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Sunday, November 1, 2009

The Republican Party Shouldn't be Running Obama-lite Candidates

One of the hotly-contested races taking place on Tuesday November 3, 2009 is the special election in the 23rd Congressional District in New York. The seat was formerly held by Republican John McHugh, whom President Obama appointed as Army Secretary. The candidates for that race were Democrat Bill Owens, Republican Dede Scozzafava, and Conservative Party candidate Dan Hoffman. Yesterday Scozzafava decided to suspend her campaign. She said it was due to both sides outspending her in money. So she dropped out and today she announced she's backing Democrat Bill Owens over third-party candidate Dan Hoffman. Dede Scozzafava is very liberal on social issues. She supports abortion and gay rights. She was endorsed by the teacher's union and she also was supported by ACORN as well. Of the two candidates remaining, the race is too close to call. Congratulations to Scozzafava for dropping out of the race.

The district has been a Republican-leaning district for years. What I found interesting was Newt Gingrich (former House Speaker) supporting Scozzafava as the candidate prior to dropping out of the race. I found it disappointing someone like Gingrich who claims to be a conservative having supported a candidate who doesn't represent conservative values nor is anything similar to Ronald Reagan. Many of today's "conservatives" like to refer to themselves as "Reagan Republicans". However, Scozzafava doesn't even come close. She's a Democrat with a Republican name. It disturbs me that that "conservative" Republicans like Newt Gingrich will endorse candidates that by no means uphold conservative values. It's all about affiliation with a party. I used to hear an old statement years ago that some people would vote for a Democrat if it was a snake. I'm seeing the same thing with some Republicans. No Republican that's a conservative should be endorsing "Republican" candidates that are very similar to Barack Obama or liberal, progressive Democrats. You hear the old adage that we must vote for either the Republican or the Democratic candidate. If you vote for a third-party candidate, you're throwing your vote away. Even talk-show host Rush Limbaugh has made that statement. NONSENSE!

The last thing that we need is to replace the current Democrats we have in political positions around the country with Obama-lite Republicans. We have too many of those kinds of Republicans right now in Congress. Senators such as Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), John McCain (R-AZ), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), etc. are just a few examples of Obama-lite Republicans. What are Obama-lite Republicans? It's a term depicting Republicans to be very similar to Democrats in their political philosophy and actions. For the last fourteen or fifteen years the upper echelons in the Republican Party have been promoting this idea of a "big tent" in the Republican Party. This started after George H.W. Bush lost the presidential election to Bill Clinton in 1992. They claimed the Republican Party platform in 1992 was too conservative and it was alienating voters in the Republican Party. They were running on a party platform consisting of family values. Ever since Bush's loss in the election the Republican Party heads decided they needed to moderate their positions on abortion, gay rights, and other social conservative issues. They heads of the Republican Party failed to recognize it was Bush's abandonment on conservative values that cost him the election to Bill Clinton. Bush won on Reagan's coattails in 1988 and he proved to be nothing close to Ronald Reagan. He broke his "no-new taxes" pledges he made while campaigning in 1988. He wasn't much different from the Democrats except his pro-life position. I believe the American people are tired of Republicans that have nothing distinctly different to offer than the Democrats. That's what's scary about the Republicans right now. They have no agenda to counter Obama's. They need to challenge President Obama on his socialist positions and they need to offer their own agenda. That's what's needed if the Republicans are to take back Congress in 2010.

I am a conservative in orientation that believes in nationalism. I believe in supporting American values. I believe we should uphold the U.S. Constitution. That's what the Republican Party should be doing. The agenda that the Democrats uphold is anti-God, anti-America, and anti-family. The Republicans are trying to mirror themselves as Democrats except they're a little more to the right. That won't work. We don't need Republicans running for political offices next year that resemble the Democrats in their platform. They need to be polar opposites when it comes to the Democrats' agenda for America. We need patriots running for office that will stand against the move toward socialism America is headed. We need Republicans that are pro-life, pro-family, anti-illegal immigration, pro-limited government, etc. We need Republicans that believe in controlling spending and in re-negotiating the trade agreements that have shifted millions of American jobs overseas. We need Republicans that will have an agenda that if American soldiers go to war, then the soldiers will receive the equipment they need to fight the war and that the war won't last a day longer than it should. Those are the kind of Republicans we need. If not, then we don't need them to run. Some people believe it's wrong to vote for a third-party candidate. I have no issue voting for a third-party candidate. I did it in last year's election. I don't believe in being loyal to a political party that won't stand for what's right. The American public is tired of Obama-lite Republicans. That's why the Republicans lost in 2006 and 2008. If they want to win Congress and statewide races next year, then they'll have to adopt an agenda that's unique and distinctly nationalist and pro-America.

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