The New Republican Party

I place a call to you today, Grand Old Party. It is a call for that which we have come to stand against in recent years, that which we must embrace should we ever hope to recover. This is a call from the pulpit of reason, a reading from the book of common sense. Our heyday is over. Now must begin the end of the GOP and a new start. A new Republican party, one which will rise from the ashes of the one America so badly burned in this last election.

This is a call for change, a demand for progress, and it must be heeded.

There are things that we as a party must do immediately to restore our battered image. First and foremost, we must fire immediately from any official position within the party Karl Rove and anyone who would steer our country down the path he sought to lead us towards. There is no more visible sign of all that which we have done wrong. The glib double-talk he presented to the media, the wretched ideals he pushed on the country, and the revisionist history he will ask us to believe following the Bush Administration must be exposed, condemned, and never revisited. Karl Rove was given the task of being the voice of our party, and he succeeded in turning states which had been Republican strongholds for half a century against us.

Moreover, he represents in its entirety all the negative stereotypes of the Republican Party. There is not a more oft-repeated viewpoint regarding Republicans than that we are led entirely by old, rich white men who come from old money and are completely out of touch with the world. Our detractors paint us as liars, manipulators, and dividers of a country already sorely split. We have done little if anything to prove them wrong. What is worse, in the face of the adversity we are currently facing, rather than admit our mistakes we seek to cast blame. Occasionally on one another, often on Democrats, and frequently citing vast and unseen conspiracies the likes of which are often associated either with crackpots - or us.

The time has come to get away from letting conservative pundits like Bill O'Reilly be the face of our party. What we need to get across is that one can be a Republican without being a conservative. This new Republican party must define itself along political lines, not moral or religious beliefs. For our political beliefs are and have always been about making the lives of Americans safe, protecting our freedom, and ensuring the strength of our union. We are a party about promoting the power of self-determination in a democratic country with a capitalist economy. We are not a party about holding down the rights of homosexuals, telling women what they can or cannot do with their own bodies, or oppressing the less fortunate in favor of our wealthy campaign contributors. This is what we have become, but it is not what we have to be.

The time has come to get back to our core beliefs and eliminate that which we have saddled ourselves with. We have done a fantastic job turning America against us by giving them a dozen reasons, often ones without merit or factual basis, as to why they should vote against our opponents. The country isn't interested in slander and negativity, and it has rebuked us for our bad behavior. We need to remind America why it should vote for us. We cannot paint ourselves as the lesser of two evils and consider it sufficient. We have to be good.

The people deserve a party dedicated to a government both small and efficient, not a bulky and corrupt bureaucracy. The people deserve representatives whom will defend their second amendment rights, and target criminals and the roots of crime itself rather than persecute law-abiding citizens. The people deserve a party of fiscal responsibility, one which will not abide by foreign debts and massive deficits in our spending. The people deserve a party who will not compromise or balk at the defense of our freedom, but nor will it spend the lives of our fighting men and women in needless conflict while the true threats are allowed to roam free. The people deserve protection for their civil liberties and the freedoms all Americans are entitled to. The American public deserve more than a party that gets by on pointing out weaknesses. They deserve a party whose strength speaks for itself.

Over the last eight years, GOP vampires such as Dick Cheney and Karl Rove have dedicated themselves to a message of division. Those who do not stand with us are against us. Speaking your mind is tantamount to denouncing a country built on free speech should your opinions disagree with our policies. They have turned the word "patriot" into a distorted and sardonic word, aid only with a twist of bitter irony. This is not who we are, Republicans. Our country is better than this, and its citizens deserve a party better than that. It is up to us to become that party. It is up to us to rise above petty buzzwords and meaningless slogans that the country has made clear it sees through. It is up to us to distance ourselves from the extreme right which creates petty conflict and distorts facts to fit preconceived notions. Republicans must stand for truth. For eight years and longer, we have built up a house of lies which has come tumbling down on top of us.

The Grand Old Party and its failed policies must be laid to rest. A new Republican party has, in this moment, a chance to truly rise up and invigorate the nation. We can take back what we have lost, and we can do it with honesty, integrity, and the support of the people behind us. Cast off the ways of old, and work towards the change we have so long tried to stifle out of fear. We must march into the future we have hid from out of fear of what it may bring. A Republican is bold, courageous, and unafraid of change. At least, that is the image we have projected. It's time to live up to it.

Otherwise, I may just finally go blue. I never did like playing for the losing team.