Will Republicans have the courage to hit the reset button
By Frank Salvato
web posted November 10, 2008
So, the voters of the United States have spoken. They have chosen – or we have chosen because it is important to treat the presidency with respect, something the Progressive-Left wouldn't have understood until now – a 47-year old multiracial man, who had a decidedly "Progressive" upbringing, who taught community activist organizations to pressure financial institutions into embracing bad business practices, whose records when in the Illinois Senate were destroyed and who started campaigning for the presidency almost from the beginning of his US Senate career. Congratulations, President-Elect Obama. You pulled off.
We, as a people, chose Obama, questionable theology and all, to be president over an increasingly inclusive, reach-across-the-aisle, established war hero who proved his love of country through bone-breaking torture at the Hanoi Hilton. We chose Obama, questionable political ideological belief system and all, over a seasoned Senator with a proven track record of getting things done and a man the mainstream media used to adore before he dared to run against the "First Black President," even though Obama really isn't all that "Black" (a genealogical examination of Obama's family line indicates he is 50% Caucasian, 43.75% Arab, and 6.25% African corresponding to the demographic of his Great-Great-Grandparents: 8 Caucasians, 7 Arabs and one African).
I could go on and on and on about how unqualified President-Elect Obama is to take over the presidency but that would be to fall to the fate of being a defeatist. I am a realist and the reality is that the election happened, the votes were counted and John McCain and Sarah Palin lost. I could choose to say the election was stolen by illegal voter registrations submitted by ACORN or because ACORN was intimating to college students that they could vote twice, once on campus and then one where they were legitimately registered. I could refuse to acknowledge the Obama presidency because he still hasn't satisfied Article II, Section 1 of the US Constitution requiring him to prove his citizenship. I could choose to do any number of things that would emulate what the rotten, narcissistic Progressive-Left did to President Bush for eight years but that would be to stink of their ideological filth and quite frankly, there isn't enough soap in the world to wash that stench off.
No, I will join Karl Rove in approaching the Obama presidency with an intelligent and realistic attitude. I will urge my elected officials to work with the Obama Administration when common goals can be accomplished, to try to influence policy and legislation when the opportunity arises and to vehemently oppose any and all policy that would be detrimental to our nation and the future it holds for our children. With 724 days until the midterm elections there are larger issues and actions that need attention and complaining about something that cannot be changed doesn't make any sense.
I mentioned 724 days until the midterm elections. When you think about it, that isn't a lot of time, especially when there is so much that needs to be done to restore credibility to the Republican brand.
Equitable or not, when Republicans screw up they pay the price for it twice as long as when Democrat screws up.
Democrats have traditionally taxed the people more and spent irresponsibly (the upcoming second and third stimulus packages are a good examples). It didn't matter that Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and President-Elect Obama were immediately responsible for the government's part in the mortgage crisis; It didn't matter that Democrats were in the majority for two years with every opportunity to avert the financial meltdown; all that mattered was that George W. Bush was a sitting Republican President, that was fodder enough for the political opportunists to pin the crisis on Republicans. Astonishing when you look at the facts without the mainstream media spin, isn't it?
Democrats have reneged on campaign promises time and again (wasn't Nancy Pelosi supposed to lord over the most ethical Congress in American history?) but a closeted gay Republican taps his foot in a Minnesota bathroom and a dinosaur of a politician tries to earmark a bridge to nowhere – which was defeated by members of his own party – and it is the Republicans that are unethical. Pay no attention to the fact that Chris Dodd took a sweetheart loan from Countrywide Financial or that Barney Frank's gay lover once ran a gay prostitution ring out of a property owned by the congressman.
And Democrats have applied double standards where race and gender are concerned. We covered their insistence that Obama is "Black" when he is factually multiracial at best. We should also cover the brutal way Democrats threw Hillary Clinton under the bus. But criticize Obama's choice of church as he runs to represent people of all races, even when its renowned pastor is known for his vehement Black Liberation Theology, and Democrats cry racism. Name a hard-working real American woman who has achieved to the Republican ticket and the feminazis of the Progressive-Left question her qualifications to be a feminist.
The point I am trying to make is that Republicans and Conservatives alike (and they are not one in the same) have to execute their politics more intelligently and more efficiently. We have to hold ourselves to a higher standard on every issue and at every level. We have to live what we believe and for many politicos – elected officials, think tankers, staffers, lobbyists and activists – who have become fixtures inside the beltway that will be impossible. To these people we must say goodbye...or, you're fired.
If the Republican Party is to reform itself we have to do it in a very discriminating fashion and that means disassociating the party from the status quo. We have to purge the cancer and that means accepting the resignations of the GOP leadership. They have failed us two election cycles in a row now and many hardcore Conservatives believe they abandoned the principles of Conservatism long before that. We also must have the courage to look at the traditional big money organizations and individuals and say we will not be beholden to your special interest issues if they lay outside the tenets of the Republican Party and if they put politics before good government.
Above all we have to champion the political futures of the reformist new breed; individuals with courage to do and stand for the founding principles of the Republican Party circa 1856, like Sarah Palin, Michael Steele, Bobby Jindal, Tom Coburn and Eric Cantor. We as a movement, the reformist new-breed Republican Party, must rededicate ourselves to the tenets of Republican Party, realizing that to espouse a belief in individual and civic responsibility is to have to act on those responsibilities as well.
If Republicans are to regain the trust of the American people we must condemn the past actions of the irresponsible who acted under our banner. We must seek proper punishment for them when applicable. But most importantly, we must strive to inform, educate and define what it is we stand for so the American people know who we are. To succeed in that mission we must first attest to the basic principles of the party and establish them as the general core of our party's soul. At that point, once we know who is of like mind, we can begin to rebuild our party; to engage in the type of dialogue that defines the finer points of who we are. If we aren't cohesive on the basic principles of what the Republican Party stands for, if we aren't painfully transparent in what we believe and in our agenda, if we don't dedicate ourselves to defining and explaining the details to those who don't understand who we are, we will never recover from the compromised and vulnerable state in which we now find ourselves. 
Frank Salvato is the Executive Director and Director of Terrorism Research for BasicsProject.org a non-profit, non-partisan, 501(c)(3) research and education initiative. His writing has been recognized by the US House International Relations Committee and the Japan Center for Conflict Prevention. His organization, BasicsProject.org, partnered in producing the original national symposium series addressing the root causes of radical Islamist terrorism. He also serves as the managing editor for The New Media Journal. Mr. Salvato has appeared on The O'Reilly Factor on FOX News Channel and is a regular guest on talk radio including on The Right Balance with Greg Allen on the Accent Radio Network and on The Captain's America Radio Show catering to the US Armed Forces around the world. His opinion-editorials have been published by The American Enterprise Institute, The Washington Times & Human Events and are syndicated nationally. He is occasionally quoted in The Federalist. Mr. Salvato is available for public speaking engagements. He can be contacted at newmediajournal@comcast.net.