Blogging for America

The Republicans are having an identity crisis--there are two major factions within the party, and a divorce seems to be in the offering. Arlen Spector has left because of the infighting, and because differences of thought were not being welcomed under the Republican tent. (The Democrat's tent, on the other hand, is so full of difference that its hard for them to come together sometimes).
It was very evident in the Bush/Cheney administration (it actually, I believe, began with Mr. Reagan's wooing of the Religious Right) Bush was a religious conservative Republican, one who thought that the role of the federal government was protecting people from threats from outside our borders and those threats to our traditional way of life included legislating morality. He, for instance, wanted to amend the constitution to define marriage. Mr. Cheney believed that the role of government was protecting people from threats from outside, but on issues of citizens health and welfare (aka as police powers), such as defining who may marry, those were decisions that each state should make. The McCain/Palin ticket was a marriage of convenience once more between these two factions in the Republican party. With the failure of the McCain/Palin campaign, the Republicans do not have a strong vision/leader to hold the moderates, the conservatives and very religious Republicans together.

Moderate Republicans--Olympia Snowe the day before yesterday, and Christine Todd Whitman in today's NYTimes are beseeching the Republican party to re-evaluate the split that is now a chasm, it may be too late. The Republican party of Lincoln, of Goldwater, of Rockefeller may be history.

Snowe's column:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/29/opinion/29snowe.html?scp=1&sq=olymia%20Snow&st=cse
Whitman's column:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/opinion/30whitman.html?ref=opinion

Labels: Republican Party, Spector

Well, for me, Iowa is not a flyover state--its a drive- to- state; we drive there a couple times a year, because that its where LK's family is. The following OP Ed from 4/9/09's NYT helps to correct a misperception of Iowa as a conservative state.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/09/opinion/09thrasher.html?_r=1
And, Iowa also took a stance and in 1998 adopted an Equal Rights Amendment to its State Constitution in a referenda even though Pat Robertson sent a letter to most households--my mother-in-law received one--that urged Iowans to defeat the referenda because Equal Rights would turn the women into feminists and "Feminists encourage women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, become lesbians, and destroy capitalism."
The Iowan ERA reads as follows: “All men and women are, by nature, free and equal and have certain inalienable rights — among which are those of enjoying and defending life and liberty,
acquiring, possessing and protecting property, and pursuing and obtaining safety and
happiness.” Iowa Constitution, Article I, §1 (1998).


Background: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/04/us/04iowa.html?scp=3&sq=iowa%20same%20sex%20marriage&st=cse

Labels: ERA, Iowa, miscegnation, same sex marriage

12,000 service members have lost their positions, and the military has lost their service, because of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Pursue."
See the discussion on Rachel Maddow last night 4/2/09 with Colin Powell and Clifford Alexander.

We are now allowing non-citizens to enlist, yet are removing citizens from their service because of their sexual orientation, when sexuality is actually not a requirement for service, service personnel are not to be sexual when in uniform.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#30021162 Scroll down to "Right to Serve" next to Colin Powell's picture

Labels: gays in the military