Possible Kerry Attack Theme: Who Hijacked the GOP?

Since Reagan... many in the GOP talk like fiscal conservatives... but there's no connection between what they say and do. Reagan promised to balance the budget... Bush did too. But both promised massive tax cuts with pie in the sky promises. Both sabotaged revenues and created massive deficits. .

Has the GOP been hijacked by a radical crows that uses fiscal irresponsibility as a political weapon? I think we know that's true.

Since Reagan a good case can be made that it's the Democrats... ya even with people like Robert Pork Byrd... who have become the party of fiscal responsibility. Here's a GREAT article:

"Republican and Democratic Presidents Have Switched Economic Policies"
by Jeffrey Frankel http://ksghome.harvard.edu/~.jfrankel.academic.ksg/Republicans%20and%20Democrats%20Have%20Switched.PDF

I think Kerry should use this as a wedge issue to drive the old-style fiscal conservatives like McCain and others away from Bush. Of course he needs to not just make the historical case... but have a decent deficit reduction plan. Instead of falling into Bush's "tax hike" trap... Kerry needs to hammer away that no one who runs the government as Bush does... is not just irresponsible but dangerous.

by the religious right.

Kerry should use those in ads.

Teresa's old liberal Republican friends, ala Jeffords, are disgusted with Bush, too. I remember an earlier magazine interview she did where she mentioned it.

From the days when the GOP wasn't the party of bigoted fundies. sigh.

Quotes from Goldwater:

"Every good Christian should line up and kick Jerry Falwell's ass."

"I don't have any respect for the Religious Right."

"A woman has a right to an abortion."

"The religious factions will go on imposing their will on others,"

"I am a conservative Republican," he wrote in a 1994 Washington Post essay, "but I believe in democracy and the separation of church and state. The conservative movement is founded on the simple tenet that people have the right to live life as they please as long as they don't hurt anyone else in the process."

In 1994 he told The Los Angeles Times, "A lot of so-called conservatives don't know what the word means. They think I've turned liberal because I,, believe a woman has a right to an abortion. That's a decision that's up to the pregnant woman, not up to the pope or some do-gooders or the Religious Right. It's not a conservative issue at all."

Goldwater, an Episcopalian, had theological differences with greedy TV preachers. "I look at these religious television shows," he said, "and they are raising big money on God. One million, three million, five million - they brag about it. I don't believe in that. It's not a very religious thing to do."

But Goldwater was also deeply worried about the Religious Right's long-term impact on his beloved GOP. "If they succeed in establishing religion as a basic Republican Party tenet," he told U.S. News & World Report in 1994, "they could do us in."
In an interview with The Post that same year, Goldwater
In a Sept. 15, 1981, Senate speech, Goldwater noted that Falwell's Moral Majority, anti-abortion groups and other Religious Right outfits were sometimes referred to in the press as the "New Right" and the "New Conservatism."

Responded Goldwater, "Well, I've spent quite a number of years carrying the flag of the 'Old Conservatism.' And I can say with conviction that the religious issues of these groups have little or nothing to do with conservative or liberal politics. The uncompromising position of these groups is a divisive element that could tear apart the very spirit of our representative system, if they gain sufficient strength."

Insisted Goldwater, "Being a conservative in America traditionally has meant that one holds a deep, abiding respect for the Constitution. We conservatives believe sincerely in the integrity of the Constitution. We treasure the freedoms that document protects....

"By maintaining the separation of church and state," he explained, "the United States has avoided the intolerance which has so divided the rest of the world with religious wars .... Can any of us refute the wisdom of Madison and the other framers? Can anyone look at the carnage in Iran, the bloodshed in Northem Ireland, or the bombs bursting in Lebanon and yet question the dangers of injecting religious issues into the affairs of state:"

Goldwater concluded with a waming to the American people. "The religious factions will go on imposing their will on others," he said, "unless the decent people connected to them recognize that religion has no place in public policy. They must learn to make their views known without trying to make their views the only alternatives...

"We have succeeded for 205 years in keeping the affairs of state separate from the uncompromising idealism of religious groups and we mustn't stop now," he insisted. "To retreat from that separation would violate the principles of conservatism and the values upon which the framers built this democratic republic."


http://www.concentric.net/~Tycho4/Goldwatr.htm

I hope the Kerry campaign sees your post.

hehehe!

the GOP has been hijacked by the religious right!

For all the details, check out http://www.TheocracyWatch.org/

to campaign would be to put his resume or small ad in every newspaper that has a help wanted/looking for work section. I think that those are read by a great number of people lately. And it doesn't have to be large, just somewhere under the help wanted ads or seeking words ads.

"Decorated Vietnam War vetran, seeking the job of President to create jobs for the unemployed and underemployed citizens of the USA."

I don't know, maybe that sounds stupid now that I think about it.

People like John McCain, Bob Dole, and hell even Dick Armey (although this guy is worse than the neocons in some aspects) won't bash their own party.

Hippo_Tron wrote: "The problem is that the old-style conservatives don't have any balls. People like John McCain, Bob Dole, and hell even Dick Armey (although this guy is worse than the neocons in some aspects) won't bash their own party."

I'd hardly put McCain in the same category as Armey. I've seen McCain go after the Bush Junta... which is why people like Rush seem to hate him.

Even if the tactic doesn't drive a wedge between politicians... many voters on the Right may be balloons ready to pop. They are in between principles they claim to believe in and radical Rightists that have borrowed the language of fiscal conservatism while being the exact opposite. I'm wondering about a wedge issue that isn't sleazy such as the GOP typically uses... but one that simply makes people on the right confront their own internal contradictions. Get out the facts and explain it to them in their own language.

Somebody from the other side saying Bush is not conservative.

I don't think any Dem would have much luck against those who support Bush for his Bible thumping or his support for the NRA psychos... but Bush seems plenty vulnerable to the charge that as a fiscal conservative he's as phony as they get. There's a historical pattern here from Reagan to Bush... both dishonestly ran on a dishonest platform of pretending we could have guns and butter. They dishonestly hid their agenda secret: hoping to sabotage the finances of the federal government in order to shrink it. In this war, they didn't care if the US was pissing away well over 1 trillion dollars away in interest alone over 3 years... as was the case in 99, 00 and 01. They prefer this waste to paying down the debt. People with such a terrible record SHOULD be vulnerable. How you get to Rightist voters is another things.

In other threads I suggested that these budget numbers need to be made less abstract. Check out this web page: http://www.crunchweb.net/87billion/index.htm then think about 320 billion spent on interest would look... and that it buys the American People NOTHING.

What hypocrisy it is to complain about some puny spending program like PBS when the GOP is SILENT on the BIGGEST waste of money in the budget?
Maybe the federal budget can be compared to a home budget. When a family is in debt do they drop their hours and take home less pay?

We were 5.6 TRILLION in debt in 2000... after 20 years the budget was FINALLY running a small surplus. Before any real debt paydown was made... Bush sabotaged revenue... knowing it was all be funded by borrowing. Man... there's plenty of ways to present this since the facts are so damning. It would HAVE to get though to SOME on the Right.

The people from Oldsmobile might sue for defamation.

radical crow.

it's in my post and I have no idea what I meant.

I'll blame the spellcheck. :-)

That's the best way to get at those disaffected Republicans and moderate middle.