Civil and truth – difficult to keep the two in balance at times in the heat of passions swirling around.

Thanks for the reminder.

I remember the ’08 primaries. Lots of emotion for our chosen candidates…lots of bickering…lots of “bat and ball and go home” mentalities that stirred up much angst and animosity ’roundchere. We lost some good RS family members in that bloodbath, and even more folks just disengaged from the debate.

Kissing and making up is a part of life. Rallying, now, behind the victor of these primaries so we can hopefully push the “R” over the finish line ahead of the “D” is where we find ourselves. What’s done is done now, and it’s time to move ahead.

Kicking anyone that fell down on the side of a candidate that lost serves us no purpose going forward. Victory dances need to wait for Nov. 3…as EE has pointed out…this is FAR from over-we’ve won nothing yet, and we’ll need the whole of our side working together now to finish what we started.

Well done P!

to write a diary reminding us that what unites us far exceeds what divides us. Such loving, motherly adomonition to put down the sticks (or in janis’s case, that hickory club she keeps hidden out by the outhouse ) and play nice with each other.

Perfect words. Perfect timing.

Just what we’ve come to expect from our fine-feathered penguin.

Very timely and very good post. I know some of us get all caught up int the battle and sometimes forget who the real enemy is.

I forgot who said it or where I have seen this:
“Conservative in the Primary and Republican in the General Election”

It is good to debate and to disagree, but it is never good to go after someone personally.

We are all grown ups here, let’s act like it

I remember that well, during the 08 primaries. I was a Fredhead and was hugely disappointed with his campaigning. I was told I “had” to vote for McCain because he was assuredly the nominee at that point, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. No explanation, just a dictate.

I calmly told the poster who said that, no I didn’t “have” to vote for anybody because my vote is mine, not theirs to order to their liking. To do the right thing, yeah, I had to vote for McCain but the lesson there was that it wasn’t their responsibility to order me but to persuade me. I don’t know if that lesson has been learned, yet.

The thing that makes us conservatives also makes us hard to “herd.” We are individuals and believe in individual freedom and come at our decisions in individual ways. It also sets our backs up when somebody says we “have to” about anything, as we’re witnessing with the TEA parties, Beck’s rally, and other movements going on right now.

We might not always get the candidate we want but those of us here know that we do have to vote for the candidate who wins the primary. Our task is to persuade others who would sit on the sidelines to do the right thing, not beat each other up over the one who loses.

Happily, Obama and Co. have made it an easier task this time around, haven’t they?

We (radical teaparty conservative Republican diarists on Redstate) must remember that we (conservative Republican diarists on Redstate) are all on the same team, and that we (Republican diarists on Redstate) should all pull in the direction we (Republicans) all want to go.

This IS a war we are fighting…a war against socialism, a war to protect and preserve our liberties and freedoms when those elected into office will not do so.

There are posters here on RS who have the knowledge of the law and of legal policies and procedures that are qualified to take their place on the front of line of that battle. I’m not one of them. I’m learning, but I’m not even close to being qualified to take on that kind of role in this war. At best, I can only stand to the side and offer encouragement and moral support, and maybe cover their backs from time to time.

Given how high the stakes really are, being on the front line is a place of honor. It’s also a choice the individual has to make on their own. They either commit or they don’t.

The key to losing with anything approaching “Dignity and Honor” is to be a class act. Michael Steele, whether you like his job performance at the RNC, or not, got the job by failing upward. He was better than Ben “Retread” Cardin in every respect during the GOP Abandon All Hope Year of 2006.

The Lisa Murkowskis and Bob Bennets getting sucked out into the ocean by the Tea Party Rip-Tide need to support the team. They need to endorse and work for the GOP candidates who beat them. Swallow the pride. Can the hubris. Except that someone else is the starting QB.

Don’t be Matt Lineart and if their careers are not reviveable, they will at least remain well-respected int heir retirements.

There really is little else to be said. And ‘Stack was right, the timing is perfect. I was going to do a piece on leadership in the next week or so, on the same theme, only concerning finding the right kind of leader to bring RINO and Conservative together around the country. Seems we have the model right here at RS.

I always enjoy your postings because you say a lot of what I would like to say, but in nicer ways. There is something to say for just being courteous and well mannered.
Maybe you should come to Austin early to get out of Earl’s way. I will keep you and your family in my prayers.

Ahhhhh, the memories of the ’08 primaries. I’m not sure about “rancor, animosity, and enmity” compared to today’s lively discussions but it was….interesting.

Actually, the full title referenced above was “…and I Reject Your Shallow Analysis of My Never-Cast-My-Vote-for-McCain Position” (see link below). It’s not often I get more than a few comments on anything I post but these 56 replies contain some of that interesting archived discussion history and input from more than a few Redstate greats (past and present).

If nothing else it’s worth your time to scan through many of the comments…if you’re in a hurry look for those from David Hinz, absentee, tankertodd, jabberwocky, and especially John E. Enjoy.

Ntrepid
Proud Redstate Member since April 2006…?

http://archive.redstate.com/blogs/ntrepid/2008/jan/29/and_i_reject_your_shallow_analysis_of_my_never_cast_my_vote_for_mccain_position

Losing sucks ..period. Combining graciousness in losing with that passion is something that I suspect only a blessed few are capable of, at least in the moment. I think it takes the average person a few hours/days to get to that stage.

If we can’t follow Reagan’s 11th Commandment anymore, and we may be too split for that, the thing we HAVE to do is go with the assumption that our opponents on our side have good intentions, even if occasionally untrue. Being accused of stuff from your own side is the type of thing that makes it hard to work together later on.

As I said a few days ago, we’ll get behind Miller and he is quite likely to win. There was no reason to not trust that we would.

You have written exactly the kind of diary on this subject that I wish that I could write.

You don’t post (“speak”) much, but when you do, not an idle word.

Much to learn from this as well — I thank you!

Have a wonderful week.

And that said…FRED!!!!

Proper grammar saves lives.

Let’s eat Grandma.
Let’s eat, Grandma.

---

Activists Taking Action: Unified Patriots

You are so right on with this. Too often people are spiteful after a hard faught primary. As you so eliquently spelled it out, the goal is to defeat the socialist agenda, and we can’t do that fighting amongst ourselves or sitting on the sidelines out of spite.

I am sorry, but agreeing to disagree is what has gotten us to this place of liberalism that steals the resolve to get the real job done. When a liberal republican is elevated to the position of the Republican Nominee, he has just stolen his position. That person is the very person who is dragging the Republican Party to the lukewarm world of liberalism. I live in Tennessee. The liberal candidate got the ticket but the majority of the votes were split between the two conservative candidates. Now, we are stuck with a liberal who will just a easily vote with the Democrats as with the Republicans. Why bother voting for him? Yes, we must vote for him for the same reason we had to vote for McCain. But, we must stop this progression of evil that allows the evil to triumph because the liberal liars paint themselves as angels of light. Civility fails to address the issue of evil that comes dressed in sunshine and light and leads to destruction.

Many losing candidates in very close races conceded graciously. (Perhaps more so than some of their supporters) The founders hung together because the King really would have hung them seperately. Obama et. al. is so scary that our side is very strongly motivated to work together to save the country. We must build on this concept of accepting the primary winner now when it seems so important so that a few years from now when we have the majority it will still be the accepted way. Fight very hard but cleanly in the primary, unite in the general. I still have two “Fred” coffee thermos’s. I voted for “him” and her in Nov. The lesson is that every Republican candidate would have been much better than what we have. In the last 18 months we have seen that every D is loyal to Soros et al when it matters to them.

REPUBLICANISM

John Adams wrote Otis Warren in 1776, he agreed with the Greeks and the Romans, that, “Public Virtue cannot exist without private, and public Virtue is the only Foundation of Republics.” Adams insisted, “There must be a positive Passion for the public good, the public Interest, Honour, Power, and Glory, established in the Minds of the People, or there can be no Republican Government, nor any real Liberty.

And this public Passion must be Superior to all private Passions. Men must be ready, they must pride themselves, and be happy to sacrifice their private Pleasures, Passions, and Interests, nay their private Friendships and dearest connections, when they Stand in Competition with the Rights of society.”

Adams worried that a businessman might have financial interests that conflicted with republican duty; indeed, he was especially suspicious of banks.

OR MAYBE IT’S JUST POLITICS
http://politheo.com/americanpolitics1809.html

***We Republicans had a virtuous leader once but he was destroyed by a powerful propaganda machine labeling him an extremist…..

Today he would be cast aside and called a Rino***

Below are his words

“Now, those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth, and let me remind you they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyranny.

Absolute power does corrupt, and those who seek it must be suspect and must be opposed. Their mistaken course stems from false notions, ladies and gentlemen, of equality. Equality, rightly understood as our founding fathers understood it, leads to liberty and to the emancipation of creative differences; wrongly understood, as it has been so tragically in our time, it leads first to conformity and then to despotism.

Fellow Republicans, it is the cause of Republicanism to resist concentrations of power, private or public, which enforce such conformity and inflict such despotism.

It is the cause of Republicanism to ensure that power remains in the hands of the people–and, so help us God, that is exactly what a Republican president will do with the help of a Republican Congress”.

From Barry Goldwater’s acceptance speech

the rest @ http://politheo.com/republicanmanifesto.html

his campaign slogan was

“IN YOUR HEART YOU KNOW HE IS RIGHT”

most people today do not even know about republicanism or Barry Goldwater and that is a real shame.

Here is what the Heritage Foundation had to say about Goldwater

Conservative Roots

There were several milestones in the first 20 years of the Conservative movement, such as the publication of The Conservative Mind and the founding of National Review, but none equaled the political salience of Barry Goldwater’s seemingly quixotic run for the White House.

His candidacy was “like a first love” for countless young men and women, never to be forgotten, always to be cherished. It was the beginning rather than the end of conservatism’s political ascendancy.

National Review senior editor Frank Meyer pointed out that, despite the liberal campaign to make conservatism seem “extremist, radical, nihilist, anarchic,” twofifths of the voters still voted for the Conservative alternative.

“The landslide majority did not vote against the Conservative philosophy,” wrote Ronald Reagan; “they voted against a false image our liberal opponents successfully mounted.”

An Enduring Legacy

Another critical legacy of the Goldwater campaign to mention is the entry of thousands of young people into American politics and policymaking. These young conservatives now sit in Congress and on the Supreme Court, manage campaigns and raise millions of dollars, head think tanks like The Heritage Foundation and write seminal books, edit magazines, and anchor radio and television programs.

In addition, Barry Goldwater addressed in a serious and substantive way issues that have been at the center of the national debate ever since Social Security, government subsidies, privatization, morality in government, and communism.

Campaign strategist John Sears summed up that Goldwater changed “the rhetoric of politics” by challenging the principles of the New Deal, “something no Democrat or Republican before him had dared to do.”

http://politheo.com/republicanism.html