Fighting for the Soul, Part I

We are officially down to 4, and practically down to three or maybe two on the Republican side. We are also down to two on the Democratic side, but policy-wise there is such a small difference between Hillary and Barack that it's almost not worth mentioning. (It's kinda funny that Sen. Obama calls himself the candidate of change, yet looking at his voting record, you really can't tell much difference between him and 90 year old and almost 50 year veteran of the Senate, Robert Byrd.) However, there seems to be quite a difference between the two Republican front-runners, John McCain and Mitt Romney, and that difference highlights some critical issues that the Republican party will have to face.

Growing up during the days of Presidents Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter, there didn't seem to be that much difference between them. (Well, at least the first 3) All seem to want a big government role in our lives. None minded raising taxes if they felt the government needed more money. Of course, it was the "wealthy" that needed their taxes raised the most, so the wealthy bore the brunt of the annual tax raising parties the Democratic Congress and the current President held. There was a war (excuse me I mean "police action") that none of them wanted any part of after it was decided that we weren't even going to try and win. That set the tone for the defeatism that followed during the Ford and Carter years. Yet for all their genuine caring about the country, things were going to hell in a hand basket! We were faced with a combination of inflation and recession never before seen on our shores. The Arab oil producers believed they could influence our policies toward Israel by cutting off our oil. The Soviet Union started heating up the Cold War again with an incursion in Afghanistan. Our strong response to that was to boycott games being held in Moscow. Iran unleashes the start of current Islamic jihad against the US and the West in general by storming our embassy and taking hostages. To make it worse, the moderate wing of the Republican Party seemed just as clueless as the Democrats who were running the Congress. Who could help us in our dimmest hour?

Stay tuned for part 2!