Article: What's Next For Republicans?

There are many good sites to visit to learn about how you, as an American, can get involved and help steer your government back to something that resembles a responsible, centrist position. I have talked about campaign reform. I found Open Secrets(Opensecrets.org) and The Lincoln Initiative(www.lincolninitiative.org). If you are Republican, and would like to do something to take your party away from the far right, a good place to start is: It's My Party too(mypartytoo.com). Christine Todd Whitman has a stake in this one. I have browsed it, and found a wealth of hope, that someday, the Republican Party may just return to being the party of Lincoln. I remember when I first read the content, I started thinking, yeah! That's the ticket! That's the party I remember! I actually voted for George Bush Sr. because I didn't really know that much about Bill Clinton. I wasn't chairman of the Liberal Party of America then, in fact there wasn't an LPA then. We really didn't need a third party, two were enough.

Things are different now. This country is so split into divisive camps that I wonder if we will ever put Humpty Dumpty back together again. I blame the Islamic Fundamentalists, this War on Terrorism (I don't disagree with fighting terrorists, I just don't like the way we're doing it) and the far right that has taken George W. Bush's presidency away from him, and now has him dancing around like a puppet on a string. (His father must be drinking a lot). I also blame the corporate and special interest raid on our electoral process that is going to make taking this country back, harder than ever.

What I wanted to say, before I drifted off, was that if you ARE a republican of the old, more reserved and balanced view, take a look at: It's My Party Too. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Everyday, the stakes go up in this mid-term election. If I were a Republican, I wouldn't know where to turn. Donald Rumsfeld is preaching that this war in Iraq is akin to fighting the Nazi's. He should know. It sure wasn't like that before he took out Saddam and opened the floodgates for Al Quaeda. There are more terrorists in Iraq than there were before we got there. Bush and Cheney are accusing the Democrats of being cut from the same mold as Neville Chamberlin. They also claim that the Democrats are "appeasers". Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, where the terrorists of 9/11 trained, and where Osama Bin Laden makes his home, is again seeing a resurgence of the Taliban.

What does it take to convince this administration that they are desperately holding on to failed policies? How are they reconciling the fact of Republicans coming out against the failed war plans of the White House? I talked to an Army recruiter today (I used to be one myself), and he told me that the Army is accepting Cat IV's and they have raised the maximum age to 42 years old, and they still can't make their mission. How does George Bush plan to take on Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, and possibly North Korea with a skeleton Army? What kind of an Army will we have with people that score 21% out of a possible 99% on the ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Test)? That's what determines a Cat IV, by the way.

So here we are, the country is tired of sending troops into a situation which is practically a civil war (that we brought about), we have an Army stretched to the breaking point, Cat IV's filling the ranks along with middle aged men, and we still can't get oil out of the country. What's next? Sometimes I think I din't want to find out.