Crashing the Party

Turkey was called the "sick man of Europe" as it straddled two continents-Europe and Asia and suffered cultural and economic dislocation as a result of this terminal division. The GOP is the "sick man" of American politics. Too many Republicans have made common cause with Democrats. Republicans accrue no credit for these cross the aisle overtures. They are battered by the opposition party, the Shadwell dinosaur media, and much of the public in spite of the Bush/Kennedy education plan, the largest expansion of entitlement programs with the prescription drug benefit, McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform, and the Bush/McCain amnesty push plotted with Democrats which fortunately was staved off (for a time). Republicans should have learned the lesson of Bush 1 who succumbed to the Democrats on no new taxes and then was slaughtered by Bill Clinton on the Hustings. What cooperation is possible with a party that accuses you of starving children and killing the elderly? Yet Republicans persist with collegial outreach. Even in their current campaign, Republicans are asserting with pride that they are not partisan. Senator Lamar Alexander starts his commercial with a narrator intoning that he listens to both Democrats and Republicans. If a politician does not possess an ideological affinity with a party, run as an independent. The last time the author of this column checked the middle of the road, he found a rotting skunk.