I                                    TAKING THE GOP BACK

Come on Republicans, it is time to take your party back, back from the fringe groups who don’t believe in government at all, back from ones who want to turn the party into a dictatorship that says believe what I believe, vote only the way I say to vote, or you are out of here. Conservative, which is the view point Republicans are supposed to represent means respecting old values, making changes slowly and carefully. It does not mean stagnation. It should not mean that everyone in the party has to agree on everything the ones who declare themselves the most conservative agree on, or you are out. There is room, or should be, in every party for different opinions, for changing directions as circumstances change.

It used to be a party of the good business man, one who recognized that as business flourished, our nation flourished, as our workers advanced in education and pay, our ability to make better products and have a mass market for those products right here at home, also flourished. It was Henry Ford economics, the man who recognized that if his workers couldn’t afford to buy his cars, who would? It was Charlie Wilson economics that said, slightly misquoted, “What’s good for General Motors is good for the country.”

As good business men know, you don’t grow by only spending what you have in your pocket. If you have a good idea, you convince others to lend you money, you don’t grow a business by never incurring debts. You must pay your debts back, no ands, ifs or buts, you must pay your debts back, or you lose your ability to borrow, or borrow at favorable rates. In the case of governments, this is done by taxes. The more we prosper, the more tax money we can raise. If we are conservative, we try not to waste our money, we try to pursue spending that brings benefits to all of us. We do not want to make citizens who feel they need do nothing to pay back, whether they are at the upper end of the scale, just lining their pockets and asking for ever lower tax rates, or at the lower end, becoming third generation welfare recipients.

Both parties are made of a mixture of all economic levels, and many backgrounds, and various degrees of leanings from the far extremes to the middle, but, as has been proven over and over, the majority, from both parties lean to the middle. That is what has allowed us as a democratic nation to succeed, we can find bargaining points, horse swapping if you will, to agree on how to get things done. This cannot happen if the extremes of either party dominate the party. This cannot happen if the Republicans don’t get rid of the Hastert Rule, this cannot happen as long as everyone in the Republican Party is afraid to vote what he feels is best for the nation, for fear of what will happen to his chance of re-election. This cannot happen as long as people of the ilk of Rush Limbaugh are looked on as the voices of the Republican Party. This cannot happen when a most junior senator from Texas can bring the nation to its knees, costing all of us billions of dollars, just to promote himself. That is not how a democracy works, that’s how dictatorships work.

Republicans, get your party back, back into the fold of a working party, not the party of nay sayers, nay to everything proposed by the opposition even when it was something originally proposed by Republicans. This is not functioning, this is just obstructionism. Get out there and vote in your primaries, so money alone is not controlling your choice of candidates. Vote for people who believe in governance, and know how governing works. Vote for educated people, experienced people, not those that make your party or area a laughing stock. Vote for people who will make wise decisions for you and for your country, and not for what they are told is a party principle that must be adhered to. You