Bill Quick reacts with revulsion to the idea of a McCain-Huckabee ticket in 2008. I’m with him on that. McCain’s biggest liability is with conservative voters, and to have to people on the GOP ticket who lack strong conservative bona fides would be to alienate the vast majority of GOP voters. The GOP has to realize that the times when the GOP has been successful are the times it has embraced small-government values. The GOP won in 1980 because Reagan elucidated a vision of smaller government. The GOP won in 1994 on the basis that the Democratic Party had lost touch with America and that the Contract with America presented another vision of smaller more efficient government.
The GOP needs to wake up, and fast. Congress’ approval ratings are barely in double digit territory. People have as dismal a view of government as they have ever had. If the GOP wants to be the part of slightly less big government rather than the party that will restore sanity and accountability to government, then the GOP will lose once again.
What is the vision of the Republican Party? Is it based upon our principles of economic liberty, personal morality and strong national defense? Or is it nothing more than the mere desire to scrape together enough interest groups to win? If it is the latter, then the GOP has learned nothing from their failures in 2006.
In a time of rampant public distrust of government, putting the architect of McCain-Feingold together with a clone of Jimmy Carter is exactly the wrong strategy. If people want more government, they can vote Democratic this November and get all the government they can handle.
Ronald Reagan said it best: the most dangerous line in the world is “I’m here from the government, and I’m here to help.” The Republican candidates keep invoking the name of Ronald Reagan—but only one of them seemed to understand what he stood for, and that guy isn’t running any longer.
To lose those principles is to not only lose the Republican base, but the independent voters that the GOP needs to win. You don’t win elections by being pale imitations of the other side, you win elections by bolding and proudly defending your principles. A McCain-Huckabee ticket would send exactly the wrong message.
“Bill Quick reacts with revulsion to the idea of a McCain-Huckabee ticket in 2008. I’m with him on that.”
The “suits” in the Republican Party would be beside themselves, no doubt….but McCain-Huckabee would still be a winning ticket because of the appeal to independents (McCain) and Middle American evangelicals (Huckabee) whose strengths in numbers vastly outweighs what your fast-dwindling cabal of small government purists could ever generate. A McCain-Huckabee ticket would be a perfect overture to the National Review discipiles, making it abundantly clear just what insignificant flecs of dust you guys have become in 2008 America.
“The GOP won in 1980 because Reagan elucidated a vision of smaller government. The GOP won in 1994 on the basis that the Democratic Party had lost touch with America and that the Contract with America presented another vision of smaller more efficient government.”
That was before the free market-fueled theft of private sector health care and retirement benefits made real to Americans how dependent they are on government to plug the holes of what the loosely-regulated private sector of Reagan and Gingrich has stolen from them.
“The GOP needs to wake up, and fast.”
The first sensible thing you’ve said in quite awhile….
“Congress’ approval ratings are barely in double digit territory. People have as dismal a view of government as they have ever had.”
And despite every poll indicating otherwise, you allege this dismal view of government is based upon people wanting a LESS active role of government in reigning in a lawless corporate power broker culture run amok. It’s no wonder you guys keep losing and losing and losing.
“What is the vision of the Republican Party?”
I think you touched upon it in your post below this one…..”We hate working people so much that we’re willing to let our infrastructure crumble, and devastate our long-term economy in the process, if doing so requires us to pay workers’ livable wages to repair it.” If only it could fit on a bumper sticker, it would be a perfect slogan for the GOP’s ultimate domestic vision.
“a clone of Jimmy Carter”
Ouch….is that how you view all the populist evangelicals who vote for your party every two years?
“If people want more government, they can vote Democratic this November and get all the government they can handle.”
Don’t mind if I do.
“Ronald Reagan said it best: the most dangerous line in the world is “I’m here from the government, and I’m here to help.—
There’s only one line worse….”I’m from the government…and I refuse to help”. Oh and by the way, it’s kind of hard to swallow the virtues of limited federalist government from a former President who made an artform of blackmailing the states with the loss of highway funds if they didn’t comply with his nanny-state wish list.
“The Republican candidates keep invoking the name of Ronald Reagan—but only one of them seemed to understand what he stood for, and that guy isn’t running any longer.”
Depends on what aspect of the Republican record you choose to cherry-pick. Looking at the totality of his career in public service, Reagan was a man who stood for three tax increases in five years, expanding abortion rights, backdooring federal mandates past states through the denial of highway funds, and amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants. Don’t let those pesky facts stand in the way of your Reagan mythology, though, as you pick apart the 2008 candidates, most of whom are closer to the conservative ideal than Reagan.
“To lose those principles is to not only lose the Republican base, but the independent voters that the GOP needs to win.”
What are you talking about?! Independents love McCain. That’s why he’s the only Republican beating Billary and Obama in hypothetical poll matchups.
And the wind carried the name…John Kasich.
Don’t get me wrong, John Kasich is a great guy, but I just haven’t heard anything that indicates he wants to run for anything. That being said, he’d be a good choice, but I just don’t see him in giving up a successful career to go back into public service.
But hey, anything could happen, and he certainly doesn’t lack for qualifications.
Here’s a thought: McCain-Gingrich? That could be a very interesting combination.
During rumblings about the possibility of his running for Governor of Ohio, Kasich said he is not interested in a legislative position, BUT he said he only wants to be an executive.
As I said before, Kasich would be someone who could bring everyone together. Just look at some of his most recent speeches and writings. Kasich/Watts would be unstoppable.