What's next for the Republican Party?

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Official Portrait of President Ronald Reagan (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Let me begin by saying that I voted twice for Ronald Reagan.  He's something of a hero to me.  I believe that with Margaret Thatcher and the Pope, he gets great credit for winning the Cold War.  I rank him as a great or near-great president.

What has happened to the Republican Party since Reagan's day?  It's right-wing, Tea Party, nut-job radicals have driven the best people out of the GOP.  Colin Powell, much abused as W's first Secretary of State, endorsed Obama.  The late Arlen Specter had to leave the party to have any chance at being reelected during his last campaign.  I submit that Richard Nixon would be too centrist to find a home in today's Republican tent.  After all, he signed the first Clean Water Act and even tried to control prices to keep down inflation... two mortal sins in today's GOP revival tent.

The GOP was once a party of great men: Eisenhower, Rockefeller, Reagan.  Today it is a blend of under-educated, white-male bigots and billionaires who hoped to buy the White House this time around.

As to that attempt:  I am learning to like the Supreme Court's CItizens United decision.  It permitted these super-fat cats to dump tens of millions of their ill-gotten lucre into the Romney campaign, only to discover that many Americans are apparently still able to think for themselves.

Some are predicting a civil war within the GOP.  That won't surprise me. Until the Grand Old Party purges itself of the Tea Party blockheads, it has no real future.  You can't attract Latino and African-American voters while doing all you can to disenfranchise them via voter-ID laws and the like and trying to bust their unions.

I seriously considered voting for John McCain in 2008.  I admire him as a war hero and a rare surviving moderate in his party.  But when he felt it necessary to pick Palin as his running mate as a sop to the right wing, I swung over to Obama, Despite his lack of real experience.  Ladies and Gentlemen of the GOP, you will continue to lose the votes of middle-of-the-roaders like me so long as you continue down the path that led to Romney's defeat two days ago.

It's your call.

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