🚀 go-pugleaf

On Thu, 16 Oct 2003 18:46:10 GMT, Jonathan Ball
<jonball@whitehouse.not> wrote:

>Peter H. Proctor wrote:
 
>>>> No,  just the bible-thumper cultural conservatives
>>>
>>>There really isn't any other kind these days.

>> Sure there are.    There are the Neocons,  basically warmed-over
>> Trotskyists.   They used to be liberal democrats.
>
>They also do not control the Republican party.  The 
>buybull-thumpin' social conservatives control the 
>party,

No,  "money" controls the Republicans.  Just like the democrats..  But
money has to throw bones to the bible-thumpers.  

> and they hate the neo-cons almost as much as 
>they hate Adkins's "Liberals".  They're willing to let 
>the neo-cons handle foreign affairs, basically because:
>
>1.  the majority conservatives don't know fuck-all
>     about foreign affairs, except that they hate all
>     foreigners.

Not _all_ foreignors.    The pope,  e.g..

>2.  the neo-cons can put a cute intellectual veneer on
>     their all-purpose response of war; the majority
>     conservatives like slick liars, as long as they're
>     THEIR slick liars.

Actually,  a lot of conservatives are rather isolationist...

>> But there are a
>> lot of Arnold types,  Socially-liberal (really, libertarian) fun guys
>> but economically-conservative.
>
>No, there are not *a lot* of them.  There are 
>relatively few of them, and they defintely do not 
>control the Republican party apparatus.  Arnold is a 
>real outlier.  If the libertarians ran the Californian 
>Republican party, this wouldn't be a one-party state 
>with ZERO sitting statewide elected officials from the 
>Republican party (Arnold not having taken office yet).

One of the problems with having to suck up to  true-beleiver types is
that they scare/alienate the middle of the road.

>The hard-ass dumb-shit conservatives, with Gray Davis's 
>money, kept a great moderate Republican, Richard 
>Riordan, from winning the gubernatorial election.

And he lost to someone like Grey Davis.   

>> The social conservatives  _real_ issue is abortion.
>
>And prayer in school, and drugs, and "dirty" books, and...

Abortion is the main thing.     The only cultural matter besides
firearms rights that voters treat as a single-issue.    BTW,  I'm one
of the gun-nuts myself...

>> But if  the Repubs give them that, then they alienate the "suburban mom"
>> swing vote.
>
>Ergo, no statewide elected Republicans in California, 
>until the other week.

Ahnold puts the "party" back into Republican....

Dr P