* Historically,Republican political theory consistently favored balanced budgets, pay-as-you-go. Bush's budgets have all been deficit budgets, turning a comfortable federal surplus at inauguration into trillion-dollar deficits which are still growing wildly every day.
* Traditional Republicans also favored prudent monetary as well as fiscal policy, and counseled avoiding becoming a debtor nation. Bush has created mammoth deficits, turned America into the world's leading debtor nation, and yielded control of our economy to not-always friendly foreign countries who have financed his deficits; his policies are degrading the dollar, resulting in hidden inflation.
* True Republicans cherished America's unique constitutional checks-and-balance system of 3 co-equal branches of government, favoring so-called small government. Both Congress and the Supreme Court surrendered to Bush's orders and supinely encouraged the expansion of executive power against all constitutional constraints. The federal government continues to increase in size beyond anything the liberals ever did.
* Since Teddy Roosevelt, Republicans favored "talk softly but carry a big stick" in foreign affairs. Bush got this half right: he has flailed about mightily with a big stick but his "my way or the highway"has changed almost universal world sympathy and respect for America on 9/11 to almost universal disdain. He launched a pre-emptive war upon Iraq based on doctored evidence and without apparently planning more than one move ahead, radicalized even moderate Muslims everywhere to the benefit of Osama bin Laden, wore out our military so they are not available to protect our interests elsewhere, and burned through trillions of dollars, many of which have disappeared without a trace- and still did not give us a grip on Iraq's oil.
* True Republicans honored constitutional guarantees and had a strong sense of ethics. Bush frankly disdained Constitutional guarantees, arranged for America to torture prisoners and "render" them to brutal foreign governments for interrogation, holding them secretly for years, wiping out the 900-year old Magna Carta guarantees of habeas corpus; issued hundreds of signing statements limiting or ignoring any legislation he found inconvenient; and he secretly wire-tapped citizens without warrants, almost like a totalitarian secret police.
* Real Republicans, while admiring free enterprise, were the Party which, through the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, also punished dishonest abusers of the system. Bush has dismantled such safeguards will-nilly, rewarding major campaign contributors shamelessly; fatuous self-aggrandizement by Republican Congress persons and members of his administration created rot at the core of government; and his appointees have far too often been inept and obviously political.
* Traditional Republicans worked to preserve America's environment and untamed wilderness (the national park system began with Republican legislation), and they respected science over superstition. Bush attacked environmental laws, threw parks open to private exploitation for profit by major campaign contributors, subverted scientific studies and recommendations, abrogated any international treaty which seemed to tie his hands in any way; and chiseled away at separation of Church and State to the benefit of selected religious groups.
CONCLUSION: Overwhelming evidence proves that, despite running as "a" Republican, George W. Bush and his supporters are in fact not Republican. They have hijacked our Party, and those who continue to support them because of the Republican Party name are deluded and doing so against their own best interests. True Republicans must repudiate the present group of subversive functionaries and Take Back Our Party.
*****
When informed of the ARNC study, the Back Oval Office under Snarl Rover denied its existence but later issued a statement that read, in part: "...the Metro employee should be fired. The journalist who stole the papers has previously been discredited as a Liberal Political Hack, and will be prosecuted as a terrorist."
*****
DEMOCRATIC RESPONSE: The Chair of the Democratic Campaign Committee, Howie Dream, upon hearing the Conclusion of the ARNC Report, remarked that "We've known for some time that many bewildered traditional Republicans felt their Party had left them in the lurch. Bush has moved the GOP so far into reactionary zealotry that it no longer has a place for moderate centrists. As it happens, the New Democrats are the moderate, centrist party of fiscal responsibility and a sensible foreign policy, with respect for the Constitution. We welcome these moderate Republicans into the new Democratic Party."
UPDATE: "Capitol Buzz" reported Snarl Rover has ordered warrantless wiretaps to discover which Republicans participated in the ARNC report. The Sting Novak column published in "Capitalist Tool" predicted at least five long-term Republican Senators and members of Congress will be forced to resign or face primary opponents, despite their repeated protestations of total loyalty to Bush. Four generals and one admiral are also reported ready to resign, one of whom is currently in Iraq. The Justice Department under Mucho Absento Miasmos is investigating.
NEXT UPDATE: Peerless Robert and Charity Home of Family Focus issued a Falwell Fatwa From Heaven about the ARNC flap: "Although our beloved Reverend is no longer with us, he has stated from Above that the ARNC traitors are helping Islamist terrorists and must suffer retribution of the vilest sort."
NEXT UPDATE: President Bush announced the commencement of military operations against Persia at 4 AM. Opponents suggested that he did so in an effort to distract the public from the ARNC Report, which the White House Press Officer, Lotta Snow, dismissed as political posturing.
Then again, the famous middle has been distorted by the way Bush and wingnuts have pulled everything so far out of line tht what was the middle is now castigated as being liberal and left. Kind of a slippery slope there, middleman.
Pelosi and Reid are already stepping too far and its starting to swing back again.
The other thing is that many of the Ds elected in 06 are conservative democrats and many others had close races that had to do with the toxic environment for Republicans. So as soon as 08 a bunch of seats might change. It all basically hinges on Iraq IMHO.
There were even those Republican members of congress, who were voted in by the party faithful (self-described Republicans) for a 6 year stretch from 2000 to 2006. In fact those Republicans did anything and everything that Republican George W. Bush wanted.
Oddly enough self-described Republicans were the only ones giving this president approval marks in the 90 percent range as recently as 8 months ago.
But please don't confuse those people with the REAL Republican party. Apparently this Republican ruse was just one big fantasy foisted on the public at large by, well, real living breathing Republicans who apparently needed 7 years, and a loss in the 2006 mid-terms to figure out that George W. Bush really didn't embody the conservative principles that the party allegedly stood for.
Frankly, this tells me more about self-described conservative Republicans than it does about George W. Bush.
It is like a religious conversion for them to give up their attachment to the old name. Yet some of them do move away (as I did) and a few of us go beyond being independents because, once out from under the Old Name we suddenly see things in a new light. It's a matter of: How do you reach these people who, bewildered, know something's not right in Republican-land? I wrote this article as an exercise in irony, humor if you will, laying out the truth hoping it would strike a cord when seen in black and white, and knowing that often humor can tell the truth better to unwilling listeners than a dry dissertation.
Snarl Rover has made sure of it.
For many of the uneasy repubs, they want to believe that the trouble with their Party is all due to Bush and when he goes away so will the problem. That is not true, the GOP has changed forever.
and then there is mine working within the party instead of abandoning it
If you are happier as a democrat go for it but I would say that there is a partisan block of Democrats as well. And in my opinion at least the partisan block of democrats does not believe what I do hence why I am a republican and not a democrat.
I cant write very well to begin with and humor is a whole nother level but here we go
Three elementary schoolers were walking down the street wanting to become president. Everyone wants to be healthy so lets have healthcare they thought. Oh and everyone likes education and the environment so lets talk about this. And nobody likes people dying or war so lets be for peace. Everything was going well until they got home to their parents.
The parents said well children who is going to pay for you to have perfect healthcare and what type of healtcare will be covered. And currently we send you to school for 13 years and it fails over 25% of you so why should we spend even more money or have you go 14 years instead. And we already recylce and conserve so why should the government mandate what enviromental policy is best for us. Finally children, war is a terrible thing and people die but sometimes the consequences for running away are worse.
The sea change suffered by the Republican Party over the last 20 plus years wipes out all, yes all, of the reasons I was a Republican. The Party is never going to repair itself, it is useless to hope that it can. The so-called "fringe" elements of the Republican Party have actually captured the power levers in that Party; the "fringe" elements of the Democratic Party have nowhere near the power of the fringe elements (now the center) of the Republican Party, and they are a lot less scary when you really think about it. Much of the old-time centrist ideals, the Constitution-honoring federalism now has a home in the Democratic Party. Do not swallow the tired cliches of the spinmeisters of the new Republicans.