Great Reading

I've been working my way through Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, and I have to say that it is an amazing work.  I think that the philosophy behind the book is incredibly misunderstood and distorted by many in the general public today.  I do take exception to a few of her ideas, but as a whole, her philosophy is an amazing expression of what I have always believed.  The most interesting aspect for me is how the book seems almost prophetic of what is going on in today's society.

The number of blog ideas that I have just as a result of 2/3 of the book are mind boggling.  Stay tuned for more!

The Republican Dilemma

To put it bluntly, since the November elections, the Republican Party has been doing what it seems to do best sometimes....circling the wagons and shooting inward at ourselves.  Don't get me wrong, as a party, we do need to go through some self-examination and evaluate where we are, how we got here and where we need to go.  However, the infighting that seems to result from this for our party is not what we need.  The dilemma that the party faces is that we seem to have multiple distinct factions...the social conservatives, the fiscal conservatives, the Constitutional conservatives and the "inclusive" faction (some might call these the RINOs in the party, but I hate that term).  That is admittedly a simplified breakdown because there are probably more factions than even that.  Despite what the major media will say, the party is not simply the "Tea Party" and the establishment....or the Tea Party and the centrists, or whatever simpleton labels they try to apply.

The problem with the party doing this self-examination is that none of the factions are willing to concede anything.  Social Conservatives have their litmus tests and if the party doesn't pass those, they will take their marbles and go home...same for the fiscal Conservatives, and Constitutional Conservatives.  The "inclusive" faction seems to simply want to pander to the electorate and not want to stand on Conservative principles unless they are expedient.  What we need to recognize is that none of us can have everything that we want!  We need to begin looking at the fights that we can win, the principles that we can stand on, and the solutions that we can offer the electorate and reform the party around those.  Then and only then can the Republican party hope to achieve dominance in the political landscape.

Back in the saddle

I've been lax in blogging lately...life has a way of getting in the way of what we truly want to be doing!  I'm back and have tons of ideas for posts...more to come shortly.