I have a very, very religious friend for whom having a gay child I figured would be a problem. One day she offhandedly remarked that she wondered when her son was going to come out openly, or whether he even knew yet that he was gay. I was shocked by her statement and questioned why she said that. She told me she had known since he was a two or three year old — the year his Dad refused to let him dress up as the Little Mermaid for Halloween and he began a one toddler penny search for enough money to override him. There’s nothing like the realization that someone you love, someone you consider wonderful, is gay to change your perspective on homosexuality. Any parent who can reject the child they’ve known all their lives over something like this wasn’t really a parent anyway.

B: From here push Liberty, small, transparent and accountable Government solutions.

C: Remind people the value of the Bill of Rights and stop pushing any Religion or Religous Variety, but note the respect the US Constitution gives to the Private Rights to Worship or not, as an Individual Liberty.

D: Break up these Conglomerations and bring back REAL Free Market Capitalism.

E: Teddy Roosevelt didn’t carry a big stick to have it turned on him.

F: Instead of 3 Telcos, draft Laws that require a dozen Telcos that must be given rights of access ACROSS THE UNITED STATES.

G: Repeat with Power Companies, Oil Companies, Gas Companies, etc.

H: Block All Mergers whose sole purpose is to consolidate market power.

J: Refine the meaning of Capitalism and how a corporation can thrive, but the notion of Consolidation must reach an early ceiling and by doing so urges these Individual Corporate Entities to expand without mergers that choke the markets and create such Federal Dependencies that are now becoming all too common.

K: Urge Competition through high standards to play in the markets across all industries.

L: Promotion of Excellence will be the only shot we have of rebounding.

this “radio” reaches 50+ million people a week. that is more than all blogs and newspapers combined. if talk radio is gone then the msm will be more powerful.

most of your suggestions are to copy the democrat platform. this is exactly why mccain lost the election. if republicans are changed to act and talk like democrats what will make people see them as an alternative view. republicans can never out pander the democrats and should not try.

would that be something like “separate but equal?” or how about this “coloreds only.”

just sayin’…

Rove on Fox is one reason NOT to watch Fox (except for Greta).

We need a strong, moderate THIRD PARTY. To house newly homeless moderate Democrats & Republicans. With a stellar marketing team. A party with a healthy mix of enough respectable Washington power players & young up and coming Moderates who are fed up with both of the established political parties.

It’s definitely possible.

The Democrat and Republican parties had to start somewhere in order to grow as powerful as they are today. Neither party was born powerful.

BUT BUT BUT — after watching American Experience just now on PBS (about the stock market crash of 1929), I’m becoming increasingly suspicious that Republican power brokers wanted to sit this one out because the economy is going to be the WORST any of us have experienced in our lifetimes. It’s going to get ugly — not as abruptly as was the case in 1929 — but there’s no doubt the economy will be increasingly bleak over the next few years.

I suspect Republicans didn’t want to be in power and preside over the mess. They’re free to sit on the sidelines now and point fingers.

With an economy that’s sure to be lousy the next few years, people are bound to lose some faith in Obama, Pelosi and Reid.

Remember, everyone thought Nixon destroyed the GOP, but all it took was 4 years of Carter to prove the doomsayers wrong.

I think the Republican Party would go far if people like Rush Limbaugh in particular were out of the picture. Frankly, I detest talk radio no matter what opinions are being espoused. Talk radio indulges ignorance and spreads dogma. When people are constantly expressing opinions verbally, it means that they are generally uninformed ones. If you are always talking or listening to someone on the radio talking, that means you have little time for reading, learning and social interaction.

Usually it feeds on despair.

Now that I am a person without a Party, since the Democrats behaved like sexist pigs, thugs and all-around jerks, I really wish I had an alternative. Beleive it or not, my AA father was a Republican, but I followed my mother and became a loyal Democrat. It’s hard for me to embrace a Party that I feel is racist at its core. Also, I’m pro-choice. Even though I’m for G&L rights, I think the ‘marriage’ issue has become like the abortion issue, an albatross hung around each Party’s neck. I wish gays and lesbians would fight hard for civil unions rights and find a new, innovative and creative word and way to replace the term marriage.

I thought about this notion of marriage being between a man and a woman long and hard one day, and the truth is, historically that is true. If someone has proof otherwise, please provide me a link to when 2 men or 2 women married in other centuries.

I am totally for rights of partnerships between adults. No one should suffer the indignity of not being able to handle a loved ones medical care. We all should have the right to name our ‘next-of-kin.’ But I think the term marriage provokes heterosexuals into a fit of possessiveness. I am totally from the Shakespeare school of thought that a “rose by any other name would smell as sweet”.

And I’m sorry, but abortion is simply a private matter. But, I, too, would like a more compassionate caring society in which women would receive the necessary support to have their children as well as the guidance to make sure that they don’t keep getting pregnant in uncertain relationships.

I totally agree about Reagan, but of course, I personally despised the man because his policies decimated the AA community at a time when we were making strides. The end result is a lot of this thug culture that you see now.

Illegal immigration must be stopped and is another issue that polarizes elections unnecessarily.

But yes, it would be nice if there was an alternative in the Republican Party for me.

BTW, I think Michael Steele is a drip.

Obama was asked immediately if he was going to run for the Presidency in 2008. He responded that he wasn’t ready & that he would have only served two years as a Senator before running.

Three years later, Obama announced his run for the Presidency.

Definitely suspect.

But before moving ahead, the GOP needs to recognize that the election of Obama was not about issues or about left or right. The election of Obama was simply the greatest marketing campaign in American history short of the Beatles coming to America.

Obama’s campaign started with a person with no experience and no qualifications. But a person who had the look and the voice – the package. They determined one message (only one) and Obama was too raw to waver from that one message throughout the campaign.

Issues did not matter, but the perception of certain issues did. He changed his position a number of times but voters did not know or care because there was an overriding perception of what they were and that they would appeal to them.

Finally, they executed with a multi-platform strategy that connected with people and engaged them personally to become part of the brand franchise – Obama.

Republicans should not be consumed with issues as much as the perception of issues and, more importantly, an over-arching message to people that is not based on the past (particularly 25 years ago) and only looking toward the future. It should be based on everyone being able to achieve the American Dream through achievement and reward (versus welfare).

McCain had no focused message and his campaign was erratic. He used messages that were relevant 15 and 25 years ago. In fact his typical talking points on “earmarks” and “pork barrel” were inside the Beltway terms that voters today did not relate to.

But even with the younger candidates in listening to some over the weekend I am still hearing the typical conservative issues recycled and with only one candidate did I hear anything that was a clarion call that people could look forward to while embodying conservatism.

The Us electorate is volatile .When things get much worse -& it will hit the Dem people more -then they will either not vote or punish them & vote the opposition.

It could be that the Bush years -well 90% of them will have been the best time in $$terms for a long time.

Americans will never live like they did 1996-06 ever again.