The War in Iraq and Traditional Republican Values

At the same time, the destabilizing invasion of Iraq and our position concerning Israel’s invasion of Lebanon have nothing to do with traditional Republican values.

Perhaps it is time for an admission. Mea culpa, I was a Republican. But, over time beginning with Ronald Reagan, I felt as though we were moving away from core Republican values - until with the current “gang of manipulative rascals,” to quote David Brin, the use of power to manipulate racial, social, and religious divisions within the middle classes in order to achieve more wealth for an already overwhelmingly wealthy oligarchy is so outrageous – not to mention that it is also coupled with what seems to be an active attempt to disenfranchise entire segments of the middle class. So, what are those traditional republican values? * A brief list will suffice.

1. The limitation of BIG government.
2. Don’t infringe on the private lives of the people (don’t prescribe sexual behavior).
3. A reverence for the principles of the separation of powers, and of the church and the state.
4. To encourage accountability and SELF-CONTROL in the foreign arena.
5. To promote creative small business instead of an oligarchy of large corporations and their powerful aristocratic boards and chief executive officers.

My final moments as a Republican came when I realized that the entire evangelical Christian segment of it - and by extension the entire party, since the Republican powers that be have used this issue as a devise to gather the evangelical vote - wanted me disenfranchised because of my sexuality. However, it is time for middle class America, Republican, Democrat, Libertarians, and all other independents alike to realize that this gang of Neoconservatives has in mind to disenfranchise all of us through divisive surgical maneuvers, to cut us out from the political body in small groups. They believe that they own truth by God given right, and therefore are empowered to create a world of their own choosing, and their arrogance has no bounds.

Readings

* Brin, David, Ph.D., “War in the 21st Century: Maturity Vs. Neocon Panic and the True Role of Pax Americanna.” David Brin’s Official Web Site, http://www.davidbrin.com/neocons.html. Modified January 1, 2006. Viewed Tuesday, July 15, 2006, 10:10 AM. EDT.

Bush, George W. The National Security Strategy of the United States. The White House, Washington D. C., 2002. http://www.whitehouse.gov/nsc/nss.html. Viewed Sunday, July 16, 2006, 10:15 AM EDT.

Fukuyama, Francis, America at the Crossroads: Democracy, Power, and the Neoconservative Legacy. New Haven: Yale University Press. 2006.

Marty, Martin E. and Appleby, R. Scott, The Glory and the Power: The Fundamentalist Challenge to the Modern World. Boston: Beacon Press. 1992.