I enjoy talk radio. I tend to get annoyed by most of the talk radio hosts, but over all I enjoy listening to them. The latest annoyance is the 2008 Republican Presidential campaign. The neo-conservative media has decided that Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani are the best candidates for the Republican Nomination. However, it has become more apparent that not only does Rudy Giuliani disagree with the vast majority of the party faithful on the issue they consider the most important of all, abortion, but he makes no apologies for it. He makes no arguments as to why his view is the correct one, he just says he has no plans to change his view.
What is the reaction of the talking heads of the Right? It is the Liberal media trying to bring him down because they fear him for being a strong candidate. Somehow a man that can’t get his party to support him because he disagrees with them on the issues they hold most dear is a Liberal attack. That is not only intellectually dishonest, it’s an insult to our intelligence. It has an air of arrogance to it that is not unlike the elitists of the Left, it infers that they are the arbiters of truth and the deciders of what’s important, and if their listeners wish to think for themselves they are the unwitting allies of the New York Times.
I’m sorry, but you’re operating with the fallacious assumption that Giuliani had my support before this all hit the fan. They refuse to listen to those who will be either casting a vote for a Conservative or staying home for lack of a suitable candidate. They don’t believe us when we say we wouldn’t vote for anyone who thinks that murdering a child is a choice that should be left up to a woman and her doctor. They can’t figure out that we don’t want to be taxed out of house and home to pay for a government program that has been broken since it’s inception. They are bewildered by our insistence that the rights enshrined in the Constitution remain protected by government, namely the right to self preservation – the right to bear arms. They are stumped by the reaction of the electorate when they restrict speech as expressed through donations to political candidates.
It shouldn’t be a shocker that I tend to listen to conservatives that talk about a lot more than just politics. Dennis Prager and Joe Soucheray (local) tend to make it to the top of the playlist on the iPod. Jason Lewis (also local) is up there too, but he seems to get it. (Actually, Lewis is good enough he really should be national). I tend not to listen much to people like Hannity, Limbaugh, Ingraham, or Hewitt. Medved makes my ears bleed.
Give me a real conservative and I’ll give you my vote. Respect my intelligence and I’ll listen more. But if all you want is for me to tow the party line, even when it goes against the party platform, don’t be surprised when I dust off my feet and move on.
Real Conservative=Ron Paul. Don’t waste your vote on anyone else in the party.
But, But, But… Ron Paul has voted since the beginning against the war in Iraq!!
It’s amazing, a liberal calls himself a Republican and the “conservative” pundits fawn over him. All kinds of excuses are made for his shortcomings, and arguments are made about him being better than Hillary so you better vote for him. However a real Conservative enters the race and he’s completely ignored. When people call in and ask “why don’t you talk about Ron Paul, a real Conservative”? The answer inevitably is “He doesn’t support the war.” So one guy gets a free pass on abortion, gun rights, taxation, homosexual marriage, and a whole host of other issues, but another guy disagrees with the party on one issue that they consider major so he is out of contention!
No, I do agree with you. I’ll vote Republican in 2008 if Ron Paul is the nominee. However, I said the same thing in 2000 when Alan Keyes was running. He got a little loony in 2006 against B. Hussein Obama in the Senate Race in Illinois, especially over reparations for slavery, but in 2000 he was the closest thing to a real Conservative running for President as a Republican. I doubt Paul will get it, and so I don’t plan to vote Republican if I even bother to vote at all.
I am registered Libertarian myself and voted Constitution Party last election because I didn’t agree with the Libertarian’s candidate’s view on abortion. Believe it or not the Libertarian Party is split on the issue. I am encouraging as many Reps to vote for Paul in the primaries at least to get what he has to say out there. How long has it been since “the People” have heard anything coming close to a Constitutional viewpoint? Other than the third parties.