“Deeply Divided” Repugs Lick Their Wounds

(Nice to use that two-word preface for the opposition party to whom it applies more than the Dems at the moment.)

I get a lot of mail having to do with Democratic and political issues in general, to say nothing of other types of solicitations (some of which I’ve followed up on to generate content for this site) as well as the obligatory heaping of "pron"-related spam that is usually caught by my filter.

However, I’ve recently started receiving some correspondence (political "pron," if there is such a thing) from an organization called Conservatives Betrayed, a group run by Richard Viguerie. I would dismiss Viguerie as your typical garden variety wingnut if it weren’t for the fact, unfortunately, that he has been staggeringly successful at using direct mail campaigns to mobilize like-minded zealots into a political force (the people responsible first and foremost for our misery dating back to December of 2000).

I’d like to take a closer look at my most recent correspondence from Viguerie here, and I’m sure you’ll excuse me if I don’t link to his site, which is easy enough to find online; though there is a lot of typical winger nutsiness here, I think this letter shows that Viguerie is no fool – he can see that the ruling cabal has made such a hash of everything that he has to reconstitute and reenergize “the movement” somehow.

Here is the text of the mailing…

In his speech (below), Viguerie calls on conservatives to withhold support from all Republican fundraising committees "because they spend our money in primaries to defeat conservatives."

He adds: "I congratulate the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) for not having the Chairman of the Republican National Committee at CPAC for the first time in memory."

And he urges conservatives, “for the time being, we should withhold (sic) our support from all of the top tier 2008 presidential wannabees," explaining: “Not a one of them deserves our support today. They all fail the Goldwater/Reagan test" (and he explains what that test consists of).

Here is the text of Viguerie's speech.

Richard A. Viguerie
“Strategies for a Bold Conservative Future”
Conservative Political Action Conference
Regency Ballroom
Omni Shoreham Hotel
Washington, D.C.
Thursday, March 1, 2007

To have a successful future, it helps to understand the past.

First, let’s understand that conservatives and conservatism did not lose last November.

The election loss was a direct result of the Republican Party and its leadership in the White House and Congress moving left.

That’s astonishing to yours truly, but these people are in the business of perpetual denial. You will see also that there is no mention of the Iraq war, which I suppose does not exist in the bizarro universe populated by these folks.

The Republicans became that which they beheld.

In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, they beheld the corruption and abuse of power by the Democrats. But a few years after the voters threw the Democrats out of office, the Republicans became that which they beheld-the Republicans became corrupt and abused their power.

The “corruption and abuse of power” by the Democrats is a straw man, of course, but Viguerie is correct in his assessment that that is the second most important reason why the Repugs lost Congress, with Iraq as the first.

When most of the Congressional Republicans first ran for office, they ran against the sewer that Washington had become. But after a few years in Washington most of them act like they’ve discovered that Washington isn’t a sewer after all – it’s a hot tub.

In other words, the Republicans’ real message was: “We didn’t want the Democrats spending the money, but now that we are totally in charge, let’s blow the door off the bank vault, and let’s spend and spend and spend our children and grandchildren’s inheritance.”

ALL FOR THE SOLE IMMORAL, CORRUPT PURPOSE OF HOLDING ONTO POWER.

And how appropriate that it turned into ashes in their mouth.

In January 2001, for all intents and purposes, the Republicans in the White House and Congress adopted a one-word strategy to govern.

And that one word was BRIBERY.

In essence they said to the voters ‘you’ve got votes-we’ve got money-let’s talk - let’s deal.’

The illegal corruption of Duke Cunningham, Bob Ney, Jack Abramoff, and Mark Foley is not a serious problem for us, our children, or grandchildren’s lives.

They’ve been caught and punished.

But far worse crimes have been committed by the politicians who are still sitting in their Capitol Hill offices. I’m talking about the legalized theft of trillions of dollars these politicians have stolen from the children of tomorrow – in order to buy votes to stay in office today.

Therefore conservatives, our #1 need going forward is for new leaders.

As I said, Viguerie isn’t stupid, and I really think he wants to “wipe the slate clean” here. I only care about that because it would present intriguing new challenges for the Democrats, with the Repugs trying to reclaim the “center” that the Dems have won and must hold onto.

Conservatives are like the Biblical Jews who had to wander through the desert for 40 years until that generation of immoral corrupt leaders had passed away.

As conservatives, we’re not going to get to the political Promised Land until we also get new, uncorrupt, principled leaders.

Dr. Phil, the TV psychiatrist, likes to say: “How’s that working for you?”

And I say: How’s that working for you conservatives – to be an appendage of the Republican Party?

The voters spoke in November, and what was the first thing the Republicans did? They kept in power all the leaders who had led them over the cliff!

Obviously the initials GOP now stands for Go On Partying. Or Give up (G) on (O) principles (P).

Viguerie can come up with catchy stuff, and he knows how to mobilize “the faithful.”

Well, the Republican party apparently has a death wish, but that doesn’t mean we conservatives have to go along with it.

My strong recommendation is for conservatives to stop being an arm of the Republican Party and become a 3rd Force, but not a 3rd Party.

That sounds like “pie in the sky” and I would dismiss it as such automatically if it weren’t for the fact that such claims by Viguerie were dismissed before many years ago, and Dems/liberals/progressives/whatever paid the price for it eventually.

The left has had enormous success by building strong 3rd force groups and coalitions.

The left has hundreds of environmental groups, consumer groups, civil rights groups, feminist groups, and homosexual groups, etc., etc.

And these groups have their own agenda, their own members, their own money, and most importantly they operate independent of the Democratic Party

Conservatives must do the same.

They already have, of course, but admitting that might lead to complacency, and Viguerie wants no parts of that of course.

No longer think of yourself as a Republican, but as a Reagan conservative.

By the way, Reagan raised taxes during his presidency and, though he was responsible for the fraud of “trickle down” economics, he was a visionary president on domestic matters when you compare him to Dubya.

Let’s re-launch the conservative movement.

Let’s act independently of the Republican Party and their failed big government leadership.

Let’s focus on the conservative movement, not the GOP.

We need to greatly increase the size and number of principled conservative organizations.

Let’s launch a thousand new organizations reaching out to:

1. Small business owners, especially women, Hispanics, and Asians.

2. America’s youth, who know the current Social Security system just won’t be there for them.

More propaganda (note at the bottom of the story that Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi have gone on record stating that Social Security will be solvent for nearly 50 years).

3. Independent voters, most of who support a balanced budget, family values, and fiscal restraint.

Yep, that’s the platform the Dems won on a few months ago all right.

4. Values voters, who agree with us on same sex marriage and the culture of life and promoting traditional moral values – not Hollywood values.

Yes, let’s rally ‘round such “voices of values voters” like William Bennett.

5. Young married couples, who care about child tax credits and better schools.

6. Senior citizens, who want to stop the politicians’ raid on the Social Security Trust Fund – and don’t trust them to manage their health care, either.

7. Doctors, who are already being hamstrung by red tape – and are scared to death of the prospect of socialized medicine.

8. And all the Americans in the “sensible center” who know deep-down that conservatives really are “right:” We’re right on illegal immigration, right on taxes, right on health care, right on the economy, right on terrorism – and right for America.

“Right on immigration” – heh, heh; check this out (including this excerpt) …

A few months ago, most House Republicans thought that border security would be, as Rep. Jeff Flake put it to me, their “magic carpet ride” to re-election. Moderate and pro-business elements within the party tried to convince them that a hard-line stance a) wouldn’t actually deliver that many votes, and b) would incinerate Karl Rove’s efforts to weld Latinos to a long-term Republican majority. And on both counts (as we anticipated in October) they were right.

Nearly every Republican who ran primarily on an enforcement-only platform lost. Of 15 congressional or gubernatorial races where immigration was a major issue, Democrats won 12.

Tee hee - back to Viguerie...

Let’s withhold support from all Republican National Committees because they spend our money in primaries to defeat conservatives.

Oh, that’s rich – I’d pay to see that one.

Let’s withhold support from most Republican elected officials, supporting only those few principled conservatives.

Go ahead. It will be fun to watch Pat Toomey lose another Repug senatorial primary here in PA.

Let’s challenge in primaries all establishment big government Republicans and Democrats at the National, state, and local levels.

Let’s run principled conservatives for local, state, and national party offices.

I congratulate CPAC for not having the Chairman of the Republican National Committee at CPAC for the first time in memory.

And conservatives—this is important – for the time being, we should withhold our support from all of the top tier 2008 Presidential wannabees.

No names, you see – Viguerie and his sheep don’t want to have to come begging back to McCain, Giuliani, Romney or some other Repug clown trying to get a favor knowing that he “called out” one or more of them here.

Not a one of them deserves our support today.

They all fail the Goldwater/Reagan test.

Goldwater became our hero when he and he alone in Washington stood up and criticized the Republicans for their big government policies.

On the floor of the Senate in 1960, he said President Eisenhower was running a dime store New Deal.

He spoke truth to power. Where is the Republican Presidential candidate that has stood up publicly to the big government Republican leaders in the last 6 years?

And if they haven’t stood up for conservative principles in the last 6 years, they won’t start if they become President.

And Reagan regularly criticized Presidents Nixon and Ford.

And the second test is, tell me who you walk with and I’ll tell you who you are.

Reagan walked with conservatives- long before he ran for President in 1976; he was at our meetings, our receptions, and our rallies.

And surrounding Reagan were conservative stars Lyn Nofziger, Marty Anderson (according to the link, Anderson was a "libertarian" - ??), Dick Allen, Ed Meese, Judge Clark, Joe Coors, and many others.

Concerning Richard Allen...

In November 1981, while serving as Reagan's national security adviser, (Allen) was accused of receiving a bribe from a Japanese journalist to set up an interview with Nancy Reagan. Although the claim was never proven, Allen was eventually pressured into resigning his position.

Back to Viguerie...

If conservatives have not been around a Republican Presidential candidate before he began asking for our votes, I guarantee you conservatives will not be around him if he moves into the White House.

And I promise you; you will not have conservative policies or conservative programs without conservative personnel.

I don’t know about you, but I’m angry and I feel betrayed, but fortunately there are things we conservatives can do to become a governing majority in America.

However, it’s not likely to happen quickly, certainly not by 2008.

Interesting – as I said, Viguerie is too smart to be your typical wingnut.

One of the strengths of the conservative movement is we’ve always approached politics as a marathon, not a sprint.

It may take 6-10 years for conservatives to be able to govern America.

But 1st conservatives have to follow the advice that Kevin Costner got in the baseball movie “Field of Dreams.”

If you build it, they will come.

We have to build a whole new conservative movement, independent of the two major parties.

And once we build a large, dynamic powerful conservative movement, the next Ronald Reagan will appear.

Remember the movie, “The Blues Brothers” with Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi? The idea in the movie was, we’re putting the band back together, and we’re on a mission from God.

Well conservatives, we’re putting the conservative movement back together.

And hopefully we’re on a mission from God.

And of course, these guys are thinking literally when they say that.

And we must remain forever diligent and wise to their tricks. And leave to Viguerie to steal language both from the Quakers (“truth to power”) and one of my favorite movies to suit his foul purposes.