Frist calls for Republicans to work with Democrats
By JR Hoeft | Monday, November 10th, 2008 | PolicyFormer Senate Leader Bill Frist wrote an op-ed today for CNN that calls on all Republicans “to rally behind this president-elect and openly express support for the call for change throughout our legislative and executive branches.”
Frist looks at this election not as a defeat of conservative principles and ideals, but as an affirmation on how the Senate does business.
He goes one step further by explicitly advocating for a strong central government:
“The American people expect their government to work together to aggressively attack the problems that face us.”
Do we really?
Leslie Carbone doesn’t explicitly call out Frist in her post today, but he is exactly the sort of Republican she’s writing about here:
Since the so-called Progressive Era, and with escalating intensity, the federal government reinforced this toddler-level sense of entitlement.
Yes, as the perpetrators of the New Deal, the Great Society, and so many other outrages, Democrats bear tremendous responsibility for fostering this sense of entitlement. But they don’t know any better.
As they pad behind the Democrats on the road to serfdom, Republicans know better; at least, that’s the conclusion that flows from all the lip service they give individual freedom and responsibility. And so Republican shame for expanding the nanny state is tremendous.
With all due respect to the former Senator, compromise put the Republican Party right back into the minority, and, in the process of compromising, gave us such monstrosities as campaign finance reform, the Patriot Act, the Department of Homeland Security, “No Child Left Behind”, the prescription drug bill, the $700 billion bail-out, and more.
No. No. A thousand times no.
The future of the GOP is not going to be built around being “Democrat-lite”, but by having a robust regard for the Constitution and capitalism; by being conservative.
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About the author
Conservative to the core; liberal with his opinion! J.R. has been involved in politics for over a decade and has worked on several campaigns in Hampton Roads. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Chesapeake and the Central Committee of the Republican Party of Virginia. He is also the director of “Blogs United” in Virginia. E-mail J.R.. Follow J.R. on Twitter.
Comments
6 Responses to "Frist calls for Republicans to work with Democrats"
Unbelievable! Compromise between the two parties is now a bad thing? Is that what so-called hardline conservatives are saying now?
Perhaps- just perhaps- the “change” a majority of Americans just voted for was an end to this hyper-partisan fight-til-the-death-of-the-other-party (and the American people) ideology. New people (Glenn Nye). New message. New hope (of course, hope also apparently is a bad word, too, for conservatives).
Conservatives don’t- by virtue of being conservative (however we define that today)- have any divine right answer to what the American people need or want. Liberals don’t either. And I’m a liberal (in case anybody missed that).
Give the man a chance, for Heaven’s sake! Ya’ll are angrier than Democrats were after the 2000 election… and the President-elect then didn’t even have a mandate.
Bill Frist is right. We Republicans have to get over any anger that we feel, and work together to solve the problems of the country. Compromise is necessary and it is also an art. Conservative Republicans (of which I am one) need to get over it and listen to people like Senator Frist. The voters have spoken. We don’t have to abandon our principles, but we do have to respect what the American people want.
Let’s work with the Democrats to keep Obama’s tax cut promises.
Brian,
Could you please call 911, I think I’m have a heart attack.
But in case I live, lets get together for a drink. Coolaid?
I see a lot of reading into this post.
I never said to not work with President Obama; I am very supportive of his plans to cut taxes for the middle class.
What I am saying though is that Americans deserve their conservative party to actually act conservative. If not, we might as well have one-party rule.
Well,if this election proves anyhting it might be that we actaully have “one-party rule” given the power of the media and the elites that prosper from disunity. I have one thankful reflection on this election and thats that when my youngest daughter reaches voting age, maybe just maybe all these so-called conservatives like George Will and the other “intellectual conservatives” that have such a disdain for working class conservatives willo be put out to pasture. Only these guys and college professors outside the Supreme Copurt appear to have tenure and never seem to ever go away into the night. We can start with flipping every Sunday morning talk show where there is more makeup than substance that anyone outside the Beltway even cares about. Working with does not mean working for and Frist may be right if the GOP wants to garner any respect back after the worst run campaign in my lifetime. Heck, Ross Perot even ran a better campaign than these folks.
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