Your job after Nov. 4: Point out that it WAS a defeat for conservatism

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

Don't let them rewrite it that Obama went hard to the center or that McCain/Palin didn't go to the right.
Reagan and Newt got their victories labeled as 'revolutions"
The Dem sweep in '06 was written off by the MSM as a fluke.
Not this time.
Let them know loud and clear that Reaganism is dead and that the American people have spoken and went to the left in the spirit of FDR.
Don't let them try to weaken Obama's mandate and water down progressive reform with calls to accommodate the discredited and rejected rightwing.

I know it's going to be the topic of my first column...though it will be written a tad more eloquently than this late nite post.

[Xipe Totec]

1. a defeat for neo-conservatism nt

[Sherman A1]

2. I disagree

I don't find the current flavor of the GOP to be conservative (despite the generally accepted labels in the media). These guys (and gals) are Liars, Thieves and Opportunists, but not conservatives. Actually I find Obama too conservative for my tastes, but like him on many levels and he is the Dem nominee so he gets my vote. I also don't think Obama went to the center as I believe he was always there. McCain tried to go to the Right with Sarah, but it backfired on several levels. I have great hopes for the future with a President Obama, but I don't accept the premise that the current GOP is conservative.

[opihimoimoi]

3. The GOP is filled with LIE CHEAT STEAL People...their morals are not as they say it is...

Their excesses when in Power betray their real persona

Thus, the GOP will endure a Great Blow to their Brand Name....perhaps a Fatal Blow....only Time will tell us....

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

4. maybe I should amend that to "conservatism as we know it"

the weird quasi-religion launched with Reagan and furthered by Limbaugh, Gingrich, DeLay, Cheney and Bush

not conservative in the traditional "small govt., fiscal responsibility sense"

[Anna Lee]

5. The neo-cons have been edging out space for conservatives

Have you ever seen one of those old horror movies where someone is trapped in a room without windows and one wall gradually closes in threatening to smash them. Some of these moving walls even have spikes. The neo-cons over the years have done this to their party by moving the wall they call liberal ever farther to the right. It seems to me that it is part of the "with me or against me" manipulation that has taken place. As soon as a conservative moves a bit farther right the wall moves again and they have to chose to be less conservative and more radical again and again and again. So liberal finally becomes anyone who thinks of America as it's people. America's people are predominately workers and empowered workers or politicians who care about workers have to be "born again as neo-cons" or cast out. It is a power play that has been successful with the study of human psychology, a weapon used by Karl Rove.

I have never agreed with conservatives but do remember a day when they were pro-America. We just disagreed on whether society should be allowed to grow and adapt or if the Constitution said that we had to remain in the past. This was a disagreement we took to the polls and we lived for the next few years with the results, making the best of it. Things changed with Reagan. People don't often see that Reagan was just the master of ceremonies. Behind the scenes were the same people that gave us PNAC, the TEXAS Republican platform, religion in politics, wealth transfer upward, and other consequences of that Reagan win of the Republican primary. These people remained the power behind the throne even as politicians came and went. Nixon's crimes gave them the means to take over the party. This is often blamed on Carter. The Carter years were not helpful to the Democratic Party and helped the neo-cons but inside the party I think it was Nixon's downfall that opened up the vacuum that the neo-cons entered.

Obama is filling a similar vacuum in the Democratic Party leadership. He is very smart and I hope he sees the Reagan era for what it was. I hope he can be inclusive instead of allowing "people behind the power" types to make the party less inclusive and less progressive.

[happychatter]

6. my "job" is to be pro-active not re-active, letting conservative think tanks, dictate the discussion

my eyes are on the prize