Dancing to Dirges

Depressing and happy things Tim says, sometimes while drunk

Wednesday, November 07, 2012

The future of America

Some thoughts on the election last night. Specifically the aftermath.

Once it was called for the president, a lot of the pundits were talking about how the Republican Party needs to rethink its messaging and direction if it wants to continue to be a nationally viable party. Now, I think that's a little premature, but I also think it's inevitable. A lot of the things that resonate with younger voters (and by younger, I mean the 25-45 crowd. People with jobs) are simply more progressive than what the GOP is currently offering. You can disagree with me on that, but the numbers are the numbers.

In response to this discussion, Ari Fleischer said something along the lines of "No, that isn't going to happen. The GOP isn't going to become the party of gay rights and pro-choice. We have a party for that, it's the Democratic party, and that isn't going to change."

Here's what bothers me about that. It's possible to be a conservative, a small government, pro-business, individualism driven conservative without giving an ass about gay marriage and abortion. Trust me on this. I know that the GOP has linked itself to the social conservative movement, and that that has paid dividends in the past, but I think that era is ending.

There was a lot of talk about hope last night, and the future. So let me tell you about my hope for the future. I hope that we can uncouple these outdated social positions from the government. The government shouldn't be trying to impose my religious ideas, or yours, or anyone's, on a population as diverse as we have in the United States.

I want this country to have a conversation about choice and the value of life that isn't chained to misogyny, about immigration without the taint of racism, and about marriage without the stink of homophobia. And I want the government out of that conversation, now and forever.

That's my hope. That's my belief. That's what needs to happen, for America to move forward, and to become the country we have the potential to be.

1 Comments:

At 10:41 AM , Blogger John Johnson said...

I 100% agree. My hope is that the Republican party can some how separate itself from the social conservatives inside the party. If they can do that it would allow moderate candidates to win primaries without having to tack so hard to the right during the primaries to court the social conservatives. The Mitt Romney who was governor of Massachusetts would have been a formidable candidate. Four years ago the moderate John McCain (the guy who ran against Bush in 2000) would have been formidable had he not tacked so hard to the right to win the Republican party.

Had Jon Huntsman won the Republican party, he would have been formidable as well. I don't think we can separate the social issues from politics--not as long as other people want to control how someone else lives--but I think the next best thing would be to leave those people with no power inside the Republican party.

I'll probably never vote for a Republican for President, but I absolutely believe that there needs to be at least two viable candidates running each election cycle for their to be a proper discourse about how the country should be run.

 

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