Thursday, November 06, 2008
Remembering the "Contract with America"
Every now and then, Republicans should go back and look at the "Contract with America," as this blogger has done. It is a slap in the face to the fiscally profligate and basically unprincipled GOP that emerged in Congress and was tolerated by the White House during the years after September 11.
5 Comments:
By 
, at
Thu Nov 06, 09:05:00 AM:
Republican party leadership has been sadly lacking for a long time. The culture of corruption runs so deep through Washington we still don't have secure borders over 20 years after Reagan's amnesty bill. In my area, all of the illegal immigrant population centers were deep blue, while the rest of the county tended toward red or deep red. Voter fraud helped our Congresswoman get elected almost a decade ago, and the flood of illegals keeps coming. We have paid a very high price for allowing our elected representatives to abandon our core values. Core values like respect for the law.
When our longtime Republican congressman was beaten by Loretta Sanchez, one of the things she did, besides changing her last name to Sanchez, was hit him over the proverbial head because he didn't "do" anything. When pork barrel spending returns some small fraction of our money back to our district, the Congresswoman can say she "did" something. It is a simple tactic, but is works very effectively. Campaigning to "clean up Washington" sound good, but where are the headlines when you make progress? How to people understand that you have had success?
By , at
Thu Nov 06, 10:54:00 AM:
Exactamundo TH, especiaaly since the Contract was all about "doing something", though the previous poster might not agree. Voters do expect articulation of a program and delivery on it. To this day Gingrich is out there creating and publicizing GOP "solutions" to all sorts of problems. He's an idea machine. Probably no one agrees with all he says, but he might be the only Republican at least making an effort! Ideas are the way back into power. Discipline is the way to stay there, especially discipline in resisting the urge to becoming the "governing party".
By 
CMT, at
Fri Nov 07, 12:58:00 PM:
We need someone at the top, like Newt, but would he run?
I do not beleive so, although if he had he would have fared better than McCain. More to the point if he were #43 then we might not have the runaway spending we are facing.
Obama could be at 1600 for two terms, unless he has a Carter-like 4 years. That puts Presidency is out of pocket until 2016, which means the fight has to happen every two years to gain back control of the legislature. Who will lead that charge and who will be the Reagnaesque standard bearer?
Yikes.
By , at
Fri Nov 07, 03:45:00 PM:
It didn't take long for the Republicans in Congress and Newt himself to be demonized by the Democrats and the press.
Remember the Contract on America? Then there was the so-called government shutdown of late 1995 which was laid to the Republicans. I think that that is where they lost their resolve.
JLW III
By Noocyte, at
Fri Nov 07, 04:58:00 PM:
It seems to me that the problem for at least the last 8 years has been that the real, on-the-ground difference between the Liberal and Conservative brands has become so blurred as to offer the electorate no clear choice.
The task before us is to take this opportunity of a largely uncontested Liberal government to bring its principles into stark relief, while we Conservatives rediscover our focus and offer a clear choice to the Nation. Only then will the people be able to decide where to set the slider between statist and free-market approaches to governance.
