The Death of the Republican Moderate
[No archived broadcast due to technical difficulties.]
The refusal of the Republican Party to allow Senator Arlen Specter his right to “advise and consent” on President Bush’s judicial picks is perhaps the last step in the transformation of the Republican Party from one of tolerance and fiscal conservatism to one of bribery, corruption, huge transfer of wealth from the poor to lobbyists, yes men, and the imposition of fundamentalist religion on non-believers.
Join us on our National Geographic journey as we examine a species of politician about to go extinct: the Republican Moderate.
Specter joins the ranks of Colin Powell, Christine Todd Whitman, Jim Jeffords, Barry Goldwater, and Gerald Ford. If Richard Nixon were alive, he’d be considered a liberal today.
Run for your life, John McCain! The noose will be around your throat next!
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Skip December 1, 2004 12:39 am
Here’s a few interesting articles by Paul Craig Roberts. He gives his opinion of the Bush regime from a true conservative’s point of view.
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts11262004.html
http://www.creators.com/opinion_show.cfm?columnsName=pcr
Here’s his resume:
Paul Craig Roberts is the John M. Olin fellow at the Institute for Political Economy, research fellow at the Independent Institute and senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. A former editor and columnist for The Wall Street Journal, he writes a political commentary column for Creators Syndicate. He also writes a monthly economics column for Investors Business Daily . In 1992, he received the Warren Brookes Award for Excellence in Journalism. In 1993, he was ranked as one of the top seven journalists by the Forbes Media Guide .
He was distinguished fellow at the Cato Institute from 1993 to 1996. From 1982 through 1993, he held the William E. Simon chair in political economy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. From 1981 to 1982, he served as assistant secretary of the Treasury for economic policy. President Reagan and Treasury Secretary Regan credited him with a major role in the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981, and he was awarded the Treasury Department’s Meritorious Service Award for “his outstanding contributions to the formulation of United States economic policy.” From 1975 to 1978, Dr. Roberts served on the congressional staff where he drafted the Kemp-Roth bill and played a leading role in developing bipartisan support for a supply-side economic policy.
Nathan November 30, 2004 10:13 am
Well I didn’t get to listen to the show because of the technical problems and leaving work early, and it looks like there’s no archive, so I didn’t get to hear any of what was said yesterday.
I do however want to give my perspective on this topic, being that I am a fairly moderate conservative.
I too was pretty mystified at how they (GOP leaders and right wing media) jumped all over Specter for his comments about the judiciary committee. I was also saddened to hear him back down from his claims on Sean Hannity’s show, saying “I won’t block any of President Bush’s nominations.” So now we have the leader of the senate judiciary committee simply saying he’ll allow any nomination through.
I also didn’t like how everyone put words in his mouth. They completely blew out of proportion his comments about right wing judges not getting appointed. It certainly does appear now that you either agree whole-heartedly with the GOP leadership or you get alienated from your base, which is exactly what happened.
I’ve actually started to see this in my own life. Those of you that have been around the blog for awhile know that I am somewhat socially liberal, but still agree mostly with the republican way of thinking. I’ve found recently that some of my conservative friends are simply writing me off as “on my way to liberalism” when I argue topics suchs as fiscal responsibility and gay marraige. I’ll be fair, some are very receptive and willing to talk, but the most politically active ones certainly have the “you either agree with us fully or you’re a liberal” mentality.
All the conservatives are talking about the democratic party dying, but I think it’s just the opposite. Liberalism (at least socially) owns my generation. I’d be surprised if someone as right wing as Bush could win an election in 20 years, or even come close.
In my opinion it’s the republicans that have to worry about party destruction. You can’t keep moving further to the right and alienate all the people who don’t want to go with you.
-Nathan