The American Spectator

Like good conservatives everywhere I was heartened by the House Republicans stand athwart history in voting a unanimous No to the Democrat’s so-called “stimulus” bill. It should be called the “No Liberal Pet Project Left Behind” bill. Gladdened hearts all around see a return to conservative principles, albeit a day late and dollar short, and foresee more such holding of the line. Hope springs eternal but I am skeptical and will believe it when I see the Republicans see it through. For now, I’m holding off on the champagne. We must remember that, as Mr. Klein mentions almost as an aside, the bill did pass and must go to the Senate whose version is even more gratuitous and is dominated by Democrats and therein lies danger of capitulation. Let recent history be out guide.

The unanimous House Republican “no” should make it easier for Senate Republicans to vote no en masse as well…or not. I’d like to hope for the former but surely we can count on a few of the usual Republican suspects, the self-styled “mavericks”, to “reach across the aisle” and side with the profligate Democrats to help railroad this monstrosity through. Already there is talk of resuscitating the quisling “gang of fourteen” to subvert and circumvent principled party opposition. In any event, something will pass there which will have to be reconciled with the House version. Then back to both houses for a vote where we will then see the House Republican’s true convictions.

Because, wasn’t it just the other day a similar drama unfolded with the first “bailout” of $750 billion? The House Republicans took a principled stand and then, within days, caved under pressure to help deliver up that virtually unchanged stinking pile after a bit of perfume was applied in reconciliation? Of course, that was under an ostensibly Republican president and so they could be said to be following their President’s wishes in what appeared to be a true emergency. At least that’s what they said by way of exculpation if not if not in defense of their vaunted principles. We see how that’s working out.

So, the question is not so much what they did in Round #1 this week but what they will do once a few token tax tweaks are thrown in for the benefit of their cover and a few billion here and there are trimmed back by the savvier dems and our quislings? Is the lesson learned from the “bailout” fiasco a genuine return to first principles or a rehearsed kabuki dance in which they are permitted to save face in the first act before their betrayal comes in the second?
— Mark Shepler
Jupiter, Florida

“With a mere 177 votes in the House and likely just 41 in the Senate, a united Republican front will be necessary if there is any hope of thwarting Obama’s more ambitious legislative goals, such as government-run health care.”

Of course, Mr. Klein is correct regarding the need for Republicans to act early and often to forestall the scarier aspects of the Democrat power grab. However, when it come to health care, the combination of SCHIP expansion (a done deal) and the stealth provisions built into the “stimulus” package for Medicare and COBRA expansion, among other goodies, has already enabled Ms. Pelosi and her minions to establish a pretty solid beachhead. We all know that once these programs are put in place, they will become permanent of the budgetary landscape. The 19th century British colonialists called it “the thin edge of the wedge”.

Oremus!
— Richard Meade
Bayside, New York

While I understand the political and philosophical place from which you are writing I think your point that Republicans are finally seeing the light about government spending is false.  Republicans are not working to combat government spending because they feel it’s wrong and counter-productive to the economic growth we desperately need, they are simply trying to survive as a party and consolidate their base in opposition to the Dems’ obvious might right now.

The truth appears to be that the Republicans of today aren’t against government spending, they’re against the Dems’ type of government spending. This is supported by your own argument in the article that cited the bloated spending of the Bush Administration over the past 8 years that was happily sanctioned by Republicans throughout. — Keith Van Essen


OLD MAJORITY
Re: W. James Antle III’s If It’s Not True, It’s Not New:

By reading your article, you appear to be a liberal Republican. I am a former Democrat, turned Republican, and now Independent. Not because my values changed, but because the parties changed. The Democrats are now extremely liberal, and the Republicans are now Democrats. If Republicans want to rule again, they NEED to go back to conservatism. I am an average citizen, and see average citizens every day. We are a right of center nation. Most (except extreme libs.) Democrats can relate to conservative values. Most people want the government to leave them alone, low taxes, at least strong restrictions on abortions, and strong national security. Unfortunately, we have the left-wing media duping half the nation into believing Dumbacrats are the party for our country. You elitists need to go out and see the real America, get out of your small pampered world.
— Martin Rainer

I have been reading this new site and am particularly interested in the discussions that identifiy the Republicans’ problems with the Northeast (I’m from New England). Trying my best to be polite and modest, I’m surprise at how little some of the writers really know about the politics of those regions. I’ve been intimately involved in politics for decades, most recently for the last seven years in some very high profile races in which we won three and lost one. A Republican revival is far more complicated than purging ourselves of social conservatives or embracing Bush-type compassionate conservatism. To be sure, there’s a great deal of hard work to be done, but the tone and recommendations of what I’ve read so far in the “New Majority” suggest they’re not the ones to depend upon.
— Paul Zisserson
Cranston, Rhode Island

This article is timely in that it finds the Republicans in disarray and seemingly re-consigned to the wilderness in which they have found themselves for so much of the past 80 years. I am throwing in my .02 USD as a former Republican who would rarely find any reason again to vote for the Democrats, too.