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August 23, 2005
Thieves Sue Their Victims for Reporting Them
Pennsylvania state legislators just voted themselves a hefty salary hike, and the people of the state are justifiably furious about it.
Young Conservatives of Pennsylvania have even taken it upon themselves to mount a billboard and radio campaign targeting those legislators who voted for the raise. Naturally, this has roused the ire of those legislators whose faces are plastered on billboards next to the size of their raises (up to 32 percent); and so, in the best American tradition, they are threatening to sue YCOP for running this campaign.
Now here's the question for the class: Which political party is up in arms that conservatives are targeting their members for violating conservative principles? If you said, "the Republicans," you get an extra 15 minutes at recess today. Yes, the "party of fiscal responsibility" is attempting to silence dissent when its members fail to live up to their promises. Quoth an aide to one of the targeted state senators:
“I think it is absurd that a conservative group would target Republican leaders who have helped maintain the Republican majority in the senate for almost 25 years and maintained Republican leadership. It is a stupid mission if one believes in conservative principals [sic] and conservatism because it is the Republican Party that preserves those ideas.”
Yes, folks, it is "a stupid mission" for conservatives to hold Republicans responsible for their theft of taxpayer dollars for personal enrichment. After all, "the Republican Party . . . preserves" conservative ideas--in a hermetically sealed jar, never to be taken out and used.
If this doesn't prove that the GOP hasn't a conservative bone in its body, nothing will.
(Link courtesy CNSNews.com.)
Posted by Mike Tennant at August 23, 2005 11:49 AM
Comments
Be that as it may, would it be better for the folks in PA if Govenor Rendell(D) and Democrats were in full control? Just asking. A pox on both parties is my view. I am only thinking tactically here.
Ali
Posted by: Ali_Massoud ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.strike-the-root.com/blog/nav-commenters.gif){kind=small}
at August 23, 2005 05:40 PM
No, of course it wouldn't be any better if the Democrats were in charge--not that it would necessarily be any worse, either. I'm simply trying to point out the hypocrisy of the Republican Party, which claims to be for smaller government but then expands it at every opportunity and gripes when real conservatives point it out. Liberals can safely vote for either party; conservatives need to figure out that neither one of them represents conservatives' interests, and this is just one more example of it.
Posted by: Mike Tennant at August 23, 2005 05:56 PM
I have always wondered why the libertarian-oriented and minimal government types don't just bolt from the GOP and start an explicitly "Conservative" party? By my guess, based on my personal experiences, that would constitute about 1/3 of the GOP currently.
Leave the religious nuts, neo-cons, warhawks, statists, drug warriors, and the rest to flounder around on their own. The Dems prolly would dominate politics for a time but I think they would draw many many independents, Libertarians, and even some Democrats. FWIW.
-Ali
Posted by: Ali_Massoud at August 26, 2005 11:30 AM
Well, there is the Constitution Party, which is pretty much what you're describing. They're not perfect, and they probably need to tone down the Christian rhetoric a bit (I speak as a Christian who recognizes that the rhetoric isn't a good way to win converts to a political cause), but they're a heck of a lot better than either wing of the Government Party.
Unfortunately, most of the conservative rank-and-file has bought into the notion that no third party will ever succeed (and they may be right given the obstacles the two behemoth parties have erected to any competition) and that therefore they have no choice but to vote Republican. Winning elections, regardless of the policies that result, matters more than actually advancing conservatism. Everyone wants to be part of a winning team.
Rush Limbaugh and other neocon pundits do an excellent job of keeping the rank-and-file in line on such matters, too.
Posted by: Mike Tennant at August 26, 2005 02:08 PM
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