We should have more than enough evidence over the last 60 years that moderates like Brooks, Specter, Medved, MIchel, and – with his support of them and their positions – Bird Dog, are nothing more than blind followers of the left side of the Democratic Party. Lord knows they’ve never challenged them on the centralality of any issue, they just nibble on the margins and think they’ve accomplished something. Take Arlen Specter for example, with the Bail Out legislation that he let pass. He was very proud of the questionable “fact” that he got $100B taken out of the legislation. Whooptedoo. First of all, if Republicans had stood firm we probably could have gotten six or seven hundred billion out of it – by killing the damn thing. Second, how about the unintended consequences, only one of which is the reinstatement of the Great Society welfare programs.

Republicans can win when they offer the people something different than Dem-lite.

I’m more than willing to shut down the government on an incremental basis. That’s basically what the CWA started and the RMSP helped to kill. The problem with pinheads like Brooks and Medved is that they don’t want the government scaled back. They’re perfectly happy watching it grow. Same for the others I mentioned, and especially the RMSP crowd.

As far as members of congress go, I have no particular problem with most moderates. The girls from ME don’t particularly bother me. What does bother me is moderates in leadership positions where they can impact policy, hence my problem with Specter.

The very fact that you think Brooks is an “asset” (as opposed to an ass) speaks all I need to know about you. Brooks is Obama in sheeps clothing. He stands for absolutely nothing that Obama or Durkin or Harry&Nancy would take.

I reiterate my disgust.

As for him chastizing, I recall him doing to it Democrats and communists.

http://www.redstate.com/neokong/2009/03/02/an-open-letter-to-michael-steele-and-eric-cantor/#comment-380

I agree (to a very large degree) with the 11th commandment, the exception being if they are opposed to conservatism. Hence my belief that it is acceptable to target them from the right. I agree that we do not necessarily want to “…alienate the people we don’t think are conservative enough.”. We need to win them over because conservative ideas are better than “liberal” ideas.

Maybe you should require conservative purity tests, becker. That would be a great way to get enough people on our side for winning elections and moving an agenda forward. If yours is the prevailing attitude in the party, get used to years upon years minority status while the Democrats drive the electoral bus.

I mentioned two people, Brooks and Medved, and I’m a little surprised that they’re just not conservative enough for Redstaters. I’m no fan of Specter or Whitman or Michel or Gergen or the RMSP. Bush 41 screwed up the Reagan legacy, and Bush 43 was a failed president because he failed to govern as the conservative he purported himself to be. Nevertheless, if we don’t broaden our base enough to accept the more moderate segments of the party, we won’t win elections and we won’t be implementing an agenda that will put our country on a saner track. The Brooks and Medveds are assets in that endeavor. As for where you think I am in this equation, you don’t know the first goddam thing.

He molded himself and his ideas into an “extreme-right” Conservative making him very distinct from the rest.

To Bird Dog:

There were no Reagan Democrats then. MSM just created that up. They were actually ordinary Americans., who with the right message and alternative, easily saw the truth and promise being promoted by conservatism brought to them by its credible messenger…. Ronald Reagan.

Reagan was NEVER A PAMPERER.. he’s a chastiser of the independents and moderates. Now that I think of it, REAGAN HAD BEEN SO AGAINST THE MODERATES. He was even very close in saying that moderates were worse than the Democrats because of their indecisions, dishonesty and cowardice to admit in public who they really are… democrats.

Kind of says it all doesn’t it?

To get the independents, you need to establish Credibility.

In the last election, the independents were faced by a choice between two less credible candidates. McCain really looked less credible than the zero-accomplishment Obama. Obama’s plus factors include: (i) his seemingly perfect family (the public loved that picture of a good Black family potrayed by Michelle, Barak and their kids); (ii) his own successful story of American Dream (which he opposed, ironically); and, (iii) the great cover made by the MSM to all the inconsistencies and lies of Obama.

Thus, independents went for Obama.

Obama’s performance and actions in the next 4 years will be crucial.

40 days and some of the lies are becoming obvious and can nolonger be downplayed by the MSM.

But please don’t discount the demographic change in many Redstates.

The not-so-hidden program of the ACORN and other Democrats’ strategists in spreading the liberal base (people state migrations) in many states including Texas, Colorado, Virginia and South Carolina in the last two decades have really paid off for the democrats. And the next 4 years will a better season for more cultivations. The last election showed a very strong democratic roots growing in Texas. Illegal immigration also served the Democratic Party very well.

Everyone was attacked and smashed, but I guess it’s time for new leadership.

It really will be a teachable moment for the millions of voters who were too young to remember Carter, we could make millions of permanent conservatives, but we have to offer a real alternative.

Which won’t be hard to do.

The point being that he intended to reach out to independents and failed. Once again, if you actually have a strong conservative message and are sincere about it then you can win national elections.

If you are a squish, then you will probably be beaten.

People like Brooks, etal led the attack against Ronald Reagan. They led the attack – specifically, the RMSP was started to oppose the Contract With America and Newt – against the conservative revival of the early ’90′s. They have been successful at limiting the ability to get conservative jurists on the bench. They were successful at keeping the “Bush Tax Cuts” from being made permanent (along with a feckless President who didn’t have the courage to fight them).

I could go on, issue by issue over the last 30 years, but I won’t. And I won’t because I don’t have the time right now, and even if I did, I doubt you have the ability to understand just how much damage people like Brooks, Specter and you have done to both the Republican Party and to the nation. I really hope you like the rest of Obama’s term and the decades that will follow it because people exactly like you are responsible for their success and the ultimate failure of the nation that not so long ago really was the Shining City on the Hill. Thanks to you, there is a brownout in The City and it soon will be a blackout.

I don’t have the ability to express the contempt and disgust I have for you and yours. Bunny is an optimist.