This is not just because I am not happy with who we conservatives must choose as our next president. Senator John McCain is as much a liberal as Democratic Senator Barack Obama when it comes to such issues as global warming and gay marriage, to name a couple.
It is mostly because the Republican Party no longer has anything they firmly stand on. If someone came up and asked you to name a Republican in Congress right now, would you be able to name more than one? I can name two and both are no longer in Congress: Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole.
The fact I can name more than five members of the Democratic Party leaves me with a brief touch of stomach flu. This is all thanks to the liberal “drive-by” news media who see Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry and Ted Kennedy as their “darlings.”
The Republican Party has no “Contract With America,” like the one Newt Gingrich and other representatives came up with back in 1994 that detailed several actions they’d take if elected.
Hence, the reason why Republicans lost congressional seats May 13, 2008, in Illinois, Louisiana, and Mississippi to Democrats. These were seats the Republican Party held in years past.
Can the Republican Party make a comeback?
Almost immediately following those disastrous election results, conservative talk show host Sean Hannity outlined 10 ways on his website, in which the Republicans can be victorious this November if they stand by these 10 beliefs. I won’t go into all 10, but here are the most important.
Number 1: “To be the Candidate of National Security.”
They should not only stay the course in Iraq, stand behind the troops and support the Patriot Act, but keep Guantanamo Bay open to hold terror suspects.
Let’s face it. Whether you are for or against the Iraq War, we are there to win. Anyone who thinks Senator Obama can come through on his promise to start bringing troops home within a year if he takes office should look back in history and find out just how long it took President Richard Nixon, after he took office in 1968 to end the Vietnam War. It didn’t happen until after he resigned from office in 1974 due to the Watergate scandal.
Even if Obama pledges to start pulling out troops, it won’t happen in a year and like Vietnam which became a disaster when we pulled out, the same would occur in Iraq.
Number 2: “The Candidate who pledges to oppose Appeasement.”
To put it simply, a Republican will oppose all efforts to negotiate with dictators from countries like Iran.
I am amazed at Obama’s notion that he doesn’t see any dictatorship countries as a major threat.
"Iran, Cuba, Venezuela? These countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They do not pose any serious threat to us," he told people while on a campaign stop.
How do you negotiate with someone who says the Holocaust did not happen? Or how do you negotiate with Muslims who believe killing themselves and others will get them 72 virgins in the next life?
Number 3: “The Candidate Pledges to support Tax CUTS, and fiscal responsibility.”
Anyone who thinks Senator Obama is going to lower taxes, if elected, lives in a dream world. I love it when people tell me how they are already being taxed as it is so the idea of a Democrat being president does not make much difference. I also love how they compare me, a single person with no kids, to themselves who are married with children and say, I am not paying out as much as they are.
You know what? My blood is the same color as everyone else’s. Just because I am living the single life does not mean I do not have expenses. I might be able to put some money away, but not all of it. And every year that I get a raise just means more money gets taken out of my paychecks for taxes.
Number 4: The Candidate Pledges to be a supporter of “Energy Independence.”
Listen up people! This country has more than enough oil to last us a century. It is time to stop using and relying on other countries for the product and stop worrying about the safety of endangered species here in the states, all because some want to save polar bears and penguins.
That means yes, drilling in Anwar and building new refineries and nuclear facilities. I have been living for 20 years behind an electrical tower that buzzes every time it rains. I have not been diagnosed with a brain tumor yet.
If you think paying between $4 and $6 dollars for gas now is a joke, will you still be laughing when it one day hits $12 a gallon? It will not be because we have a gas shortage. It will be because the demand for oil is higher.
Number 5: “The Candidate pledges to secure our borders completely within 12 months.”
When it comes to border security, the country is no more secure now than it was before 9/11. If there is any funding that needs to be spent, it’s for hiring more border patrol agents and getting a fence built.
Number 6: “Healthcare. The Candidate will look for Free-Market solutions to the problems facing the Healthcare industry and will vigorously oppose any efforts to “nationalize healthcare.”
Is our nation’s healthcare system broken? Yes. But I would not trade it for the kind of healthcare other countries have, like in Canada. It amazes me at how people think they do not have it great here in terms of healthcare. Perhaps they should go live in Canada, get diagnosed with a heart ailment that requires immediate surgery and see if they can wait six months for an operation that needs to be done within days or hours.
Or better still, look at how the government runs the post office or handles medical care for wounded military veterans and then ask themselves, do we want nationalized healthcare?
Number 8: Social Security and Medicare: "The Candidate will “save” Social Security and Medicare from bankruptcy.”
All that money taken out of our weekly or bi-weekly paychecks that’s used for Social Security and Medicare needs to go back to us. Let us decide how we want to spend it.
That is never going to happen. By the time we turn 65, both these accounts will be bankrupt, but we are still going to get our Social Security checks. The government will just keep taking out money to put into an account that continues to borrow from everything else.
Which all goes back to my belief that I seriously doubt the Republican party can stage a comeback between now and Election Day, but anything can happen.
The haunting words of Mitt Romney still echo inside my head.
“Washington is broken.”
Going the Independent way sounds better and better every minute.
©6/4/08
