2 posts tagged “colin powell”

In the continuing civil war brewing in the Republican melt-down, Karl Rove and chosen to side with blow-hard Rush Limbaugh over Former Secretary of State Colin Powell.  Rove told Fox News that Limbaugh would edge out the former secretary of state if he "had to pick between the two."

It never ceases to amaze me.  First Cheney, now Rove have sent the signal that the GOP feels that it does NOT need moderates.

But what amazes me even more?  I found that I agree with something that Karl Rove said.

Rove called the debate between Limbaugh and Powell a "false" one because neither is a candidate for public office.

"The real debate", quipped Rove, "takes place out there in the real world by people getting out there and encouraging the kind of candidates who represent their vision for the party,"

So, it would seem, that Rove has invited Limbaugh, Hannity, and the other blowhards to disengage from public debate unless they are running for public office.

Whew, thank goodness.  It's a about time.  Get Real can use some peace and quiet.

Of course, what Karl does not know is whether Colin Powell will run for office in the future.

We all should wonder... in which party he would choose to run?

At the same time, I find myself disagreeing with the Democrats.  The GOP is not the Party of No.

It's the Party of No-One.

Let's face it.  Bush and Cheney ate the political and financial base of the GOP.

In an interview with with Scott Hennen, a North Dakota radio host, Dick Cheney tried to defend the Bush administration.  He also saw fit to fan the flames of the growing GOP Civil War.

“I think it would be a mistake for us to moderate," Cheney said. "This is about fundamental beliefs and values and ideas … what the role of government should be in our society, and our commitment to the Constitution and constitutional principles. You know, when you add all those things up, the idea that we ought to moderate basically means we ought to fundamentally change our philosophy. I for one am not prepared to do that, and I think most of us aren’t. Most Republicans have a pretty good idea of values, and aren’t eager to have someone come along and say, 'Well, the only way you can win is if you start to act more like a Democrat.'"

Problem is that Bush and Cheney caused the GOP to lose its very base, and Cheney does not realize that he has no one left to talk to.  The GOP's traditional SOCIALLY CONSERVATIVE base is gone.  Disinterested, that is.  How did Bush and Cheney do this?  They managed to do it by mismanaging the financing of the economy so poorly that the pension and retirement plans of their SOCIALLY CONSERVATIVE base are all but gone.  They hit their own base where it hurts.

Since Bush & CO. emptied the pocket book of their ideaological base, the GOP can no long count on them to fall for their half-truths and outright lies.

By agreeing with Rush Limbaugh that Colin Powell should leave the party, Cheney is arguing for ideological purification of the party.  This won't wash when the GOP is in such desperate need for new ideas.

It will be VERY hard for the GOP is a year and half to argue that theirs is a party of inclusion when they so boldly proclaim that moderates don't have a place.  Where do they think their support will come from?

It is nice to know that long-standing members of the GOP see that the old party lines are just empty rhetoric.

Two quick examples are sufficient.

"We are the party for small government!" says the party whose last president oversaw the largest expansion of government bureaucracy in US history.  My conservative friends are disgusted and dismayed.  They say that Bush & CO. became "like Democrats" via his spend, spend, spend mentality.

"Democrats are tax & spend!" says the party whose last president earned the GOP the moniker of the "Borrow & Spend Party".  Bush's deficit will be in place for a long, long, long time as a painful reminder of the stupidity of his fiscal policies.

The GOP has no answers to modern problems, because their president created those problems.  The last administration hijacked the party for the benefit of big business to the point where the voters see their pensions - and their taxes - going to the already super-rich in the form of executive bonuses, even as the companies tank.

What can a New Conservative Agenda look like?  Their options are highly restricted.  Certainly it cannot be the old, tired, failed policies that include pre-emptive war, tax loopholes for the rich, secrecy and lies.  Certainly it cannot be the old, expensive, non-sustainable policy of fanning the flames of fear.

Get Real will be first to say that the GOP will ignore those who call for far-right ultra-conservative ideological cleansing of the party.  The sheer amount of evidence of those positions as dismal failures is far too much to overcome with further rhetoric.  In fact, the GOP must come to understand that their dalliance with global domination via unmitigated unprovoked war on Middle Eastern countries was nothing more than an anachronistic adolescent temper tantrum because they feared that the US would lose its grip on international matters.  They need to see the US for what it is, where it is.  As nation, the US is still relatively young.  Somewhere between adolescent and young adulthood, with episodes of falling back on old patterns during times of stress, the US is bound for a calmer, more mature future.  As long as the GOP insists on keeping the US in diapers, they will not win the White House.

The GOP needs to find a new, genuine voice that puts party interests second to world interests.  Yes, SECOND TO WORLD interests.  Focus exclusively on American (US) interests will lead to charges of Bush myopia and nationalism.  There are precedents for this; Reagan's foreign policy was not exclusively Americentric.  Even Bush, Sr. made serious overtures to China and other Asian countries.  The GOP can no longer afford to underestimate our friends and allies overseas.

Their only hope is to find a way to create a foreign policy that leads to the consumption of US goods and services overseas.  Everyone knows that the future of the technology sector is green, renewable energy.  Perhaps with their focus on large business, the GOP could see the real value of adopting the position of exporting US know-how in renewable energy blends of  wind, solar, geothermal, tidal - for developing countries as a way to bring a surge to the US economy.  Are the US Corporations too proud to sublet their factories to Indian interests and build the next generation of cheap, reliable transportation - perhaps the Air Car?  Ok, they can too proud themselves out of existence.

If you're a conservative, and if that sounds moderate to you, then you're probably not going to help your party by turning down real economic opportunities for the US in favor of party pride.  You see, for years, conservatives mocked and laughed at those wacko greenies.  Their blatant and loud consumption waste of non-renewable energy was a symbol of their party's pride.  But you can't eat unsound idealogy.  And the GOP has won its last election of far-right ideology.  The character of the US citizenry has never been to empower the people who hurt them last.  They know who put them in the poor house.

To succeed in an internationalized US, the GOP must adopt a position where eveyone's well-being is considered in every decision.  They must first try to protect US interests, yes.  But the trick they need to learn - and learn fast - is to say, with a straight face, and to mean it when they say it:  "This policy has been checked, and is the policy that leads to most benefit to the largest number of people, and the policy that harms the fewest people, regardless of their nationality. This policy benefits Americans because (1) it will create a less expensive commodity for our lifestyle, (2) it will create jobs for US citizens, or (3) it helps improve the lives of other worldwide, and their improved lifestyle will mean greater consumption of US-made goods".  In short, the GOP is going to have to, finally, admit the interconnectedness of everything, and show specifically, based on real analysis, how their policies are going to help.  Ideology is easier, but their brand of it at least is far too ineffective, and will be, for some time.

The GOP is either in for a period of true enlightenment and reform, or for a dark ages that will last decades.  As they rest of world learns how to help each other out with equitable arrangements, the GOP can either sit, and stew in their wishes for a return to good old days of selfishness wrapped in a cloak of false compassion, or they can can GET REAL and join the global party.
.