Stand for Something

One of the most rational articles I have seen. Well done!

"In the name of "empowering patients" they propose to ration health care"

What do you mean "propose?" Health care in the United States is now and always has been rationed. The "market" is just a rationing scheme --- the rich get whatever they want and the poor get nothing. Just because you personally approve of this particular rationing scheme does not mean it is not rationing.

Your prescriptions here sound impressive. They do not sound Republican. I can point to several conservative Democrats that have embraced all of your policy recommendations above.

In any case, I think you have the wrong idea here, trying to fix the Republican party by proposing new policies. The real problem is structural. The GOP has become dominated by a certain narrow set of leaders and philosophies. Political "litmus tests" stifle active debate. The "big tent" idea always was and is a transparent lie.

The Democratic Party in contrast is a party that can and does include believers across the political spectrum. Jim Webb and Al Franken; both proud members. Republicans claim this blurs our message. It does. But it also makes our message more relevant and performance-based. Republicans that try to be flexible are constantly being criticized for not being "Republican enough". "Democratic in Name Only" is not an epithet I've ever heard.

Bottom line, Republicans don't need better ideas. They need to be more open to new ideas.

Mr. Calabrese deserves the Conservative Cheerleader of the year award. However he seems to overlook something important. Conservatives championing individual liberty when they have a history of enslaving and oppressing Blacks that they may not realize their individual liberties for the entire history of the United States except the last forty-eight years. Ally themselves with Hispanics who ran as fast as they could to the Democratic Party after they heard the acidic, insulting, and divisive rhetoric coming from the South during President Bush and Democrats the last time they attempted to reform Immigration Policies. Mr. Calabrese is similar to Don Quixote fighting windmills if he believes Conservatives, especially Southern Conservatives will all of a sudden abandon thier embrace of an Ideology that tells them they were absolutely right to invent and enforce Jim Crow Laws designed specifically to oppress Black Americans until the mid-sixties. Even and the end of the Jim Crow era Southern Conservatives admitted no wrong doing and only ended unconstitutional Jim Crows laws by force. Mr. Calabrese you seem to not have noticed that Conservatives are adamantly opposed to accepting the norms of American Culture and Society. I do not believe that you or anybody else can or will convince Conservatives to view Americans that are not waving the Confederate Flag as anything but inferior to them culturally, politically and religiously. That is who they have shown us they are. I do not understand how you fail to see this reality..

The fundamental problem with the Republican party is that it has become the party of the rich, and the party of the right wing conservatives, whose intetests are not served by the rich! The "top" Republicans are idiots like Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachman, Eric Cantor, Bobby Jindal etc...not the sharpest tools in the shed. Others like Newt Gingrich, a guy who could not live up to his marriage vows so could not be trusted to uphold any other vows, is wayyyy behind the times! Young people are actively disenchanted with the social positions of the Republican party so its future looks dim, very dim! Public education is a problem that is bipartisian, the only people who send their kids to private schools are rich Republicans, NOT liberals as the author wrongly states. Health care on the free markets is like banking.....a disaster, who loves the Republican party more than pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies and investment companies....nobody! They all love deregulation so they can stack the cards against the average Joe, and they do this with regularity. The Republican party is the party of the anti-intellectual, if you're smart you must be a liberal right? Sounds ike something Fox news would report or Ann Coulter would say. In short, the Republican party has become a JOKE, a big scary joke but fortunately the majority of Americans now recognize that reality!!!!!

I admit the author of this article sounds politically and culturally brilliant. If I were able I would annoit him Senior Cheerleader of Conservatives and send him some pom poms. I suspect it is easy for him to make such proclamations, but I see him much as I did Don Quixote that fought against tilting windmills. I suspect more extravagant idealism than a reasoned reality of who Conservatives are and have been. He speaks of individual liberty as a principle for Conservatives to champion as if Conservatives do not have a recorded history of violently opposing individual liberty for Black Americans for the entire history of this great nation except the last forty-eight years. He suggest an acceptance of Hispanics as political allies when the vast majority of rhetoric coming from Conservatives about immigration, illegal imigration has been so insulting, so acidic as to encourage most Hispanics to fun as fast as they can to the Democratic Party. Calabrese refuses to accept that Conservatives, especially Southern Conservatives have a history of racism, and a profound perceived dislike of Hispanics and/or any body else not waving the Confederate Flag. Mr. calabrese seems to ignore the historical reality that he would have an easier time convincing Democrats to take his advice than todays divisive, "Party of No" Conservatives to suddenly accept, respect and support ordinary Americans that support Democrats than "We are right about everything" Conservatives. They will not even listen to him if he suggests they were not right to oppress Blacks, condemn every American citizen that has chosen their own ways to worship and sexual identity. And that is in spite of the US Constitution allowing each American to do just that.

Hey, Republicans! First comes something to stand for, then comes a political party.

The way you're presenting it is a complete giveaway as to what you're about - 100% AMBITION WITHOUT SUBSTANCE!!!

Republicans do stand for something; in the past eight years just look at all they have accomplished.
Record profits for the oil companies, Halliburton and KBR never had it so good.
Wages have gone down, for some all the way to zero.
Those who were millionaires are now billionaires.
Gave the CIA new techniques for interrogating for years on end people even the old and young who might "know something.
Made education irrelevant by sending jobs that require education overseas.
Kept those 48 million pesky medically uninsured at bay.
Almost succeeded in getting that 1st amendment removed from the constitution.
Shifted the tax burden to the poor and those becoming poor.
Got even with Saddam for what ever. Removed the stigma of invading a country that has pissed you off because they have more oil than you do rather than that old tired defense motive.
Out did Reagan when it came to taking the old peoples retirement as Wall Street profit taking.
Over turned lots of those damned environmental restrictions and even got people arguing in favor of pollution.
Made spying on Americans legal.
Republicans have done much for America and it is frustrating to see people trying to undo and change all these wondrous things but hopefully they will fail.