A Republican Platform For The 21st Century

by John T. Simpson

I have been a proud conservative Republican my entire life. My father and Jimmy Carter saw to that. My first vote ever was for Ronald Reagan in 1980, and I have never voted for a Democrat. Ever. Even today, the reasons for my being so have not changed, despite the media’s and liberal Democrats’ tireless efforts to discredit my belief system. Though the times may change, core principles never do. I have also served this nation proudly in uniform for six years, and don’t regret a minute of it.

In the early 1980s, my military service brought me to some of the darker corners of the world. I spent time in South Korea and Marcos’ Philippines when both countries were under martial law. Knowing I could be shot just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time really woke me up to what exactly it is we have here in America. Seeing a thousand Vietnamese Boat People pulled out of the South China Sea in one day only reinforced my belief in America, Sweet Land of Liberty.

Today, the Party of Lincoln and Reagan appears to be in political disarray, which is why I am writing this OpEd now. Yet many promising developments, along with some huge mistakes by Congress and the Obama Administration, have opened many new doors for us. If only we will enter.

I know not all conservatives and Republicans will agree with my recommendations. But perhaps by throwing this all out there, you will realize as I do that a major debate on the direction of the party, in this exciting and danger-fraught age of the New Millennium, is not only necessary but vital if we are to survive as a viable political entity in America. So, On With The Show.

LOVE OF AMERICA: I don’t know about you, but I was totally disgusted with President Obama’s shameless Apology Tour around the world. Apologize to Europeans, on whom we’ve spent untold oceans of blood and treasure to rescue and defend over a century? Apologize to banana republic dictators like Chavez and Ortega in Latin America? To allow them  to slander us as Imperialists, even as they oppress their own peoples? How am I supposed to feel proud as an American now?

Spike Spencer’s OpEd “When In Rome, Fight Anti-Americanism” really sums it up for me. We Republicans and conservatives need to be a lot more vocal on what we and America really stand for and represent, i.e. the “Shining City on a Hill,” as Reagan so eloquently put it. We are not the Great Satan. Not by a damn sight! Liberals may be content to prostrate themselves contritely before dictators. I am not, as I am sure many of you aren’t. I certainly know now Spike Spencer isn’t.

We need more Spikes! And we need to be a lot more specific and vocal on exactly why it is we all love America. Those words and specificity will stand in stark contrast to the relentless America-bashing by liberal Democrats and the Left. Don’t just tell people we love America. Tell them why.

There really is no shortage of reasons. The Marshall Plan ring any bells? Indonesian Tsunami aid, which our Marines even disarmed themselves to deliver, going above and beyond the call? And forget the Left and the Obamamedia. Most Americans really do eat that stuff up. It’s called pride, love of America and self-respect, character traits that are as foreign to Lefties as clean underwear.

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BIG GOVERNMENT: James Madison famously stated “if men were angels, government would not be necessary.” Conversely, if governments were angels, detractors like us would not be necessary. But big government is far from angelic. In fact, it is outright demonic in many ways, trampling the rights of citizens over the most trivial and insignificant of matters. The larger government grows, the smaller we become, and the more government becomes our master instead of our servant.

We need to promote the outright slashing of the black hole money pit that our government has become, as well as its wholesale reduction. It is also a major sore spot with many Americans when Democrats like John Murtha get massive funding for airports in the middle of nowhere that just happen to bear his name. We need to root out all those pork projects, put them on full public display, and slam the President and the Congress without mercy or relent on them

Make them campaign issues. Voters are not partial to politicians who glut themselves at the trough of our tax dollars in order to aggrandize themselves. We need to hammer Democrats on this issue without quarter, as they slam us on so many issues. The recent Tea Parties were a very good start, but that shotgunning approach now needs to be focused on specific targets.

It seems a very good time to me to resurrect Sen. William Proxmire’s Golden Fleece Award in full measure. Don’t just tell the public the Democrats are wasting public tax dollars. Slow them where. Sen. Proxmire’s own prime example of the Department of Education spending $219,592 in a “curriculum package” to teach college students how to watch television is a real model of what to do.

Let’s use those examples as needles with which we can pin liberal Democrat butterflies under the political glass for all to see. Like the deserted and overfunded John Murtha Airport, they won’t be very hard to find. The real difficulty will be deciding on which outrageous pork projects to choose!

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FOREIGN POLICY: I am a total Reaganite in this regard. Yet it is Democrat John F. Kennedy who summed up my feelings best on this subject in his Inaugural Address:

“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”

President Obama’s may as well have read like this:

“Let every nation know that we are sorry, and do not wish them ill, no matter how much ill they wish on us. We will pay any price in pride and self-respect, bear any insult, befriend any mortal foe, in order to assure my reputation as a nice guy. I’m not like the other one. And thank you for not blaming me for things that happened when I was three months old.”

The current Obama Administration is dropping the ball everywhere on this, particularly Sudan. Not only is George Clooney unhappy with the present inaction by the government, Mia Farrow is now on a 21-day hunger strike over the situation in Sudan. Even rank liberals have expressed a desire to use whatever means necessary to stop the Sudanese genocide in Darfur, including military action.

I say we oblige them. Omar Bashir is now an international fugitive, and is still committing his genocide unabated and with impunity. We should demand the Sudanese government turn Bashir over to the ICC and stop their genocide or face all-out war. And if we must go it alone, or in tandem with other willing nations, it wouldn’t be the first time. There is right and there is wrong.

Which would be worse in the end? Wiping out Sudan’s genocidal regime and military infrastructure? Or standing by while yet another quarter-million Darfurians are exterminated? Some things are far worse than war. Like Auschwitz, for example. And Darfur.

Iran also needs a spanking over Roxana Saberi. If I were president now, I would give Iran’s thugocracy 72 hours to turn over Roxana, or we cut off their gasoline. See how fast they act when they’re looking at more gas rioting. And if that don’t work, warm up the B-52s and start wiping out their terrorist training camps and nuclear facilities, for starters.

Here’s how a REAL American president should speak and act with regard to the safety of American citizens abroad. Not that you’ll ever hear it from Carter II. Speaking of which. Hollywood Diplomacy isn’t working. Never has. And even liberals at HuffPo are now wondering why President Obama isn’t protecting American citizens abroad. How bad is that?

Neither should we. If dictatorships want to play, let them know that they’ll pay. That won’t happen with this government, of course. But it doesn’t mean we can’t express our vehement opinions on the subject, in stark contrast to the president’s. As I’m doing here. And have been.

We must also continue to win allies and new friends around the world with our generous aid, friendship and even protection. Though the press didn’t cover it much, President Bush was welcomed as a hero in Eastern Europe and Africa. Conversely, Poland, once very happy with Bush, is not in the least with the reneging Obama.

A strong Republican president can make an impact where it really counts. We can do nothing about those nations and people that despise us, even in our own country, except to point out how wrong they are. Repeatedly. And with the force of our convictions, and the overwhelming evidence of American generosity, good will and even heroism that cannot be denied.

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GAY RIGHTS: The Democrats are absolutely murdering Republicans on gay rights. The GOP’s vehement opposition to the recent Matthew Shepherd Bill, supported far and wide by LGBTs and even law enforcement, was a fatal mistake, and only served to alienate the millions of LGBTs in America even further from the GOP, and drive them all straight into liberal Democrats’ arms yet once again. It was a huge symbolic victory for liberal Democrats, and a terrible political defeat for us.

I know many conservatives and Republicans find homosexuality distasteful, gay marriage even more so. Yet they’re here, they’re queer, and they ain’t goin’ nowhere. And they are an incredibly rich, powerful and numerous political force in America, with the power to propel candidates into office or sink them for good. I’d sure like a real shot at winning races in San Francisco! Don’t you? Believe it or not, there are a lot of people who share our core values there, even gays. But they will never vote R as things stand today vis-a-vis gay rights in the GOP. Let’s give them reasons to cast those R votes.

Republicans need to wake up to the realities of gay life in America. Gay marriage is fast becoming a reality, as it may soon may be in my home state of New Hampshire, and will no doubt be a nationwide reality in the next decade. That’s a fact. On gay rights, we conservatives and Republicans are the political mammoths of the modern age. If the caveman liberal Democrats are not spearing us and feasting on our flesh, we are sinking into political tar pits of our own making.

We must wake up to the reality that gay Americans are a political force to be reckoned with. We continue to ignore that very basic and profound political reality at our own peril. We could also score major political points with LGBTs in one area the Democrats are hopelessly weak on: the horrific persecution of gays around the world, particularly the de facto gay genocide in Iran.

We should begin targeting and denouncing oppressive regimes like Iran’s, Cuba’s and Venezuela’s that persecute, terrorize and even slaughter gays like cattle, as we rightfully should anyway. It would go a long way in bringing many LGBTs into the Republican fold, given Dems’ silence on the issue.

I would even go so far as to punish the Iraqi government in order for them to stop the officially sanctioned persecution of gays in Iraq, which is now rampant and could not be more horrific. What good is freeing Iraq from Saddam, only to allow the present government to facilitate the Al Qaeda-like systematic extermination of Iraqi LGBTs? Kind of defeats the purpose, doesn’t it?

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IMMIGRATION: Again, liberal Democrats are beating us over the head with the club of ‘racist’ over the illegal immigration issue. Yet the successful stuffing of the Amnesty bill under Bush, driven by Rush Limbaugh and Herculean grassroots efforts, showed just how strong the undercurrent of opposition to illegal immigration in America really is, even from legal immigrants.

Again, we need not just oppose illegal immigration, but be specific as to why. The purpose of Ellis Island, where millions of legal immigrants were screened for diseases, psychosis and criminal records, has not changed, and should be our model. We welcome legal immigrants from all over with open arms. Always have.

But the protection of public health and safety must be paramount. We must state our case on legal immigration far more forcefully and eloquently than we have to date. I believe millions of Americans, the same who burned up the switchboards in Congress over amnesty, are dying to hear that message. I know I am.

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THE BORDER: We need to lock the border up as tight as possible without totally restricting the free flow of trade. The Mexican cartels are to blame for Mexican drug violence that is raging out of control, not us, as SOS Clinton would have us believe. It is not Americans slaughtering cops, beheading rivals in Tijuana, or that have made Phoenix the kidnapping capital of the USA. It is the cartels. Those same cartels are using our border as the Viet Cong once used Cambodia’s.

And all that doesn’t even take into account Al Qaeda’s and Hezbollah’s attempts, some successful, in infiltrating our country. We are a nation at war. To continue to leave the Trojan Horse of our open border to stand will get a lot of innocent Americans dead in the end.

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THE DRUG WAR: I’ve thought of a solution to the drug problem that may not go over very well with Republicans, and may even be more Libertarian in its approach. I say we legalize marijuana like alcohol, tax the shite out of it, and use that money to fight the real hard drug evils, of which cocaine and heroin are the most devastating. Come on! How many regular pot smokers do you folks in Hollywood know? I know dozens! Yet they are all normal and productive citizens who like lighting up after work, as many people like hitting the bars for a drink. Yet another reality we have to face.

What would be better? Continuing to waste billions in resources on stopping pot, which just ain’t gonna happen? Continuing to prosecute offenders and waste court resources on a relatively mild and very popular recreational drug? Or turning the situation around in our favor, as I have recommended? A bold statement, agreed. I seem to be making a career of them these days.

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CLIMATE CHANGE: The American people are about to be slaughtered with draconian taxes and regulations on Global Warming bills, including Obama’s cap-and-tax scheme that may raise our electric bills by 50%. I already wrote a scathing Big Hollywood OpEd on this discredited Ponzi scheme-like fraud, that may just destroy the economy and our way of life if implemented.

We need to be as forceful with Congress on this issue as we were on amnesty. Bush, McCain and Congress were all for amnesty at that time, but they all knew where their bread was buttered, too. We need to remind them of that fact vis-a-vis The Great Global Warming Swindle.

31,000 scientists signed a petition declaring GW a scientific fraud. But that is not enough. We Republicans, as Reagan did, love the outdoors, and believe in sensible conservation. We much show our Sierra Club side. And speaking of clubs, whenever Lefties and GW Moonies slam us as tools of Big Oil, ask them how Al Gore’s net worth soared from $2M in 2000 to $100M today. Even Big Oil ain’t handing out that kind of money. A most Inconvenient Truth.

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ABORTION: This is a subject that is very tormenting to me. I despise the mass disposal of human life it represents, yet the issue has touched on me personally as well. Until and unless Roe v. Wade is overturned (and let’s face it, that ain’t happening), we must also accept the reality of abortion in America as a legal right for women. Based on my own troubling experience with this issue, I do not believe sending women back to the days of back alleys and coat hangers is the way to go.

Yet I am also vehemently opposed to such barbaric and Dr. Mengele-like practices as partial birth abortion, or how much organizations like Planned Parenthood have made a cozy, profitable and blatantly corrupt industry out of infanticide on our tax dollars, and with full liberal Democrat support.

Some incredibly cold and inhuman practices by Planned Parenthood have even earned the term ‘black genocide’ by African-American activists. MLK’s niece, Dr. Alveda King, called the sweeping promotion of black abortions Planned Parenthood’s ‘racist agenda’.

A realistic and reasonable approach to yet another established reality in 21st Century America would go a long way in winning many hearts and minds. Conceding the issue of legalized abortion (as we should anyway, it’s been law for 34 years), along with other hot-button issues I have addressed here, could go a long way in winning the GOP many new gay, black and women voters, who may oppose Democrat policies but remain in the party for reasons given. Let’s give them an out.

In addition, by exposing the corruption rampant in the abortion industry in America today, especially regarding the Nazi-like Planned Parenthood practice of mass-marketing the abortion of black babies, we might even win over MLK’s niece. How phenomenal a political victory would THAT be?

IN SUMMARY

Many of you staunch conservatives, Republicans and devout Christians may consider some of my positions blasphemy, far left even. But if you look closely, they are the ultimate in Reaganite political pragmatism. You are all welcome to cling to the rigid and inflexible ideologies of the past. I would much rather accept 21st Century realities, and make some important political compromises and concessions in order to see some semblance of a Reaganite GOP survive, than to stand by and watch liberal left-wing Democrats turn America into a total one-party state. Is that what you want?

I believe my positions on immigration, foreign policy, love of America, reduced government, the border, the fraud of climate change and even the drug war are right in line with what President Reagan’s would have been, and are all hugely popular with millions of Americans. As to gay rights, abortion and the legalization of marijuana, I am merely facing the realities of the America we live in today. Those realities cannot be denied, any more than the brutal realities of today’s Islamist Iran can be denied by liberal Democrats.

Some adjustments on those latter issues must be made for the times, or we risk losing any future control over the former for all time, in Quixotic battles with windmills that will eventually rend us asunder politically. On the issue of abortion, a great deal of reform can be pursued in purist fashion that may even win us throngs of new female and black voters, if they see that our concerns on partial birth abortion and Planned Parenthood’s targeting of the black community for boffo business are genuine and real, and not just political camouflage to undermine freedom of choice.

Gay rights are now a 21st Century reality that should be accepted in full by both parties, as many issues like civil rights are now. To remain at odds with the tremendously powerful and hugely influential American gay community is to be like the hardline segregationists of old, who alienated every black American. It can only result in even more truckloads of votes and cash being queued at the DNC loading dock. Votes and cash we can ill afford to forego. I don’t want that. Do you?

I myself have built many new friendships and bridges to the gay community, both within and without America, in my relentless reporting and dissemination of investigative journalism on the Gay Holocaust in Iran. It is in fact that horrorshow, that Auschwitz for gays in Iran, that has caused me to re-evaluate my own perception of gays everywhere.

My heart breaks to think of how much innocent gays are suffering around the world, and it has stirred a compassion in me that just wasn’t there before. And it pains me to think that GOP representatives in Congress, in their heated opposition to what is in effect a symbolic bill named after Matthew Shepherd, one of America’s most well-known victims of real homophobia, may have burned some of those bridges and friendships for good by the anger and mistrust that kind of opposition inspires. How does that help us in rebuilding the party? Or attracting new voters and supporters?

Sorry. I’m with George Takei on this one.

Supporting gay rights in full measure is the right thing to do. And we have an opportunity here, by attacking the worldwide persecution of gays (which we should do anyway, just on basic human rights principles), to actually become their foot soldiers and heroes, something liberal Democrats are basically MIA on. They’re too busy trying to make friends with the gay butchers of Iran. Just like Chamberlain with Hitler. How many new gay votes do you think THAT would win us?

We can either accept new realities while sticking with the truly core issues that make us who we are, or we can sacrifice their future on the altar of rigid ideological purity. What’ll it be, boys? Yes or no? Many more issues, granted. I just wanted to get the debate rolling. But consider this also. If we make important political compromises as I’ve recommended, think of how many weapons we remove from the leftie liberal Democrat arsenal. They would then be forced to debate us toe-to-toe on all the other major issues outside gay rights and abortion. Those are battles they can never win.

Also let it be know far and wide, in Reagan-like “Let Poland Be Poland” fashion (which the Left also hated, but at least they’re consistent in betraying Poland), that I believe that we should let Fat People Be Fat, Gas Guzzlers Be Gas Guzzlers, Energy Burners Be Energy Burners (like Big Al), Gun Owners be Gun Owners, Hunters Be Hunters, Christians be Christians, Atheists Be Atheists, Straights Be Straights, Gays Be Gays, Tea Partiers Be Tea Partiers (of either party), Franken Be Franken, Moore Be Moore, Rush Be Rush, Beck Be Beck, O’Reilly Be A Factor, Stewart Be Daily, Government Be Small, Immigration Be Legal, and Smokers Be Smokers.

Unlike some people. I also believe we should let mass-murdering dictators like Omar Bashir, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Kim Jong-Il also Be Smokers. ’nuff said. Discuss Amongst Yourselves. And remember, elections are only eighteen months away. Get busy, people!

See you in the next DHS report!

Oh, and did I forget? Let Specter Be Democrat. Was, anyway. And since LibDems have super-majorities now, it seems a great time for the GOP to clean house of all the RINOs that are a left-wing liberal cancer in our party, like Specter was. I won’t go so far as to write a DHS report on them, but we need to show them the door. If they want to be asses, they can do it on Dean’s dime, not ours. We will never get to where we need to go as a party as long as they’re subverting us from within.

To paraphrase President Bush, you are either with us, or you are with the Democrats. Make your choice, Senator McCain. You are free to leave too, if you like. You can either wise up, or push your amnesty bill from the other side of the aisle. We could sure use a hell of a lot fewer John McCains and Arlen Specters, and a hell of a lot more Jim DeMints. Fortunately, McCain may be following Specter shortly, anyway. And for the same reason. Hope Springs Eternal.

Amen, and God Bless America and Ronald Reagan :)

MAJOR UPDATE: Supreme Court Justice David Souter is retiring. Obama has a vacancy on SCOTUS now. If Republicans oppose an Obama nominee based on gay rights advocacy or non-extremist pro-choice positions, you can stick a fork in the GOP. And call me an Independent.

I’d rather climb off the mammoth while I can, as opposed to sinking into the tar with it.


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Posted May 2nd 2009 at 3:13 pm in Featured Story, Politics | 257 Comments