonstrably right) and work on the image of the party. Here are the solutions I propose.

1. Stand for something.
2. Fight for what you believe is right.
3. Don't stop fighting, whether you are up or down. Too often as conservatives we win an argument and forget about it. "I will never quit" meets "Clear and Hold"
4. Disown the losers. For far too long we have been told that winning any races possible is important because we need the majority. We saw in the 2002-2006 timeframe how having a majority of R's not with us was no better than having a minority. Worse, we still got blamed when things were bad.
5. Positive mental attitude. We CAN win! Until the votes have been cast nothing is for certain. We can be "realistic" all day, but that doesn't help anything. Let's be optimistic, and then put forth the effort to make it real.
6. Democrats are currently running on the most anti-American set of positions ever conceived in the United States. A little time enlightening the electorate on this will go a long way.

It's tough. You hurt and want to quit and cy. Drink water. There are hundreds of thousands of men and women who just in the last five years have endured hardships you will likely never know. Nearly every single one of them did it for love of this country and what it stands for. Over 4000 of them will never come home to parents, spouses and children.

Is a little hard work in the political arena too much to ask? Are we all so useless that we fold under the slightest pressure? Is itsa really that much easier to post endless complaints and recriminations than it is to propose better ideas?

Here's a start for you:
Donate $25 to any congressional candidate today. Do this now.
Then-
Write a letter to the editor of a local newspaper.
Then-
Call a local campaign and volunteer your time (don't forget to follow through)
Then-
Talk to one "independent" in your sphere of influence and explain why they need to vote for a conservative GOP candidate for a congressional race this November.
Then-
Feel free to complain in December if your guy doesn't win. Until then, keep working.

Scott MacHardy
Proud Conservative
Proud OIF Veteran
Freedom Defended .Org