My Party Has Been Hijacked

The results are in from Delaware and another responsible, intelligent Republican has lost a primary election. It shouldn't have been a contest. A former Governor, a current Congressman and a fiscal conservative with Moderate views on social issues, Mike Castle has lost to a "tea party" candidate whose only apparent qualification was her endorsement by the high priestess of mediocrity, Sarah Palin. A chance to pick up another US Senate seat lost in the transaction. Voters who can read, understand, and appreciate will desert in droves to the Democratic candidate. If I lived in Delaware I would most definitely be with them. After all here in Florida the self same right wing zealots have pushed our great Governor right out of the Republican party. The Republican nominee, Marco Rubio embraced the same close minded segments of the tea party movement as his fulcrum to power, and now must live with the consequences of his unholy arrangement. He will soon discover that the recipe for success in the primaries will not translate to victory in November. To win you must attract independents and moderates, those voters will flock to Governor Crist.

What does a lifelong Republican do, what do I do? I look at the candidates on my party's line and I am unable to embrace them, even a little. I have never been a fan of Bill McCuollum, yet I voted for him in the primary. I held my nose, but I voted for him. I cannot even hold my nose and vote for Rick Scott or Marco Rubio. This isn't the first time I have felt this way, but it is the first time I cannot stand silent. My party has been hijacked by the kind of mean, small minded people that used to elect the Eastlands, Russells, Maddoxes to high office in the South. In those days they peddled the intolerance of racial hatred, their current heirs now peddle the intolerance of women who believe in choice, of people seeking equal rights irrespective of their sexual preference and at the same time ignoring this nations heritage of freedom of religion by trying to marginalize all people who believe in Islam. Today they talk about burning prayer books, what is next. My party fought a Civil War to free the slaves, my party integrated the schools, my party was the party of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Eisenhower and Goldwater. None of those men would be a part of the tea party mentality, and neither will I.

It is time for Republicans to take back the Republican party and run these pretenders out. So I will not leave, but will stay and fight. But I will not in the name of party unity support those whose negativism, and intolerance are anathema to me. I will vote for candidates elsewhere on the ballot. The message is simple, winning is the Mothers milk of politics and you can't win if you continue to select the meanest among us and not the best.

Is Religon Off the Table?

t
In response to my last blog concerning Sarah Palin an interesting issue was joined. Friends of mine, who are people of great faith, felt a need to strongly argue that questioning Ms. Palin is somehow an attack on their faith. Others, less religiously inclined, felt an equal need to adamantly insist that religious extremists endanger fundamental liberty. Whew! What is the truth of it all.









My Mother used to say never discuss Religion or politics with friends, or they will be friends no longer. At that risk I will wade in. Initially, historically, Religion has been the the central unifying force creating Civilization. From the Earth Mother to L Ron Hubbard humanity has always seemed to need to believe in something greater that itself, and thereafter the deity ( or those acting in the name of the Deity ) imposed rules and rituals for people to live by. Now in some cases these were good, the Code of Hammurabi, The Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule. In some cases, not so good, Mayan Human Sacrifices etc. However, the one constant is the central role of the Deity.









To leave the philosophical and reach the point in issue. My belief is that Faith and Faith related issues are private and belong in one's home and one's place of worship. The biggest problem for society today is the danger of well meaning folks imposing their standards and beliefs on others. A persons sexual identity is one such area. Whether you personally approve or disapprove of others lifestyles ( whether they are choices is a whole different issue and immaterial here ), is your business. Whether you and or your Church or Synagogue approve are matters for your Church or Synagogue. That said, they have no place in the body politic. There is no reason for the Government to try and legislate based on perceived immorality. It is easy to get people all riled up about someone or something different,m out of the ordinary, odd. That's what our friends on the religious right spend too much time doing. No, they are not as bad as Radical Jihaadists, but in their own way just a s dangerous. Stem Cell research has been seriously harmed by the anti-Abortion fanatics inability to do anything but think in absolutes. I am tired of appeasing and mollifying them when their actions irreparably impede the ability of those with spinal cord injuries to walk.

Religion is a wonderful thing. But as the book says, "render on to Caesar that which is Caesars and to God, that which is Gods. We are a pluralistic society with no national religion by ( may I say it ) by intelligent design. Lets keep it that way.

Sarah Palin Pravda's Daughter

When I was a child through the Reagan revolution, the Russian Newspaper Pravda ( the Truth ) was famous for its ability to report and document revisionist history. In other words, facts be damned we'll report it the way we think it should be. Sarah Palin's new book was published by the folks which brought us Pravda. Any semblance of what really occured or what happened is totally distorted by the small, mean, ill informed and highly opinionated Ms. Palin.

She harps on the indignities ( all imagined or totally made up ) heaped on her by John McCain and his aides. She ignores how she was thrust from her well deserved obscurity to the Vice-Presidential nomination of her party only through the devices of the self same John McCain. You almost have to laugh aloud at her whiney attack on Katie Couric and the press. Yes, Ms. Couric certainly asked her difficult questions she couldn't have been expected to be able to answer, like, "what newspapers do you read?"

She resented being protected from the rest of the press, I guess she wanted to show off all her qualifications for high office, like spear fishing and moose dressing. Nor did she and her family want the $150,000 worth of clothes she was forced to pick out and wear. This woman who was McCains 4th or 5th choice owes her entire notoriety to the hand she is presently biting. Ouch!!!

There have been some pretty bad picks for vice-president in our history; Spiro Agnew for one comes quickly to mind, Tom Eagleton is another. None of them have been as graceless as the former Alaskan Governor. This is a person who lacks the class or brains to slide out of the public arena now that her 15 minutes are over. To my fellow Republicans who admire and believe in Ms. Palin, I will bequeath a book equally as true, you know it, it starts, " Once upon a time..."

NY 23 And What It Means

The old typing exercise ; " Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their party" is becoming less then relevant in our current times. Time was when the major parties in this Country were comprised of huge tents populated by men of different ideological views. In the Democratic Party the spectrum ranged from James O Eastland to Adam Clayton Powell.

The Republicans were the party of both Barry Goldwater and Jacob Javits. We all instinctively knew that the internecine battles which were waged from the outer ideological margins would eventually distill into a Moderate right leaning Republican Party and a moderate Left leaning Democratic party, the key word in both cases was "moderate". It was the conventional wisdom that governance does not come from the margins. This is no longer the case.

The Democrats having the seemingly better grasp of the circumstances understood that the end game is to compromise between their ideological wings. Once done they would envision that the Republicans would be close to the center right and that they would be center left. This is no longer the case. Today in the Republican Party, the Religious Right is now embarking on a mission to divest the party of all but the orthodox. Subscribe to the ant-Gay, anti-Choice mantra or be " out damned spot".

Of course, in this drive to purify the party these brain surgeons have over looked one, little, very important fact, they need our votes in the General Election, or they become irrelevant. The bottom line is that that there would have been no Reagan Revolution, or Bushes 41 and 43 without the votes of us pro-choice, pro-human rights Republicans who overlooked the social issues in the name of Party loyalty.

Now comes the wake-up call. NY 23 has rung the new anthem of the moderate wing; " we are mad as hell and we are not going to take it anymore ". Until these troglydites drop the party cleansing which Sarah " I don't have a clue " Palin and her equally odious cohorts have been engaged, this Moderate republican is off the reservation. I will cease supporting social conservatives, will contribute no more money, and will take as many of my progressive friends with me as I can in this endeavor. I do not announce this lightly. I see this as a battle for the soul of the party of Lincoln which must be fought, and won.

If we do not do so, the Republican Party will be diminished to the confines of the Dixiecrat South. Thats not healthy for the GOP, nor for the nation. More on this topic soon.

The Old Preach passes On

The news today was so sad, Elwin Charles "Preacher" Roe had died, in Ozark, Arkansas at age 92. The "Old Preach" was a left-handed hurler par excellence who toiled in Flatbush for the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1948-54. He was as they say superb as the Flocks left handed stopper during the hay day of the fabled Boys of Summer. What many forget is that Preach came to the Dodgers as the residue of the rebellion among the Dodgers southern ballplayers when Jackie Robinson debuted in 1947. When Dixie Walker, known as the "Peeples Cherce" insisted on a trade after Robby's inaugural season, Branch Rickey unceremoniously obliged. Rickey shipped Walker to the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates for their mediocre shortstop Billy Cox and the well traveled southpaw, Roe. Walker hung on for a couple of seasons, but Roe and Cox blossomed in Brooklyn.

Billy Cox, blocked at short by Pee Wee Reese was converted to third base, where he defined the position defensively for the next six years. People today recall Brooks Robinson as a great fielder, but Cox was his equal with a glove half the size. Roe after perfecting one new pitch soared to great heights as a pitcher. So what if the new pitch was a little liquid, Preach didn't use it all the time. More importantly, although Roe was from the deep South, he was color blind, and blended with the rest of the club including Robby, the Newk, Campy and Junior to prove that all men were equal and that in this Country there are no second class citizens. I can only wonder what Preacher Roe as one of baseballs integration pioneers must have been thinking last week when Barack Obama was elected president. I have no doubt that he will soon be discussing it with Robinson and Campanella in Celestial circumstances. I think they are probably quite proud, I know that I am.