I've come to the conclusion that I want the Republicans, and especially McCain/Palin, to just lose this fall. I've been thinking lately about just how unreliable the Republican party has been at representing the interests of conservatives in the past 28 years, basically since Reagan first took office. This is especially the case when it comes to abortion. But it is also true with respect to cutting the size of government and government spending. Here are some basic statistics I've compiled about Republicans in power since 1981.
Republicans since 1981, when Reagan first came into office:
Control of the White House: 1981-1993, 2001-2009, a total of 20 years
Control of the Senate: 1981-1987, December 1994-2001, 2003-2007, a total of 18 years
Control of the House: 1995-2007, a total of 12 years
Control of the White House and Senate: 10 years
Control of the White House and both houses of Congress: 4 years
Number of Republican Supreme Court appointments since 1981: 7
Number of anti-Roe appointments since 1981: 4 (Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, Alito)
Number of pro-Roe appointments since 1981: 3 (O'Connor, Kennedy, Souter)
Number of Democratic (and thus pro-Roe) appointments since 1981: 2 (Ginsburg, Breyer)
To be honest, I'm starting to coming to the conclusion that as a party the Republicans are either half-heartedly pro-life or only use the issue to
cynically exploit pro-life social conservatives for their vote. Sure, I don't doubt that some high ranking Republicans truly are pro-life. But as a party,
they've only taken measures against abortion that are very safe politically such as banning partial birth abortion or prohibiting federal funding from
going to abortions. They sure aren't reliable in appointing pro-life judges to the Supreme Court, and they haven't gone out of their way to enact a
pro-life Amendment to the Constitution or to pass something such as Ron Paul's Sanctity of Life Act, which would have taken the abortion question out of
the hands of the courts. They simply don't take political risks for the pro-life cause (even when they in power, which has been frequently) the way they do
for things such as tax cuts, pro-corporate deregulation bills, or going to war. Republican party leaders are happy to have the votes of social conservatives.
But beyond window dressing and talk to the party base, things such as abortion simply aren't priorities for them.
So what's the point in voting for McCain this fall? I've concluded that there isn't one
considering the poor track record of his party. I'm either going to vote for Baldwin or write in Paul. Sure, Obama is very liberal and I expect he will do
many things as president that I won't agree with. I can't in good conscience vote for him, and have no illusions that all will be well and we will all
sit down and sing kumbaya under him. I won't, however, be upset at this point if he wins. After all the big spending, big government ways of Bush (the
bailout is the latest and probably greatest example), I'm not going to be scared into voting for the Republicans by calling for another round of tax cuts
and decrying Obama as a big government liberal. As if Bush isn't a big government liberal. In addition to increasing the size of government and the
national debt, Bush's policies have led to inflation because he has printed so much money. Ron Paul's correct that this kind of inflation amounts to a
tax raise, especially for the poor and the middle class when they go to buy things such as groceries and gas. Also, if Obama is a radical for hanging out with
the likes of Rev. Wright and Bill Ayers, what does that make McCain for having a neocon extremist such as Max Boot as one of his foreign policy advisors? And
Palin simply isn't qualified to be VP. So anyway, the Republicans just need to lose this fall. I realize that they probably will never perfectly represent
conservative interests. But if they aren't rebuked after eight years of Bush and the Republican Congress under Bush, they probably won't ever begin to
mend their ways. Maybe they never will, but I don't see a chance of them changing until the crash and burn in an election and have some time to think about
what they've done while out of power.
Any thoughts?
Rosco
