Friday, November 19, 2004
A New Name for the New Normal
Elephant in Exile
I've decided that it's time I face up to the facts that the current leadership in the GOP has abandoned the core values of the Republican Party and moved on into the realm of Big-Government Paternalism with a dash of Fundamentalist Dogma. Good for them. But I for one am bound by no loyalty to any one person in the party and won't trade my core values so my increasingly wayward party can hold on to power at all costs. Thus, Elephant is exiling himself from the current batch of heretics who are in control. Elephant is no longer on the edge, he is merely in ideological exile.
As stated before, I began working with the GOP shortly after I arrived in DC over ten years ago. It was an exciting time. The GOP was actually holding itself to a higher standard than the long service, entrenched democratic interests in power at the time. They promised and actual worked toward a balanced federal budget, accountable federal agencies and implementing well thought out and effective policy initiatives like welfare reform. But that's not what they stand for today.
As we have seen this week, ethics takes a back seat to retaining power, at least in the case of Tom Delay. And accountability? Well we all know about the problems with our intelligence services, NSA and the DOD oversight of contractors in Iraq....or course no one ever gets in trouble in the current administration. Spending...forget about it... 1/2 trillion dollar annual deficits are here to stay and could very likely impoverish many of us as the dollar continues to free fall. Socially too the current crop really gets my goat. I don't need a politician, who may be under investigation for fraud, divorced, on his third marriage, addicted to gambling or what not telling me what is good and right. I'll decide that myself, within the context of my faith, not Pat Robertson's, or James Dobson's.
At the same time I'm not prepared to abandon these goals and become a Donkey, although I'll strongly support their efforts when interests coincide. I still stand for fiscal restraint, government accountability, respect for individual liberty and market oriented public policies. I won't join the chorus of lackeys here in DC who are all praising the emperor's wonderful new set of close. Just as I will not surrender my country to the radical fundamentalist, I will not surrender the legacy of Abraham Lincoln to these pseudo elephants. Throw me in the ranks of Hitchens, Sullivan, former Congressman Bob Barr, Governor Milliken and the likes and let me paraphrase Douglas Macarthur as he retreated from the Philippines by saying..."I shall return"
I've decided that it's time I face up to the facts that the current leadership in the GOP has abandoned the core values of the Republican Party and moved on into the realm of Big-Government Paternalism with a dash of Fundamentalist Dogma. Good for them. But I for one am bound by no loyalty to any one person in the party and won't trade my core values so my increasingly wayward party can hold on to power at all costs. Thus, Elephant is exiling himself from the current batch of heretics who are in control. Elephant is no longer on the edge, he is merely in ideological exile.
As stated before, I began working with the GOP shortly after I arrived in DC over ten years ago. It was an exciting time. The GOP was actually holding itself to a higher standard than the long service, entrenched democratic interests in power at the time. They promised and actual worked toward a balanced federal budget, accountable federal agencies and implementing well thought out and effective policy initiatives like welfare reform. But that's not what they stand for today.
As we have seen this week, ethics takes a back seat to retaining power, at least in the case of Tom Delay. And accountability? Well we all know about the problems with our intelligence services, NSA and the DOD oversight of contractors in Iraq....or course no one ever gets in trouble in the current administration. Spending...forget about it... 1/2 trillion dollar annual deficits are here to stay and could very likely impoverish many of us as the dollar continues to free fall. Socially too the current crop really gets my goat. I don't need a politician, who may be under investigation for fraud, divorced, on his third marriage, addicted to gambling or what not telling me what is good and right. I'll decide that myself, within the context of my faith, not Pat Robertson's, or James Dobson's.
At the same time I'm not prepared to abandon these goals and become a Donkey, although I'll strongly support their efforts when interests coincide. I still stand for fiscal restraint, government accountability, respect for individual liberty and market oriented public policies. I won't join the chorus of lackeys here in DC who are all praising the emperor's wonderful new set of close. Just as I will not surrender my country to the radical fundamentalist, I will not surrender the legacy of Abraham Lincoln to these pseudo elephants. Throw me in the ranks of Hitchens, Sullivan, former Congressman Bob Barr, Governor Milliken and the likes and let me paraphrase Douglas Macarthur as he retreated from the Philippines by saying..."I shall return"
