Pat Buchanan: Can the GOP Get Together in Cleveland?

By Patrick Buchanan

After winning only six delegates in Wisconsin, and with Ted Cruz poaching delegates in states he has won, like Louisiana, Donald Trump either wins on the first ballot at Cleveland, or Trump does not win.

Yet, as that huge, roaring reception he received in his first post-Wisconsin appearance in Bethpage, N.Y., testifies, the Donald remains not only the front-runner, but the most exciting figure in the race.

Moreover, after the New York, New England, mid-Atlantic and California primaries, Trump should be within striking distance of the 1,237 delegates needed for the nomination.

Pat Buchanan: Is a New GOP Being Born?

By Patrick Buchanan

The first four Republican contests — Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada — produced record turnouts.

While the prospect of routing Hillary Clinton and recapturing the White House brought out the true believers, it was Donald Trump’s name on the ballot and his calls for economic patriotism, border security, and an end to imperial wars that brought out the throngs.

The crowds that continue to come out for his appearances and the vast audiences he has attracted to GOP debates testify to his drawing power.

Moreover, Trump has now been endorsed by Gov. Chris Christie, ex-chairman of the Republican Governors Association, and Sen. Jeff Sessions, one of the most respected conservatives on Capitol Hill.

Pat Buchanan: Don’t Take Your Guns to Town, Paul

By Patrick J. Buchanan

The honor of it all aside, Rep. Paul Ryan would do well to decline the speakership of the House. For it is a poisoned chalice that is being offered to him.

The Republican Party is not, as some commentators wail, in “chaos” today. It is in rebellion, in revolt, as it was in the early 1960s when Barry Goldwater’s true believers rejected Eisenhower Republicanism and Nelson Rockefeller to nominate the Arizona Senator for president.

A similar and bristling hostility to today’s establishment has arisen, in the GOP Congress, the country, and the presidential race.

Lindsey Graham: Socialist Ratcheteer

Hannity interview illustrates GOP’s real problem.

It all began so innocently.

Senator Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican and newly minted if long-shot 2016 presidential candidate, sat down with NBC’s Chuck Todd for an interview. Riding along in the back seat of (presumably) an SUV, the two discuss Graham’s presidential ambition. Todd poses a question wondering about what Graham thinks of the country’s current state of polarization. In a bit of a windy answer Graham blames talk radio, cable TV, and money. Then he tosses the kind of political flare that rarely gets tossed in today’s carefully restrained and tailored-for-public-consumption politics.

To illustrate his point, Graham conjures a scene of modern media covering the Constitutional Convention in 1787 Philadelphia, replete with satellite trucks surrounding Independence Hall and Ben Franklin exiting the building only to be besieged by Fox’s Sean Hannity and MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow. Translation: the two hosts are polarizing.

Hannity picked up on this, inviting Graham on his television show to discuss. Fatefully, Graham agreed. And in the doing (seen here) Graham quickly proceeded to illustrate exactly the problem that faces the Republican Party and the nation.

Read more at The American Spectator >>

 

Patrick J. Buchanan: Walter Jones Repels a War Party Attack

Pat's latest column illustrates perfectly why we will never again give blanket allegiance to the Republican Party.  We will support principled, conservative candidates like Walter Jones.  Those GOP candidates that Karl Rove and Dana Perino oppose are, more than likely, those we will support.  It's sad that it has come to picking candidates based on their enemies, but as the great Churchill said:

“You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.”

By Patrick J. Buchanan

The GOP Beltway establishment is celebrating the victory of Thom Tillis, Speaker of the North Carolina House, over his Tea Party and Evangelical rivals in Tuesday’s primary for the U.S. Senate.

But the story ended less happily for the Beltway elite in the Tar Heel State’s 3rd Congressional District. There, the planned purge of Rep. Walter Jones was repulsed by his loyal Republican base.

Yet, this massively funded effort, to kill the career of a 20-year House veteran, whose father held the seat for decades before him, testifies eloquently to the intolerance of the ideological and monied elite of the party to which conservatives give allegiance.

War Party Oligarch

By Patrick J. Buchanan

Is the Republican Party’s Middle East policy up for bid?

For four days ending Sunday, a quartet of presidential hopefuls trooped to Las Vegas to attend the annual gathering of the Republican Jewish Coalition.

Impresario: Sheldon Adelson, the Vegas-Macau casino mogul whose fortune is estimated at $39 billion — 8th richest man on the planet — and who dumped $92 million into the election of 2012.

Adelson kept Newt Gingrich alive with a $15 million infusion of ad money, gutting Romney, and then sank $30 million into Mitt’s campaign.

This time Sheldon wants to buy himself a winner.

How the GOP Lost Middle America

By Patrick J. Buchanan

Out of the Republican retreat on Maryland’s Eastern shore comes word that the House leadership is raising the white flag of surrender on immigration.

The GOP will agree to halt the deportation of 12 million illegal aliens, and sign on to a blanket amnesty. It only asks that the 12 million not be put on a path to citizenship.

Pardon, Sam: A Slight Amendment

From Chronicles

By Clyde N. Wilson

Our lamented friend Sam Francis scored big when he labeled the Democrats as “the evil party” and the Republicans as “the stupid party.” These telling characterizations have appealed to many later observers, as have other of Sam’s apt phrases, like “anarchotyranny.” Sam was always in earnest but his comments were often laced with humour. He knew what H.L. Mencken or Will Rogers or perhaps both said: Observing American politics is a hoot if you just keep a sane perspective and remember that their main use is entertainment.

There can be little dispute about “the evil party.” It might be said, however, that there is a slight Democratic credit here. Democrats sometimes actually believe the depraved stuff they spout and even try to make a rational-sounding argument. They pursue a real agenda and represent real interests. Not so the Republicans.

Are the Republican leaders really as stupid as they seem? Certainly the ideal Republican candidate for office is the same as any hostess wants for the spare man at her dinner party: presentable, not too old, no real work to do, with inherited money and a mediocre I.Q. Now and then, when fortunes are low, the Republicans will play the U.S. Grant card and go for a military hero, but lately that does not work as well as it used to.

The Republicans’ apparent stupidity rests on the fact that they invariably and with utter predictability betray their rank and file of Middle Americans and thereby presumably damage themselves. But is this really so stupid when the leaders can calculate with near certainty that the poor slobs will come back again no matter what is done to them? And when they know that if they show any real allegiance to their voters or try to do anything substantive for them, they will be declared by the media to be no longer respectable and thus be constantly on the defensive and guilty of un-American negativity?

A lot becomes clear when we realize that the Republican party is not a political party. Few of its leaders have any idea what a political principle is or what political debate is supposed to be. The few who do have an idea avoid such things like the plague. The Republican party is a marketing strategy. It is a coalition of mostly mediocre people running a campaign for power and perks. Everything these people say is a calculated advertisement without any sincerity or substance. Mentioning your competitor’s bad points is unattractively negative, no matter what terrible things he is accusing you of. Since you have no ideas or principles but only a lust for office, the easiest thing is to go along with the other fellow’s agenda and let him win most of the time. And whatever you may have told the slobs to get their votes is yesterday’s tired ad campaign that needs to be refreshed.

Clyde N. Wilson is a contributing editor to Chronicles. A retired professor of history at the University of South Carolina, he is the author of numerous books, including Carolina Cavalier: The Life and Mind of James Johnston Pettigrew and Defending Dixie: Essays in Southern History and Culture. He is the editor of The Papers of John C. Calhoun.

Elbert Guillory: Why I Chose To Become A Republican

Louisiana Senator Elbert Guillory (R-Opelousas) explains why he recently switched from the Democrat Party to the Republican Party. He discusses the history of the Republican Party, founded as an Abolitionist Movement in 1854. Guillory talks about how the welfare state is only a mechanism for politicians to control the black community.

Who Speaks Now for the GOP?

By Patrick J. Buchanan 

Last Wednesday, Sen. Rand Paul rose on the Senate floor to declare a filibuster and pledge he would not sit down until either he could speak no longer or got an answer to his question about Barack Obama’s war powers.

Does the president, Paul demanded to know, in the absence of an imminent threat, have the right to order U.S. citizens killed by drone strike on U.S. soil?

By the time he sat down, 13 hours later, Paul had advanced to the front rank of candidates for 2016, and established himself as a foreign policy leader whose views must be consulted equally with those of John McCain.

How did he pull this off?

Poll Predicts Huge Swing of US Catholic Vote Toward Republicans

Deo Gratias!

From Catholic World News
Pre-election polls in the US show a powerful trend toward the Republican Party among “swing” voters, including Catholics, the New York Times has reported.

A New York Timesreporter told Catholic Vote that in the latest survey Catholics were leaning toward Republicans by a 62-38% margin—a stunning contrast with the 2008 election, in which Catholic voters favored President Obama over his Republican challenger, John McCain, by 54- 44%.

Source(s): these links will take you to other sites, in a new window.

• Obama Coalition Is Fraying, Poll Finds (New York Times)
• NY Times/CBS poll: GOP making gains among Catholic voters (CatholicVote)

Professor Clyde Wilson's Definition of "A Republican"

A South Carolinian for whom we have great admiration is Clyde N. Wilson. He is a contributing editor to Chronicles, a retired professor of history at the University of South Carolina, an author of many great books, including Carolina Cavalier: The Life and Mind of James Johnston Pettigrew and Defending Dixie: Essays in Southern History and Culture, and the editor of The Papers of John C. Calhoun.

Today Professor Wilson published in Chronicles his definition of a Republican. It is a painfully true definition of too many Republicans, particularly many Wilson has probably encountered in the South Carolina General Assembly, as well as in the previous national administration. However, we think there is growing resistance among Republicans and independents to just such "Republicans." Indeed, Professor Wilson's definition will be useful to us in weeding out precisely those Rockefeller-Whitman-Romney-Leatherman Republicans we will always and everywhere oppose.

A Republican Is Someone Who Thinks . . .

By Clyde N. Wilson

*That unemployment compensation for laid-off workers is socialism and multibillion-dollar bailouts for banking and stock swindlers is capitalism.

*That killing women and children with high explosives in remote corners of the earth is defending “our way of life.”

*That the purpose of education is to train good workers.

*That immigration is good because it supplies good cheap workers.

*That Earl Warren, Nelson Rockefeller, Gerald Ford, George W. Bush, Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani, Colin Powell, and Mitt Romney are great American statesmen.

*That the main reason not to train women for combat is that it is inefficient.

*That the 10th Amendment means that the federal government should tell the States what to do rather than do it itself.

*That criticism of Lincoln is near treason.

*That the President is “Commander-in-Chief” of the country, especially when he is a Republican.

*That freedom is protected by undeclared wars and military tribunals.

*That “right to life” is a good campaign gimmick, but not to be taken seriously.

*That any campaign promise or slogan should gull the saps who are not in the know but is not to be taken seriously.

*That the way to beat the Democrats is to take up whatever they propose and promise to do it better.

BREAKING: Scozzafava Suspends NY 23 Campaign

From Politico

Republican Dede Scozzafava has suspended her bid in next Tuesday’s NY 23 special election, a huge development that dramatically shakes up the race. She did not endorse either of her two opponents -- Conservative party candidate Doug Hoffman or Democrat Bill Owens.

The decision to suspend her campaign is a boost for Hoffman, who already had the support of 50 percent of GOP voters, according to a newly-released Siena poll, and is now well-positioned to win over the 25 percent of Republicans who had been sticking with Scozzafava.

Scozzafava has “probably made her last campaign appearance between now and Election Day,” spokesman Matt Burns told POLITICO. “She’s releasing her support to the two other candidates."

"I had a discussion with her last night, and we made the decision after I spoke with her. We talked about it, what this came down to was spending. It came down to the ability to defend herself from the get-go. And that’s the reality. She was unable to define herself where the people didn’t know her."

POLITICO has the full story on Scozzafava's surprise decision here.

Scozzafava's statement:

Dear Friends and Supporters:

Throughout the course of my campaign for Congress, I have made the people of the 23rd District and the issues that affect them the focal point of my campaign. As a life long resident of this District, I care deeply and passionately about its people and our way of life. Whether as a candidate for Congress, a State Assemblywoman or a small town Mayor, I have always sought to act with the best interest of our District and its residents in mind—and today I again seek to act for the good of our community.

The opportunity to run as the Republican and Independence Party candidate to represent the 23rd District has been and remains one of the greatest honors of my life. During the past several months, as I’ve traveled the district, meeting and talking with voters about the issues that matter most to them, I’ve been overwhelmed by the amount of support I’ve received as I sought to serve as their voice in Washington. However, as Winston Churchill once said, Democracy can be a fickle employer, and the road to public office is not always a smooth one.

In recent days, polls have indicated that my chances of winning this election are not as strong as we would like them to be. The reality that I’ve come to accept is that in today’s political arena, you must be able to back up your message with money—and as I’ve been outspent on both sides, I’ve been unable to effectively address many of the charges that have been made about my record. But as I’ve said from the start of this campaign, this election is not about me, it’s about the people of this District. And, as always, today I will do what I believe serves their interests best.

It is increasingly clear that pressure is mounting on many of my supporters to shift their support. Consequently, I hereby release those individuals who have endorsed and supported my campaign to transfer their support as they see fit to do so. I am and have always been a proud Republican. It is my hope that with my actions today, my Party will emerge stronger and our District and our nation can take an important step towards restoring the enduring strength and economic prosperity that has defined us for generations.

On Election Day my name will appear on the ballot, but victory is unlikely. To those who support me – and to those who choose not to – I offer my sincerest thanks.

GOP Tees Up Medicare Manifesto

From The Wall Street Journal
By Neil King Jr.

The Republican Party issued a new salvo in the health debate Monday with a "seniors' health care bill of rights" that opposed any moves to trim Medicare spending or limit end-of-life care to seniors.

Intended as a political shot at President Barack Obama, the Republican National Committee manifesto marks a remarkable turnaround for a party that had once fought to trim the health program for the elderly and disabled, which last year cost taxpayers over $330 billion.

The Republican stance also underscores how tough it will be for Mr. Obama to find politically palatable savings to pay for new coverage while reining in spiraling health-care costs.

The Republicans said they aimed to "protect Medicare and not cut it in the name of health-care reform," in a statement and an accompanying op-ed written by RNC Chairman Michael Steele and published in Monday's Washington Post.

The party also vowed to oppose any Democratic effort to ration care or to insert the government between seniors and their doctors.

Read the rest of this entry >>

Huckabee Warns Republicans Against 'Mushy Middle'

From OneNewsNow
By Mike Glover

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee warned Republicans Wednesday against moving to the "mushy middle," arguing that only clearly stated conservative policies can bring the party back to power.

Huckabee spoke during his second trip to Iowa since he won the 2008 Republican caucuses. That win was the high point of his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, which ultimately went to Arizona Sen. John McCain.

"I hear people who give advice that the Republicans need to moderate. They need to be a little more to the left," Huckabee said in an interview with The Associated Press. "It sounds like advice that Democrats would give to us so that we'd never win another election ever."

Some argue that Republicans have lost Congress and the White House because they've turned the party over to social and religious conservatives, driving away moderates and independents. Huckabee made precisely the opposite argument.

"It's when they move to the mushy middle and get squishy that they get beat," he said.

Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister, argued that the U.S. is a conservative country receptive to Republican ideals.

"Historically, the way we've found our way back to winning, having clear convictions that are conservative and then when elected, act like it," he said. "In every election, when Republicans have had clarity of convictions and those convictions were conservative, they win."

He warned that many Republicans have gone astray by buying into President Barack Obama's big-spending effort to stimulate the economy, a move he called "a big, colossal, utterly disastrous mistake.

"Our Republicans have culpability in that," Huckabee said. "There were some people who questioned whether I was really conservative. I don't want to hear, ever, people ever again talk about how conservative they are if they supported that."

Huckabee spoke later Wednesday at a business convention and planned to appear at a fundraiser for Sioux City businessman Bob Vander Plaats, who is seeking the Republican nomination for governor of Iowa. Vander Plaats was a top leader of Huckabee's caucus bid.

His return to Iowa, where presidential campaigns usually start, has caused speculation that he's laying the foundation for another run. Now a commentator for the Fox television network, Huckabee downplayed such thoughts, saying Republicans should be focused on next year's midterm election.

"Anybody who already has decided right now they are definitely running for president doesn't need to be, because they think it's all about them," Huckabee said. "We don't know what our country is going to be like in two years. I can't make that determination right now."

Newt Gingrich Delivers a Stunning Speech to Party Faithful

Newt Gingrich gave a stunning and thoughtful keynote speech to the 2009 GOP Senate/House Fundraising Dinner last night. Rich in historical perspective, it called the party back to core principles and reminded all Republicans that with all his foibles, Newt Gingrich is one of the party's best thinkers, with so much yet to contribute. He is precisely what is needed in the position of GOP national chairman. I strongly recommend that all Republicans hear this great speech.

The Problem with Conservatives

This is well worth a read. The TEA parties that have taken place and will be held across America are a great sign that Americans want a restoration of freedom. What is needed is for the Republican Party to present a clear agenda, as they did in the Contract with America in 1994, for a restoration of the principles and freedoms that flow from the classical liberalism on which the nation was founded. In sum, it means America's return to Constitutional government.

From NY Conservative Examiner
By Todd Keister

By any measure, modern conservatism is suffering. The Republican Party, long the home of America’s conservatives, has become little more than a watered-down version of the socialist Democrat Party, and has been turned out of office from the congress and White House, to the state houses and governor’s mansions across the country.

Commentators have proclaimed the death of conservatism, and the Republican Party apparatus continues to helplessly grope in the darkness for a plan to regain lost power and influence. Endless articles have been written about the “future direction” of the party; some see a move toward conservatism as the solution, while others seek to increase the size of the party by offering Democrat-like goodies and giveaways to targeted demographic groups.

The problem for conservatives is partly one of nomenclature and partly one of confusing Republican Party politics with the ideology of what conservatives believe in. “Conservative” is in truth a relative term and not an ideology; it refers to someone who favors the established order of things, instituting change slowly and deliberately, and maintaining his county’s traditions and values. This can have a very different meaning depending upon place and time. A conservative German in 1918 favored the overthrow of the newly-established democratic republican government and either a return to monarchy, or establishment of a dictatorship. A conservative Russian would have favored either absolute monarchy or communist dictatorship depending upon whether it was 1918 or 1993.

Both conservatives and liberals in the modern United States are labeled incorrectly. Modern American conservatives are actually classical liberals, meaning they favor limited self-government, individual rights over collective rights, equality before the law, and liberty over equality of outcomes. Today’s so-called liberals are anything but; they favor the state over the individual, equality of outcomes over liberty, collectivism, and state control of every aspect of life from vehicle gas mileage to the amount of water a toilet can use per flush and what kind of light bulb a citizen may burn in his own home. In other words, they are socialists.

American conservatives could once have been properly called so; they believed in “conserving” the America that was built upon the ideals of classical liberalism. They stood for the maintenance of America’s great governmental and societal institutions; a strictly limited federal government, free markets, free citizens, and Judeo-Christian values.

Read the rest of this entry >>

Christian Conservatism Just Getting Started

From OneNewsNow
By Star Parker

There are some today who suggest that Christian conservatism as a political force is over.

Those who make this claim point to the fact that liberal Democrats now control the White House and both houses of Congress; that the number of Americans self identifying as Democrats compared to Republicans has increased; that the direction of public opinion, particularly among young people, on social issues is liberal; and that the Republican Party itself has been divided over the conservative agenda.

But those who write off Christian conservatism as a political force have underestimated the driving compulsion behind traditional faith and American freedom. Just looking at who is in power does not reveal the depth of division in the country today and for the reasons that the nation is so deeply divided, may I suggest that Christian conservatism will not only survive but will thrive.

Read the rest of this entry >>

Time to Say Goodbye, Michael Steele

Michael Steele clearly doesn't understand that his role is not to espouse policy, but to rebuild the Republican Party, raise funds, and repair a state primary sysytem that permits Democrats to choose Republican nominees. We thought his days were numbered with his stupid comments about Rush Limbaugh. The following story only points up the urgency to fill the RNC chair with a media-wise, party professional. Besides, these gaffes divert too much attention away from the nation's Gaffemaster, Joe Biden.

From LifeNews.com

New national Republican Party chairman Michael Steele has gotten himself in hot water with pro-life advocates for softening his pro-life views and then issuing a statement saying he hasn't backed down on abortion. The misstep is the latest Steele gaffe that has some calling for his resignation. Steele has taken a pro-life position in the past and has been endorsed by pro-life groups for his various political races -- including running for the U.S. Senate in Maryland. However, in an interview with GQ, Steele said he thought women have, according to the interviewer, a "right to choose abortion." "Yeah. I mean, again, I think that’s an individual choice," he said. "Yeah. Absolutely." In comments to the news web site Politico, Steele reaffirmed his pro-life views, and said his comments to GQ don't take back from his position supporting a Human Life Amendment. "I am pro-life, always have been, always will be," he said. Steele said his comments were awkward and that he "tried to present why I am pro life while recognizing that my mother had a 'choice' before deciding to put me up for adoption."

Full story at LifeNews.com

Conservative Senator Blasted for Pro-Family Stance

From OneNewsNow

By Charlie Butts and Marty Cooper

A Utah state senator has been disciplined over remarks about homosexual activism.

State Senator Chris Buttars recently commented to a documentary filmmaker that he believes the homosexual lifestyle is immoral, adding that militant homosexual activism poses a grave threat to American culture. Matt Barber, director of cultural affairs at Liberty Counsel, says Utah's Senate president Michael Waddoups caved in and took punitive action against Buttars instead of supporting his own constituent.

"What's unfortunate is the Republican leadership has thrown him under the bus," he contends. "Senator Buttars' comments and beliefs are shared by the vast majority, certainly of Utahans, and by the conservative majority of Americans."

Waddoups has removed Buttars from his post as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, a move which Barber calls a validation of the radical left-wing agenda. Barber believes action taken against Buttars indicates the Republican Party is deserting the traditional values that helped make it strong.

"Until they start defending those values unapologetically and boldly as Senator Buttars has done here, they will continue to lose membership," he points out. "And who needs Democrat-Lite? So having a bunch of RINOS, Republicans in name only, in the GOP has just decimated the Republican Party."

In a Liberty Counsel press release, Barber claims the Republican Party is "spiraling into the abyss of political irrelevancy." He also states that America's conservative majority is starved for leaders to represent traditional values.

Barber is asking people to contact Senator Waddoups and urge him to reinstate Senator Buttars.