My response to how the Republicans can't find themselves

Now, it is always dangerous when I get email a bit later into the night as I am pretty far into the Grey Zone that things just start to go insubstantial. Be that as it may, that does not stop me from writing on things even from that land that is neither here nor there, asleep nor awake, light nor dark.

Thus when Larwyn sent me an ongoing discussion between various bloggers and such I really did start to wonder what the Republican Party was doing. She started out with the parable of the Scorpion and the Frog, and then from there links to Dan Riehl's site on Holding the Democrats to Account, and then Spook86's and the ongoing colloquy between these and the Good Captain at his Quarters. Also the posting at PoliPundit and that ALF who had two posts on the what to do question. And the blame for starting this goes to the PowerLine, always a jolt, but rarely a shock.

I am bemused as only NOW are Republicans starting to catch the message and even with THAT it is a lonely few. And thus I weighed in via email and now post the gently cleaned up from email transfer... I ran a spell check on it and changed a spelling of a word. My mental Grey attitude is prevalent, so be warned, verbiage was spewn:

I am a Jacksonian and put my views forth as my own, and none other.

We, as a People, have not been voting in a majority of those eligible to do so since the 1980's and the trend line was sharply down staring in the 1968-74 timeframe when the Democratic Party took out the 'long knives' and started to cut off the Jacksonian part of the Party that adhered to the older traditions. Some came to the Republican Party, but have walked away from in in the mid-1990's when the Republicans did not stick by their conception of more limited Government. Some stalwarts still fight on in the Democratic Party, refusing to give in to the Leftists that were ushered in during Chicago. Those very few have the hardest fight of all as they will stand by the Party even after it has dishonored them and attempt to win it back against all odds.

I salute them in that fight.

I will not join them in it, as my hatred for what that Party has done to the Nation since betraying an Ally that We had guaranteed to support, no matter what the cost. The millions dead in three Nations that fell because of that lay at our collective feet, but the blood is on the hands of those who turned this Nation from a fight that had sapped the USSR so much that it could not actively do much of anything else in the world. When that burdened was removed from them, they expanded the fight because they now had a way to WIN. That movement they did into Afghanistan gave birth to something WORSE than the USSR which is now our current enemy.

Because we walked out on a sworn Ally in 1974, unwilling even to give them air cover.

The Republican Party under Ronald Reagan did the economic part to finally unravel the USSR and the Eastern Bloc. The dreaded 'meat cleaver' he was to take to the Federal Government turned into a wheelbarrow of fertilizer to spread around. Government continued to grow at a faster pace, infringing upon the People more by trying to make things 'better'. Newt Gingrich tried to bring this to the forefront and won a majority when a Democrat was President on this concept. It appears to have gotten lost in the shuffle like the 'meat cleaver'. Instead one of the pieces of legislation on the Republican Agenda in Congress in the weeks leading up to the Election was: internet gambling.

I do not like a Nannystate be it Democratic or Republican founded.

I am less than impressed with a President who has stuck by his word on everything he has done in office and, apparently, most of his life, suddenly going back on it the day after the Election.

I am even more deeply unimpressed that the President looks to the old 'Cold Warriors' to try and find something *else* to do. These diplomats and thinkers from that era have not shaken off the belief that Iran and Syria want 'stability' in Iraq or, indeed, the Middle East. Perhaps the President has missed a few organizations: Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Mehdi Army in Iraq, the Badr gangs in Iraq, Hezbollah in Venezuela, Brazil and Argentina. I seem to be missing something on this whole 'stability' concept in regards to Syria and Iran. Add to that the nuclear mis-direction that they seem to have successfully pulled off against the US and the world, we might want to consider them a *real* threat considering the equipment and designs that Iran got via the AQ Khan network and that Syria enjoys with North Korea.

And even if some sort of argument is made that those, in some way, could be defined as a working coalition or 'axis of evil', may I point out that they are really not all too *rational* when it comes to this whole Nation State business, which was a FOUNDATION of 'containment' of the USSR. Those Nations are not acting in a rational manner. And even if they were working in some greater manner together, there is a raft of non-Nation State entities that are *also* a threat to the US and that the entirety of the Federal Government is unable to bring to heel: Transnational Terrorists. A few names to ring some bells as these are not connected to Nation States and exist to undermine the entire *system* of Nation States: al Qaeda, Jemaa Islamiya, Lashkar-e-Toiba, Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Islamic Jihad, GSPC, FARC, Shining Path, ETA, various IRA's which are STILL seeking arms, Islamic Brotherhood... there is quite a long list as it does go on for awhile.

Somehow addressing *those* seems to be a bit higher on my agenda than INTERNET GAMBLING.
And I actually had to put an Agenda together... One Man's Party Platform. And a Foreign Policy that is easy to understand and yet only complex in its repercussions Goals on the Global War on Terrorism that can limit it, but not rid us of it because the genie is out of the bottle and the clock cannot be turned back and many other cliches. The time to fight that was in 1979, and the Democrats failed there, too. But the Republicans did little in response to the two Beirut Embassy bombings and the Marine Barracks bombing, which serve as Casus Belli 2-4 against Iran and 1-3 against Syria. They made war on us ALREADY.

While we all give due honor to Ronald Reagan for holding firm and fast, the actual blows that brought down the USSR were from the *inside*. By a People who had seen their Nation overwhelmed not once, but many times over centuries. Divided up between Empires. Bisected and Trisected and broken down to a mere city. And each time they emerged from the carcass of those who overwhelmed them. These are also the hardy people that sent a large contingent to Vienna when last the Islamic Empire came to take Europe. And helped to DEFEAT THEM. This same Nation which had considered itself to be a *free people* since the 10th century did something amazing in the 18th: they sent soldiers over to help another People fight *for* freedom. The first *real* cavalry unit in the American Revolution was that from POLAND.

When the Republicans talk so much about Free Trade to make people Free, I look at China and say: oh, really?

And when I see these new Enemies of the Nation being able to attack us because we have been so lax on trade for decades to help out business in America, I really do wonder why making it cheap to arm our enemies is a *good thing*.

When we offer 'Free Trade' to our southern Neighbor and they then proceed to go on unbounded abuse of that and I hear from the Republicans in the Senate that not only should we do nothing about them but that we should give them 'goodies' and extras, I really do shake my head.

Why do we not ever offer Free Trade to Our Friends and Allies who have stood by us for long decades, or, in the case of Poland, since the FOUNDING OF THIS NATION? What is up with that?

I am the damned leanest government possible Jacksonian. I want my Nation to DO honorable things, like stand by those that stand by Us so that Together We can be stronger and richer.

Why not Free Trade with Japan? Or Australia? And why do we impose NO TARIFF upon those that do not care to be either Friend or Enemy? They want access to the Greatest Nation on this Planet and do not wish to befriend Us, so they can jolly well pony up some extra bucks to get into the damned market. And now that we see who are Enemies ARE, why do we not empower the People as was done in times past, to shut that trade OFF and give those who honorably do so proper REWARD?

Doing these things are honorable and worthy of this Nation. They are, indeed, simple. But the effects of them are not simplistic and have ramifications across this planet as the Free People of the United States take a STAND to REMAIN FREE and help those that help US. Somehow all these wonderful and complex and very nuanced policies have made our enemies stronger, endangered our friends and allies, and are dividing the Nation Against Itself. The Republican Party may want to look in the History Books and see if they are STILL the Party of Lincoln.

We are now in the 21st century. The last gas station for the 20th is some 6 years ago and it is NOT coming back. Our enemies are from the 19th century if not earlier, as so many fondly point out. May I also point out that the Republic of the United States faced similar in the 19th century and had ensured that the Might of the Nation could be used against them? And that might is not represented by the keen cutting edge of the flaming swift sword of the Republic, but by the weighty body of it to rend enemies asunder in ways the edge cannot do by forcing the wound open so it cannot be cauterized.

So divided this Nation will not hold, and I do not see a Sherman's March or a Grant's Pursuit on the immediate horizon to tip the scales.

If you don't like a nuclear Iran as a concept then try out a nuclear armed Syria with Korean NoDong II missiles and nuclear warheads made to the Pakistani plans in the AQ Khan network. And then have Hezbollah as a ground defensive force to hold off overland threats, because Syria has been doing nada with its conventional forces since the fall of the USSR. Yes, they were heavily supplied by the USSR. But you would think they would have moved to a compact and competent army... so where has that money gone to?

Just what percentage of the American People did actually come out and vote? Better than 35%, I hope, because the mid-term before that was in the 40% range or so. Divide that in half and there is your *mandate*. 60% were so turned off, so disgusted and so fed up with the two Parties that they did not even bother to come out. We are one, fine Shays away from something awful in this Nation.

Or will we look forward to the day when this Nation collapses into Nannystate tyranny or just pure chaos, and some few places then look outwards and hope that they may be worth saving.

Or pray that there is a steadfastness equal to that of the Polish People who have always been free, and find their way to freedom no matter what happens. Because it is a gift they cherish as a People. Perhaps they will remember us and help... for all the lack of same we have given them in recent years. When I see Billions for Egypt and pittance for Poland, I really, truly, do wonder what is going on here.

But then, I am a Jacksonian.

And Freedom and Liberty are worth holding onto.

Unto Death.

A Jacksonian

Late in the day it really is hard to tell Light and Dark, Dreaming and Waking, but I do try to stand for who and what I am and how I see things. Of that, never doubt.