An Open Letter to the Republican Party

Joeychgo

Joeychgo

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This was posted on another forum - I thought it to be interesting.


Dear Republican Party,

For several years we (loyal conservatives) have supported the Republican Party because of its promises to return our country to its prior greatness of limited government and numerous freedoms, most notably economic and educational.

You really captured our hearts in 1994 with your proclaimed Contract with America, which we in turn responded by overwhelmingly voting republicans into office. In case you have forgotten, in the Contract with America you promised to:

• FIRST, require all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply equally to the Congress;
• SECOND, select a major, independent auditing firm to conduct a comprehensive audit of Congress for waste, fraud or abuse;
• THIRD, cut the number of House committees, and cut committee staff by one-third;
• FOURTH, limit the terms of all committee chairs;
• FIFTH, ban the casting of proxy votes in committee;
• SIXTH, require committee meetings to be open to the public;
• SEVENTH, require a three-fifths majority vote to pass a tax increase;
• EIGHTH, guarantee an honest accounting of our Federal Budget by implementing zero base-line budgeting.

Granted, there is opposition from the Democrat Party, and thus not all segments of your plan could be implemented, but some of your actions have been downright hostile to what you promised. Take for instance the first issue of making all laws apply to Congress as they do the public and explain to us how the new campaign-finance law does not violate this? It seems that we can no longer speak freely 60 days before an election, yet I do not remember the same constraints being put on members of Congress.

As for your second plank, who needs an independent auditing firm to audit Congress for waste when the waste is as blatantly obvious as it is today? Then again I guess that $200+ million dollar bridge to Gravina Island in Alaska to serve approximately 50 people is a good use of OUR hard earned dollars. I wonder if members of Congress would think the bridge was as necessary if they had to donate the money themselves? Then to top it all off, Tom DeLay comes out and proclaims victory, telling us that there is no waste left to cut from the budget. This is an absolute insult to our intelligence. It is safe assume that any attempt to instill zero baseline budgeting, thereby requiring agencies to figure out each year what they will need for the next rather then just adjusting upwards, has also been relocated to the trash heap of history. Well, so much for your eighth plank.

On a more positive note you did cut taxes, as miniscule as those cuts were. However, you still have not made those cuts permanent. Returning back to the Contract with America, you seemed to have abandoned any attempt to pass a law requiring a supermajority to raise taxes as you promised in your seventh plank. And thanks to the absolute insane spending that has occurred in recent years, any attempt to pass such a bill would now be futile.

Understandably, new needs emerge in our ever-changing world and sometimes issues that were important years ago need to take a back seat for the time being, but unlike the democrats the Republican Party rarely ever revisits them. For instance, what ever happened to the call to end the Department of Education and return control to the states? Are we to believe that increasing spending and national regulations will achieve that outcome? What about the spending for the arts, also once slated for elimination? Apparently, increasing spending on that program will achieve that result?

Speaking of new needs, how about our borders? It seems that no matter how hard the nation cries to have both the northern and southern borders secured, the GOP chooses to turn a deaf ear. Is it that the Republican Party is afraid that the will not capture the Hispanic vote if they do? Is that how one builds a party, by focusing on groups rather then ideas? Incidentally, if the GOP truly wants to make inroads to minority groups why not revisit the idea of school vouchers? This is an idea-based solution that does not focus so much on a group of people as it does the idea of freedom itself.

Repeatedly we have been told to support the Republican Party with phrases like “if we only get the White House” or “increase our numbers in Congress”, and my personal favorite “this election is too important”, because of the War on Terror or possibility of Supreme Court nominations. Well, the War on Terror would be more believable if the borders were actually closed. As for the Supreme Court, we were given a candidate, Harriet Miers, who had a suspect past at best concerning her compatibility with our beliefs, yet we were told to trust Bush on this nominee? Seriously, after never using his veto pen once and expanding government in a manner that would even make the likes of LBJ and FDR blush were we really supposed to go on trust?

We did not support the Republican Party so that we could get an arguably watered-down version of the democrats. And frankly, watered-down may be a courteous way of describing the GOP’s actions since the Contract with America. Unless the Republican Party wants to return to its long history of being the minority party it had better stop ignoring the promises that put it into the majority in the first place.

Sincerely,

Concerned Conservative
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Joeychgo said:
This was posted on another forum - I thought it to be interesting.
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Could you please give us the bottom line, in your own words, please?
 
Joey, that quote encapsulates many of my frustrations with the GOP.

Good post.
 
Vitas - you need to read it again. Whos is in Congress? The GOP has been in control of Congress for 11 years and that letter talks about all the failed promises since 1994.

fossten said:
Joey, that quote encapsulates many of my frustrations with the GOP.

Good post.
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Thats why I posted it - It seemed to outlaw many frustrations factually without being partisian.
 
Joeychgo said:
Vitas - you need to read it again. Whos is in Congress? The GOP has been in control of Congress for 11 years and that letter talks about all the failed promises since 1994.

Thats why I posted it - It seemed to outlaw many frustrations factually without being partisian.
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Most of this is not the fault of either party, it is lobbyists buying both parties out, because of the way the system works. Change the system first.
 
Vitas said:
Most of this is not the fault of either party, it is lobbyists buying both parties out, because of the way the system works. Change the system first.
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Thats total BS. Who are the lobbists buying? The GOP primised all of the above, and have had control of Congress. Your telling me its not the GOPs fault cuz the lobbists bought them?

Huh???
 
Heh...don't expect me to come in here and back up an indefensible position...

I'm not thrilled with the total track record of the GOP for the last decade, but I do think we've turned a corner lately, with the nomination of Alito, the rising economy, and the $85 billion spending cut. I can only hope it continues.
 
So the GOP isn't holding up to their contract with America? I just can't believe it...

I won't believe it because Joey posted the letter and Joey seems to be liberal. Therefore there is no credibility to it. Things are only credible if posted by a conservative or quoted from Fox news or media that is supported by conservatives. The rest are all liars!

God Bless America
 
And get rid of all the illegals and their bastard children while you're at it!
 
You are goddamn right and :q:q:q:q them all -

God Bless America - this is our country and we don't want them! God gave us this country! we kicked the :q:q:q:q out of the heathen natives that were here. It's our country.

To hell with France, Germany, and Russia, we can kick there ass too... Power to the GOP!!

You Liberal bastards get out of our country - might as well get rid of all of you too while we are at it.
 
One of the things that jumped out at me was the closing of the borders. Does anybody have the slightest clue as to the amount of resources required in closing the thousands of miles of borders in this country. We're not only talking
about land borders but every mile of coastline as well.

Do you want guard towers on Malibu Beach?

Do you want concrete walls and barbed wire along the Rio Grande?

How about Police checkpoints on major highways where you will have to prove your citizenship and loyalty?

Alot of times people are all to ready to attack something without really thinking about it. While politicians are more than happy to promise something that is wholly impossible. Ever since I have been working at Headquarters I have become privy to the immense amount of hoops you must jump through to get any "project" off the ground. There may be many reasons why these things have not happened. Don't be too quick to flip out because the promise wasn't fulfilled. But rather question the motive of the promise.
 
FreeFaller said:
There may be many reasons why these things have not happened. Don't be too quick to flip out because the promise wasn't fulfilled. But rather question the motive of the promise.
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Promises do sound good don't they!!

Very good comment Steve.
 
mespock said:
So the GOP isn't holding up to their contract with America? I just can't believe it...

I won't believe it because Joey posted the letter and Joey seems to be liberal. Therefore there is no credibility to it. Things are only credible if posted by a conservative or quoted from Fox news or media that is supported by conservatives. The rest are all liars!

God Bless America
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Now, Rich, calm down. Everybody knows that even a broken clock is right twice a day.
 
Good post Joey, very well written letter.

Just because you're a conservative doesn’t mean you will swallow the BS blindly forever it seems. Give's me some hope.
 
Its funny everyone thinks im a "Liberal".

Ive voted for Henry Hyde, now retiring, in every election I could. I voted for Pres Reagan. Judy Topinka (probably the next Republican Guberntrial candidate for Illinois) is actually an acquaintance and former customer of mine. (Shes a great lady)

But I also voted for Clinton twice, Blagoyavich (sp) and various other democrats.

SO - What am I?

And yes - im aware how much it would cost to police the borders. But im also concerned about terrorists just walking into this country from Mexico.

-
 
Joeychgo said:
Its funny everyone thinks im a "Liberal".-
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If you have anything truly negative to say about Bush and his people, you're liberal.

Joeychgo said:
And yes - im aware how much it would cost to police the borders. But im also concerned about terrorists just walking into this country from Mexico. -
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Don't worry about the borders, the Bush admin has it covered. The men and women fighting and dieing in Iraq will keep the terrorist (since they are all in Iraq) from crossing over from Mexico, Canada or from either coast somehow.
 
95DevilleNS said:
Don't worry about the borders, the Bush admin has it covered. The men and women fighting and dieing in Iraq will keep the terrorist (since they are all in Iraq) from crossing over from Mexico, Canada or from either coast somehow.
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Oh yeah, sorry, I forgot.

-
 
fossten said:
Now, Rich, calm down. Everybody knows that even a broken clock is right twice a day.
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Being right two out of twenty-four times (8% accuracy) isn't very reassuring. But the current admin seems to follow your analogy.
 
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