My family has been Republican since the begining. They helped found the Party. I am borderline libertarian but nothing gets my back up faster than talking about kicking someone, anyone, out of the Party.
If you ever get a chance drive across America. Stop and talk to people. In the small towns go to the hardware store. the owner is usually a Pubbie. In cities go to the well tended suburbs. You will be surprised just how diverse the party is.
Someone in the Los Angeles basis may be super-sensitive about pollution. He goes to Church every Sunday, works for a smaller, less intrusive government, wants lower taxes and spending but he wants smog control. In the Mountain States there's a deep strain of isolationism. They are religious but regard the Southern Bible Thumpers as near heathens. The farm belt wants to maintain subsidies, the industrial states may have a little bit of a protectionist streak, Southerners just want to shoot somebody and there ain't no Republicans left in the Northeast.
Despite all these differences we can still find enough commonalities to patch together a political party. Everyone has to give a bit on what they want in order to forge a working majority. The party is happiest when we can get an articulate conservative that can transend differences but that is rare. Duncan Hunter is a good man and I'm proud to have him in the party but he would have gotten stomped.
We have a loony Right just like the Moonbats of the left. I cringe when someone who calls himself "conservative" comes on C-Span. I just know that he's going to start talking about some conspiracy theory. Those type are the most motivated to call in.
The Republican Party is big-tent. If we can find something to agree on, every vote is welcome.
A fascinating post — thanks for that. You write:
> If you ever get a chance drive across America. Stop and talk to people. In the small towns go to the hardware store. the owner is usually a Pubbie. In cities go to the well tended suburbs. You will be surprised just how diverse the party is.
(big grin!) Your post brings back wonderful memories for me.
My very first real jop put me in a pickup truck in the middle of North America with an Amex Card and instructions to drive hither and yon for weeks on end on behalf of a Grain Company.
I fell in love with America as a Nation ‘round about then.
I know exactly what you mean about the middle part of America, and I love it. When you’re 20-something and unattached with no obligations to speak of, there is no better job than what I had.
As a result I saw most of your lower 48 states, and I think I found Obama’s missing states somewhere between Texas and Idaho... it’s such a big country you could easily have 57 states and not know where you misplaced 7 of them.
Back then, Vancouver to Los Angeles CA was not a long trip, just over a day. Winnipeg to Culbertson MT via Warren MN, Fargo ND and Minot ND was a leisurely drive of a day-and-a-half, with lots of time to take the trip in two stages, with business to be done in each location.
Doing that pace now, at my age, would kill me stone dead.
It’s people like the farm belt subsidies pushers and the rust belt protectionists who have had a major hand in ruining the GOP.
Any economist of any stripe can explain to you why crop subsidies and/or price supports/controls are a bad idea, same goes for protectionism. If we abandon sound economic policy, we may as well be Democrats. That’s how people become Democrats, they simply go with whatever policy sounds good to them in a particular situation, rather than apply basic economics throughout.
Southerners just want to shoot somebody...
Kind of hard to take the rest of your post serious.
Which is a good thing, because isolationism, subsidies, and protectionism aren't really Conservative, anyway.
Conservatism doesn't win by adopting, and then validating other people's liberal ideas. Conservatism wins by making a convincing argument that conservative ideas are the best for the nation AND the individual, and encouraging the individual to come to Conservatism. Certainly not by making "conservatism" more liberal.
I DON'T WANT "EVERYONE" in my party. Screw the "Big Tent".
And, oh yes, there IS such thing as a RINO. Those are the folks like McCain and Graham who are constantly reaching across the aisle to appeal to liberals on their policies, rather than standing the conservative ground and convincing the liberal voters that their positions on the issues are wrong.
For liberals and Democrats, the one group that it is still okay to demean is Southerners. You seem to have to jargon down pat, so is that also an example of your idea of making every "vote welcome"? I'm sure that if you keep up that rhetoric, you will draw some nice liberals from the Northeast into your Party.
If what you posted is true about the Republican Party, then make it known far and wide. Conservatives will be packing our political bags and leaving in droves.
bttt
Absolutely As a young service member I used to take 30 days leave every year and just travel around the country exploring new areas. I found most people had views similar to mine although slightly different due to their local regions...
Most people in America are Conservative/Libertarians, leave me alone and let me live my life and I will do the same for you, that is where we have to get back to.
It actually helped to cement my political views to what they are today... Constitutional Conservative... So after voting along GOP lines for 30+ years, a month ago I joined my first Political Party... The Constitution Party.
While I agree with you in some ways (I am not against civil unions for gay people-what do I care if they want to leave each other everything or let them decide if they die on a machine), we have to at some point stop voting in people who want the opposition to just like them.
It reminds me of the cool kids at school using the nerds to do their homework and then mocking them at a dance. Exact same thing.
“Southern Bible Thumpers as near heathens...Southerners just want to shoot somebody...”
Obviously your “big tent” doesn’t include southerners. Reagan loved the south. Even Bush didn’t trash southerners like you. You’ve established your bona-fides as a bigoted RINO.
“There’s no such thing as a RINO.”
Sure there is. they even have a definition on Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_In_Name_Only