At the crossroads...

Here is a great column by Newt, which goes along what I've been thinking about this week having listened to Rush and Laura Ingraham hammer the Republican party day after day.

Despite an obvious growing number of Americans who want center-right government, the Senate Republicans are not getting the message. I fear they may be stuck in years past where the MSM had a greater impact on public perception, and therefore Congressional Republicans were forced to do the eggshell two-step trying to avoid front page coverage by the NYT or the Washington comPost.

However, times have changed, and the old Republican dinosaurs are as unwilling to embrace current reality as are the old media outlets. It's time for the GOP leaders to wake up and recognize that the younger generation is rejecting the ilLiberal left and that we want traditional, conservative leadership instead of endless debates about filibuster rules for the Senate or some controversy concocted by the media about John Bolton's "temper".

The American left is reeling having lost the American election in November, seeing a democratic election happen in Ukraine with a pro-western man victorious, watching elections in Afghanistan and Iraq materialize, reform taking place in Lebanon, the Catholic church sticking to its guns while refusing to give in to those who think the message of Christ should be "living and breathing", and most recently the stories coming from France where the people want Chirac to reject the EU Constitution that he's been crafting for a decade or more.

If American politics were a boxing match, I'd liken it to Rocky IV in the mid rounds of the fight when the crowd begins cheering for Rocky after he has taken the best that Drago has to offer but has refused to stay on the mat when he gets knocked down. Slowly but surely, as Rocky bobs and weaves, he takes more punches than he lands but he manages to stay in the fight. Drago begins to consider the possibility that he is fallible, and that he may not be able to win the fight on strength and intimidation alone. In the end, it was the guts and heart of Rocky that gave him the ability to defeat the heavily favored Soviet fighter.

I can only hope that the GOP does not cave in to the NY Times editorial board and the anti-American propoganda from the American left, and that it wakes up soon to the reality that it has an opportunity to knock out the far left for a long time by taking advantage of the opportunity it has in front of itself right now.

The American left has been moving further and further left, faster and faster, since the 60's and the dawn of the sex and drugs culture. Conservatives have had a long, hard slog to fight their way back from that time, finding opponents at every turn. Because of my firm beliefs in individual freedom, personal property, limited government, and the existence of a Christian God, I am desperately hoping that the GOP reaffirms the principles once vocalized by Barry Goldwater and partially realized by Ronald Reagan instead of giving up after having fought this far back from the days of FDR, LBJ, McCarthyism, Hanoi Fonda/Kerry, and the national embarassment that was Jimmy Carter.

As Jim Valvano said, "Don't give up, don't ever give up."

Rocky, Rocky, Rocky...