Enyart's Letter: Sidebar Thread

Status
Not open for further replies.

Lucky

New member
Hall of Fame
I guess a practical translation of that would be: vote Constitution Party.
 

Mr. 5020

New member
Bob Enyart said:
Hey Mr. 5020, think harder! :)
See, and they told me I was crazy for having you on my ignore list. They must have been right, with high-quality posts such as this. I asked a question because I've heard your around-the-bush answer before, and it didn't seem "Bob Enyart style" black-and-white. What party do you have in mind, big man?
 

Lighthouse

The Dark Knight
Gold Subscriber
Hall of Fame
:Honestly, I don't feel like reading the whole letter. Not now, anyway. But I realized that Republicans were much too liberal for my tastes a while ago. And thinks to TOL, I now know of the Constitution Party.:thumb:
 

Jefferson

Administrator
Staff member
Administrator
Super Moderator
Lucky said:
I guess a practical translation of that would be: vote Constitution Party.
I'd be in favor of either that or boycotting the elections completely.
 

Zakath

Resident Atheist
Jefferson said:
I'd be in favor of either that or boycotting the elections completely.
:nono:

Boycotting the elections only plays into the hands of your opponents. It's bad strategy in a democratic republic unless a quorum of the electorate is required for a vote to be valid.
 

Jefferson

Administrator
Staff member
Administrator
Super Moderator
Zakath said:
:nono:

Boycotting the elections only plays into the hands of your opponents. It's bad strategy in a democratic republic unless a quorum of the electorate is required for a vote to be valid.
As I stated to you in a previous post, "I disagree. It would result in immediate respect. Respect along with hatred to be sure, but respect nevertheless. Elections are usually won or lost by a couple percentage points. If Dobson's huge following agreed to follow his lead and boycott the elections (for the Republican's refusal to have a litmus test for judges vowing to overturn Roe v. Wade), that would immediately send the Republican party quaking in their boots which is the exact opposite of how they treat the Christian right today, which is to merely give us lip service and then vote the exact opposite of our convictions because they "know" that we won't vote Democrat. They think they have us in their hip pocket. And they're right, they do...today. But if we vow in mass to boycott the elections then it will be we who have them in our hip pocket. And this respect would become reality at the very moment of the press release announcing the boycott. That's the exact opposite of the short-term political suicide you predict."
 

Zakath

Resident Atheist
Jefferson said:
As I stated to you in a previous post, "I disagree. It would result in immediate respect. Respect along with hatred to be sure, but respect nevertheless.
For someone who claims not to be a humanist, your boundless faith in humanity never ceases to amaze me, Jeff. :nono:

If "the Christians", en masse, boycotted the elections, who do you think would get elected? Nice, mealy-mouthed, humanitarian types? Or wacko, nut-jobs who would be just as likely to put you in a labor camp as to respect you?

In all seriousness though, the last election's popular vote count was about a 3 million vote difference between Bush and Kerry. But don't forget that the president in the U.S. isn't elected by popular vote but by electoral vote. In the 2004 election the electoral vote totals for Bush over Kerry was 286 (53%) versus 251 (46%).

I think Dobson's developing a bit of "hypertrophic egoism" in his dotage. ;)

He sees himself as a "koenigsmacker" (king maker) with the power to dictate to the political powers that be and mold things to his vision. Unfortunately, even were the entire FOTF mailing list behave the way he wanted, they still represent only a few hundred thousand adults - not all of whom vote Republican!


...But if we vow in mass to boycott the elections then it will be we who have them in our hip pocket. And this respect would become reality at the very moment of the press release announcing the boycott. That's the exact opposite of the short-term political suicide you predict."
On the other hand, since you won't vote anyway, they could always boycott you; rendering your display effectively useless and your group further marginalized than you've ever been in the past.
 

Zakath

Resident Atheist
Mr. 5020 said:
Actually, it's not Dobson. Dobson has not said anything about boycotting Republicans. That's why Enyart and Enyart's followers are so upset - because Dobson won't go with a new strategy.
I seem to recall listening to Dobson himself, after the 2000 election, describing how he threatened the RNC with withdrawing his influence so they would put one or more planks in their platform that he desired.

If anything, Enyart very much wants to run with the big dogs on this but he's a day late and a dollar short on this one.
 

Mr. 5020

New member
Zakath said:
I seem to recall listening to Dobson himself, after the 2000 election, describing how he threatened the RNC with withdrawing his influence so they would put one or more planks in their platform that he desired.

If anything, Enyart very much wants to run with the big dogs on this but he's a day late and a dollar short on this one.
Enyart - chihuahua

Dobson - great dane

I agree with you on that one, Zak.
 

Mr. 5020

New member
I can't believe I got negative reps for that post, and from the guy who "doesn't rep people very much, except when it's necessary."

Knight, I was not mocking anyone, though looking back, it does appear that way. Do you think that Enyart is somewhat comparable in influence to Dobson?
 

Jefferson

Administrator
Staff member
Administrator
Super Moderator
Zakath said:
He sees himself as a "koenigsmacker" (king maker) with the power to dictate to the political powers that be and mold things to his vision.
You're exactly right. And it's his desire to be a king maker that caused him to violate his own vow to never again support a candidate who was willing to kill a single unborn child. All we want Dobson to do is to simply uphold his own vow.

Unfortunately, even were the entire FOTF mailing list behave the way he wanted, they still represent only a few hundred thousand adults - not all of whom vote Republican!
I disagree. It would have a much larger influence than that. For example, I know of many Christians who are not on any mailing lists but they and their family and all their friends go along with Christian boycotts that they hear other ministries publicizing. Probably not even one of them are actual "members" of the organizing ministry's mailing list.
 

Mr. 5020

New member
Jefferson said:
I disagree. It would have a much larger influence than that. For example, I know of many Christians who are not on any mailing lists but they and their family and all their friends go along with Christian boycotts that they hear other ministries publicizing. Probably not even one of them are actual "members" of the organizing ministry's mailing list.
How many people are you estimating, then?
 

Jefferson

Administrator
Staff member
Administrator
Super Moderator
Mr. 5020 said:
How many people are you estimating, then?
Enough to swing a mere 1 to 2 percent of the voting population which is all that is needed in many elections.
 

On Fire

New member
I did not read the letter.

I think in-fighting is destructive.

I think open letters are a way of focusing attention on yourself.
 

Jefferson

Administrator
Staff member
Administrator
Super Moderator
On Fire said:
I did not read the letter.

I think in-fighting is destructive.

I think open letters are a way of focusing attention on yourself.
How else is someone supposed to get Dobson's attention? You can't call him. He has secretaries that take thousands of messages for him and filter out the very few they feel are worth his time. Same thing with email messages and letters. So if you wanted to get his attention, how would you go about doing it?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top