“This is the issue of this election: Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capitol can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.â€
—Ronald Reagan, from a speech delivered 27 October 1964, Los Angeles, CA
Mind you that wasn’t just a speech; that was “The Speech,†as it is now known but was actually titled, “A Time for Choosing.†This was a nationally televised speech that Ronald Reagan gave on behalf of the Republican presidential candidate, Barry Goldwater. Ronald Reagan was once a staunch Democrat but he became Republican because he was foremost a conservative and he knew the Democratic Party no longer held conservative views.
Today’s Republican Party is not breathing; oh it may be on life-support, but it is definitely not breathing on its own. Today’s Republican Party does not hold to the ideals of limited government; government has grown with Republicans in power, particularly in the area of discretionary spending. Hard as this may be to believe, discretionary spending under the Bush Administration is more than double that of the Clinton Administration. (Has anyone seen the President’s veto pen; it’s been missing for six years!)
Whenever you try to revive a patient who is not breathing, once the airway is clear, you must first give two full breaths and see if the patient’s lungs fill up and then deflate. The two breaths needed for the Republican Party is getting discretionary spending under control and out in the open, and securing the border.
Discretionary spending needs two fixes: 1) the line-item veto; and 2) the greatest abuse of discretionary spending is the use of earmarks and yesterday President Bush finally called for an end to this pork-barrel form of spending: “Congress needs to adopt real reform that requires full disclosure of the sponsors, the costs, the recipients and the justifications for every earmark. Congress needs to stop the practice of concealing earmarks in so-called report language. And Congress needs to cut the number and cost of earmarks next year by at least half.†(President’s remarks in Rose Garden, Jan. 4, 2007) The President also called for the line item veto.
The second breath needed is securing the borders. Now many politicians believe that the immigration issue is more important, but we must first secure our borders and then come up with a comprehensive immigration plan, or at best simultaneously. But securing our borders must happen; it is a matter of national security. Many voters stayed home because of the border issue and it can no longer be politicized or obscured by political correctness.
Here are two easy ways to fix the immigration issue: 1) stop calling illegal aliens “undocumented workers.†That’s a bunch of PC mumbo-jumbo. An alien is defined as “a resident born in or belonging to another country who has not acquired citizenship by naturalization; a foreigner,†and they are not here legally; hence the term “illegal alien!†2) If you’re going to give amnesty as part of a guest worker program and/or “comprehensive immigration reform,†then call it amnesty. Americans aren’t stupid and you can slap whatever PC label you want on amnesty, but we know what it is.
Whichever Republican politician or candidate takes these two issues as two of their main goals to fix, that person will take a giant leap forward and attract much attention from the mass of disgruntled GOP voters. After that, we can return to the patient and check for circulation. The GOP is bleeding and its circulation is weak.
Next, we’ll look at stopping the bleeding and restoring the “circulation†of the GOP!
There’s one easy way to revive the Republicans: Exhume Goldwater ’08!
Dave,
I couldn’t agree more. It’s time for action; and I’m very proud of your work toward that end.
Keep up the fight!
Rod D. Martin
Founder and Chairman
TheVanguard.Org
Dave,
Excellent as usual! I wonder who’s giving the Republican party CPR right now?
Dave H,
We the people of the National Federation of Republican Assembies (NFRA), the Vanguard.org, this and many blogs, and a healthy grassroots movement will do that. More on this in Part 5 of “Reviving the Republicans.”
Dave J
Dave, Great article to date keep it up. I am curious. Does this information get sent to any of the “candidates” or the Republican National Convention. All of this is really good but unless someone who is running for office or is in office and beggin to make things happen it is just a bunch of folks blowing off steam.
Don
It’s interesting that, in a discussion about CPR and bleeding, no mention is made of the war on terror. I feel it is in no small measure responsible for the condition of our “patient” right now. Government spending and border security are huge issues and Dave is right….the next GOP candidate better address them intelligently. That person must also be ready to intelligently discuss plans for winning the war on terror if he/she is to have any success with GOP voters (not to mention political opponents who have yet to come up with a solution apart from quitting). Hindsight is always 20/20 but, since we’re in the middle of a war right now, I’ll toss this out there. The border we should have secured is the one around Iraq. Insurgents keep flooding into the country to replace the ones that our brave Soldiers take out. I personally feel that if you can manage to secure the Iraqi border (using all available methods to include US forces, coalition forces, UN forces [wait, skip the UN guys…they’re worthless], aviation assets, UAVs, etc.) you’d be amazed at the drop-off in the number of bombings and other violent acts. Our problem has been that we kill 5 and 7 come in to replace the ones that were taken out. We restore order in one city and the terrorists move to another. I believe that securing the Iraqi border would bring swift results and would lead to the ability to leave the security of Iraq to the Iraqi security forces. This allows our Soldiers to return victorious and allows our reserve forces to secure the US border while the wall/fence is being built. I will be the first one to condemn the American media for the sedition that passes for reporting when writing/speaking about the war on terror. There are thousands of good things happening there every day but the only thing that gets reported are death tolls and insurgent activities. The mainstream media is responsible for the decline in public opinion simply due to the fact that most Americans only get to hear their slant on the story….they rarely hear the truth. This is one area where I feel President Bush has failed. He should have used his bully pulpit years ago to get out there and let the people know of the good that is being done. I think most GOP supporters would admit that (apart from campaigning) he has only spoken publicly as a “last resort”. President Reagan got out there and let people know why he did what he did and he made it make sense to people. Please understand that I respect and admire President Bush. He’s my second-favorite president and I also understand that it’s easy to sit at my computer and play armchair president. Many of those who read this blog will have had military experience and will know that, when seizing any objective, the very first thing you have to do is secure the area. This also applies to the situation in Iraq. We never adequately secured the area and it’s little wonder that we have the enemy everywhere.
Spending and immigration are of paramount importance to the vitality and security of our nation. Dave is dead-on (as usual) and these issues must be intelligently addressed for any GOP candidate to be effective. I simply feel that there is a third piece to the puzzle that needs to be addressed as well. It may end up a moot point if the current liberal, cut-and-run, leadership abandons the Iraqi people and recalls our troops without giving them the chance they need to accomplish their mission. But the initial topic dealt with what’s ailing our patient right now and, in my humble opinion, our patient is suffering from “bloating” (spending) and a unique case of “reverse diarrhea” (illegal immigration). I just think it’s important to note that the patient is also suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (the war on terror).
Anyway…my two cents (and then some!)
Bill,
Excellent post and dead-on but as a whole I think most Republicans are satisfied with the job the President has done with the war on terror. I absolutely agree with your assessment of the Iraqi border; it is spot-on (which is expected of an old cavalry soldier-old being the operative word). I concur that if we do not win the war on terror, the rest of the argument is moot. We definitely are suffering from post traumatic stress disorder.
P.S. Don, this blog is not automatically sent to any candidates or party offices, but I am counting on word of mouth, plus my affiliation with TheVanguard.org as a way of spreading the word. We will look at ways of getting our concerns to those interests you’ve stated. The best way for that to happen is for all of my readers to join TheVanguard.org (www.thevanguard.org) and we can consolidate are monies and talents into one voice. That is why TheVanguard.org is the antidote to MoveOn.org
I have just now stumbled on this. I was sent an email from a friend which contained an article that had the name David Jeffers on it, presumably written by his son in combat. Doing a serch, I found this site. I was raised a staunch Democrat, and went toward the Independent side. I now find that the republican Party is making more sense than anyone. I heartily agree with what has been said here, and look forward to exploring the rest of the blog! I shall try to steer friends who feel as I do to this site!
Isn’t a line item veto unconstitutional? Would it not amount to legislation by the executive branch? Let’s say the President’s party and the opposition negotiate an issue to get a bill passed. His party agrees to one of the opposition’s line items if one of theirs is inserted as well. So far so good. The bill passes. Now he decides to renege and veto the opposition’s line item, while his party’s line item stays in. I don’t know what the answer is, but line-item veto cannot be it.
As for illegal aliens, there’s got to be a statute of limitations. This sort of thing is recognized even in property law. If I farm your land without your permission for twenty years and you don’t find out and stop me, I retain the right to farm that land. Look it up! If you can’t find an illegal alien in a certain amount of time, it becomes economically and socially more disruptive to expel them than to leave them in place. And if you leave them in place, it is unjust to treat them as less than others.