Originally my blog was called "republicrat" but that's not really reflective of my position. Let me say first and foremost that I am a REPUBLICAN....and I'm proud of that. But I am a Republican as it was originally intended. The Republican Party has always stood for limited government and fiscal responsibility. Stay out of the pocketbooks of entrepreneurial Americans...let them do what they do best -- create jobs, invent new and exciting technologies, take risks and reap their due rewards.
But I have to say that it is hard to identify today with the party as it has evolved over the past few years. It's really hard to be proud to be Republican right now when our party, under the Bush Administration, has led the biggest spending spree since FDR faced coming out of the Great Depression and on the brink of World War. That's right....it was 1933-1934. That's eight decades...almost a century. Not only that, but the current Administration has tried to insinuate its "moral" agenda as well on the American public. You really can't get more anti-"Republican" than that. Stay out of people's wallets but try to tell them how to live their spiritual lives? What is THAT about? So it's safe to say that the leader of the party, George W. Bush, hasn't exactly exhibited the tenents for which the Republican Party stands.
It's also important to remember, however, that it is the Congress, NOT the Executive Branch that has control of the country's purse strings. And that body has been controlled, in the past two years by the Democratic party...both houses. So it is equally safe to say that there is enough blame to go around. It is also important to note that it was John McCain who criticized the freedom of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to deliver loans where they weren't deserved...not Barack Obama. In fact, Obama was one of the biggest proponents of deregulating Freddie and Fannie and, as such, is one of the three largest recipients of those two bodies' money of any other senator. Moreover, sub-prime mortgages were not only allowed but ENCOURAGED by former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan during the CLINTON administration.
Bottom line: I still believe...in my gut...that the Republican contract of lower taxes, limited government and incentives for growing businesses is still the better solution to our economic woes. You have to ask yourselves: "Why has the stock market continued to post negative numbers over the past three weeks...even after almost a trillion dollars being injected into the financial sectors? The higher the poll numbers go for Obama, the lower the stock market goes. I don't think it's a coincidence.
But the Republican Party will never regain its former glory until it detangles itself from the evangelical Christian Right movement. They're an important fundraising base...to be sure. But that's all they should be...a fundraising base, NOT a monopoly on the party's ideological platform. I mean REALLY are the conservatives going to vote for Barack Obama if McCain doesn't jump through their ever escalating hoops? Republicans have always been associated with highly educated, reasonable voters. Now it's associated with people who believe that Darwinism is a "nice" theory, but "creationism" is an equally viable educational protocol. Excuse me? What's THAT about? What exactly does "intelligent design" mean? I take that term directly from the McCain website. Huh?
My frustration with the McCain campaign for presidency mirrors that of the Republican Party. This is NOT the campaign I signed on for...and this is defnitely NOT the Party I have known my entire adult life. I liked McCain when he actually thought for himself, instead of touted the "party" line which has been polluted by the conservative right. This is not the CHANGE voters want.
I will vote for McCain because I think he will be a better leader in foreign policy and I think he has a better solution for our current economic crisis. But I do so with great trepidation. And that makes me very, very sad.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Excerpts from letter to PA GOP Delegation
The Republican party is currently drafting their platform for the party convention. This is part of a letter sent to the Pennsylvania Republican delegation during this important time in our party's history....
"I'm concerned...and I'm hearing lots of the same type of concern from people in my precinct. We just don't get McCain's fixation with the ultraconservative wing of the GOP. Why does he feels he needs to kowtow to their demands? He calls himself a "maverick", a "reformer" in the Republican party...someone who wants to "change" the face of the party....but the ONLY difference I see in Sarah Palin from any other conservative white male that McCain could have chosen to make the Rush Limbaughs and Karl Roves of the world happy is that well...she's not a man. Does he really think that a pro-life, pro-gun, anti-gay rights woman is going to win over the Hillary supporters? If he does, he is more out-of-touch with mainstream Americans and, in particular, women than I thought.
Moreover, he has backtracked on some of the very issues that branded him a maverick in the first place....his support of embryonic stem cell research for instance...which in earlier years was strong and unassailable, has seemed to evaporate in a shift in focus from embryos to adult stem cells. This is obviously a political concession to conservatives and not based on the facts, since anyone who understands the science behind the two KNOWS that embryonic stem cells still and always will hold more promise for curing life-threatening and debilitating diseases than adult stem cells. The fact that this important issue has been politicized and demonized by the conservatives in the party is not only shortsighted and ignorant, it's irresponsible. What we need from McCain is a clear show of support for this issue that has languished for seven years since Bush came into office and has led to one of the greatest brain drains we may ever see in our lifetime...not to mention years of wasted promise for research that could lead to a scientific breakthrough such as we have not seen since Jonas Salk cured polio. Don't let the democrats have this one. It's too big...and too important to allow them sole ownership of its direction.
On behalf of the many like-minded voters in not only my precinct but across Chester County, I just wanted to raise this concern about McCain's political compass. The closer to the election he gets, the more RIGHT his compass points. I hate to bother you this week, but SOMEBODY has to tell the leaders of our party that we are NOT all right-wing religious conservatives. And what better time than when they (you) are, at this moment, crafting the platform of the Republican party as it enters the end of the first decade of the 21st century? All this begs the question....just how many votes can the conservative wing of the party guarantee McCain that he would risk alienating the moderates and independents (who from every analysis I've heard, he NEEDS to win a national general election)? Or, even more concerning, how powerful has the conservative wing become that McCain would put their needs over that of the nation by placing a relatively inexperienced, untested VP candidate in the position to assume power of the most powerful nation on earth should something happen to him while in office?
From what I read, McCain is most vulnerable in southeastern PA (Philly suburbs) and western PA. He may win over supporters in western PA with his courtship of the conservative base, but it won't do him much good in the southeast....we NEED to hear that McCain has retained some of the backbone that made us like him so much in the first place. Hopefully, there will be SOMETHING in the party platform delivered next week that reaches out to moderates in the party. There is a reason why fewer citizens identify themselves as Republicans today than ever before in our party's history. We need to stem the tide of this trend and reverse it...now, before it's too late."
"I'm concerned...and I'm hearing lots of the same type of concern from people in my precinct. We just don't get McCain's fixation with the ultraconservative wing of the GOP. Why does he feels he needs to kowtow to their demands? He calls himself a "maverick", a "reformer" in the Republican party...someone who wants to "change" the face of the party....but the ONLY difference I see in Sarah Palin from any other conservative white male that McCain could have chosen to make the Rush Limbaughs and Karl Roves of the world happy is that well...she's not a man. Does he really think that a pro-life, pro-gun, anti-gay rights woman is going to win over the Hillary supporters? If he does, he is more out-of-touch with mainstream Americans and, in particular, women than I thought.
Moreover, he has backtracked on some of the very issues that branded him a maverick in the first place....his support of embryonic stem cell research for instance...which in earlier years was strong and unassailable, has seemed to evaporate in a shift in focus from embryos to adult stem cells. This is obviously a political concession to conservatives and not based on the facts, since anyone who understands the science behind the two KNOWS that embryonic stem cells still and always will hold more promise for curing life-threatening and debilitating diseases than adult stem cells. The fact that this important issue has been politicized and demonized by the conservatives in the party is not only shortsighted and ignorant, it's irresponsible. What we need from McCain is a clear show of support for this issue that has languished for seven years since Bush came into office and has led to one of the greatest brain drains we may ever see in our lifetime...not to mention years of wasted promise for research that could lead to a scientific breakthrough such as we have not seen since Jonas Salk cured polio. Don't let the democrats have this one. It's too big...and too important to allow them sole ownership of its direction.
On behalf of the many like-minded voters in not only my precinct but across Chester County, I just wanted to raise this concern about McCain's political compass. The closer to the election he gets, the more RIGHT his compass points. I hate to bother you this week, but SOMEBODY has to tell the leaders of our party that we are NOT all right-wing religious conservatives. And what better time than when they (you) are, at this moment, crafting the platform of the Republican party as it enters the end of the first decade of the 21st century? All this begs the question....just how many votes can the conservative wing of the party guarantee McCain that he would risk alienating the moderates and independents (who from every analysis I've heard, he NEEDS to win a national general election)? Or, even more concerning, how powerful has the conservative wing become that McCain would put their needs over that of the nation by placing a relatively inexperienced, untested VP candidate in the position to assume power of the most powerful nation on earth should something happen to him while in office?
From what I read, McCain is most vulnerable in southeastern PA (Philly suburbs) and western PA. He may win over supporters in western PA with his courtship of the conservative base, but it won't do him much good in the southeast....we NEED to hear that McCain has retained some of the backbone that made us like him so much in the first place. Hopefully, there will be SOMETHING in the party platform delivered next week that reaches out to moderates in the party. There is a reason why fewer citizens identify themselves as Republicans today than ever before in our party's history. We need to stem the tide of this trend and reverse it...now, before it's too late."
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
I'm SO Confused!
Okay....I finally joined the bloggers. It's been a long time coming...but I figured, what the hell? If you can't beat 'em...join 'em. So....my first blog. What to say? I'm sitting on my ass on the Eastern Shore, trying to enjoy the final days of summer...trying to put off as long as possible the beginning of another stress-filled school year with three kids in three schools. I'm watching the democratic national convention on tv. Saw Michele Obama and Teddy Kennedy last night. OMG! I'm committed to defeating this guy Obama and wondering....why? My whole life experience says that the republicans have the right idea when it comes to running an economy...but Bush and his cronies totally fucked THAT up! So...it's a little easier to look at John McCain and say that he's going to keep a lid on government spending...he's the cheerleader for cutting pork out of politics, right? Champion of the line-item veto...campaign finance reform, blahblahblah...But there's a part of me that is totally PSYCHED at the prospect of electing Barack Obama the next president of the United States. Alot of racist bullshit would be finally put to rest with a black man in the White House, for one thing. And the United States could finally rid itself of the staid, milquetoast (sp?) leadership we've been associated with through most of the 20th century. But I still can't get past the idea that our economy will go from a recession to a depression overnight if Obama is elected president. And I guess that's what it comes down to with me.....I still believe that our economy does better if left to its own devices to grow than to be controlled, regulated, and dragged down by excessive taxation....The beauty of this election is that we have been given a very clear choice in McCain vs. Obama. I guess the outcome will decide once and for all which platform is the right one for America.
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