POST SCRIPTS

Responsibility for the mess we're in can, and should, be shared by all; to make an actual list of who is responsible and for what would require typing into the night and that would really be boring.

I don't think Prager insinuated that people were bored with Republicans. I think he was saying, don't assume the direction that those 81% are unhappy about is attributable to Republicans.

Democrats have shifted the game since they came to power (in both houses)...with promises to do much, much more. Their agenda is now front and center and that means we are headed in a terrible direction. "Direction" means going forward. I'm part of the portion of the 81% that doesn't like where they will take us.

The liberal democrat success at forming public opinion that Prager refers to is the underlying reason, the foundation, that ensures conservatives have a tough time making changes. It is much harder to unravel the mess that results from excessive governemnt involvement than it is to make that mess by promising goodies...especially when the people have been dumbed down in schools and universities.

The list that charts the direction we are going is long:

Democrats want amnesty. The fact that McCain does also means we will have to shout real BIG to stop that from happening no matter who gets to be president. A meaningful bill that solves the actual problems we have will be impossible to get.

Democrats want to raise taxes and place greater restrictions and controls on both businesses and individuals...if you believe the BS about the rich you are a fool.

Democrats will appoint hundreds of federal judges packing the courts with liberal activist in every state.

Democrats will appoint liberal Supreme Court Justices that will serve for generations to come. These justices will busy themselves finding special "rights" in a "living" Constitution and make words like "equal," "life," "marriage," and "property" meaningless. These justices will rely on foreign documents to decide what is "constitutional".

Democrats will bend to the will of the UN, a body that votes against America most of the time and seeks to become a taxing institution...they want our money too. (question: how much of your hard earned money must you relinqish to government before you become a slave?)

Democrats will destroy the healthcare industry and therefore all of the related industries as well.

Democrats will grab absolute control again in education. They'll do whatever they can to push back whatever progress we have made toward competition and competence in education. They will declare parents are unqualified to teach without credentials, and who knows what else, to regain control of young minds.

Democrats will make empty agreements with terrorist supporting countries giving them plenty of rope to strangle America, Europe, and Israel. They will ruin the military and bungle whatever military operations they use for show.

Democrats will sign on to Kyoto or other international treaties placing Americans under international law.

Democrats will make sure our oil prices remain high and our dependence on foreign oil even more necessary. the economy hasn't a prayer.

Democrats will also snuff out innovation by taking the incentive for investment out of the game...this will make progress slow and job opportunities will dry up and disappear (if they haven't due to the oil problem).

Democrats will use the justice department to ruin their "enemies"...the former duly elected or appointed fellow Americans that they believe have been more dangerous than Osama...ad nauseum!

One more word about defending my own party. I can count on democrats, disgruntled fellow republicans, left media and blogs, educators and university professors, writers of books, pundits, judges, the ACLU, unions, libertarians, independents, activists of many stripes, (communist/marxist/fascist/socialist) leaders around the world and terrorists to bad mouth my party and it's leaders...they don't need any help. Also my defense of the republican record provides some small measure of balance so that the record isn't written in stone by "one" single liberal progressive dominating voice as it was before about 1988. The record is good and bad...it always is.

Hi Tina, Prager said, "the Republicans are headed for a major defeat this coming November. If this is the case, it can only be because the American voter translates ‘headed in the wrong direction’ as ‘because the Republicans have had their way, so it’s time to let the Democrats have theirs.’

See, that statement doesn't really address the problems at hand does it? It almost seems to reduce it to, ok you had your time now let the other party have theirs. That's where I was coming from about not getting the reasons right.

I am not trying to assign guilt to this party or that party. As you said the list would go on into the night, they are both guilty of many errors. However, to put my "81%" into some sort of context I have to name the issues that have people a bit angry with the direction of this country and Prager didn't do that. He dismissed the 81%...see above.

I don't think I am totally disgruntled, but I am a lot gruntled, gruntled enough to wish we had done more when we had the chance, cause now look what we have got ourselves into! We're real close to getting the boot out of congress and perhaps lose the presidency. I hope not...but, almost all the issues and gripes I have stated were raised by our best GOP candidates during this presidential race, so I think we're ok to say them here without causing too much destruction to come down on ourselves.

With all due respect Jack, I think you took the quote about the 81% out of context:

“Today’s most widely accepted political belief is that because an unprecedentedly high percentage of Americans—81 percent—believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, the Republicans are headed for a major defeat this coming November. If this is the case, it can only be because the American voter translates ‘headed in the wrong direction’ as ‘because the Republicans have had their way, so it’s time to let the Democrats have theirs.’ That should not be the case. I count myself as one of the 81 percent who believes America is headed in the wrong direction, and that is precisely why I am voting Republican.

Prager says that it is something believed:

"most widely accepted political belief" (not based in fact)...

...that the 81% thinks as it does. (we're going in the wrong direction because of republicans, so lets give the other party a chance)

I hear Prager saying: the talking heads and pundits believe the 81% is mad for a different reason than I do. Many of us think exactly the opposite:

"I suspect I am not alone among the 81 percent in ascribing the wrong track to the leftist, not the conservative, influence on American life."

You said Prager dismissed the 81%...he didn't dismiss them, he defined them in an alternate way:

Perhaps most of the 81 percent think that ‘wrong direction’ means, among many other things, the following: Forty years of left-wing control of the news media, of Hollywood, of the public schools, of the universities and of nearly every big city government have nearly ruined those institutions. Forty years of a litigation explosion has had terrible social and economic effects... Multiculturalism is destroying the concept of an American culture and people. Obama and the Democrats even opposed declaring English as America’s national language. So 81 percent of Americans are right. We are on the wrong track. But the future of America entirely depends on what track it is most Americans think is wrong.”

But you know what? I have a feeling that 81% is made up of all kinds of people with various political associations and reasons to be very very gruntled! So in reality...you and Prager are both right. He just didn't want the media getting away with defining the group against republicans...I can't blame him for that.