Conservatives are the Rhinos Now
Republican in name only?The disconnect between the average voter who identifies as a Republican and the people who run the Republican party has never been greater. Conservatives have been fond of labeling big-spending, government-growing, globalist, pro-aborts as "Rhinos". That is, "Republican in name only". The current Republican chairman in our state, Dennis Milligan, says that conservatives who identify with the Republican party should not use that term to describe other party members. I agree with him, but not for the same reason. He is trying to silence grassroots opposition to a leftward shift imposed on the party by the few who control it. I on the other hand, think conservatives should stop using the term "RHINO" to describe left-leaning statist republicans for a different reason: it's not true. Those people aren't "RHINOs", conservatives are. Except for the nation-building exercise in Iraq where conservatives are truly divided, the conservatives are the ones who are out of step with the party, not the left-leaning statists.
Consider the inanity of calling corpo-statists who downplay social issues as "RHINOs": When the Republican President acts like a "RHINO", all the "top tier" presidential candidates are RHINOs", and the national senate leadership (Lott, McConnell, Kyl, McCain, et all) are "RHINOs", and the national chairman is a "RHINO", and the staffers who run the national and most of the state party operations are "RHINOs" and the Chairman of your own state party is a "RHINO" maybe it is time to face the reality that these people are not "RHINOs" at all. You are.
Look, don't shoot the messenger here. I know some of you are emotionally involved because you have a certain amount of history with a given political entity. It is the same reason your conservative friends who "voted Democrat all their life" just could not bring themselves to vote for Republican candidates. Do you remember how you felt about them then? Mercifully I hope, because some of you have now become them- maintaining loyalty not to a real political party, but the the memory of one. It is OK to be loyal to memories, but it is dangerous to succumb to the illusion that those memories are still real.
posted by Mark Moore (Moderator) at Saturday, July 14, 2007
6 Comments:
Dennis Milligan, says that conservatives who identify with the Republican party should not use that term to describe other party members.
Interesting. Is that in the paper or some place you can provide a reference?
I don't think they let Dennis Milligan talk to the newspapers anymore. Not after he made a statement that could be construed as hoping for another 911 in order to help Bush's flagging poll numbers. Personally, I thought they were putting words in his mouth on that one.
Not on this one though. It is a fair statement- almost an exact quote of his at the meeting where he was elected state chairman.
I personally thought that Dennis Milligan had gotten the shaft and Republicans should have defended his statement about another terrorist attack. I thought that as usual Republicans left their own out to twist in the wind.
But if I can see where he made this quote, so I could know the truth. Then perhaps he needed to be left to defend himself.
I know this. The Republicans better get it together or they will be worse than irrelevent.
Well, the claim has been made that the statement was made at the convention or meeting where he was elected chairman. In other words, not a private statement, but an official speech that he had time to think about. I suppose you could ask anyone there that listened to his speech.
I understand your concept Mark about the conservatives being the RHINO's now but disagree. Although the leaders of the Republican Party have strayed from the Republican principles, the base still support them. I see this Republican organization like most other organizations in our state and nation. The leadership becomes corrupted by power and lean to the left and fail to represent the views of the base. So I still see the leaders as Rhinos and the members of the party as true Republicans.
I see the members falling all over themselves to elevate people, not principles. For example they are trying to pump up this image of Fred Thompson as some kind of conservative champion. There is NOTHING in his record to justify that. He was a moderate one-term senator who showed a lack of energy and leadership and after that became a Washington lobbiest for 20 years. They are getting suckered by the establishment again, just like they did with Bush.
But hey, you do what you want. Everyone usually does.
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