Posts Made By: Russ Carroll

Originally Posted by Jim Moscheck

I think Russ hit the nail on the head with his earlier post in the other thread. The hispanic vote totally flip flopped from 2024 as evidenced in Texas. 

I'm not going to get too excited until all votes are counted, it does seem like a referendum on trump's policies. 

How long before trump starts yelling rigged?

Yes and no.

The national vote went well beyond Hispanics revolting. It was a pretty complete repudiation of MAGA and Trump

Texas, however, closely matches my analysis. It looks a lot like hat I lived through in CA in the early 90's. And if you are thinking to yourself "CA was already left-leaning and TX isn't", you are wrong. I'll remind the panel that the Reagan revolution had its epicenter in SOCAL.

Originally Posted by James Brown

Yes, funny - but don’t forget how the Democrats were written off as dead forever after getting shellacked a mere 24 months ago.

Man, you got that right.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DW4ga_M5Zdn4&ved=2ahUKEwjIm62rrPGXAxWgKEQIHd94AFYQ78AJegQIFhAB&usg=AOvVaw0jSt9vNvVzOvnWuSrnspxk

Now that the MAGA movement has been fatally wounded, I’m changing my voter registration from Independent back to Republican.

I walked away from the GOP when it abandoned the principles that made me a Republican in the first place. Now I intend to fight from within to help reclaim it.

I want the Republican Party of Reagan, Buckley, Goldwater, Friedman, Kirk, and Kemp back. MAGA hijacked that party. It's time to take it back.


Richard/Russ, Buddies For Life!

Originally Posted by Rod Kaufman

Richard/Russ, Buddies For Life". Is that supposed to be a joke? 

It was an olive branch  (of course it was a joke)

The real dilemma, Rod, is that the current GOP has abandoned some of the bedrock principles of conservatives and Dem's have taken some of them up!

I want free trade reestablished.
I want to strengthen democratic alliances, especially NATO.
I want to help anyone fighting the Red menace/Evil empire.
I want less government intervention and intrusion into my life, not more.
I want the Constitutional rights of individual citizens to reign supreme over the government.
I want public officials to be held to the highest ethical standards, especially financially.
I want to greatly liberalize legal immigration.
I want a non-political DOJ and Military.

As far as abortion goes, I would love the rhetorical message to go back to being against abortion as contraception, like it was in the 80's and 90's. Complex medical decisions during pregnancy are a different matter entirely.

I want to get to a place where we stop treating our political opponents as enemies. They are our fellow Americans, and we need them. We need people who challenge our beliefs, question our assumptions, and force us to defend what we believe.

Personal attacks are not arguments. Questioning someone's motives is not debate. And ignoring or denying reality simply because the facts don't support our position has to stop.

We should have the courage to admit when we're wrong, the integrity to acknowledge when our opponents are right, and the humility to recognize that none of us has a monopoly on the truth.

Let ideas compete against each other in Congress for support and hopefully have compromise legislation emerge that is bipartisan. Hopefully, better more broadly supported governance emerges.

Originally Posted by James Brown

We'll see, but for now this RINO is keeping his independent registration.  

I completely understand. I just think it is easier to fight the battle "inside the walls of the city" so to speak. If MAGA re-emerges as the dominant power, I will be out again.

The reality is that in terms of CA politics, I never left the GOP, at least on any CA ballot. I've voted for every Republican at the State and Local level uninterrupted.

Originally Posted by James Brown

P.S. You, James, me and many others had conversations at various times about the guardrails built into our Constitution.  I always, always have argued that the nation would survive Trump and that the guardrails would hold.  Obviously, we are not out of the woods yet, but I view the election results as pretty good vindication of one of my core political beliefs.

It was looking pretty shaky for a bit there, but I am grateful your view prevailed. I thank GOD it was a DNC blowout, otherwise your view was going down, biatch  

Originally Posted by Rod Kaufman

"Richard/Russ, Buddies For Life". Is that supposed to be a joke?"

Er, ah, would you post, "Richard/James, Buddies For Life"? and think it's funny?...

Dude, it was borderline trolling!

Originally Posted by James Brown

 I am definitely on board with taking the R party back to something resembling Reagan, Buckley, etc.  

I’ll admit that history has shown us that neither party places much priority on managing the debt and deficit responsibly. A politically weakened Clinton working with an empowered Republican Congress, with the tailwind of the dot-com boom, produced the only federal budget surpluses of my adult lifetime.

The middle class is under incredible pressure, and something has to change in our approach as well.

Originally Posted by James Brown

I'm hoping for Schapiro v. Rubio of course (or something like that).  But I fear what I'll get is AOC v. Trump Jr.  

There are some excellent Democratic governors whom I would personally gladly support over a MAGA candidate, and I hope cooler heads prevail in the Democratic primaries. I would love to see the entire DSA wing of the Democratic Party fail miserably.

I'm also getting a little sick of electing presidents who have no executive experience in government.

Originally Posted by James Brown

It is not that the system is broken, it is because the casual/moderate voters don't vote the primaries, so it is our own fault.

It's almost an endorsement of the "smoke-filled rooms" of the past picking party candidates...