The Lights Are Starting to Come On!

Those who say that all Republicans don’t get it are now officially wrong. There are at least a couple of them who understand that we can’t tax cut and spend our way to glory, and that the loudmouths like Beck and Limbaugh should not be the poster children for their party.

If more of this return to sanity happens, we might have a second major party again soon. If things don’t change, the Peace & Freedom party might just be the big name on the next election ballot.

from thinkprogress.org

In a new Time article on the state of the Republican Party, Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) lamented the GOP’s exclusion of groups like minorities and environmentalists. “Ideological purity is not the ticket to the promised land,” she said, echoing comments her fellow Maine senator Susan Collins (R) made last week. She also complained that, “to the average American,” the GOP is just the party of “Big Oil and the rich“:

Snowe recalls that when she proposed fiscally conservative   triggers”  to limit Bush’s tax cuts in case of deficits, she was attacked by fellow Republicans. “I don’t know when willy-nilly tax cuts became the essence of who we are,” she says. “To the average American who’s struggling, we’re in some other stratosphere. We’re the party of Big Business and Big Oil and the rich.”

Of course, Americans are right to view the GOP as the party of Big Oil, which gave nearly $20 million to the Republican party apparatus during the last election cycle. The securities and investments industry — big banks — donated more than $54 million to the GOP.

I can still remember, as a young person, listening to the absolute sense that William F. Buckley, Jr. always made when he spoke. It was something I considered when first deciding party affiliation in my first voting election. I had seriously considered registering as  Republican, mostly on the words of Mr. Buckley, but I soon saw that the GOP was really nothing like that. Too bad for them.

From Reagan, to the first Bush, to the lesser second Bush, they all have rung hollow when compared as keeping to the ideals of that party. Some would say the Democrats are not much better- and I’d be inclined to agree – but they are enough better to make the difference.

Perhaps Arlen Specter should not have defected, but instead, called the Republicans back to a stand for something other than intractable resistance. There certainly is a huge sucking sound near that party now. Who will they turn to? Limbaugh only wishes to criticize from a distance; not that he has any good ideas anyway. Caribou Barbie may naturally attract women, and stir something in men to support, but her appeal is fading fast. Even Ross Perot’s ‘pissed off hardware salesman’ routine would be welcome there. He had some ideas, other than the seemingly imprinted idea of cutting taxes as the panacea.

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Quote of the Day:

A civilization is built on what is required of men, not on that which is provided for them.
–  Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

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