Editor,
George Will, Christopher Buckley, Colin Powell, Kathleen Parker, Michael Smerconish, Christopher Hitchens, C.C. Goldwater, David Brooks and even Mike Murphy (John McCain's chief strategist from his 2000 campaign) are saying it. Polls are reflecting it. And most important, voters are confirming it. The Republican Party has lost its way. It may be bad news in the short term for some, but there is strong evidence that a victory for Barack Obama will do wonders for the conservatives of this country - and everyone else, too.
In an election year where the American people are rejecting the religion-infused President Bush philosophy of government, where Ralph Nader is on the ballot in more states than ever before and where Ron Paul felt the need to hold his own convention, the American political landscape is ripe for significant change. Long hampered by a simplistic dichotomy, voters are seriously questioning how well one of two labels can describe their beliefs.
Among Republicans in particular, we are seeing a fiscally conservative contingent wonder how the religious right got so much power over the party. Libertarian-minded Republicans are wondering how neoconservatives have succeeded at waging wars of aggression and whittling away our civil rights. Fault lines in the Democratic Party, too, are showing signs of significant shift. Cindy Sheehans are challenging Nancy Pelosis; Green Party candidates are rocking the boats of previously confident Democrats; a Democrat-controlled Congress is battling Bush for record-low approval ratings.
I've long hypothesized that Obama's primary goal in this election was to reshape and re-engage the American electorate. To that end, he has emphasized grassroots voter registration and GOTV efforts, and by most accounts he is succeeding in his primary objective. Of course, winning the election is a welcome by-product for Obama in a climate where large turnout historically favors Democrats. But Obama is succeeding at more than winning an election. He is stirring up the complex stew of political ideology, moral philosophy and social perspective that is the United States of America, and he is inspiring record numbers of people to participate in our democracy.
And while people are realizing they don't want to continue down the path Bush has whacked, they're also realizing that simply passing power back and forth in an ill-fitting two-party system is equally
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culpable for the mess we're in. Maybe we won't burst free of a two-party system just yet, but Obama is causing people, for one reason or another, to examine their membership to omnibus political parties incapable of effectively representing the disparate voices lumped inside.
We deserve an honest political system, a system that calls a spade a spade and gives each spade a voice. Give me a Christian Party, give me a Socialist Party, give me an Environmentalist Party and give me a Neocon Party. At least this way we know where everyone stands and people will not be forced into accepting the values of one under the guise of another. However, we ultimately empower the myriad voices that comprise the political soul of the U.S. It is clear Obama is already bringing about change.
At the very least, an Obama victory will re-energize and refocus Republicans who have been disenfranchised in their own party by fringe interests with disproportionate power. It's true that Democrats will likely control a large majority of Congress, but true Republicans - fiscal conservatives and advocates of smaller government - will re-emerge and restore the checks and balances our founders intended.
Zac Westbrook
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