Sun, 8 November 2009
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Expatica contributor Staci Bivens wonders why the US Republican party isn’t taking the appropriate steps to stop the hemorrhaging.Here’s the thing...
I’m your typical right-brain thinker. I learn best visually, and I prefer words to numbers. Numbers have always seemed kind of complicated in my view. This latest comparison, however, makes numbers in politics pretty clear: 21 percent of Americans refer to themselves as Republican, while 34 percent of Americans believe they have seen a ghost, and 48 percent believe in extrasensory perception or ESP. Now, let’s focus on that for a moment. More people have a belief in the ability to read other people’s minds than they do in the philosophies and polices of the current Republican Party. The GOP appears to be drifting far and fast from mainstream Americans. The question is, what can they do to stop the hemorrhaging?
The GOP’s biggest problem is the limited view in which party leaders and their base of voters prefer to define themselves. There is no room for diversity of thought. There is no effort to look for common ground. One can’t be a Republican who is fiscally conservative and also be pro-choice. Moderates are being chased out by “real” Republicans -- those who put war above diplomacy, abortion above most other topics and creationism above Darwinism. Obsessions on single topics like abortion or gay marriage trump a bipartisan effort to solve complicated problems. They do not seem to understand that while faith is important, Christian views should never parade as public policy.
Yet more partisan blabbering. The same poll found that only 35% identified themselves as Democrats, which was also a decline from the last election even though they just elected there saviour to the Presedential suite, and now even they have just barely a percent of people above said ghost witnesses.
Maybe Republicans should just do what the Democrats did last election cycle - cry openly in the streets, flood the books of psychologists, and cry some more. I mean, isn't that the way forward?
Your suggestion that Republicans act more like Democrats to win over a bigger base is simply ludicrous. This is why people, including myself, are now identifying themselves as Independents. We want Republican representatives to act like the freedom-loving classic liberals that they once were, not act like weak-kneed, double-talking, happy to spend other people's money, socialists of the Democratic Party.
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