Let me be the first to welcome Michael at Best Destiny back to the blogosphere following his hiatus. It seems he is rather despondent about the Grand Old Party, and not without good reason. As a result of the lack of national leadership, he writes:
The Republican Party is dead. It must either be reborn in a Reagan/originalist image, or it must be stashed and have dirt heaped on it’s grave. I’m open to the latter.
I’m not sure what you would have to call it, but let me throw this out: the Independence Party. We stand for originalist ideas of limited central government, states’ rights; we stand for a strong national defense with limited and clearly defined international responsibilities; we stand for open markets and economic freedom; we stand for American sovereignty and the right to protect our own borders; we stand for American individualism and the need to disentangle from international institutions.
But mostly, we stand for the rights, privledges and responsibilities articulated in the Constitution of the United States.
Sounds like a Republican platform . . . from 25 years ago.
While I respect where Michael is coming from, I’m not open to the latter … yet. Taking over from within is much easier than overthrowing from without. We have a few elected Republicans in Congress still worthy of the office, but the leadership in Washington has been slow to get it. Yet as long as they don’t make headway into co-opting the nonpartisan grassroots Tea Party movement, I believe there is hope to avoid the more extreme option.
But the very fact we’re having this online conversation says a lot about the times in which we live.
I, for one, am working for changes within the party. There is no ‘leader’ for the GOP, because there are so many of us fed up and trying to drag the whole party back where it belongs.
Once, I thought I wanted to return it to what it was in my grandfather’s time; now, I realize we have to go much further!
I love what is happening at the town and county level here in Maine. Not just my town and not just my county. You find it on the internet, and on radio, and it gives hope that we can effect good change.
And, if we are not successful from within…we are getting organized and if we have to go somewhere else, there will be a lot of us!
Well said, Genie. Thanks for your comment.
How about we actually start explaining and applying conservative ideas to circa-2009 issues instead of bringing up Ronald Reagan every 5 minutes and projecting whatever our personal views happen to be onto the man?