Will the Real Republicans Please Stand Up...

Not so surprisingly – I’ve found that many folks who are seemingly anti-republican for this reason or that don’t really have a basic understanding of the political or economic ideology that breathes life into the republican party. What is surprising is that it’s not just anti-republicans who don't get it there are plenty of people who claim to be “life-long” republicans that to this day still can’t espouse the fundamental politics of our party base. Tsk. Tsk. They’re either in league with general republican philosophy because they were born into it (and never bothered to learn the issues they are purportedly supporting) or they’ve spent most of their lives opposing every other party because at one time or another it was considered “cool” to call yourself a republican (or maybe because so many other party leaders just suck..generally speaking).

MSM and the politicians continually bombard us with the great myths of democrat and republican stereotypes – advertising political opinions that aren’t really a variant of either liberal or conservative views. And sadly, republicans and anti-republicans believe it! In reality, the bulk of the demographic and psychographic make-up of most political parties is much closer to the center than most would have you believe but I guess politics wouldn’t be politics if our party leaders weren’t pushing their own agenda to engage independent voters.

In almost every election in the last two decades, the political dissent among voters has been characterized as “the worst it’s ever been”. MSM touts “never before have we seen the country so divided” blah blah. But when the polls are closed and election day is over – the presidential candidate wins by a relatively minor slide thanks to mainstream migration. It’s this voter “centricity” that keeps our feet on the ground and they live within the spectrum of every political party. The "liberal left" and the "conservative right" are actually the fringes of each party and represent the minority of both extremes.

Who are Republicans and what do they stand for
Well, here’s a few political philosophies that generally govern republican ideology (those that typically divide democrats and republicans) followed by a few hot-button items that are always show-cased to sway specific voter segments but, in reality, are not reflective of any “one” political ideology. [I’ll add that there is bound to be disagreement on some of these coming from individual perspectives, however, it can be said that these generally hold true across the broad republican base]

Conservatives tend to favor more economic liberalism and mainstay of social conservatism.

- Folks on the right favor less government restrictions/less government intervention on the economy: they’re for free markets, free trade; and subsidies for local businesses and large corporations. They support a larger defense budget along with a more broadly focused national defense policy. (foreign policy positions also tend to sway heavily within the party over peacetime vs. wartime resolutions)
- Most conservatives are anti-union (and with so many union workers being highly over-paid to take an 8-hour lunch break clevery disguised as an 8-hour work day...who can blame them!)
- Most conservatives are hard on illegal immigration and welfare, are against a government-mandated minimum wage and advocate more government activism on issues like imposing a military draft [a notion of patriotic duty]

That said...there are some key positions typically associated with the Republican party [i.e., anti-abortion, anti-gun control, anti-gay marriage, to name a few] that I have left out in my list of fundamental republican philosophies - and for good reason. While these are important issues in political discussions, surely, despite what some may say to sway the conservative right or liberal left, sidings on these issues represent neither the mainstream views of the liberal left or the conservative right and they yield considerable dissent within the party on both isles of the argument. Here are a few of my thoughts on each.

Abortion/Gay Marriage: The media likes to put the spotlight on folks who make the most noise so it’s no mystery why anti-repubs have the tendency to “overly” associate the Christian-right (aka the Southern belt) with the republican party - lending to the impression that to be republican is to be anti gay-marriage and pro-life. But this simply isn’t so.

In reality the Christian right, a long-time and large financial supporter of the GOP, represents "a minority within a minority" and is still only a fringe element of the party. Much like the abortion issue, the subject of Gay-rights yields considerable disagreement between party members. Many vocally support gay marriage and many vocally oppose it; a disposition of varying opinion that exists in just about every political party. The subject of gay-marriage and homosexuality in general, regardless of what party you claim, is a personal issue for many if not most americans.

Gun Control: “The lot of republicans are Gun-totin’, rifle-carryin’, free-wheelin’ southernites”... Not.
Well, maybe. ;-)

But the real divide over gun control isn't over the notion that gun control is a bad thing. Rather, republicans take the position that current and proposed solutions to resolve or noticeably impact domestic gun violence, simply put, are not at the present time supportable solutions. In other words - they don't make any sense and they wouldn't achieve the intended objective(s). Food for thought for our political leaders - if you haven't yet devised a policy that all sides agree is a viable solution - why put the weight of your party behind it (particularly when there's dissention in your own base as well). Every small step is not necessarily a step in the right direction.