[quote author="freedomCM" date=1257474269][quote author="Nude" date=1257440604]
I'm telling you, this isn't infighting or a war within the party, it's housecleaning. </blockquote>
I guess it depends on who's house you think it is.</blockquote>
And that's the point I am trying to make: the people who make up the GOP, the actual party members and registered voters, have to take the control away from the big business, country club types who have been making the kind of candidate choices you see in NY23 or in Crist's self-serving appointment. For the past 25 years they have been paying lip service to Conservative ideals yet giving in on everything but defense and social issues (they need to keep the social conservatives on the reservation, so to speak) while handing the keys to the safe over to business and Wall St. But after 8 years of Bush and Cheney, we're tired of seeing our values ignored in the quest to win elections. Clearly, running to the middle hasn't proven to be a successful strategy. And I'm not advocating, nor am I seeing, support for ultra-conservative candidates. There is no rush to put David Duke on any ticket and I haven't even heard that kind of discussion going on. What I am seeing is conservatives deciding that they've had enough with the Neo-cons, and the GOP patricians, and the Country Clubbers who have been running the party. They are turning out in Primaries and speaking up in town halls and organizing at the grass roots.
Conservatives embrace the kind of government laid out in the Constitution: limited Federal powers, States as political citizens with their own representation, maximum liberty for it's citizens which requires personal responsibility (ruling out hypocritical candidates) rather than the top-down governance of a centralized power that acts like Big Mother. We want a level playing field so that <em>every person</em> can enjoy the equal opportunity to succeed or fail according to their own efforts, rather than a government that tries to distribute equal results regardless of effort. Conservatives acknowledge that a strong social safety net is both desirable and required for a stable society but believe that those efforts are best managed on a local level by people who are already serving the community in which they live, not a distant government with it's own standards and inefficient bureaucracy. Conservatives aren't against regulation, as long as that regulation is intended to keep the playing field level and not place onerous burdens on industry in order to punish success, but we don't support bailing out businesses that can not stand on their own; failure is a consequence that must be as acceptable as success, or we will learn nothing from the experience. We are not awed or owned by Big Business or Wall Street, but we recognize that they are the traditional source of the capital that funds industry and those Big Businesses are also Big Employers, providing jobs to millions; every single one of them started as a small business with a bank loan. And Conservative does not mean "Neo-Con"... we should not be sending people to die in order to install governments more to our liking; if we are going to fight, let it be in support of those who are already sending their own people into harm's way or in defense of our allies and ourselves. That being said, there is no group more committed to winning our wars than people who call themselves Conservative and we hate to see our leaders leaving our armed forces hanging out to dry while they try to stay popular. We are husbands and wives who go to work every day so we can provide for our families and support our communities, just like everyone else. We believe that what has made the country great is the individual successes that are built upon by other individuals, who in turn build new success, and the freedom to follow your own path, unfettered by government policies that are designed to make people dependent on that government. We are not evil, or heartless, or selfish, or cruel. We are happy, loving, generous, and responsible and we are trying to keep this country as it was intended to be, the freest Republic in the world.
