Hate to be “Debbie Doom” here but Steve McCann has a post at American Thinker (The Last Republican President?) that, unfortunately, seems to be a realistic forecast of the GOP primary results; a “moderate,” flip-flopping, pseudo-conservative presidential nominee. And if that really is inevitable, regardless of which party wins in November, any chance of recovering our Constitutional Republic will have been lost.
 
Those of us who are paying attention know America is on the brink. But the establishment Republicans are either oblivious – or complicit in nudging us over the edge. As McCann puts it, they’re…

…treating this election cycle as if it were no different from any other during the past sixty years. Their reaction to the Tea Party movement is indicative of this mindset, as they choose to denigrate and dismiss this grassroots uprising as just another passing crusade by conservative ideologues. They fail to understand that the appeal of Ron Paul is that he is willing to stick it to the ruling class. The primary concern of the establishment, either Republican or Democrat, is to retain power through the control of the purse strings, and to put off any difficult decisions while “compromising” with the opposition.

 
And the GOP powers-that-be have apparently decreed that this time around Romney’s their guy.

The forces arrayed against the conservative challengers from the Romney money machine, the Party establishment, and the so-called conservative and mainstream media appear too formidable to overcome; particularly as the conservative movement cannot coalesce behind one candidate.

 
Thanks mostly to mainstream media malpractice, the average voter is blissfully unaware how dire the situation really is:

• Our nation has increased its Gross Public Debt by nearly sixty-six per cent in just four years (projected – end of 2012–$16.6 Trillion), with over $120 Trillion in unfunded liabilities. We’re facing a long-term financial crisis that will dwarf the ongoing dilemma in Europe.
 
• American society has fractured along secular, racial, and ethnic lines; there is no longer the cohesion that once was the hallmark of being an “American.”
 
• The education system is in shambles as the Left and their allies in the public sector unions have succeeded in making this their ideological fiefdom at the expense of those they were hired to serve.
 
• Total spending by government at all levels now exceeds 41% of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product, up from 28% just 40 years ago.
 
• There are now 160,000 pages in the Code of Federal Regulations (22,800 in 1960) and over 72,000 pages in the tax code (10,000 in 1960), thus aiding and abetting the destruction of job creation and forcing businesses to locate overseas.
 
• In the December of 2000 jobs report, the employment-population ratio was 64.5% (per cent of those employed as compared to the civilian noninstitutional population); in December of 2011 it had fallen to 58.5%. Were the country on the same footing as this point eleven year ago then there would be over 155.2 million Americans employed as compared to an actual of 140.8 million (a difference of nearly 15 million).
 
• Because of the failures of the Obama regime, the world has become a much more dangerous place with the Middle East now fully dominated by the radical element of Islam.
 
• China, despite its own internal fault lines, is determined to exert its power and influence not only in the Far East but throughout the globe.

 
Wish I could tell you McCann predicts a happy ending… He doesn’t:

This is the last hurrah of the Republican establishment. The conservatives and libertarians will vote for Romney in November, but only because he is not Barack Obama. There will be no enthusiasm, which will hurt the down ballot contests for the U.S. Senate, the House and state governorships. Despite the factors weighing against Obama in this upcoming election, it will be a much closer contest that it should be; perhaps a razor thin victory for Romney.
 
If Romney were to lose the election, there will be a grass-roots revolt against the Republican Party which will spell its demise. If he wins and the nation, through the mis-directed policies of Romney and the Republicans in the Congress, continues on its current path of compromising and nibbling around the edges of the nation’s problems, then Romney will be the last Republican president and the specter of the Democrats re-assuming power will be a reality.
 
This is not only the most important election for the nation in over a century but also one that will determine the fate of a political party founded in 1854 in opposition to slavery and the corruption in the Democratic Party.

Newt does have his moments!
 
From last night’s debate in South Carolina – Gingrich’s response to Juan William’s Republicans-are-racist innuendo:
 

My first summer job – at 15 – was working 40 hour weeks as a maid at a Holiday Inn. Tough work, but quite a learning experience. It instilled a sense of accomplishment, maturity, and put $$ in my pocket baby! I’m sure many of my readers have similar stories.
 
How will the poor even learn they “can” when liberals keep telling them they “can’t?” The Left’s only response to poverty is to pass out more free stuff: Welfare Dependence Keeps Growing.
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Related:
 
Modern-Day Bread Lines Breaking Records ~
Average annual participation in the food stamp program (now called “SNAP”) from 1969 through September 2011:
 

 
Not only is it counter-productive but, as the Heritage Foundation points out, the Food Stamp program is losing billions to fraud.
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Update: 1-19-12 ~ from Larrey Anderson at the American Thinker: Newt is right. Obama is the food stamp president.

My home state of Idaho just broke a record. Of her 1.5 million residents, 235,000 are on food stamps. The tab is $30 million a month. That’s $360 million a year.
 
This means that every person in Idaho must somehow come up with $240 a year — just to pay for food stamps. (Do the math.)

 
Hey msm – facts are stubborn things aren’t they? Guess that’s why you seldom give us any.