NEOAVATARA

You can see my article, the Big Tent Part 1,  here.

Colin Powell, on Face the Nation, once again proclaimed he is still a Republican.  Powell (who I respect as an American hero) says that he has been a Republican for decades, and continues to this day.

Well, good for him, and good for the party, I say.  Heck, even Dick Cheney thinks it is a good thing.

Like I said in my previous article, The Big Tent, the door is open on the left for moderates, and even liberals.  Mr. Powell is more than welcome in my Republican Party.

But what Colin Powell wants is to have a larger voice in that party.  Well, I say speak out, and let the market of ideas do its work. For example, is not John McCain the ideal Powell candidate?  A moderate, strong on foreign affairs, with a military background?  As far as I can tell, there is no better Powell candidate in the Republican party.  So then, when the ideal Republican candidate came up, why did Mr. Powell support the Democrat?  And if Mr. Powell is truly a Republican, which candidates does he propose to help campaign for, like he did for Barack Obama?

Additionally, as usual, the media didn’t ask the most basic of questions to General Powell:

1.  Why are you still a Republican?  Just because you have been for a long time?

2.  What core Republican beliefs do you still hold?

3.  If you hold those beliefs, then which of those beliefs does Barack Obama stand for, since you voted for him?

The answers of those questions would be more illuminating than the usual nonsense we get from these talking heads.

At the same time, we see conservatives in the Republican party gaining traction among moderates; who would have thunk it?

Pat Toomey, the ‘too conservative to win’ Republican in Pennsylvania, is slowly building up moderate support.  Moderate Republican leaders have stopped publicly pushing to recruit a less-conservative alternative to front-runner Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate race, a sign that he has begun to calm concerns about his electability.

After the bid to run Tom Ridge for the Senate seat failed, Toomey seems the strongest candidate left to challenge Arlen Specter, who looks to have cleared the Democratic field.  Republicans clearly had a panic attack when Specter defected, and they didn’t know which direction they were heading.  Now, they seem to have a more rational course.

“In those days after Arlen switched, there was panic on the Republican side, and that has dissipated a bit,” said William Green, a GOP political analyst in Pittsburgh. “People meet Pat, and they see that he’s not a fire-breathing dragon. . . . He’s an economic, Jack Kemp conservative.”

And in an op-ed piece in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and other newspapers this month, Toomey outlined a vision of a Republican Party with room for vigorous debate around the “unifying idea” of individual freedom and limited government.  Though he opposes abortion rights, for example, Toomey wrote, “I would certainly not suggest that those who disagree with the pro-life position be banished from the Republican tent.”

Again, this is exactly what the Big Tent Republican Party is about.  All are welcome.  But we believe in letting ideas win out; well, at least we should.  If moderate ideas win, like with John McCain last year, so be it.  Same goes for conservative ideals.  We are willing to listen to all comers.  That said, in the end, I believe the heart of this country, and our party, is conservative.  So yes, you are welcome to speak you mind; but don’t be surprised if the conservative thinkers win out in the end.

P.S. I hope everyone gives thanks on this Memorial Day, 2009.