I've been feeling rather down today. There is part of me that is so disgusted with what is going on with the GOP today that I just want to give up. It didn't help that someone left a mean-spirited comment today on the blog about how gay people are not part of the Republican party's roots. Then read today's editorial in the New York Times. The editorial focused on the John McCain and how is has become a leading moderate in the party, especially on the evironment. However, the money quote from this article was this:
"...the McCains of this world are increasingly rare birds, and therein lies the strongest reason why he should resist the siren call of presidential politics and remain where he is and who he is. The gradual disappearance of moderates from the Republican landscape has helped neither the party nor the country. Mr. McCain's voice is more than a voice of bipartisan good sense. In time, it could lead the Republican Party back to where it once was and where it ought to be now."
That last sentence gave me hope. I've been wishing for a while that McCain would be Kerry's veep, but maybe that is the wrong wish. McCain very well might be the thing that saves this party. But I don't think this hope lies only in McCain, but in many other moderates who are nameless. They remain in the party and stick it out amidst the taunts in order to bring the party back to what it once was. Maybe I need to stay if only to give a reminder of what the GOP once was and what it could be again: a party of equal opportunity and fiscal constraint.
It's nice to end the day with a bit of hope.
Posted by Dennis at May 25, 2004 12:00 AMVery informed and interesting comments! Greetings.
Posted by: Steven at June 11, 2004 11:31 PMAhhhhh, Dennis, do not despair. I say this as a person who grew up with two fabulous parents in a moderate Republican household in California. Our house was built on the beliefs that a woman is the best person to make her reproductive decisions, that racism is the bastion of the fearful and the ignorant, and that marriage is between two consenting adults whose decision is not fodder for invasive church power into state affairs. There was no room in our community for moralistic rants from fundamentalist nutcases (who, invariably, more resemble fascists than Republicans, no matter what they call themselves). I left the Republican party years ago because the fundamentalist, extremist, neo-con element so alarmed and offended every sensibility that I hold dear. Not to mention the fact that the restrictive laws they insist in passing kept piling up and up and up. Make no mistake: I am by no means a Democrat (though I must admit I sure like Dean). The Libertarians speak to my philosophy but don't have a snowball's chance in hell of breaking into our two party system. I cannot vote for Bush...that inflated, cocksure fratboy is just too big a stretch, and too utterly, painfully incompetent, even if a win this fall is the harbinger of a new wave of moderation in the Republican party. Just can't do it. I keep asking: Where Have the REAL Republicans Gone? And who put these pod-people in their place?
Posted by: Georgia at May 25, 2004 07:04 PMOnce again we see how few people know their American history. The claim that gays aren't part of the "roots" of the Republican Party is ignorant. The GOP was founded to challenge the fundamental social status quo in our society.
I'll tell you -- factually -- who are not part of the Republican Party's roots; the Southern reactionaries (i.e. the old Dixiecrats) who were born, bred and flourished in the Democratic Party. They -- not the progressive Republicans -- are the interlopers.
Posted by: Michael Kelly at May 25, 2004 09:27 AMI know how you feel Dennis. There is a part of me that actually wants Bush to win.
This administration has empowered some of the most regressive elements of our society. The RNC will take his reelection as a mandate to continue on their present course which will lead, in my opinion, to a progressive revolution not unlike that led by Teddy Roosevelt at the turn of the century.
That revolution brought us the women's right to vote, social security, the public school system, organized labor, the refutation of corporate control over government and public policy, an appreciation of civil service and culminated 50 years later with the Warren Court and desegregation -- all championed by Republicans.
If he loses, the RNC, and probably much of the country will attribute it to the war in Iraq (which our fearless leader still fondly calls the war against terrorism).
The same regressive elements will be back in 2008 and I doubt very much that JFK will have fixed anything by then.
I'm afraid that a Bush loss, only prolongs our agony.
Posted by: dorsano at May 25, 2004 12:26 AM