How My Party Lost Its Way

Mr. Gershon. "astounding economic growth"? "No Child Left Behind." a success? "a Medicare prescription drug paln..implemented smoothly..wildly popular among the elderly"? Obviously you STILL are writing speeches filled with GOP hisorical revisionism.

Mr. Gershon. "astounding economic growth"? "No Child Left Behind." a success? "a Medicare prescription drug paln..implemented smoothly..wildly popular among the elderly"? Obviously you STILL are writing speeches filled with GOP hisorical revisionism.

Mr. Gerson,
I am a registered Republican and unless the Democrats nominate Hitler or Bin laden, I'm voting for the Democratic nominee. If the only thing that can unify the lemmings of the Republican Party is their insane hatred of Hillary Clinton I can only hope she is the nominee and the Republicnas get the beating they so richly deserve in November.

It's time to drive a stake through the heart of the Republican Party and kill the beast once and for all. Bush/Cheney has done so much damage to this country with their ineptitude, small-mindedness, and divisiveness that it will take years to recover.

I see the Republicans as weak on constitutional rights. While Bush and Cheney have been out front in violating their oarth to uphold the Constitution, Republicans in Congress as well as Democrats have violated their oaths of office by not insisting that the Constitution be respected. The Constitution calls for impeachment for transgressions by Bush and Cheney and Republicans should lead the charge because it is their political life at issue.

Agrees with Johnpp2. Yet another GOP overview, with (mostly) all the players mentioned. Missing, of course, is Dr. Ron Paul. This guy is a strict constitutionalist. He is the only candidate brave enough to fly his bird finger right next to the American flag, in the face of Big Money. Naturally, Big Media has a political agenda. Why else would we need to hear "fair and balanced" as some kind of distinction above the other news agencies. Big Media's only weapon against Dr. Paul is to try to ignore him.No mention of Ron Paul even in an article addressing GOP losers. Look at his voting record and you will see why the Media is scared. Like Pharma and Oil, Media has much to lose to a candidate not of their choice.. Open your eyes; we are not stuck with a Clinton again.

Gerson misses the mark. It is jumping to those things he advocates that is part of the lost way. Part of this is because he assumes that this losing the way is fairly recent. The problem has been growing for years.

The traditional base of the Republican party is its conservative base. Issues such as decreasing spending, decreasing taxes, protecting freedom (especially economic freedom), and rule of law (especially the Constitution) have been key issues. These are much more compatible with the growing libertarian influence than with the growing neocon influence.

BIlolary? I guess so, I can't see how the democratic party could end up picking her as their candidate. But, yet, I suppose that could unite the republican party.

Hillary-haters don't seem to grasp that whatever it is that stirs such passion about her with them isn't contagious. My best guess is that it's some gut-level reaction to speech, mannerisms or a perception of overarching ambition. With the Clintons it never seems to be about level-headed discussions over issues. I tend to vote Democratic but may well not vote for Hillary in the primaries. To many Democrats she seems overly scripted, a bit too go-slow on some of the issues, and possibly vulnerable to bad decisions borne out of a special need to show she's tough on national security. But this is hardly the stuff to inspire rants like on talk radio. If she is the nominee, then I think most Americans will fear more years of Bush-like policies than they will whatever is conjured up for Hillary.

Ron Paul Money Bomb in honor of MLK!

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What about Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Michael Brown, Harriet Miers for Supreme Court, and Alberto Gonzales? Wouldn't you say that continually placing political loyalty above competence has finally taken its toll with the voters?

You overlooked Rummy the dummy. His idea of a cheap war made him the dumbest secretary of defense since Mac the knife. Your're right America identified with Bush, trusted him, looked up to him, respected him for not having the country over react and inter middle easterners in the US. Then, he let us down, trusting an imbicile.

Your party lost its way by promoting incompetence in your President and colluding with it.

It's curious that there's no mention of Katrina in this article. There's no clearer demonstration of how the Republican party has turned a deaf ear to those outside of it's country club clique.
Under the leadership of Cheney (Bush is a stooge), the Republican party has operated as if America was an asset to be utilized and managed for the benefit of party members and Haliburton stockholders. This is actually nothing new. What's new is the brazenness of the party's attitude towards anybody who was of no use in achieving a greater enrichment of America's wealthiest citizens. The common man has been ignored at best and repressed at worst.
We the Sheeple, have stood idly by while the Republican party has picked our pocket, mortgaged our futures and traded the blood of our soldiers for Haliburton dividends. Normally they've lulled us to sleep by whispering sweet tidings of patriotism in our ear and having had so much success convincing the public that they should be grateful for the opportunity to further enrich the elite at the common man's expense, the party became overconfident and even began to believe their own myth.
Then came Katrina. It's easy to herd the sheep when the effects of your manipulation are measured in terms that the common man has no interest in and even less understanding of. What do we care about pie charts and line graphs that measure our lost inheritance in terms that only economists, bankers and other MBA types understand? Just waive the flag, pat us on the head and tell us what good little Americans we are and we'll all happily march forward to our future of servitude. Even those who had a suspicion that the plans of the Grand ole Party wouldn't provide them a future as vibrant and fulfilling as the snappy AM radio pundits and pearly white-teethed, pressed suit political salespeople promised, figured "Aw hell. What's it matter anyway? No REAL harm could come of it. Right?"
All of the sudden the whole world caught a glimpse of the face behind the mask. We realized that our leader's indifference to those on who's backs their princely coffurs were carried wasn't just a little harmless snobbery. It had effects. Real effects. Deadly effects. Where we once felt it crass to bring attention to the unpleasant odor of classism, racism and usery of the ruling party, we suddenly found courage to say: Wait a minute. Lives and livlihoods are being lost because they are considered expendable by those who have never had their hedgerow-protected way of life similarly threatened. America's eyes were opened to the fact that the elitists really do think of regular people's lives in terms of assets and liabilities. We realized that finding ourselves in the asset column was of little comfort seeing as how a chance occurence like Katrina could change our status to "liability" in the eyes of our Republican government.

Perhaps one of the reasons Bush thinks that he can do no wrong is because Bush Sr. bailed Jr. out of any jams Jr. got himself into. Now, Jr. is facing the consequences of his disastrous decisions and there is no one left to bail him out. His legacy? Worst president ever.