Republicans continue to play a dangerous game of politics that may give them short term victory, but will ultimately destroy their brand and viability. They are allowing fellow Republicans to enter territory that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.

Republicans would argue that they can’t “control” what others say and that people have the right to “freedom of speech.” All this is true, but there is such a thing as enabling a person to engage in destructive behavior. You don’t have to strike the match that causes a fire to be culpable. Spreading gas in a building and walking away while someone else lights the match is enough for both parties to be guilty!

Republicans have indoctrinated Sarah Palin into actually thinking that she has a future as an elected official. She is an empty vessel that they fill with words that she has absolutely no understanding of. She is a pretty face, who uses folksy language and one who excites and rallies a fringe element of the party. No political strategist (Republican or Democrat) takes Palin seriously.

Governor Palin is an ethnic escapist dream where simple rural girls best slick urban intellectuals.

I can understand why people like Daughtery don’t like the GOP. Political Parties have to be involved in the nitty gritty of politics. Political parties have to work to raise money for candidates and try to appeal to a wide audience which means having to dilute your ideological beliefs. Political parties also have to govern and that means making compromises. It means that a President Bush has to give money to banks to prevent a Second Great Depression. It means that a President Reagan will raise taxes to try to tame a deficit. It means a President Nixon will create an EPA to deal with a growing environmental problem.

Of course for someone like myself who considers himself a moderate, I tend to like political party that is able to be a bit more flexible and pragmatic. Also, I have to wonder who corrupted who: conservatism or the Republican Party? I do know that before the conservative resurgence that began with Barry Goldwater, moderates like me had a place in the GOP. Now we are holding on by the skin of our teeth, if that.

On the whole I like Daughtery’s essay. The current conservative movement is embarassing and it makes it damn hard to say you are a Republican in public. I’m tired of the Joe the Plumbers and Sarah Palins who don’t have a brain between them, becoming what passes as intellectual heft among conservatives.

But I don’t think you can place all the blame on the GOP. It takes two to tango.

The stunning win of Scott Brown in the Massachusetts Senate race Tuesday has sent shock waves throughout the political world. But, as usual with tectonic shifts like this, everyone is totally misreading what happened.

Republicans have every reason to be crowing today and Democrats have every reason to be depressed. I would call what happened Tuesday night the “Browning” of America. The people of Massachusetts spoke with their votes that they are more interested in results, not party labels.

The problems both parties face is not with their bases, but with independent voters. There are more independent voters than there are Democrats or Republicans. In Massachusetts, 51% of the electorate is independent. The “Browning” effect is going to force both parties to come to the political center. That is the lesson from Tuesday vote. Any other spin is simply nonsense.

We have some serious problems within the Republican Party; especially down South. This is not to say that all White Republicans are racists. There are many who are not. Nor are all African Americans who are Republicans experiencing this kind of treatment. There are some in states such as California and Ohio who have had the luxury of acceptance and have been embraced by party leadership. However, in states such as Tennessee, unfortunately, this has not been the case.

When radical liberal groups like the NAACP, or the Congressional Black Caucus say that Lott’s comment were racist and Reid’s were not; what they mean is they agree with how Reid votes, therefore he can’t be racist. I disagree with most things the Catholic Church stands for, but does that make me anti-Catholic? Why can’t Lott disagree with Blacks on affirmative action, King’s birthday, or certain government programs without being labeled a racist?

How many of you know that Lott was one of the main sponsors of a bill that allocated over a billion dollars to Black universities to update their technology infrastructure? Blacks must be more strategic and less emotional. Just because one disagrees with a person’s voting record does not mean the person is a racist. This is part of the reason for the push back on a lot of racial issues by whites. They don’t want to be vilified simply because they have a different view. Any fair minded person would agree. That’s why dialogue is very important in matters like these.

By Richard Ivory
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Virginia Fuller is a rising star in the Republican Party, both a nurse and foster care activist in California; she is now running for Congress in California’s 7th Congressional District

History can be a stubborn fact for those who seek to ignore it and what better way than to pretend that the grand history of the GOP did not start in the 1850’s, that Lincoln was not the first Republican president, and that it was not a party of progress, than to just say that the roots of the party started with the past Reagan Revolution and maybe with Barry Goldwater. It would be good for those who seek to return the party to ideas that have nothing in common with Republicanism but who realize that they may not have as strong a platform to voice their desires otherwise and therefore any attempts to discredit the actual past history of the party is in their view necessary.

Let me explain. I’m a fairly well-educated guy that lives in the city, drive a Prius, gives to public radio and likes organic food. But if you think that his means I’m some kind of lefty liberal, you are so wrong. I don’t support the President’s health care plan (even though I do think there is room for reform). I am upset at his high spending habits. That should be something that would want to make the GOP go after people like me. But as Michael Petrilli notes, many in the Republican Party are not interested:

For decades, social conservatives have relentlessly targeted Black Churches as a way to bring more African-Americans into the Republican Party. Despite many sincere efforts, the numbers of church going African-Americans who vote Republican is smaller now than ever before.

While there has been much debate and talk about the Religious Right within the Republican Party, one could equally and strongly argue that African-Americans make up one of the largest socially conservative voting blocs in the Democrat Party. Earlier this year, the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life released a detailed study on the religious views of most African-Americans. The research was unique in that the new analysis found blacks to be the most religious group of people in the United States population as a whole.

According to the research, when compared to other racial and ethnic groups, African-Americans are among the most likely to report a formal religious affiliation with 87% of African-Americans describing themselves as belonging to one religious group or another. The analysis also finds that nearly eight-in-ten African-Americans (79%) say religion is very important in their lives compared with 56% among all U.S. adults.

In all the stories about former GOP candidate Dede Scozzafava and why she pulled out the race, there has developed a certain meme as to why she did not win in a three way race: she was a bad candidate.

In more than a few blog posts not only from her detractors, but from those who say they want a more expanded GOP, this meme has stuck and it even has an image, one of Scozzafava going to campaign in front of conservative challenger Doug Hoffman’s headquarters surrounded by Hoffman supporters. For many this is proof positive that Scozzafava was a dunce, a weakling, an all around inferior candidate.

If the Republican Party is to be effective, it can not wallow in negativism. Our responses to problems must not only feel the pain of our citizens but offer a healing balm which will allow bodies to heal from inside out.

Looking at election data from this week’s statewide elections in New Jersey and Virginia, it seems that the loyalty of young voters may only have been to one man — Barack Obama — not a party or an ideology, presenting a real opportunity for the GOP despite calls of extinction after 2008.

Tuesday’s elections results prove this point. The Republican candidates won the governorships of both NJ and VA because they carried the Independent voters in both states. The election was not about ideology, but about pragmatism. That is the lesson to be learned from the results.