The problem with the Republican party is that it has abandoned many of the conservative principles it once stood for. Can anyone claim that George W. Bush has been a proponent of limited government? Has McCain ever been an advocate of conservative ideals? Did Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska come across as someone taking responsibility for his actions? I’m amazed only 61% of Americans think the GOP smells bad.

The issue with the poll as described by CNN is that it doesn’t point out why people are looking down on the GOP. If I were a respondent in the poll I would have told them I hold the GOP in an unfavorable light. That doesn’t mean I’m for Obama. That doesn’t mean I’m a liberal. It means I’m a conservative and that I’m disgusted with how the GOP has tried to out-Democrat the Democrats. I’m ashamed of politicians like Chuck Hagel who gets into office by appearing to be a conservative, then turns into a liberal, and then blames the conservative wing of the GOP for the GOP’s problems. Conservatives are not the reason I’m down on the GOP, Chuck, politicians like you are the reason.

How can the Republicans become popular again? By going back to what they did when they won in ’80 and ’84. Whenever Republicans have stood up loudly for conservative principles they have won in legitimate landslides. When they’ve chased Democrats they’ve lost big-time. It’s time to clean house and get more Bobby Jindals in the party and fewer Stevens, Hagels, and McCains.

We received an interesting letter in our mailbox today…no stamp, no name, no address. A full page typed letter from an angry person who somehow learned we are Mormon. They went on and on about how we were terrible for having such hate for gays. How the bible taught the golden rule and equal rights, and we shouldn’t judge. Sad.

Below is the full-text of that letter (although Word auto-corrected a few spelling errors and I blanked out the f-word, but here is a scan of the actual letter).

I am writing this letter to you regarding the sign I saw in your yard one day as I drove through your neighborhood during the campaign. I was furious that you would have such hate. I have since discovered that your family is Mormon. So you are VERY religious people. Do you not remember in the bible where it states, “ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL”? In your case YOUR bible and your GOD does not define that for you let me do it for you. That would mean if you are white, black, brown, yellow, purple, man, women, gay, straight, disabled, non-disabled etc. we are ALL EQUAL and be treated the same. Oh and let me just state before you throw this letter away and not finish reading it, I am a straight women married to a wonderful man, but I have no hatred towards anyone of any color, or gay people either. I just wanted to clarify that with you.

I am sure also since you are from the Mormon religion you went door to door in your neighborhood to get the other people that had the signs in their yards to put them up as well, since that is what Mormons do; go door to door. All you were doing was spreading your hate and lies, just like ALL the radio and T.V. ads and commercials because ANYONE with a brain knows darn well that kids are NOT taught about gay marriage in school they are NOT even taught about marriage between a man and a women. Maybe in high school if they take a special class, then marriage would be taught but it would NOT be until high school #1, #2 the kid would have to choose that class, and #3 his/her parent would have to sign a permission slip for the kid to take the class before being able to do so; so over all everything your religious right Mormon freak party in Utah funded was ALL a lie and FRAUD, and guess what it was caught. Lawsuits have been filed and of course I am not going to release the information as to what they filed about because that is NONE of your business, but I guarantee you this it will go all the way through the court system and I bet end up in the supreme court and what did happen in this election the supreme court will overturn and if it doesn’t in the upcoming years our new black president will help pass it because he does NOT have ANY hatred unlike yourself.

Another thing is how would Mormons like it if another organization gathered and arranged something to advertise hateful things against you guys and put up yard signs that basically states that Mormons are hated and you had to look at that every where you drove around throughout your state? I don’t care what you say I know that you would not like that and no one does, so why do it; because you are hateful people. God doesn’t like hateful people. On “D” day for you Mormons you will find out what happens to people that have hate against others against gods beliefs of “ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL”. It also states in the bible, not to do to others that you would NOT want done to yourself. Maybe you should think about this because what you have done evil ALWAYS someway somehow comes back and bites you.

One thing that you and your Mormon counter parts should take into consideration, whether they come out and tell you the truth or not is, is that you have family that is gay, you have friends that are gay, you have co-workers that are gay, you have neighbors that are gay, so on and so on. To make a long story short gay people are everywhere they always have been and they always will be, and it is absolutely none of your business about what they are doing and it is none of your business to butt into their lives just like it is none of their business what others are doing and none of their business to butt into others lives, so really what does it matter to you if gay couples have the same rights as everyone else like they should have, they are gods children too just like all of us, we should ALL have EQUAL rights???? It doesn’t affect you and your life so it shouldn’t matter therefore butt the ____ out.

If this letter is sincere or represents the sincere feelings of anyone I think it’s sad that there are such misunderstandings out there, and I think it’s sad that anyone would perpetuate such misunderstandings about proponents of Prop 8. This letter does not accurately describe my feelings, those of my parents, or those of anyone I know when it comes to our regard for gay people. If anyone thinks this is how gay people are regarded, I would encourage them to find someone who voted in favor of Prop 8 and ask them why they voted for it, and then just listen, without judging, and truly seek to understand their point of view. I think you would find that it wasn’t hate at all that motivated people to vote for Prop 8.

I’ve already written on the hypocritical stance of many in the gay marriage movement, but it bears repeating since this letter is such an excellent example. The author of this letter accuses my father of hate, lying, judging, and butting into other people’s lives. This is all completely false, and yet that is exactly what this person is doing. She is full of hate and anger “I was furious…”, she spreads lies “ANYONE with a brain knows darn well that kids are NOT taught about gay marriage in school…” (it’s already been done in Massachusetts), she insults (just read the whole letter), she judges “…you are hateful people.”, she threatens “On ‘D’ day for you Mormons you will find out what happens to people that have hate against others…”, and she butts into my parents’ lives as my parents have never done (my parents never found out where gay people lived and then gave them anonymous, harassing letters).

I can only speak for myself and my own experience, but I don’t know anyone who hates gay people, and I live in Utah and am surrounded by Mormons. I’ve never heard anyone here ever say anything hateful about gay people–ever. I’ve never hated gay people and I don’t hate them now. I don’t even mildly dislike them. I do think the homosexual act is a sin, but I don’t hate people who do it. I also think heterosexual sex outside of marriage is a sin, but I don’t hate people who do that either. I think it’s wrong, I think it leads to unhappiness, and I think societies acceptance of sex outside of marriage has led to a lot of pain and suffering in this world in the form of broken and disfunctional homes with innocent children bearing the brunt of the consequences. I think government redefining marriage to include gay marriage would be another brick removed from the wall that protects families, and that all of society will suffer as a result. That’s why I was in favor of Prop 8. There’s nothing hateful about it, it’s just a logical, rational, pragmatic decision based on what I believe about how society depends on healthy, traditional families to provide the greatest chance for happiness for the greatest number of people.

This is not a religious matter for me. Even if I were an atheist I would still have the same perspective based on the evidence I’ve seen. I don’t think we should legalize gay marriage any more than I think we should legalize stealing. Just as legalizing stealing would obviously lead to unhappiness and suffering, so to I believe the legalization of gay marriage will lead to increased unhappiness and suffering. I don’t hate thieves, but I don’t believe even thieves would be happy in the long run if theft were legalized. Likewise I don’t think gay people will truly be happy if gay marriage becomes legal.

If gay people feel that everyone hates them then I’m sorry for that. I’m sure there are some hateful people out there. I’m not one of them and I don’t know any that are. I suspect there are very few of these truly hateful people around and that opponents of Prop 8 have tried to make everyone who is for Prop 8 look hateful in order to get votes and promote their agenda. But such a path only divides and does nothing to bring about tolerance and unity.

But first, let’s agree on what certain words mean.

Religion. For the purposed of our argument here, the word religion refers to one’s primary worldview and how this dictates one’s thoughts and actions. Or in other words, everyone has a religion, and your religion is simply defined as “whatever you believe.” This would mean that atheists, environmentalists, vegans, and homosexuals each have their own religion, in addition to Catholics, Jews, evangelicals, and Mormons.

Church. An official organizational entity that subscribes to a particular religion, i.e. the Baptist Church, the Catholic Church, the Mormon Church, etc.

And now on to the argument itself…

1. The Founders did not intend for there to be no religion in government. The words “separation of church and state” are nowhere to be found in the US Constitution, as many think. What is in the Constitution are these words:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The Founders intended that government should not interfere with religion, and the idea of a separation of church and state, as understood by the Founders, was reactionary. That is, the Founders were reacting to the situation in Europe, where there was no separation between governments and churches–the church was the government, and vice versa. Our Founders wanted a government that was not entwined with any particular church. They did not want to remove all religious expression from the public forum, they merely did not want any church to run the government and force everyone to join their church or be discriminated against. That’s why the pilgrims left Europe in the first place, and they didn’t want it to happen here.

If you do even a small amount of research into the Founders you’ll see that they were almost all highly religious and that religious thought was widely integrated into government when this nation was first founded.

2. We already have a separation of church and state. Once you understand the perspective of the Founders then you’ll understand that we have always had a separation of church and state in this country. To say otherwise you would need to prove that a certain church is controlling our government. It is doubtful that you could make the case that any one church is even highly influential in our government. Yes, there are religions that are highly influential, but no specific church, and even if you want to talk about religions there is quite a diversity of those.

Those who advocate a total removal of religion from government cannot achieve it. Even if we said that only atheists could hold government office we would have done nothing but trade one religion for another. It is not dangerous to have religion involved with government, but rather any one specific church exercising undue influence or control. If anyone can show me an example of a time when a specific church controlled the US government in a way that would be in fulfillment of the fears the Founders had then I’d be interested to learn about it.

3. Proponents of Prop 8 are no more seeking to force their religion on anyone than are opponents to Prop 8. Prop 8 came about because certain people did not want to be forced to accept homosexuality. They saw the risk that if recognized by the government then homosexuality would be taught in public schools, that churches could be discriminated against, and that the general acceptance of a homosexual lifestyle would become more prevalent and open. Opponents to Prop 8 have said these are lies, but these things have already happened in Massachusetts where gay marriage is legal. But that’s not even the point. The point is that there are people who don’t want the word “marriage” to be redefined, and there are other people who do want to redefine it. Both sides have their own religion, and both sides want to force their religious view on the other side. There is no way to remove religion (as defined above) from the matter. All that can be done is to let the people choose, in democratic fashion, what they want the definition of the word “marriage” to be.

The people decided once, but it was overturned by the California Supreme Court. Unlike most Prop 8 supporters I don’t have a problem with that. I think courts should overturn laws they legitimately feel violate the constitution. But now it has been made part of the constitution through a legal process, and can no longer be declared unconstitutional.

4. The people have the right to force their religion on others through the democratic process. Prop 8 supporters have no more forced their religion on others than all of us who agree with the rule of law do. Do you believe people who steal should be punished? Isn’t that forcing your religion on others who believe otherwise? It most certainly is, but hardly anyone complains about this coercion and intolerance because it is generally accepted as being obvious that law to control theft are beneficial to society.

Those who supported Prop 8 believe that redefining marriage to include gay couples would be detrimental to society, just as legalizing theft would be, albeit in different ways.

If Prop 8 opponents do not like Prop 8, they have the equal right to use the democratic process to remove it.

Some might ask “How would you feel if the tables were turned?” I’d be disappointed. I would keep working to pass Prop 8 in the future via the democratic process. I might start home-schooling my children (as if I needed any more reasons to). But I wouldn’t protest. I wouldn’t try to circumvent the people’s will. I wouldn’t be angry. I would use the legal means provided to us by our Founders of this country and those who organized the state of California. I would try to convince others to see my point of view by explaining it to them and using rational thought and logic rather than yelling and calling people names. And that’s what I would encourage opponents of Prop 8 to do if they want to fight this.

Blacks are born with dark skin. They’re not Black because they decided it’s cool to be Black, or because they feel drawn to being Black. They’re Black because their skin is dark. They were discriminated against not because of the content of their minds or the quality of their character, but because of the color of their skin. Born with that skin, they are not capable of changing it (with the exception of Michael Jackson). In fighting for equal rights, they were fighting to receive the rights already expressly guaranteed to all citizens in the Constitution.

People are not born gay anymore than people are born fat. People get fat because they choose to eat more calories than they burn, and people are gay because they choose that lifestyle. Some people, like me, are disposed to eat Ben & Jerry’s all day while others eat reasonable portions of healthful foods. In my case, it takes an overwhelming amount of self-control to eat right and exercise, while I have friends for whom it takes virtually no effort to stay in shape. Some people appear to be drawn to others of the same sex while others don’t feel any such temptation. Perhaps these feelings can be motivated by genetics. But nobody forces me to eat ice cream, and nobody is forced to be gay.

If those who wish to redefine what the word “marriage” means want to attract Blacks and Latinos, they shouldn’t compare their movement to the Civil Rights movement. They may be shooting themselves in the foot by making a comparison that is logically challenging, and which can come across as offensive.

1. McCain didn’t win. Wait, that’s a good thing? Well, maybe McCain wouldn’t have been as bad as Obama in the short run, but there’s no question McCain was still a negative. At least now we conservatives don’t have to defend ourselves an explain that McCain isn’t anywhere close to being a conservative whenever he does something in the White House. McCain’s career is coming to a close, and that’s good for conservatives and for the Republican party.

2. Democrat majorities. The Democrats are decidedly in power, and that means the blame for whatever the Democrats do in the next four years can’t be put on Republicans. Oh, I’m sure it will be somehow as it has been with the housing/financial crisis, but it will at least make the case more difficult.

3. A black man is President. No matter how much you disagree with Obama’s alleged policies, you have to admit it’s something of a relief to have a black guy as President. Despite Clarence Thomas, Colin Powell, and Condaleeza Rice, people still thought that America was a wildly racist country. Hopefully we can get rid of some of that thinking, and hopefully the idea that blacks are being held back by The Man has been shattered. Hopefully, although I won’t be surprised if it has zero effect. After all, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton still need to make money somehow, and they don’t make it by telling black people that everything is ok.

4. Prop 8 passed. I don’t doubt but what this is only a speed bump to those who are attacking marriage and families, but a speed bump is better than no speed bump.

5. Democrats didn’t get 60 in the House. A filibuster-proof House would have made it that much easier for the Democrat leadership to pass their agenda.

Got any more? I’m sure there are some, if you are a glass-half-full kind of person.

And why didn’t they like her? Not because of her interview with Katie Couric (likely caused by McCain staffers telling Palin what to say vs. letting her be herself), and not because of her wardrobe malfunction (also caused by forces outside herself), but because she had massive appeal with conservatives and perhaps with a substantial number of independents. She, and other young, bootstrapping, entrepreneurial, corruption-fighting, conservatives like Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal are what the future of the Republican party is excited about, but the GOP (emphasis on the “O”) is trying to hold on to power and keep their players in the game. Eventually they’ll lose as a result of being the first ones to die, but they’ll hang on as long as they can, as evidenced by Senator Ted Stevens’ fight for his career in Alaska.

The true reason for McCain’s loss is McCain himself. Think about it. The Republican party chose for their candidate the one Republican who personifies the acronym RINO (Republican in Name Only). The most liberal of Republican senators. The guy who has constantly alienated conservatives, the very conservatives who make up the Republican base. The guy with a short temper, who doesn’t understand the economy (and actually says so) despite the economy being the #1 issue for most people, who has been on the wrong side of so many conservatives issues (immigration, campaign finance reform–which ironically came back to bite him, and the financial bailout). When it came down to conservatives saying what they truly liked about McCain, they could only point to one item–the surge in Iraq. Yep, he was right on that. But that’s about it, and that wasn’t enough to get people excited. McCain lost because nobody was excited about him, they were merely voting against the Marxist policies Obama has espoused, and you don’t win elections by getting people to vote against the other guy. Sure, Obama used the hate of Bush to his advantage, but the election wasn’t clinched until the economy went bad, which played perfectly to his advantage.

If Republicans want to win in the future, and they could have a good shot at it in four years, they need to elect new leadership in the mold of Palin and Jindal. Sure, they could both use more experience, but as evidenced by Obama’s win we see that experience isn’t the most critical factor.

Am I rooting for Palin to be on the ticket in 2012? Not necessarily. I think Palin and Jindal might be more valuable where they’re at, at least for the next 4-8 years. That would give them the time to become indisputably experienced and have a good track record to point to. I’d like to see conservatives focus on electing more of their own at a local level, i.e. governors and congressmen. I’d like to see conservatism in power in states like Ohio and Michigan, where great opportunities for improvement could be had and which would provide case studies for conservative principles. Then the GOP would be in a position to make their case from a position of strength, rather than desperation.

If you voted for Obama my question to you is…what changes are you expecting Obama to have accomplished by the end of four years? I’m not looking for vague accomplishments like “He’ll restore our standing in the world” or “He’ll bring fairness”. I’m looking for specific things, like “I will pay less in taxes in 2011 then I paid in 2008″ or “I will be paying less for the same or better level of health care in four years than I do today.”

Then in four years, you can come back here and see if it happened. So, give me your best prediction of what will happen. C’mon, don’t be shy.

Conservatives were afraid of Bill Clinton because he was a “liberal”. And perhaps he was during his first two years, but once Republicans took over Congress in 1994 Clinton quickly moved to the center and if you look at his record, he actually passed a number of laws that were based in conservative principles (welfare reform and NAFTA come to mind). While he was no conservative, he also didn’t succeed in advancing liberal ideologies to the extent conservatives feared.

Just as Clinton wasn’t as liberal and feared, George W. Bush has turned out to not be a conservative. In fact, he’s out-liberalled the liberals in many ways. From Medicare to the more recent bailout of financial institutions and other corporations, Bush has grown federal spending in ways that make a $25 billion loan to US automakers seem like chump change.

With Obama we don’t yet know what we’re getting. We’ve heard him say precious little about what his real plans are, and his experience is so lacking as to give us little idea as to what he would do as President. Based on what he says and his record, we know he is the most liberal member of Congress. But will that continue in the White House, or will he move to the center as Clinton did? In terms of what he says, he already did exactly that during the election cycle. But with overwhelming Democratic majorities in the House and Senate will he see an unobstructed path to implement his plans?

One thing is for sure, and that is that conservatism is not dead, nor has it ever been. However, it has been momentarily conquered, because we, as conservatives, allowed it to be divided. We allowed religion to be used as a wedge to divide voters between Huckabee and Romney and thus allow McCain to win the primaries, but lose the Presidency.

More importantly, conservatives have lost this round because we’ve tried to compromise our standards. Republicans saw Democrats gaining ground, and so Republicans have rushed to meet them, not realizing that the reason Democrats have been winning is because they’ve been hiding their liberal identity and masquerading as conservatives. When Republicans campaign as being non-conservatives they lose, because Democrats will always win when it comes to being centrists. Republicans win when they are unapologetically conservative and work hard to explain their ideas to the people, because conservatism is common sense and it works.

And finally, some Republicans became corrupt. Republicans don’t have a monopoly on corruption, but they get hit harder for it because they’re supposed to be the party that doesn’t do those things. Republicans are like the Mormon kid at school who doesn’t swear. Everybody else swears, and nobody notices or cares, but if the Mormon kid swears then everyone knows about it and the Mormon kid is disgraced. Republicans cannot tolerate the smallest amount of corruption in their ranks because it will be exploited to the ultimate degree.

Hopefully this is a chance for the Republicans to clean house and start over with a new slate of leaders. I would like to see a new Republican party, made up of politicians like Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal. I’d like to see a new, young crowd of enthusiastic conservatives who aren’t power hungry, who truly want to serve their country, and who are more motivated by doing what’s right than by pride, fame, or riches. I’m sure there are Republicans who do fit that mold who lost out in this election because of what their peers have done. But that should only serve as more motivation to reform the party so that it doesn’t happen again.

-A. Hart, Forest Park

Buy why, and how do they get away with it? Of course it’s not that they blatantly disregard the Constitution…well, maybe they do. But perhaps the majority of infractions can be explained by a radical difference of opinion when it comes to interpreting what the Constitution means by the words written on it. When it says the government is to act on behalf of the “general welfare” of its citizens, that could be taken as a blank check for politicians to do whatever they want to. After all, have you ever heard a politician claim their proposed laws weren’t for the general welfare? Nancy Pelosi could propose a law that all Republicans be executed and claim that it’s for the general welfare. Of course she wouldn’t go that far, but she might claim that shutting down conservative talk radio via the Fairness Doctrine is certainly within that realm. Free speech? They’ve already got their arguments to get around that.

There’s no doubt both McCain and Obama would trample on the Constitution. Obama has already said he’s in favor of redistributing wealth from the rich to the poor, and McCain has a law with his name on it that restricts free speech. But who would trample it less? Certainly McCain. And yet I can’t help thinking maybe we need someone on the extreme left to get in and make things a mess ala Jimmy Carter in order to get someone who’s truly on the right ala Reagan so that we can then fix things. I’m a bit disappointed that the only two real choices we have in this election are one guy on the far left, and another guy on the center-left. If the Constitution had a grave, it might be spinning. Well, it might be in its grave soon enough, no matter which way the election goes.