Over the weekend, Gen. Colin Powell said that the Republican Party needed to stop shouting at the world, whatever that means. He said some other troubling things as well, such as:
“I think the party has to take a hard look at itself,” Powell said in the interview, which was taped Wednesday. “There is nothing wrong with being conservative. There is nothing wrong with having socially conservative views — I don’t object to that. But if the party wants to have a future in this country, it has to face some realities. In another 20 years, the majority in this country will be the minority.”
Um…so what? Minorities aren’t conservatives, is that what you are saying? Minorities like big government, excessive spending and the welfare state? What is it you are saying here, Gen Powell?
He may be saying that the Democrats have cornered the market on minority votes and the Republican Party needs to become more like the Democrat Party if we want to get any of that action.
Poppycock. The Republican Party needs a better marketing department for one, and then they need to stop acting like the Democrat Party. Who was it that passed Prop 8 in California? 70% of black voters in the state voted back the measure. That is a conservative measure, supported by a minority. Are we to believe that minorities won’t back other conservative measures?
Who is against school choice? The Democrats. Who is for school choice? Black mothers and fathers.
Are we to believe that minorities would not support something like the Fair Tax? The fact is that the biggest problem with the Republican party is they are not vocal enough. They are not speaking loud enough to be heard, mainly because there are so many Republicans already acting like Democrats.
Another thing Gen. Powell said was that the Republican party needed to stop listening to people like Rush Limbaugh:
“Can we continue to listen to Rush Limbaugh?” Powell asked. “Is this really the kind of party that we want to be when these kinds of spokespersons seem to appeal to our lesser instincts rather than our better instincts?”
Our lesser instincts? I could respond to this, but Rush already has:
The simple fact of the matter is, folks, what makes this funny to me is that the Republican Party’s not listened to me in the last two years. And you might even say in matters of policy and so forth, the Republican Party hasn’t been listening to me for the last six years. And you might even say that the Republican Party is in the situation it’s in precisely because of the people like Colin Powell and John McCain and others who have devised this new definition and identity of the party which is responsible for electing Democrats all over this country.
So I think it’s actually somewhat funny. I really do. They’re not listening to me, and I don’t do this program for these people to listen to me. They misunderstand the whole point of this program and what we do here. The Democrats and the liberals always have, and I guess McCain and Colin Powell are showing their true colors. Here is Colin Powell telling the Republican Party what to do after he voted for Obama! I know what really has Colin Powell upset, it’s because I said his endorsement of Obama was about race, and I’m not supposed to say those things. These things are supposed to go unsaid. The Republican Party nominated Powell’s perfect candidate. The guy’s going after moderates, independents, Democrats, a guy who is not conservative at all, McCain, didn’t stand up for much conservative, and he’s out there now saying he won’t support Palin if she seeks the presidency again, or he might not.
Colin Powell, ladies and gentlemen, insists that conservatives and Republicans support candidates who will appeal to minorities like I guess McCain who led the effort for amnesty. He insists that conservatives and Republicans move to the center like McCain, who calls himself a maverick for doing so. General Powell insists that conservatives and Republicans provide an open tent to different ideas and views, like I guess McCain, who repeatedly trashed Republicans and made nice with Democrats. I mean, their tent’s big, they just don’t want us in it. John McCain is and was Colin Powell’s ideal candidate. All these moderates, Bill Weld, all these moderates that crossed the aisle and voted for Obama, they got their ideal candidate, and they got their ideal campaign in McCain. Once McCain was nominated as the Republican candidate, largely by independents and Democrats voting in Republican primaries, Colin Powell waited ’til the last minute, when it would do the most damage to McCain and the Republicans and endorsed Obama. And when I said it was largely about race, that’s what set ‘em all off, you’re not supposed to say these kinds of things. This is supposed to go unspoken.
So if we try to understand Powell’s thinking, which is difficult since it’s incoherent, we should have all voted for McCain in the primaries, and once he was nominated, we should have voted for Obama for president.
Rush nails it. The Republican Party isn’t going to succeed or grow stronger by embracing the values they have fought against for decades. The Republican Party is going to succeed when it starts rejecting liberalism and socialism in the same manner Reagan rejected it. The Republican Party in the Senate is being led by a man who bragged about how much pork he brought back to his state. And after that, the Senate Republicans re-elected him to lead them. Am I the only one who sees the problem here?
Gen. Powell, thank you for your service to the country. But let me tell you what you can do with your advice. With all due respect, you can keep it to yourself. Become a Democrat now. You are not helping the Republican Party by suggesting they abandon conservative and libertarian values that the country was founded upon in order to gain more votes from minorities.
The Republican Party isn’t losing because they are not appealing to minorities. They are losing because they don’t stand for anything anymore and the people know it. If they fix that, then the votes will return.
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