How do we get old-school Republicans to stand up to this crowd?

[smartvoter]

The one thing we don't talk much about around here is the old-school Republican crowd -- you know, the ones we used to debate over social issues and taxes and things of that sort, as opposed to torture, dishonesty and the shredding of the Constitution.

This group clearly has been silenced by right-wing zealots who stomp out dissent, yet we KNOW they exist, and they cannot stand the things that are happening now. For a long time, they chose not to believe what we had to say because it was our word versus the Neocons. Now all the crap his out in the open. But they aren't coming forward to demand accountability. Or if they are, there is no coverage of it.

The reason I bring it up is our entire country is being run by a very small group of people who have bullied their way to the top of the Republican Party. Setting aside whatever we can accomplish from our side of the political spectrum, the entire country could benefit from the other side returning to its traditional roots.

[Crazy Guggenheim]

1. Pete McCloskey is trying to revive that. You can Google his name

and find the organization he's starting. He is a liberal Republican. Probably more liberal than many Democrats are today.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

2. I used to be an "old school republican"...

this new cabal in charge scared me into being a liberal.


Keep repeating - over and over- small government, fiscal responsibility, right to privacy. Oh yea... and PUT DOWN THE KOOL-AID!

disclaimer on edit: I realize now that I was never a true republican... but you can't help how you're raised. :eyes:

[thefloyd]

3. Old School Republicans are dead....literally

Demcrats should simply say Reagan would be ashamed of todays republican party

[Erika]

4. I hate to be a carrier of bad news

but the old style GOP will still vote that way as long as they get W's tax breaks for the rich. I learned painfully, when Kerry ran, that if the GOP rich had a choice between tax breaks for the rich, and health care for the poor, that they sided with with the tax breaks.

[smartvoter]

14. I don't disagree on the taxes versus care-for-needy issue. But

I would rather be having just that debate than having it with all this other crap on top of it.

[Syrinx]

5. it would help a lot if we could get the Democrats to stand up in force

The good Republicans (I'm sure there are a few) are scared.

If the Democrats would show some courage and backbone, that would give cover to the good Republicans.

[Golden Raisin]

6. The old-school Republicans

have gone to the same place where Cadillacs with big tailfins and the 06:00pm-06:30pm nightly news with Walter Cronkite went. The USA is entirely different now and the change has definitely not been for the better. What's left of old-school Republicans are along & onboard for the BushCo ride: big tax breaks, and keeping the "wrong elements" out of the country club and the Supreme Court.

[Emit]

7. These guys have

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

A Reputation in Tatters
By Paul Craig Roberts

George W. Bush and his gang of neocon warmongers have destroyed America’s reputation. It is likely to stay destroyed, because at this point the only way to restore America’s reputation would be to impeach and convict President Bush for intentionally deceiving Congress and the American people in order to start a war of aggression against a country that posed no threat to the United States.

America can redeem itself only by holding Bush accountable....

cont'd:
http://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/cgi-bin/roberts.cgi

Some sensible, heavyweight Republicans were trying to bring some sanity to their party---

see: http://www.dkosopedia.com/index.php/Republicans_for_Kerry_2004

The group this article discusses is just the more recent, cohesive and public example of prominent figures rallying against this misadministration.

Aug 3, 2005

Reviving 'the radical center'
By Jim Lobe

~snip~

While the group, which calls itself the Partnership for a Secure America, was not explicitly set up to act to oppose the more radical initiatives of the Bush administration, the chief organizers - both Republicans and Democrats - have sometimes been harshly critical of specific Bush policies, especially the decision to go to war in Iraq and innovative policy initiatives such as the promotion of preemptive war against "rogue states".

The group includes top officials who served in the administrations of presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, such as the two presidents' most durable national security advisers - Samuel Berger and Zbigniew Brzezinski, respectively - as well as former secretary of state Warren Christopher; Clinton's first national security adviser, Anthony Lake; former defense secretary William Perry, and former UN ambassador Richard Holbrooke.

But it also includes leading Republican moderates, some of whom have even served under Bush. They include former senator Howard Baker, who served until last year as Bush's ambassador to Japan, and, even more significantly, his most recent UN ambassador, former senator John Danforth, who, since his resignation, has been uncharacteristically outspoken about his concerns that the Republican Party has increasingly come under the sway of the Christian Right.

Lawrence Eagleburger, a protege of Henry Kissinger and the number two in the State Department under George H W Bush who also served briefly as acting secretary of state in 1992, as well as one of Ronald Reagan's national security advisers, retired General Robert "Bud" MacFarlane, have also signed up. Other leading Republicans include former trade representative Carla Hills, former senator Nancy Kassebaum Baker, former New Jersey governor and co-chair of the 9-11 Commission Thomas Kean, and the former deputy secretary of state under Reagan, John Whitehead. Former UN ambassador Thomas Pickering, who served under Bush Sr but, like Eagleburger was a career foreign service officer, has also joined.

~snip~

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/GH03Aa01.html

[JWS]

8. My favorite old school Republican is Kevin Phillips

He invented the Southern Strategy for Nixon, which I think he majorly regrets now. I am reading his book Wealth and Democracy right now, which is pretty good. I think, however, that he has switched aisles and is now a Democrat.

[DanCa]

9. If they didn't convert in 2004

I dont see it happening.

[izzie]

10. When enough of them lose their rights they will wake up

As one far right leaders said. This will be a Christian country and it will be our type of Christian country or some such words. So it is the same. You will be our type of Republican or else. Just read freerepublic.

[DarkTirade]

11. I'm only really liberal on social issues myself...

but nothing these people do could even be considered real conservatism. Bloated government, wasteful spending, intrusive laws... that isn't conservative in the slightest.
Basically I'm a polar opposite of the current administration. I believe in letting people live their lives in peace, cutting government waste, streamlining the government when we can, and not starting wars that kill thousands of innocent people.
So, y'know, in other words, I'm a decent human being. Polar opposite of the current administration. :)

[Neshanic]

12. Because old school repug were just as corrupt as the Neocon kids...

and the kids have the records on all the things that would embarrass an "old schooler".

They had a different corruption agenda of course, but corrupt all the same.

[Marleyb]

13. give them this flyer to wake them up?

http://benfrank.net/blog/f/notanazi.pdf