Small "r" Republican

This blog represents the thoughts, whims, and ruminations of a lifelong Republican who longs for the party of Lincoln to return to its roots. The age-old recipe of limited government, low taxes, and constitutional conservatism has led to a long string of electoral and policy successes. However, when the elephant enters the bedroom and stands for an exclusive version of family values, and when the party that freed the slaves seeks to deport the latest wave of newcomers in what was always a nation of immigrants, Republicans retreat to the wilderness of ideological purity.

Governance requires pragmatic compromise. We each enter the process with entrenched values which we refuse to violate. Moreover, elected officials represent constituents with their own individual and collective interests. Elected officials must balance these sometimes competing strains in order to yield the common good.

This classic formula of governance no longer works in application. We live in a fractured republic where polarization reigns. Members of each party seek to score "points" for their respective "teams," and the resultant vacuum has yielded unprecedented spending and related borrowing, broken entitlement programs, and a public alienated from the institutions that collectively constitute our small "d" democracy. Voters sway from one party to the other in search of economic stability, upward mobility, and more than anything, good governance.

The electorate is still searching, and recurring disappointments have opened the door to first the 21st Century incarnation of the Tea Party, and more recently, the Occupy Wall Street movement. Republicans were able to at least partially co-opt the former during the 2010 midterm elections, but have been stymied in their turn at the tiller of governance with a congressional caucus bent on blowing up the very institution they constitute. Democrats will without doubt seek a partnership with the latter come November 2012, and the results will be similarly predictable.

My design for a resurgent Republican Party draws from our rich history of embracing human rights and equality of opportunity in the legacy of Lincoln's "new birth of freedom." It embraces limited government, recognizing its role in helping those who cannot help themselves, building infrastructure, and maintaining rule of law. It holds steadfast to conservative values, but embraces pragmatism and compromise in the interest of the country as a whole.

I invite you to join me in my effort to restore our small "r" republic through the channels of the political party I have always called home.