Sen. Arlen Specter's defection to the Democratic Party this week is no reason for Republicans to cheer. But his reason for leaving -- he faced an unwinnable primary election next year -- is no cause for soul searching. There is a question Republicans do need to ask: What is it that binds our party together?
In the wake of two successive electoral defeats and the likelihood of a 60-vote Democrat majority in the Senate, what does it even mean to be a Republican today? Moderate Republicans are right to remind conservatives that they cannot build a center-right coalition without the center part. And conservatives are right to remind moderates that Republicans only succeed when we rally around clear principles.
The real mistake is that Republicans became more concerned with staying in D.C. than reforming it....
...If the American people want a European-style social democracy, the Democratic Party will give it to them. We can't win a bidding war with Democrats.
Freedom will mean different things to different Republicans, but it can tether a diverse coalition to inalienable principles. Republicans can welcome a vigorous debate about legalized abortion or same-sex marriage; but we should be able to agree that social policies should be set through a democratic process, not by unelected judges. Our party benefits from national-security debates; but Republicans can start from the premise that the U.S. is an exceptional nation and force for good in history. We can argue about how to rein in the federal Leviathan; but we should agree that centralized government infringes on individual liberty and that problems are best solved by the people or the government closest to them.
Moderate and liberal Republicans who think a South Carolina conservative like me has too much influence are right! I don't want to make decisions for them. That's why I'm working to reduce Washington's grip on our lives and devolve power to the states, communities and individuals, so that Northeastern Republicans, Western Republicans, Southern Republicans, and Midwestern Republicans can define their own brands of Republicanism. It's the Democrats who want to impose a rigid, uniform agenda on all Americans. Freedom Republicanism is about choice -- in education, health care, energy and more. It's OK if those choices look different in South Carolina, Maine and California.
A Republican recommitment to freedom and limited government will foster an agenda that will strengthen and invigorate our party. Freedom has worked for our party and our country before. It will again, if we let it.
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my comment:
Senator DeMint is trying to be very diplomatic in stating we need to cement planks down for the GOP. We need to go by the Constitution and if the Supreme Court is not cognate of this, then we have a problem Houston!!! Earth to Washington, We see you!
Also Senator DeMint stressed the need to protect liberty and freedom from assault, again, standing up for the Constitution in concrete!
Taxation is the controller today. If we remove our current tax structure the power in Washington fades away to reality and we the people are once again free to prosper rather then be handicapped by our taxes in competition with Foreign manufacturing. Fair Tax HR 25 PLEASE!!!
Many Americans are disenfranchised and not voting knowing that it would make not difference as both parties are the same, the left dragging us to communism and the right pretending to put on the brakes. Maybe if the GOP stood on our Founding Fathers Principle, our ranks would swell. Nearly 65% of the democrats would vote GOP if we were the party of the people rather then the party of the big government corporate types.
RINO's must either read the Constitution and the Federalist papers, include the congressional record of the Bill of Rights Congress and repent of their ways or expect a pink slip from the People.
I am waiting for one of these RINOs to tell me why they think the excise production tax we have now is producing more jobs then the Fair Tax will?
R. George Dunn
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