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."
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