No Change At All

I think that America is growing up. Becoming more tolerant more open. Maybe we have become more pragmatic in general. This was not just made apparent by the election of the first minority President but the reasoning behind it. My fellow citizens ,some truly against their natural instincts, voted for the better candidate. They listen to his message and ideas for the country and made an educated choice.

I think some of this tolerance stems from self preservation. I don't think if your losing your home or job,if your dealing with bankruptcy because of an illness or disease you really don't care if gay men and women want to have the right to be as miserable as the rest of us. Or if women exercise their right to choose what happens to their bodies. Nor do we seem to care if the new president has a Muslim middle name.

The democrats have won the last 2 congressional elections and the White House in large part due to inclusiveness. Micheal Steel, newly elected chairman of the Republican Party, was touted as the historic rebirth of the party. I really heard a guy on Fox News say that.

But if the GOP has made an historic change at the top that's all the change some in the party want to happen. Even though this is the man,(Steel), that said that a job created by the government was not a real job, every time he says anything that would be described as sensible or inclusive, such as moderate positions on abortion or questioning the legitimacy of conservative host Rush Limbaugh, he has been hammered by those within the party. Now some are calling for him to resign.

When will the grand old party realize that a change in leadership without a change of ideas or methods will yield no change at all.

Barry Goldwater, the father of the conservative movement, although rigid in his stance of smaller government and even voting against the Civil Rights Act, said that "a man can change his mind" when he reversed his long held views on abortion. His wife was co-founder of Planned Parenthood in Arizona. I bring this up because as long as the conservative movement is defined in large part by the intolerant christian right they will never be able to grow the party.

When you can believe in smaller government and be gay or black or Hispanic and believe in lower taxes and still be considered a conservative, that will be change. If you stick with these issues and show the population how it will be better for them, now that is change.