Will Somebody PLEASE save the GOP?

For our country to have a healthy and robust democracy we need to have at least two strong parties competing in the marketplace of ideas. (I would personally like to see more than just two parties)The more competitors we have trying to present and implement the better ideas, the better our country will be. But that's not happening.

A poll was recently published by USA Today asking responders to identify who speaks for the Republican Party. A 52% majority of those surveyed couldn't come up with a name when asked to specify "the main person" who speaks for Republicans today. Of those who could, the top response was radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh (13%), followed in order by former vice president Dick Cheney, Arizona Sen. John McCain and former House speaker Newt Gingrich. Former president George W. Bush ranked fifth, at 3%.

Notice anyone missing? That's right, only one percent actually claimed that the spokesman for the Republican Party, RNC Chairman Michael Steele, spoke for the Republican Party.

I'm watching the GOP positioning itself to be more and more irrelevant every day. The opportunity for improvement is there. One could argue they have nowhere to go but up. But instead of offering sound policy and distancing themselves from the past failures, they are determined to hold on to the same failures and increase attempts to sell them to the public more effectively. The GOP leadership seems content concentrating on empty marketing and the politics of division.

As an example of this misguided direction, conservative commentator and columnist, Andrew Breitbart, recently penned an article in the Washington Times. In what was essentially a tirade of half-truths and conspiracy theories, he closes by outlining what he thinks the GOP needs to do to regain its past strength: divide and demonize our fellow Americans.

He ends the piece with this nugget: "The GOP will not survive if it doesn't accept the fact that the Democrats are its enemy and that it must begin to play for keeps. That means finding another Lee Atwater - only meaner - and not apologizing when we get him".

Yes, Andrew, that's what your party needs: more Rove and less Goldwater. Because it's worked so well in the past. Sheesh.

I find it interesting that Breitbart invoked Atwater. Before he died, Lee Atwater essentially apologized for the damage he did to this country in Life magazine:

My illness helped me to see that what was missing in society is what was missing in me: a little heart, a lot of brotherhood. The '80s were about acquiring - acquiring wealth, power, prestige. I know. I acquired more wealth, power, and prestige than most. But you can acquire all you want and still feel empty. What power wouldn't I trade for a little more time with my family? What price wouldn't I pay for an evening with friends? It took a deadly illness to put me eye to eye with that truth, but it is a truth that the country, caught up in its ruthless ambitions and moral decay, can learn on my dime. I don't know who will lead us through the '90s, but they must be made to speak to this spiritual vacuum at the heart of American society, this tumor of the soul.

The politics of division: Who's it going to be next?

It seems the GOP is determined to pigeon-hole themselves into a smaller and smaller corner, pushing out not only the moderates from their party, but entire swaths of the nation. How often do we hear O'Reilley pontificating about "San Francisco values"? Or my two favorites: "East Coast Liberals" and "Hollywood Liberals". How about the Fox News regulars questioning the loyalty of their respected party members like Colin Powell for questioning failed policy? Remember Palin's suggestion that rural Americans were the "real Americans". I guess to her, those places where most of America lives just aren't American enough.

Let's hope the national Republican Party can stop the divisiveness and learn from their mistakes before they go the way of Lee Atwater. I'd love nothing more than to see good ideas from both parties being challenged by even better ideas from both parties. For the good of the country.

BTW, when I recently wrote about my concern for the right wing media inciting violence and extremism, one commenter accused me of "lies, innuendo, and dishonesty." Since then, we've had a shooting at the Holocaust Museum and the assassination of a women's health-care provider. I wonder how many more will die before I'm offered an apology.