Grand Old Party--It's Party Time!

The latest news over the GOP (and, really, why do they get such a title?) is that they are mad at Bush.

According to Jim VandeHei, of the Washington Post, "For years, the Bush White House and its allies on Capitol Hill seemed like one of the most unified teams Washington had ever seen, passing most of Bush's agenda with little dissent. Privately, however, many lawmakers felt underappreciated, ignored and sometimes bullied [the red is mine to point out this really good part] by what they regarded as a White House intent on running government with little input from them. Often it was to pass items -- an expanded federal role in education under the No Child Left Behind law and an expensive prescription drug benefit under Medicare -- that left conservatives deeply uneasy."

Welcome to the REAL club, you grand boys and girls. Bush is a meany, a bully. Just like that bully you remember from the play ground, he has an innate ability to find and exploit people's weaknesses (he knows that Republicans want to stick together and make a front). He also knows how to befriend people and then stab them in the back and make it seem like their own fault. Finally, he has his "pack," the loyalists who follow him anywhere and do his bidding. Now, how many people has he abandoned and turned on in his need to save his own skin? Many, many.

Bush is NOT a good republican, no matter what he and his buddies try to tell you. He does not care about small government--look at how many fingers he has in how many pies (No Child Left Behind, Dubai ports, etc). He is not at all fiscally conservative--how much are we in debt? He is a business man who is looking out for himself and for his buddies (DeLay, Cheney, etc) with tax cuts for the wealthy. And, he treats EVERYONE like they are too stupid to see what he's doing. This is NOT a rant, and the part about him treating people like idiots is very true. Listen to his tone, his repetition, his lack of background knowledge when he begins his latest campaign.

Jim VandeHei quotes a republican recently awakened to Bush's bully ways, " 'Members felt they were willing to take a lot of tough votes and did not get much in return,' said Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.), an early critic of the port deal."

That's right. And, here is lesson number two, GOP (lesson one was that Bush is a bully and a bad republican), when you are an elected official, it is not a game of tradeoffs you are playing. When you run the government according to favors, you are wrong and of course it isn't fair; it's not fair to the US American people who have to live with it. So, lesson number two. Go to your constituents and find out how to vote. Talk to them and ask questions, let them know you ACTAULLY represent the people who voted you into office. THAT is who you vote for; you should not be voting in exchange for political favor or favors.

Lesson three. Get back to those wonderful republican ideals. Uphold them, especially the fiscal conservatism. We ALL need you to come back and help balance the government. Just as you count on the democrats to shake things up and bring in new ideas, they count on you to bring in the wise counsel about the costs and the change to tradition. (I'm NOT being sarcastic here, people. I love republicans, the real ones). Just like we need the Supreme Court to balance out issues and let us know we are, indeed, following the constitution, we need the bicameral system to balance out each other and double check the evidence before something is made into a law. Yes, there is debate, and that is how it should be. But, the thing is that we are missing one third of the debate lately. The president is doing HIS business, and he's avoiding the checks and balances of the Supreme Court, the Congress, and most importantly, from his party. He has let all of us down, and we need to be reminded that republicans are not selfish people.

Almost finished. Lesson Four. Being registered "republican" does not mean you have to vote like other republicans. Here's an analogy to show my point. Lemmings, cliffs, crashing surf, certain death, following the others--bad idea.

We need to see some republicans who DON'T need to be hand-held by Bush. We need to see that they can stand alone on issues according to what they think is RIGHT, according to the people they represent and their values (in that order). We need to see that republicans are honest and that their party membership is a benefit, not an albatross or a pair of cement shoes. We need to see that republicans care about people--all people--and that they will not force their faith or their personal beliefs on the people. Take back your party and make it stronger. Find a candidate who can stand up for those classic republican ideals, and I might even vote for her or for him.