The Democrats’ ritual circular Firing Squad is loading its weapons. Progressives are angry at moderates over their votes on health care reform. Moderates think Progressives are going too far. And above it all stands a President who is unable to rein in his own party.

There was a time in my life when I believed there was this system purposefully set up to keep Black people subordinated. Somehow, in the midst of that phase, I naively internalized that liberals were the only ones who acknowledged the proverbial “system”, and did everything in their power to change it. Then I found out about how liberal policies negatively impacted the Black Family. Liberals instantly became the object of my disdain.

So, naturally, if liberals were so “evil” the only place left for me to go was the other side, right?

White Conservatives need not be afraid of Black “consciousness”. Many times people confuse “black consciousness” with “black supremacy”. In general Black consciousness can be defined as the realization by the black man of the need to rally together with his brothers and sisters,accept and love the blackness of their skin, and to work together to free themselves of the shackles that tie them to perpetual servitude. I went from being a black nationalist to a black conservative because of the strong desire I felt to psychologically emancipate Blacks from the perpetual servitude to the system set up and designed by Liberal Democrats. Besides, what’s the problem with this message?

Despite the rapid response of millions who possess different political viewpoints, the myth of the liberal monopoly on compassion remains embedded in our society.

The blog Republicans United has a great piece out on Gun legislation and the Republican Party. The article lays out some good ideas that the Party can utilize with regards reducing crime.

Some reformers have expressed doubt that a centrist based party can be built because, as they state it, the center is a myth and the party is just too far to the right leaving only a mere moderation of conservatism as an option for reform. The problem with the main argument, that centrism is a myth, lies in their premise of it having never existed.

I was an innocent - not pure as the driven snow, but certainly unwise as to the level of the stakes at which we were playing. I entered the debate believing it would be an intellectual exercise; we would joust with each other and after it was all over shake hands and exit with mutual respect. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

RINO or “Republican In Name Only” has been used frequently by groups dedicated to keeping the party conservative at all costs; used by groups such as the “Club for Growth” who seek to take out any centrist republican, or even conservatives who certainly are not centrist but are not quite as freakishly conservative as they are. Of course this name-calling by the conservatives within our party certainly isn’t the first. Years before, instead of RINO it was “me-too” republicanism, under the belief that these republicans were just trying to act like the Democrats such as supporting many New Deal programs. At first glance and with little insight it may have seemed so. Of course like any of the labels that the conservatives throw at us, the moderates and liberals, both are woefully ignoring what is reality.

Conservatives, or so called “conservatives” wail on and on about how big the government has gotten. They constantly tell us how universal healtcare would cost too much, be too instrusive, is “socialist” and so on and so forth. Well I do agree to some extent with them, the government is too big, it’s bloated, inefficient, and out of control. There are aspects of the government that smack of socialism. Where we diverge is what we believe is socialism.

Racism is not the the sole domain of Republicans, Conservatives or Southerners. Not all racists pepper their conversation with the N-word or secretly desire the extermination of black and brown people. Racism is complex, multi-layered, and deeply rooted in the American story. Name calling is not helpful in uprooting racism, but neither is a false sense of moral superiority.

There has been a lot of news made about President Obama’s address to American School children next week. Conservatives have been up in arms about this speech, with some trying to liken it to speeches made to school children in totalitarian regimes.

The liberal argument for health care reform is based on emotion and it works. I’m hardly rooting for a single-payer system, but I know what it means to be without healthcare, and as I’ve stated earlier, I know what it is to be sick and without health care. Democrats may have the wrong perscription to solve the issue, but at least they seem to care.

That’s not what I find when I listen to fellow conservatives. There is no talk about what it might mean to not have health care or to have your benefits cut, or to deal with the rising cost of perscription drugs. As Mark notes, there is some talk about “socialized medicine” and how the US has the best health care system in the world and how we should focus on free market solutions.There is no talk about people’s fears or concerns about this issue.