They are failing you and it will get worse
There are a great many conservatives who have stated that they will not support the Republicans in 2004 because of the recent big government Republican strategy. Also, quite a few little L libertarians who have historically voted for Republicans as the lesser of evils have said they won’t support Republicans either (like me).
Via Spoons (one of those conservatives) comes Mrs. du Toit’s defense of supporting Bush, as a conservative. She is right that the responsibility lies with the people to fix the quagmire that is politics.
However, she changes some of the arguments:
Simply put, the President is not responsible for the economy, job creation, health and welfare, or anything else we might term the Domestic Agenda.
I don’t know of many conservatives who have faulted Bush in this area.
The second issue is that Bush did not get a clear mandate.
I don’t know that that is an issue people like me have either.
Neither of these issues has a lot to do with why people otherwise inclined to vote Republican aren’t going to vote for him. It boils down to specifics and not sweeping generalizations. Here goes a list:
Bush stated he will sign the renewal of the Assault Weapons Ban. It could just be that he’s saying that to garner votes from gun controllers and relying on congress not to get the bill to him. After all, who else are gun owners going to vote for? This is a slap in the face to a key Republican demographic. Can’t pin that on Congress.
The Ashcroft Justice Department. ‘Nuff said. Can’t pin that on Congress.
Those pesky Saudis. The administration kowtowing to those thugs is abysmal and no one should tolerate it. Can’t pin that on Congress.
The highest deficit ever coupled with the biggest federal government ever. This is definitely anathema to conservatism. This one can be pinned on Congress but it was signed into law by Bush
I could go on, but I want to get to my point. The Republicans are failing you. They are becoming what they said they weren’t. It is funny how the party of big government is the one that’s in power, isn’t it? It’s a power grab and blatant partisanship is not going to help.
Mrs. du Toit ends with:
For heaven’s sakes, a split in the Conservative vote will be our undoing and then, truly then, all our hopes are dashed.
I disagree. I think if voters send a clear message to this administration that this is not the Republican party that we will tolerate and it costs them the highest office in the land, they will get the message. I would give four years to Howard Dean to get the Republicans back on track. Continuing to support them only encourages their big government ways.
I’m voting Dean in the primary and the Libertarian candidate in the general.
October 19th, 2003 at 4:34 pm
Whilst I agree that Bush has not been the smaller-government president that we thought, I couldn’t disagree more with the thought of Dean for president.
Do you really think Dean would have kept terrorists from making another attack on American soil? Do you think that rejecting a centrist president for a lefty will send the right signal to the Republican party?
October 19th, 2003 at 8:53 pm
” I think if voters send a clear message to this administration that this is not the Republican party that we will tolerate and it costs them the highest office in the land, they will get the message. I would give four years to Howard Dean to get the Republicans back on track. Continuing to support them only encourages their big government ways.”
I’d like to remind you that the elephant is the Republican party symbol – it does not mean that politicians who call themselves Republicans have much of a memory. Please bear in mind that when many, many of us voted ‘in protest’ for Ross Perot it didn’t get us four years of Bubba, but eight – and it very, very nearly got us four more years of Gore.
And THAT didn’t get Republican ‘back on track,’ now did it?
Go ahead, vote Libertarian or don’t vote at all, but don’t think it’s going to change the behavior of the Republican Party. They’re too disconnected from reality for it to affect them.
I haven’t read Connies piece yet, but I’ve consigned myself to holding my nose and punching the chad next to ‘George W. Bush’ on the Presidential ballot.
Unless he signs a renewal of the AWB.
October 19th, 2003 at 9:07 pm
I doubt I’ll vote for W but I’ll be danged if I’ll vote for a Democrat.
October 20th, 2003 at 12:41 am
Voting in 2004
Mrs. du Toit started it with a post in which she says the President is not responsible for the “domestic agenda” because it is not in his job description. He is, however, in charge of foreign policy and she will vote for him in 2004: Not once in the ar…
November 14th, 2003 at 2:56 pm
Why Bush?
This is why even Libertarians like Say Uncle — who say they are so disappointed in Bush’s policies that they will absolutely, positively not vote for him even though they are already benefiting from his leadership — should stay with Bush. In a speech…