Why I Have No Faith In The GOP

Hmm... I suppose with a title such as "Why I Have No Faith In The GOP" some of you may suspect that this post will be perhaps 1,000 times longer than even my recent Key West travelogue!

(*GRIN*)

Nope! I'll keep it brief - focused on a particular exchange I had with a GOP "insider" yesterday.

Read this op-ed by Bill Pascoe.

The following was my response to Mr. Pascoe:

Dear Bill,

Just read your piece in CQ.

From your typing fingers to God's roving eyes!

(Seriously... has Gingrich lost his mind...??? Is it his wife...??? What's the inside dope?)

Anyway... QUESTION:

Why won't the GOP use the January 2007-Present economic record to indict the Democrats?

I just don't get it. I've brought this up far and wide, emailing the staffers at the RSC, reaching out to anyone and everyone within GOP conservative circles and no response.

SPECIFICALLY:

Why are not charts ubiquitous showing the rise in deficits and debt month by month throughout the years the Democrats have controlled the House and Senate and since January of this year the White House...???

I don't get it!

In other words, we all know the Republicans - the RINOs - sucked. But the numbers are clear and unambiguous about the Dems sucking WORSE!

My God... a chart such as I describe should be the "front" page of the RNC website and indeed run on all Republican/conservative websites.

Along the same lines we should have charts following price rises of everyday items like Hellmann's mayo that AVERAGE AMERICANS PURCHASE REGULARLY and charts outlining the shrinking size of said products (ice cream used to be sold in half gallon containers, now it's 1.75... tuna used to be 7 oz. cans, then 6 oz., now 5 oz. Whether it's the Democrats "fault" or not shouldn't we be portraying it as their fault...?!?! Shouldn't we be linking Democratic control of Congress and the White House to falling living standards...???

Your getting the concept, right?

Anyway... if you believe what I'm bringing up has merit, for God's sake push the movers and shakers to put my suggests into effect. November '10 is right around the corner.

Well...??? What do you think, folks? Reasonable? On target?

This guy Pascoe is a Republican political operative, a former spokesman for the RNC; you'd think that the logic of the partisan message would get through to him. But no...

Here's Pascoe's response:

Dear Mr. Barker,

Thanks so much for reading, and for taking the time to write.

Re: your question, you answer it yourself -- in order to draw up charts and graphs showing rising deficits and rising inflation in the prices of every day good since January 2007, we'd have to include two years of GOP rule (the last two years of the Bush White House) with less than one year of Democratic rule (the Obama Administration to date).

The country isn't sophisticated enough, in my humble opinion, to understand that "ruling" the country is something done more by the Congress with its taxing and spending decisions than is done by the White House.

So, since your project would require the GOP to call itself out for its behavior less than three years ago, it's going to languish.

That's not to say, however, that your idea has no merit -- just that it's easy to see why the GOP hasn't taken you up on it yet.

This is good material for the conservative movement, and will be forwarded appropriately.

Well, well... there you have it! Allow me to highlight the paragraph that just floored me:

The country isn't sophisticated enough, in my humble opinion, to understand that "ruling" the country is something done more by the Congress with its taxing and spending decisions than is done by the White House.

Can you believe that crap...?!?!

Bad enough that a guy who runs a supposedly "educational organization dedicated to defending and promoting economic economic and political liberty" is apparently uninterested in EDUCATING the American public, but worse, Pascoe apparently believes that it's a viable political strategy for the GOP to turn a blind eye to its own past missteps even if by doing so this serves to provide cover for the Democrats past and present fiscal irresponsibility!

Folks... God help us all... this guy has worked for the Heritage Foundation and the American Conservative Union! You'd think... you'd hope... he'd know better!

(*SIGH*)

In any case, here are the highlights of my response to Mr. Pascoe:

Well, with all due respect, if that's the general consensus of the movers and shakers of the GOP than the GOP is doomed and deserves to be doomed.

Again... with all due respect... such thinking is itself beyond unsophisticated - it's the root cause of the GOP's problem. My God, man... following your "sophisticated" logic the "unsophisticated" public - particularly true conservatives and reasonable independents - would never have realized and reacted to what Bush and the RINO Congress pulled from January 2001 thru November 2006. Following your logic McCain is President because the "unsophisticated" conservatives and independents who the GOP (via simple math, Party registration vs. Party registration) depends upon to win national elections. No, Bill, with respect the American People NOTICED Bush was Bush and RINOs were RINOs and they NOTICED that McCain was McCain.

And that's that, folks; as of yet... no further response from Pascoe.