What is wrong with the Republican Party...

[maddog]

An article by a Republican about what is wrong with the Republican Party and a call to form a new (perhaps conservative?) party. With the exception of Reagan ending the cold war which is untrue and ERA passing, I agree with the author.

http://open.salon.com/content.php?cid=35856

--Ray.

[thomasjordan]

Ray:

I agree with the GOP principles as listed at the beginning of the article.  I do not agree with a single one of the principles listed by Lasker, which appear to be his opinions.  Regretably, some of them have become true, particularly parts about the GOP becoming just as big a bunch of spenders as the Democrates.

Basically, I was raised as a Democrate.  Both my parents still vote that way sometimes.  I cast my first general ballot in 1968 when I was a freshman in college.  By that time, the Democrates with their Great Society and anti-Vietnam stance had already moved too far to the left of my principles.  I guess I became what is called today a Blue Dog Democrate.  I kept looking for Democrates I could support, but seldom found many (I won't say never found any - I voted for one for Senate last Friday when I cast my absentee ballot).  Eventually, to paraphrase Zell Miller, I didn't leave the Democratic Party, it left me.

I'm just as conservative today (probably more so) than I was in 1968.  I've been voting mostly Republican since 1968, and have been holding my nose since at least 1996.  I held it tightly in 2000, and with both hands in 2004.  Had the Democrates run a Clinton-type moderate in either of those elections I might well have voted for that candidate.  I knew what we were getting with Bush - a liberal Southern Democrate (not Blue Dog) trying to disguise himself as a Republican.  What we ended up with was a bunch of Democrate Lites in the White House, and both houses of Congress. 

There are in fact two Republican Parties.  There is the party of the old, Blue Blood Elites who are fairly liberal and represent the old Republican Party.  Nelson Rockerfeller (anybody remember him?  Ford's Vice President) represented that wing of the party, as do people like Spector, Snow, and a few other New England Republicans.  McCain belongs to this wing of the party, and if Bush isn't a Blue Dog Democrate in disguise then so does he.  His father certainly was.  While the majority of the Republican members of Congress don't really come from that wing, they have certainly being trying to emulate that wing, and rightfully people threw them out in 2006.  Why not?  If we're going to have liberals in Congress, then let's have the real thing, and not a bunch of stealth liberals.

Then there is the conservative wing of the Republican Party.  By far the larger group, it doesn't have the money or the leadership to greatly influence things within the party or on the national stage.

If Lasker had stopped at posting the core beliefs of Republicans, and then admonished Republicans to get back to those principles, he would have written a great article.  When he started throwing his personal opinions about Republicans being a bunch of haters he totally blew it and lost all credibility because there is no general truth to any of it.  Some of his opinions may fit some Republicans, but none of his opinions fit all or even most Republicans.

I have read the principles of the Libertarian Party and the Constitutional Party (both ran presidential candidates in Louisiana this year).  There are things I like about both, and things I dislike about both.  The core principles of the GOP come closest, however.

Anyway, it was an interesting read.  I seldom go to Salon, as it is a pretty safe bet I won't agree with much that is said there.  Thanks for posting it.

Rob

[maddog]

I agree with the GOP principles as listed at the beginning of the article.  I do not agree with a single one of the principles listed by Lasker, which appear to be his opinions.  Regretably, some of them have become true, particularly parts about the GOP becoming just as big a bunch of spenders as the Democrates.

Rob, help me out. The first or second set? As for the third set and the creation of YA3P (yet another 3rd party) I think he and all of Ron Paul's supporters should go to the Libertarians and give us a real conservative party. The Libertarian Party could be a contender if they didn't come across as completely insane. :)

--Ray.

[thomasjordan]

Ray:

The article was too long, so I quit reading it.  The first list is the core principles of the GOP.  The second list is the one Lasker put together about his opinions of what the GOP has become.  I didn't make it to the third list.  If it is what he thinks the GOP should be, perhaps I should go back and finish reading the article.

There is a problem with voting for third party candidates in a country that is dominated by two major parties.  Many people credit the election of Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996 with the third party run by Ross Perot, which garned about 15% of the popular vote in one of those elections (I forget which one).  My wife voted for Perot in one of them, and my father voted for him in the other.

Equally, there is some evidence that Ralph Nader contributed to the narrow defeat of Al Gore in Florida in 2000.  Had the Nader voters voted for Gore, the election would not have been close, and we would not have witnessed a month of recounts, suits and countersuits.

What is needed is someone who can build a strong conservative coalition within one of the major parties.  Frankly, it could be either party, as many Democrats are nowhere near as liberal as the party leadership, and many Republicans are not as liberal as its party leadership, either.  For example, in surveys of blacks, most blacks tend to favor the core principles of the Republicans, yet they have been voting about 90% Democrat for the past 40 years (I'm not trying to single out blacks here, it's just that this group has been studied over and over again, and the research is readily available).  Equally, while many southern democrats have converted to republican over the past 30 years or so because of the liberal tilt of the democrats, those same converts have often been disappointed by what they found - i.e., while the republicans differed from the democrats in theory, it was hard to tell them apart in practice.  So a lot of the converts have started drifting back to the democrats.

So I don't know.  The country has been drifting to the left for a long time now.  Many people do not like that drift, but seem powerless to stop it. 

[Gwizz]

I received this e-mail today.

A chemistry professor in a large college had some exchange students in the class. One day while the class was in the lab the professor noticed one young man (exchange student) who kept rubbing his back, and stretching as if his back hurt.

The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student told him he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country's government and install a new communist government.

In the midst of his story he looked at the professor and asked a strange question. He asked, 'Do you know how to catch wild pigs?'

The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punchline. The young man said this was no joke. 'You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come everyday to eat the free corn. When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up another side of the fence. They get used to that and start to eat again. You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in the last side. The pigs, who are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat, you slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd.

Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught. Soon they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity.

The young man then told the professor that is exactly what he sees happening to America . The government keeps pushing us toward socialism and keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such as supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income, tobacco subsidies, dairy subsidies, payments not to plant crops (CRP), welfare, medicine, drugs, etc.. While we continually lose our freedoms -- just a little at a time.

One should always remember: There is no such thing as a free lunch! Also, a politician will never provide a service for you cheaper than you can do it yourself.

[maddog]

I received this e-mail today.

I would suggest that you stop reading your email. That spam is going to rot your mind. :)

As for the pigs, I agree. The problem with the Republican Party are the pigs. Fat pigs eating corn! You see, it was my corn and someone else's pigs ate it (Read: The bailout of Wall St. Where Wall St. are the pigs.).

--Ray.

[Gwizz]

Maddog you missed the point.

[maddog]

Maddog you missed the point.

I understood it. We're a socialist nation in a strange way and have been since the Great Depression. It's just a matter of which pigs get the most corn from which version of big government, because the fences had been built around us long ago.

--Ray.