The Dumbing down of the Republican Party

Today on my Republican Blog: This morning I happened to be thumbing through today’s issue of the paper and I noticed two very interesting letters to the editor. While this paticular rag is well known for its anti-Obama stance, they also choose to print a second letter that perfectly expressed what a lot of us moderate Republicans have been feeling for years. Lets start with the first letter: this “alleged” republican wrote that he feels Barack Obama is directly connected with the Gov. Blagojevich scandal; I suppose based on some secret knowledge he has, that apparently wasn’t available to any of the law enforcement agencies that have been investigating the governor for years. He then brought up all the usual knocks against Obama (Bill Ayers, Rev. Wright, Tony Rezko, PLO, he’s really a muslim, etc); the usual far, far, far right wing blog material that makes us all look bad. But the most abhorrent aspect of his tirade was the fact that he kept referring to the president elect only as “Hussein Obama”. See, this is the reason I hate telling people I’m a Republican; because then I have to spend the next 30 minutes explaining that we’re not all ignorant, ill informed, disrespectful and slightly racist individuals. You can disagree with a man’s politics, but the ridiculousness that I’ve heard coming from a small minority of my party on blogs, radio, and television is just disheartening. If you don’t like black people, then just say that. But don’t do it under the guise of being a Republican. Don’t you get it? That’s what’s wrong with our party. Since the southern strategy of the 1960’s our party has resigned itself to courting the lowest common denominator for political gain. Don’t believe me? Remember the 2004 elections? All the Bush-Cheney bumper stickers? I used to make a habit of asking random people with said stickers what they knew about either Bush or Cheney. I’d say only about 10% could tell me anything relevant about them. And what’s even worse is when I would direct them to the RNC website or to their local headquarters to get more information and maybe volunteer; almost all said no. And think about the War in Iraq. Most of my family is military and I have several family members and friends serving our country in the middle east; also a few that lost their lives protecting our freedom. It’s easy to get a magnetic ribbon from a gas station and put it on a car, but when I would ask if they would like to donate to the many charities that help our troops at home and abroad; that offer was also declined. It’s like all you have to do to call yourself a Republican is oppose Abortion, Gay marriage, be Christian (while still hating all minorities and everyone different than you; because that’s what jesus would do) and basically make sure the poor and middle class (you) do your best to make sure the rich (people you will never meet in your life) get richer. It’s shameful how far we’ve fallen. The second letter I can sum up very succinctly. To everyone out there under 30, remember when your grandparents first discovered you were interested in politics? The stories they’d tell you about some of the great Republican leaders of their time? When being an intellectual, college educated, productive citizen was actually a good thing? When being patriotic meant enlisting, volunteering or donating to the cause; rather than having a bumper sticker or a magnet or wearing a lapel pen? When making sure growing the middle class was more important than making it harder for people to reach that level? When we prided ourselves on our great industrial complex as opposed to supporting sending jobs overseas? When it was more important to make sure that all men had equal rights as opposed to the Dixiecrats (google it), who would kill, imprison, and oppress those that looked different than them? Or for that matter, had a different religion? We used to be a Grand Old Party. And it’s up to us young Republicans to bring those days back. So, go to your Republican blogs, start your own blog or link to mine and lets get our party back where it needs to be.