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I voted mid-morning today, letting the morning rush go by but beating the lunch rush. I stiull had to wait 30 minutes to stroll through the polling place at Northwood High. On the way there, I tuned in Rush Limbaugh and one the way out, Laura Ingraham. There’s high comedy in their shows today for Liberals because they know they are about to have their asses handed to them.
The attack ads against Obama are utterly without shame. My conservative neighbors have convinced themselves that there are “two bad choices for president this year” and are astonished when I tell them how happy I am with Obama’s candidacy.Â
Stroll over to Red County, and there are posts like this one  and this one that fuel the fear. The second post, about Democrats stiffling the Right is particularly ironic given the pains taken by the right wing to stiffle dissent from the left. I don’t think we’re planning to question anyone’s patriotism though.Â
All the Republicans have left to run on is fear. Even in Irvine, home of the safest city in America and one of the best places to live in the US, the Shea/Choi/Rodgers side has introduced fear of Islamic extremism where it doesn’t exist. They warn of what Larry Agran might do with power, all the while ignoring shady political contributions that feather their own nests. They call themselves champions of good government for suing the city, losing, and costing taxpayer money to defend politically driven lawsuits.
Bill Maher actually said it best. In the wake of 9/11, Republicans did such a fine job of running the country that the vast majority of Americans is ready to elect a black man with a Muslim-sounding name as president.  So much for Hugh Hewitt’s “a permanent Republican majority.”
And then there’s this post on the Flash Report — probably the most honest post I have ever read over there, so of course it wasn’t written by Fleischman.Â
Ray Haynes writes:
We deserve to lose, because we have not been who we say we are. We have spent so much time worrying about how we market ourselves that we have forgotten to worry about doing the right thing. The most unfortunate thing about that sad state of affairs is we know what the right thing to do is, and people know we know. We promise to shrink government, to cut taxes, to eliminate government control of peoples lives, to restore liberty and true equality, to eliminate government power, and to make government less of influence in people’s lives. People entrusted us with power to do just that. We didn’t. We played politics with our principles. More important, after people took power away from us for not living up to our promises, we still played politics with our principles. The most recent bail out of the financial markets for their bad investments is just another example of how we have played politics and forgotten our principles.
Worse than all of this, the conservative movement, as a movement, both in California and nationwide, has been hijacked by people who use the principles of the movement to advance their personal interests. I am the first to say that conservatives need an infrastructure of strategists, thinkers, and activists who make a living at politics, organizing the volunteers, doing the day to day work of the movement, including finding and advancing candidates who will do the right thing when elected. The only problem is many in the conservative movement become more interested in making sure they are the ones running the movement, so that they make the money off of the movement, than they are in advancing the principles of the movement.Â
I’m enjoying this election; it’s been one of the most interesting and exciting elections of my life. And not just for the top of the ticket.Â
Democrats and liberals are still the party of ideas and idealism. We’re the party that’s put forth a positive image of what America can be. We’re selling hope, not fear. It’s morning in America again.
Chuck Schumer is gonna fix ’em (Limbrain, et.al.) with the “Fairness Doctrine!”
Chuck Schumer is gonna fix \’em (Limbrain, et.al.) with the \”Fairness Doctrine!\”
I would like Jubal, Fleischnman or any of the other Reagan
worshippers to show me where Reagan shrank government or
reduced spending.
The right wing has done a great job of portraying the myth of Reagan
that has no semblance to the reality of the actions of Reagan.
Reagan has been out of the chair for 20 years, and was out to lunch for a good deal of his presidency. Haven’t we all had enough of hearing about Uncle Ronnie?
The next time you pass an obviously mentally ill homeless person in the street, you can thank Uncle Ronnie for that, too.
Dan:
Well, you’ve taken the first step: admitting that the Left’s agenda of expanding federal power and control over the economic life of our nation — not to mention political speech — is something we should fear.
Jubal,
Where was the fear mongering from conservatives when Reagan was
expanding government?
I’m sorry Matt, where in my piece did I admit that? If you want to have a debate on the Fairness Doctrine, bring. It. On.
And very classy of your Party to shut off the TV while Obama delivered his victory speech. They don’t know what the missed. Mostly a rejection of their failed policies for the last 8 years.
And since Bush was declaring a 285-253 win over Kerry as a “mandate” in 2004, I guess we can call it a landslide.
Bush increased government by record setting proportions year after year.
Just ask McCain.