TheProgressiveRepublican.net …If I was a younger man out to fix the world, that’s the blog I’d start. Maybe I will anyway. 49 is the new 41. Anyway, that’s the growth industry; Sane Republicanism. That’s the blue sky, “the future is ours for the taking” position.
The teabags have run their course. They’s had their angry day in the sun thanks to the election of a non-white President. They were the dying gasp of Nixon’s cynical southern strategy. A mere four years after their great mid-term election triumph, the leaders of that movement are scattered and demoralized. Who talks about Ted Cruz anymore? There will be another debt ceiling increase in five days that will pass without a peep from the people who said that debt ceiling fights, and debt hysteria were going to be the killer apps of the 20-teens.
So what next? Some counter movement must be stirring somewhere. Even though I can’t see it or hear it, I know it is out there. There must be some folks who come from the Eisenhower wing of the party. Right? If there isn’t, there should be. I mean, I can sketch out a Progressive Republican manifesto right off the top of my head.
– Progressive Republicans value a small, efficient government and recognize that collusion between big business and big government is a threat to our liberty and long term economic security.
– Progressive Republicans work for widespread opportunity by pursuing regulatory policies that create predictability and social/economic mobility while limiting the ability of corporations to undermine our democracy.
– Progressive Republicans believe that the individual and family are the corner stones of effective and vibrant societies, therefor we pursue policies that recognize the broad diversity of individual and family experiences that have historically woven together to create the inclusive American experience.
Etc, etc…. It would be easy.
It would be nice to have a legitimate populist counterbalance to the Democrats out and out prostration to monied interests. Of course it would require Republicans to disavow the racism that currently serves as the focus of the party, but that is doable. In fact it is inevitable.