The Conservative Pulse

The Conservative Pulse
by Linda A. Prussen-Razzano

In the international domain of the World Wide Web, there is one place where conservatives of all stripes not only meet to share information but to shape the political world. They closely follow the Clintons' schedule and voluntarily arrange to protest them in person. They launched an extensive effort that lead to the successful House of Representative vote to proceed with the President's Impeachment Trial. They are intimately familiar with the minute details of every Clinton scandal, including the often confusing and complicated China Gate betrayal. When Hillary Clinton stiffed Trish Trupo, a single mom waitress in Albion, New York, of her tip, it was these folks who inspired the "It Takes A Village To Tip A Waitress" campaign. They eventually raised over $1,000.00 for Ms. Trupo and forced an apology from the First Lady.

They are stalwart voluntary citizen-activists of the conservative movement. Their ranks cross every demographic, economic, and political alignment: Republicans, independents, Reformers, Constitution Party members, and Democrats. They are the visitors of FreeRepublic.com. When one wants to test the conservative pulse of America, they can look to their friends, family, the established conservative media, and their favorite politicos. Then, they should look at FreeRepublic.com.

Only one quick look was necessary to confirm that Senator John McCain had made a mistake similar to Governor Bush, but took it one step further; he careened too far to the left to secure the conservative base. Although Governor Bush's overall message has not changed, his campaign managed to successfully correct their initial mis-step to "general election mode," offering the necessary assurances to grassroots conservatives that their ideals would not be ignored. Moreover, it is a place where Dr. Alan Keyes, the articulate constitutionalist the media simply loves to ignore, has instant name recognition and a strong show of support.

Talking heads are now spinning McCain's South Carolina defeat as a backlash against outsiders to the Republican Party. This is simply not the case. There is a difference between having a message that, while adhering to a party's principles, resonates clearly across party lines (see President Ronald Reagan); and a message that simply comes from the other party altogether. McCain's agenda, including his notorious "campaign finance" reform, has overwhelming been rejected by members of his own party, for good reason.

Although McCain did not initially appear to support our effort in Kosovo, he became the media darling and a Clinton shill by pushing for ground troops once the conflict began. We now know that the alleged rape camps and mass graves were grossly over-exaggerated. The figure of ten thousand barely scraped two thousand; the rape camps were never located. International investigators cannot even pronounce with certainty that the found corpses are Albanian. The "heroic" KLA has, upon its return, destroyed numerous churches, terrorized and slaughtered Serbian leaders and clergy, and continued its heroin-for-arms drug running scheme throughout Europe.

McCain helped push for normalized trade relations with Vietnam, at a time when it was financially beneficial to Clinton's allies, the Riadys. This was one of our remaining trump cards to demand a full accounting of our POW/MIAs; he supported Clinton's tossing this card aside.

McCain's comments during the Tuesday, February 15 debate confirm his globalist-interventionalist trend. He insists he is aware of how underpaid, under-trained, and overly deployed our military personnel are; yet, he apparently supports a continuation of the Clintonian "policeman to the world" policy.

McCain continually points to his "pro-life record" to beg for pro-life support. His record did not prevent him from supporting fetal tissue research (a sickening outgrowth of the abortion industry), or from including pro-life groups in the "issue advocacy" laws in his campaign finance reform legislation. Under McCain-Feingold, pro-life groups would effectively be silenced for months before any election, even if they never imply or mention any candidate by name. His campaign finance reform would empower the already elite liberal media and silence the conservative voice. Even when pro-life leader Gary Bauer endorsed McCain, they were not swayed. Many Bauer supporters and associates dropped him like a hot rock after he endorsed McCain.

Is it any wonder folks were galvanized to support candidates that didn't appear to be a Clinton clone? We already have two of them running on the Democrat side; why would Republicans, independents, disgusted Democrats, and others want to promote a third? We still presumably live in a representative Republic, not a socialist state.

If anything, McCain's candidacy has helped Governor Bush. The Conservative Pulse (fractured amongst Dr. Keyes, Bauer, and Steve Forbes) took a look at the candidates, the liberals' outright encouragement of their party faithful to overthrow a comprehensive Republican agenda, and said no! They may now be satisfied that Bush will promote an agenda distinctively different from Gore or Bradley; one that adheres, in concept, to the principles of smaller government, the reclamation of national sovereignty, and the reinstitution of national security.

Unfortunately, the true constitutionalist on the stage, Dr. Keyes, is being sacrificed in the process.