Reader comments
Let's take back GOP

The core issue here is one of Big Tent v. Little Tent politics within the GOP.

I fail to see how the GOP will win future elections by segregating into a Conservative only group. Frankly, without the Moderates involvement, the numbers (votes) simply won't be there.

If Democrats continue to divert Moderates to their cause, the GOP will continue to lose. So, the goal should be to build a Big Tent - not downsize. That will entail the ability to tolerate diversity and dissention within the ranks.

Odd letter. I thought it was the "liberals" and moderates that had been leaving the GOP in droves, and that it was purely the conservatives left. Oh wait! It's the social conservatives that are all that's left of the GOP. And oh my goodness! It turns out those social conservatives are... socialists! Well, how about those apples?

When did the Reupubican part stand for all of those things? The top tax rate under Eisenhower was 91%. When JFK proposed lowering it to 70%, Eisenhower campaigned against it becasue it would lead to deficits. Barry Goldwater was pro-choice and pro-gay rights. During both the Vietnam and Iraq wars, some Republicans accused protesters exercising their free speech rights of treason. I admit that Republicans always talk about less government spending, but they never seem able to restrain spending when in power.

This letter really fails the basic logic test. What is the difference if the “conservatives” start a third party or the “liberal republicans” set up a third party? Either way has the same effect of splitting the republican party.

"Sadly, the Democrats have a solid base of people who are going to vote Democrat regardless. They don't know what socialism is or what it will do to our country. They just vote straight Democrat".
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The Soviet Union fell because they had narrow thinkers like you (person who wrote this letter to the editor).

They thought it had to be all one way, socialism. You think it has to be all one way, no socialism or all capitalism.

The best way is to take the best ideas and principals from both. As the United States currently does things, defense, police, roads, education are all socialistic, based on socialistic principals.

Business is modified capitalistic, by that I mean it is regulated.

Take away socialism in education and see how long this nation lasts as a great power, let alone socialism in the other areas I mentioned.

Socialism is a great invention, if not used in a wrong way. The same is true for capitalism.

Until the GOP heeds the warnings of Colin Powell when he tells them the radical conservatives led by ilk like Palin and Limbaugh, are destroying their party with their nasty style of politics.
The GOP might seriously start their comeback with a sort of kumbaya approach.
Seriously.
Their nastiness is getting them nowhere but a bad and disagreeable reputation.

Colin Powell isn't a true Republican, and neither are any moderates. It is about conservative values and holding true to them. It is about low taxes and small Gov't. Any moderates who have run, lost their seats. Why? Becasue they didn't hold true to their values, a reason they became elected in the first place. So they suffered the fate those currently in office, should face. It is based on following your principles, not popularity. In fact, it always has been the Demos, or Progressives that are nasty. Learn where Republican came from, and what rights they helped bring to pass, and you will have a hint.

it is the RINO crap that got comrade barry elected

If the best the Republicans can do is more neo-cons, ie: social conservatives, like they have been offering lately I will continue to throw my vote away on some obscure third party candidate. I'm done voting for the lesser of two evils.

Yes, the GOP needs to boil off all the moderates and leave a concentration of conservatives, mostly flying some sort of religious banner. And, we all know different religious factions can get along, no problem.

We indeed need to take back the GOP. We need to take it back from the radical far-right authoritarian extremists (NOT true conservatives) who hijacked it in the early 1990s. We need to return it to its proper position in the political spectrum -- center-right.

It's sad to think that Barry Goldwater, the man who defined conservatism and the far-right reaches of the Republican party in the 1960s, was considered libertarian and centrist at the time of his death. That shows how far the Republican Party was skewed.

Until the Republican Party returns to center-right where it belongs, it does not well serve this country or its members . . . and especially does not well-serve the true conservatives who have been ostracized because they do not buy into the far-right authoritarian dogma.

I WANT MY PATRY BACK!

So the letter writer think Capitalism is the only way. Well we have seen how it has failed these past 8 years and who is kidding who about low taxes - this writer is very shallow and comes across as very ignorant of how a mixture of both capitalism and socialism is healthy for a society and there are many throughout the world. Capitalism in total reflects the greed and selfish of a few and has proven very unhealthy for society - look at the past 8 years or better still lets go back to when Daddy Bush was pushing World Order and I do believe his Daddy was a supporter of Nazism? yep that's all we need

It is really a shame that the conservatives of my father are no longer around. They were a moral, hard working, fiscally conservative, "live and let live" group, that governed from a pragmatic, reasonable, standpoint. They would have been a responsible counter balance to the excesses of the liberal left. Unfortunately the conservative movement has breed a bunch of anti-intellectual, ideologues that can't govern themselves out of a paper bag. (see George Bush, Dick Cheney) I hope conservatives, like Colin Powell, come back soon, the country desperately needs them!

To my everlasting shame I voted for Dubya in 2000. I now deeply regret that. I didn't vote for President in 2004.

Obama got my vote last year - It'll be interesting to see how his first term in office goes.

The notion that this current incarnation of the GOP, led as they are by circus ringmasters, bible-thumpers and intellectual featherweights, is sadly laughable.

Will the "conservative" movement ever again genuinely care about preserving the rights of individuals as outlined in the Bill of Rights? I'm not holding my breath.

The "ethnic cleansing" of RINOs from the party displays for all to see that the Pubs are controlled by a faction with a narrow right focus. They are more concerned with the purity of the concept than politics. These incidentally are the same folks who will never support the election of Mitt Romney.

Who do you wish to take the party back from?

Did someone who is incharge of the Republican party do something wrong?

I am interesting in some one articulating the answers to the above two questions.

To "liberal larry | 7:41 a.m." we need conservatives that are better than Colin Powell. We need a George Washington type, or conservatives that are more like our founding Fathers, who stood up to the Brittish Government and fought for freedom from an oppressive government.

I agree with the opinion writer. Ronald Reagan won two terms, not by trying to be all things to all people (big tent), but by living and governing by the true principles of conservatism the writer espouses. Republicans lose when they try to "out liberal" the liberals. As politics are now, the vast majority of the American people are virtually disenfranchised. The "choice" between Obama and McCain was really no choice at all.

What is needed is an alternative to the politics as usual Washington crowd. You would be surprised how many Americans would vote for a person who voiced and then stayed true to his principles.

Fiscal conservatism has momentum and can make a comeback. Unfortunately the GOP has been taken over by social conservatives who just want to force their evil lifestyle on everyone. You want to cut spending and work to get back to a balanced budget? I will help. You want bring daily prayer back to schools and pass amendments against gay marriage? I will fight you all the way.

Like the Utah Sheep-like GOP don't just check the "straight Republican box" on their ballots.
C'mon! But you are correct in that the republican party as we knew it is dead. Gone. Festering.
They will really have to shore up their list of candidates if they want us to believe.
McCain, Palin, Romney, have all proven themselves unworthy and unstable.
The GOP needs a new face, a new icon. They don't have it.
RIP GOP.
MT