This iReport is part of an assignment:
Sound-off
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Posted December 14, 2008
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Moderate Conservatives or Bloated Bloviating Buffoons - What future will the GOP choose?
General Colin Powell, in his interview on CNN (12-12-08) said about Sarah Palin: "Governor Palin pushed the party more to the right. She had a polarizing effect. It was that attempt on the part of the party to use polarization for political advantage that backfired." (Merriam-Webster Dictionary) Polarization: division into two opposites. Therefore, the two sides of the GOP: Moderate, Progressive-Conservatives (Colin Powell, Chuck Hagel, John McCain, Abraham Lincoln) vs. neo-conservative, right-wight extremist ,fear-mongering, biggotted, small-minded "Bubba's" (what we have had for the last 8 years, also the current voter "base", and their apparent new torch-carrier: Sarah Palin). As was evidenced at her campaign rallies, Sarah Palin stirred the "base", elicited wild (bordering on violent) reactions against their opponent, appealed to her crowds by using that "folksy" (others called it uneducated) way of speaking that she has - being sure to add the appropriate amount of fear and hate language ("he hangs out with terrorists"), as well as the requisite other "musts" to appeal to the current GOP base: "I love my gun" "I love my God" Colin Powell wants Sarah Palin to know that he takes great exception to at least one item that seemed to be a constant talking point at her rallies: "She said small town values are good. Well I grew up in the South Bronx, and there's nothing wrong with my value system!" Powell, a 4-star Army General and former Secretary of State. Palin, former mayor of a town of 1,500 and current Governor of Alaska (population less than Rhode Island). One could almost use the two of them as the "poster children" of the two sides of today's Republican Party. In his interview Powell said "If the party wants to have a future in this country, it has to face some realities." "The Republican Party has to stop shouting at the world." And he referred to Rush Limbaugh and others like him as "these kind of spokespersons who appeal to lesser instincts rather than our better instincts." Those comments seem to be in line with what Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) said recently at a forum at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies: "You know, I wish Rush Limbaugh and others like that would run for office. They try to rip everyone down and make fools of everybody but they don't have any answers." Worthy of note, Hagel also lamented the lack of intellectual curiosity among some of his colleagues in the GOP. (speaking of Limbaugh and others like him) blo·vi·ate: To discourse at length in a pompous or boastful manner. Morton Kondracke, conservative columnist and regular commentator on Fox News wrote (11-21-08): "How can the Republican Party rebound? The first step would be to quit letting Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham set its agenda." Here's my question: Of the two (polar opposite) sides that comprise the current Republican Party, which one will they gamble their future on?
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