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Re: Friday, November 3, 2006
Exactly. I grew up in a hard-core Republican family. My father voted once for a Democrat, when he supported Roosevelt one time out of four, and always regretted it. Pop was a proud soldier who hated war but believed sometimes you just needed to fight. Even though he'd already served, and couldn't stand Roosevelt, he re-enlisted in the army at age 36 to fight in WWII. And he wasn't alone. "The Greatest Generation" is no exaggeration. We were Goldwater (as opposed to Rockefeller, for those old enough to remember the distinction) Republicans. I may still have an original copy of The Conscience of a Conservative around here somewhere. My father and I didn't agree about the Vietnam War (which he believed we mismanaged after the Democrats got us into it... we agreed about that much), the death penalty, and a pile of other transient (and a few enduring) issues. But we shared a belief that government shouldn't do what business can do better, separation of church and state, the limitless power of individual liberty and a variety of other values that unite rather than divide a nation. This was what the Grand Old Party of Lincoln stood for back then. With the Bush Presidency many if not all these values have been traded away or abandoned. Goldwater would be appalled. I'm not sure Ronald Reagan would recognize what's become of the party he re-energized. Bottom line: The GOP has its head up its ass. We need to kick both at once. Maybe then it will wake up. There are responses to this message:
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