Can the Republican Party reinvent itself and remain a relevant political force?
I don't think reinventing the Republican Party is a solution. The Republicans have to take responsibility for the mess we're in which began with Ronald Reagan's election and hop scotched from Bush to Bush presidencies leaving the country with a wrecked economy, 2 foreign wars, millions of illegal aliens, and astronomical debt.
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wants to empower "radical centrists" to get the federal government's books to balance (among other things). He seems to believe that structural reforms to reduce the power of extreme liberals and conservatives would make budget-balancing possible. He touts nonpartisan redistricting, for example. Washington Post's Ramesh Ponnuru is for nonpartisan redistricting, too, for different reasons than Friedman.
How radical? Remember, the Military Industrial Complex is a multi-trillion dollar industry that can’t balance its books.
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Who can balance the Pentagon’s books? IBM? Oracle? Microsoft? Quickbooks? Arthur Andersen? Listen closely to Rumsfeld. I think government will have to get even bigger in order to create a system of better accountability and transparency.
Could a radical centrist government approve the legislation to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the War on Terror in 90 days? Is an Iran with nuclear reactors a real problem for US? How much defense spending or spending reduction is necessary to balance the budget?
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The Tea Party movement is embarrassing. The Movement appears to oppose big government because the Democrats were able to pass Healthcare reform with little or no help from the Republicans, but the Movement spokespersons have nothing to say about the bloated Military Industrial Complex that lost $2.3 trillion in 1 year and continues to spend millions by the minute.
Obama was the radical Democrat that was going bring about change. This is about as radical as it will get. Anything more radical would be insane. The Congress, both Republican and Democrat would have to work together. Healthcare reform is the perfect example of how Republicans and Democrats work together. They don’t! It took a solid Democratic majority to get the legislation passed. Radical centrists can’t do it. The Tea Party Movement doesn't even know what the problems are.