What the Moderate Republican Stands For

Republicans came to power as the party of big ideas, and without returning to that model they could be looking at a long winter. Additionally, those big ideas need to focus on Middle America. Three issues that could work are conservation, reform and localism.

Conservation- a return to the Teddy Roosevelt model of conservation. One doesn’t necessarily have to buy into global warming to appreciate the need to protect the natural resources we have.

Reform- the federal government is bigger than ever, and won’t be getting any smaller over the next four years. Republicans need to fashion themselves as national reformers. Much of Middle America wants the government as safety net, but bloated bureaucracies breed corruption that needs to be dealt with.

Localism- this is the lynchpin that brings it all together. If we bought our food locally, shopped locally, governed locally, many of the issue we now have to deal with would go away, or at the least become manageable.

Below is a collection of writers who speak about the things that matter. Some are Right, some Left and some Center, but all intelligent and rational voices.

The American Conservative » Rod Dreher

Via Meadia

Front Porch Republic

David Brooks

The Soap Box

ACORN and Obama

Rich Lowry, editor of National Review, wrote a succinct summary of ACORN's recent scandal brough to light by documentarian James O'Keefe, 25, and Hannah Giles, 20 who posed as pimp and prostitute. Some of the highlights:
In Baltimore, ACORN staff told Giles if she makes $96,000 a year selling sex, she should tell the government she only makes $9,600. Her occupation, meanwhile, should be reported as "performing artist."...

O'Keefe notes that they want a house for 13 underage girls who will be imported from El Salvador to work as prostitutes. Only three - not all 13 - of the girls can be listed as dependents, ACORN prudently advises. And so long as they are under 16, they will make O'Keefe and his partner eligible for the child tax credit....

In Washington, D.C., O'Keefe and Giles were told they could lie in their loan application for the house. "We are looking out for you," an ACORN staffer said, reassuringly.

In Brooklyn, Giles was told to identify herself in loan documents as a "freelancer" and to bury cash proceeds of her work in the backyard. Imagine what tax advice John Dillinger might have gotten had he ever consulted ACORN.
I have been reticent to attack President Obama's character, hoping and believing that while I disagreed entirely with the direction he wanted to take the country that he was still basically a decent guy. But recent revelations are giving me an awfully uneasy feeling. Obama's ties to ACORN go back 20 years. To think he was blind to their methods means, like the Jeremiah Wright issue, we have to assume he only knew about the good stuff and was absent anytime something controversial came up. It stretches credibility to fall for that defense twice.

Oh well, McCain warned us.

0 comments: