No compromising with these guys
"If you're going to be a conservative in America, you can't be a pussy."
-- ANN COULTER, 2006 speech to CPAC
Liberals have a big problem, and no one can do anything about it except the liberals themselves.
They were raised to be fair, while conservatives were raised to win.
Ever since Jack Abramoff revamped the College Republicans in the early '80s, conservatism has been about confrontation. The Abramoff generation made politics a showdown in which the wishy-washy left gets pounded by the strong, tough-minded right.
It's why the Coulters and other Republican pundits are constantly talking about the Democrats as "pussies," as "girly-men" or as other sorts who should be following rather than leading.
It's why liberals like Michael Dukakis and John Kerry, in the face of attacks that weren't true, decided not to dignify those attacks by responding to them. Voters didn't see it that way; voters said if they didn't fight back, they were weak and what was being said about them must be true.
It's why George W. Bush portrayed himself as a cowboy rancher, even though he didn't buy his ranch until he ran for president and he was afraid to go anywhere near horses.
Bush was a cowboy, while his opponents -- Al Gore and Kerry -- were wimps who wind-sailed. It's how he was able to get away with the fact that he avoided serving in Vietnam, even though both of his opponents actually spent tim in country.
Just the question of which candidate would you rather have a beer with -- as idiotic a way as it is to decide a president -- was all about masculinity and toughness. Everyone knew Gore and Kerry would probably prefer white wine.
It's why even when conservatives control all the branches of government, as they did under Dubya Bush, they see themselves as anti-government insurgents.
You can't compromise with these people. Just as the old Soviet Union always saw compromises as steps toward eventual victory, the right wing is the same way. Their plan is exactly what Grover Norquist once said, to shrink government down to a size where they can drown it in a bathtub.
It's why President Barack Obama needs to go ahead and do health care even if he can't get one Republican to vote for it. No matter how many teabaggers are showing up to complain -- and there really aren't that many compared to the overall population -- these are people who would never vote for Democrats anyway.
When conservatives control the government, they don't compromise. They jam through as much of their agenda as they can and challenge liberals to undo it later.
Obama needs to reform health care, end the wars and appoint liberal judges.
If he doesn't do it, it'll never get done.
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The more Obama tries to get republicans onboard, the more they drill holes in his ship. We need to get healthcare reform done and the republicans are NOT going to help, soo, Obama needs to do, what he has to do.
JerrySatire
www.Lampoon.net
I get Ann Coulter's email news letter, because I like to see what she's up to; I also get news letters from the Sierra Club, and other organizations on the left, including my own union. Few of them really represent the general population of either liberals or conservatives, most of whom are much more towards the center and even share overlapping points of view.
As a devout Christian Conservative, Ann Coulter scares me; she in no way represents me, or others like me, and I think we are far more numerous than most might believe. Limbaugh is an entertainer and should be considered as such; he's no more of an intellectual than is Bill Mahr. They both get laughs from lampooning political issues, much like Saturday Night Live, or David Frost's old "That Was The Week That Was". Even brilliant political satire is based on exaggeration of the issue.
One of the things that liberal politicians need to shy away from, in my opinion, is attacking those pundits by making broad sweeping statements about all conservatives and Republicans, which just serves to piss us off and create a sense of unity against a common opponent. If they instead, separated out the pundits and dealt with them as individuals, rather than as representatives of something larger, they'd be much more effective.
On a broader note, I think the same thing can said about conservative politicians. They shouldn't assume that all who wander are lost, or that all who follow are sheep...
It is hard to think that the "entertainer"s as you put it don't represent the consvervative community. Hell it is hard thinking that they don't represent Americans. They talk like they are the only Americans. That everyone else that disagrees with them is not American. They brag about high ratings that their show receive.
There are neilson ratings that back up what they claim about.
I think Ann Coulter and her type may not represent you personally, but she does sell a lot of books. SHe does end up on a lot of shows. Limbaugh recevies a lot of love from the right. Major Republican figures end up coming on his show as guests. Lots of major Republican figures show up on Fox News. Some have their own shows there.
I think many conservatives first support the outrageous statment and claims that these "over the top" people spit out at a faster rate than an automatic weapon. Then after the claim has been disputed and shown to be false do the conservatives back off the claim and wait for the next hyperbolic claim and end up supporting that as well.
in reply to amalgam80:
The only people I've seen quoting Limbaugh, or Coulter have been liberals, reacting to something they read or heard. If you want to believe that they represent the bulk of American conservative thought, that's your privilege; I can only disagree, and hope the Democratic party, in general, feels the same way you do, and continues to piss off a lot of people that might actually be sympathetic to some of their issues if they weren't being lumped in with total idiots.
Much like a fox terrier latched onto a bone, they simply refuse to let it go. They hate to be wrong and choose to live in denial or like you say--lay in wait until the next hyberbolic and incendiary claim comes along for them to latch onto.
It's about issues people, not about what the idiot pundits on both sides try to make it. If moderate liberals are offended by being called "socialists", please understand that moderate conservatives are equally offended by being called racists or fascists. It's just a bad game for either side, and will, in the end, result in some type of blowback...
Sorry friend, but I don't agree with your assertion: The left does exactly the same thing.
If you truly believe the left has been making more stink in town hall meetings, shouting more ignorance, carrying more Nazi signs, and using more tactics to scare old people-than you have been living in a cave and not paying attention to current events.
Show me one Democrat that has every called any sitting president in history a "liar" in the hall of Congress, then have all the other Democrats pat him on the back for doing it.
It's true, I've never heard a Democrat scream "liar!", in a joint session of Congress, but I've seen them boo and act badly, and be openly disrespectful in that environment. It's probably just a matter of degree, but one is as bad as the other in my perspective. Throwing up their hands and rolling their eyes, on camera, as Hillary has done, is, to me, equally disturbing.
I would be better if both sides paid a little more attention to decorum;
We heard for eight years how Clinton never got 50 percent of the vote and was only president because Perot had run.
Now with a president who got 53 percent of the vote, we hear constantly that he isn't a real American.
They really don't care if any of this is true. Every minute spent answering or dealing with these charges is a minute in which Democrats can't govern.
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