Why I Would Never Run for Office in Kansas

Why I Would Never Run for Office in Kansas

I’ve pondered if I should run for office; this because I am a life-long Republican in a red state with strong political opinions and in favor of reasoned action when it comes to politics. I speak well, debate well, and have convincing authoritative voice, and I could be a shoo-in. There’s a big however here…

My conservatism is staunch in most areas and my votes have been pretty much straight R most of my life, however I could never get past a primary in Kansas – the Sam Brownback religious wing would see to it.

There are several social positions they would torpedo my candidacy with rather than any true and meaningful policy positions that really affect the future of the country.

  • I support the 2nd amendment strongly; but they would counter that I am a godless atheist and therefor I must be some sort of  secret communist who wants to grab guns through stealth.
  • I support necessary, efficient, but limited government; they would counter that with my support of Gay marriage.
  • I support an abundant energy future for the world through science; but they would counter that with — get this — my support of science.
  • I support a strong military, strong foreign policy, and fiscal restraint in Government; they would counter that with my support of a woman’s right to choose with reasonable restrictions.
  • I strongly support the 1st Amendment and Article VI of our constitution; they would counter that with my support for real science in science classes over the pseudo-science of intelligent design and culture war crapola.
  • I support free trade and capitalism; they would counter that with my support of taking reasonable steps to limit our effects on climate.

The sad fact is that I could not win here even if I registered as Democrat – the reconstructionists have too strong a grip on political process in Kansas, and organized religion drives politics far more than it should. In other words, even the Democrats in Kansas are to the right of Republicans in NY, CA, PA, CO, OH, and FL on social issues.

Purposeful reasoned actions are what I strive for, and actions that are purposeless such as me running for an office I couldn’t hope to win are ridiculous – so that will never happen.

Could I win in some of those other states? Possibly, but not in current times.

Right now there is a huge putsch going on from the Religious right in the Republican party. It started with the Club for Growth tossing out Reagan’s maxim of never speaking ill of other Republicans back in 2005, grew into the “Great RINO hunt” and has continued ever since. The oxymoronically named “Club for Growth” pretends to be all about fiscal conservatism (which is all the rage now that Obama was elected as our president,) however I challenge you to point to a candidate they endorse who is not a dyed in the wool religious social conservative.

They have Rubio challenging Crist in Florida, and in New York 23 they are supporting a religious right third party candidate against Diedre Scozzafava, the GOP choice for the special election. In NY 23 we are quite likely to lose that seat for a good long time due to that third party support, and that’s in a few short days. In their quest for “purist” candidates who can pass all 20 of their litmus tests they are making it impossible for R’s to win in populous urban states. They seem intent on driving all moderates out of the party and they are succeeding so far.

Right now you have Michelle Malkin agitating against Dede from James Dobson’s studios, you have the nativist xenophobe minuteman lobby endorsing Hoffman over Scozzafava, and you have White Supremacist blogger Robert Stacy McCain blogging from NY for Hoffman’s campaign.

This strange alliance is a coalescence of desperation that gelled in the post election power vacuum, but they have set course for a Republican party that cannot govern at a national level. They favor the religious right combined with neo confederate and Paleo pup tents over the big tent, they favor freak show barkers like Glen Beck over putting together a consistent production  that can compete on the main stage of US Politics.

The loudest voices are rarely the ones you should follow, but these folks sure know how to make a lot of purposeless noise. We are set for defeat in 2010 – my prediction is that we will gain fewer seats than an out party in an off presidential election year should garner. They will trumpet the pittance we do gain to high heavens, but in these times and with this president our gains should be huge. You can come back and rub this post in my face in 2010 if I am wrong, but I suspect I am not wrong here.

*note: since I am linking to Little Green Footballs which is on the hater’s outcast list, comments will be closed the next few days. Workload prevents me from monitoring comments to stop jackanapery from the people after Charles for sticking to his principles.

Fred Thompson Says it Best: Why All Americans Should Vote McCain

Fred Thompson boils the key elements of this election down to essential principles so this is a must watch for everyone:

The Democrats are Burning Down the House and Wallstreet

We must fix or rollback the securitization provisions of the Community Reinvestment Act or we will simply be back here in ten or fifteen years wailing about another near Trillion dollar bailout. This must stop, neither housing nor credit is a right, and neither banks nor Government Sponsored Agencies like Fannie and Freddie should be required by congress to carry ridicoulously large percentages of SUBPRIME loans. They are called subprime for a reason.

Any candidate for any office who does not make reform of draconian CRA requirements on Fannie and Freddie and banking in general part of their platform should be receiving letters now, and I am including McCain in that.

The Debate

This one’s hard to read, I can tell you where John should have zinged Barack a bit harder, but anyone can see those. As a political junkie I have to say that I don’t know how this will fly with non-political people. Trying to be objective, I would say that of the two John McCain probably inspired more confidence, and came off less petulant even though he was attacking the whole time. So I think that worked, but we will have to wait to see what the poll that counts reads – it’s in November.

Notes to Barack:
At one point I thought I heard you say that we could have intervened in the holocaust? (the dog was barking at that point, I’ll read the transcript to make sure and correct if mistaken,) I think we did intervene, it was called WWII.
UPDATE: I did hear correctly, from the transcript:

OBAMA: Well, we may not always have national security issues at stake, but we have moral issues at stake.

If we could have intervened effectively in the Holocaust, who among us would say that we had a moral obligation not to go in?

Seems Barack forgot that we stopped Nazi Germany. Maybe they didn’t cover that in the elite academy he went to in Hawaii.

Your invade to attack Bin Laden in Pakistan statements might make good sound bites, however they are undermining our policy in Afghanistan. The people of Pakistan burnt you in the streets of Karachi the first time you brought it up, and since then political pressure has steadily soared. The predator raids that were ignored aren’t ignored anymore and every blog and newspaper speaks out against the US much more often than they used to. Even the pro Musharraf camp is now speaking out against us, and the PPP who compose the new gov’t are steadily falling in favor and are being undermined by your constant threats. You are not making it easy on them, but AQ, TTP, LeJ, LeT, HuJI, TNSM, JeM and the others are making agit-prop hay out of every statement on Pakistan you make. (and I doubt that Obama knows of even half of those groups.)

UPDATE: In retrospect it’s easy to see that Barack Obama was correct on Pakistan, and both John McCain and I were wrong for partisan reasons.

The Debate: Thanos’ read

First McCain did come off the best in this debate. Both candidates scored important points and talked to their base, however throughout the debate McCain talked to the middle as well and managed to score with all of America again and again.

He scored great points with his tough talk on economics and cutting spending while Obama lost points by talking about all new programs and his unwillingness to cut any.

McCain definitely won on energy. While Obama was interested in gotchas and history, McCain put forth a solid plan that will work.

McCain was a tour d’force on foreign policy, and outshone Obama by miles there.

At a couple of points you could see Barack put up his hands like he wanted to call a time out when McCain was using Barack’s own statements to illustrate his points. Yes, america gets it that you said that Barack, and then you changed your stance after a lot of coaching. It was crystal clear in the debate.

Now we all know there were bigger zingers, harder slams, and tougher things that John could have said, but there are reasons he did not. He is carefully courting the Reagan Democrats and we need them to win. If he goes to polar in the initial debate he loses them from the get go.

He couldn’t go to town with Acorn, Dodd, Raines, Frank, Countrywide, and Johnson the way he could have, and he can’t until we get through the crisis d’jour. He didn’t bring up that they burnt Barack in effigy in the streets of Pakistan after his comments on Pakistan, although he could have.

He didn’t drive home the fact that Al Qaeda is “reconstituted” in Pakistan because we kicked their ass in Iraq and they had to flee there.

He didn’t bring up that we really are at the crux of winning three wars in Iraq: the first against Sadaam, the second against Al Qaeda, and the third against the Badr brigades assisted by the Revolutionary Guard of Iran. Few have said that, but it’s the truth.

He didnt’ bring up that the average american farm is Rich in Barack’s book, he didn’t bring up that the average Home run business is rich in Barack’s books. That’s a must do next debate.

Again the real slings and arrows have not yet flown against Barack Obama, they are held in reserve. That’s a good thing.

Also note that McCain is winning in both the Drudge Report and AoL polls immediately following the debates by an almost 70 / 30 split.

History of a Scandalous Rape of Taxpayers: Once Again Congress is the Culprit

Watch and weep at this extensive history of legislative malfeasance

Watch and weep at this extensive history of legislative malfeasance. H/T Jawa.