An Open Letter (from a former Republican)

An Open Letter to President Obama About the Republicans (From a Former Republican)

Dear President Obama: I know that from time to time you read Huffington Post because you've written for it. As a Huffington Post reader you'll know that no one on this web site has more faithfully supported your candidacy and now your presidency than me. As a former lifelong Republican, son of a co-founder of the Religious Right; my late evangelical leader father, Francis Schaeffer, I'm in a unique position to tell you a few things about the Republicans from inside perspective. (As you know I left that movement in the mid 1980s.)

The lack of cooperation you're getting from the Republican Party will continue. You were right to indulge in a little bit of tokenism when you had to Pastor Rick Warren pray at your inauguration. But if you think that the Republicans in Congress and the Senate are going to do more than their utmost to obstruct everything you are and what you stand for you're dreaming.

As someone who appeared numerous times on the 700 Club with Pat Robertson, as someone for whom Jerry Falwell used to send his private jet to bring me to speak at his college, as an author who had James Dobson giveaway 150,000 copies of my one of my fundamentalist "books" allow me to explain something: the Republican Party is controlled by two ideological groups. First, is the Religious Right. Second, are the neoconservatives. Both groups share one thing in common: they are driven by fear and paranoia. Between them there is no Republican "center" for you to appeal to, just two versions of hate-filled extremes.

The Religious Right supply the kind of people who at McCain and Palin rallies were yelling things such as "kill him" about you. That's the constituency to which your hand was extended when looking for compromise on your financial bailout bill.

There's only one thing that makes sense for you now. Mr. President, you need to forget a bipartisan approach and get on with the business of governing by winning each battle. You will never be able to work with the Republicans because they hate you. Believe me, Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter are the norm not the exception. James Dobson and the rest are praying for you to fail. The neoconservatives are gnashing their teeth and waiting for you to "sell out Israel" or "show weakness" in Afghanistan, whatever, so they can declare you a traitor.

The problem is that when you deal with the Republican Party you're talking to the polished characters in Washington. I wish you could see the hate e-mail's that I have received over the last two years because I supported you, letters calling for God to kill me, telling me that I hate God because I supported you and that I am "an abortionist" and worse a "fag lover" because I've written that I believe that you will be a great president.

What those senators and congressmen are telling you is not what their rabid core constituents are telling them. Their loyalty is to a fundamentalist Christian ideology on the one hand and American exceptionalism of perpetual warfare and hatred and fear of the "other" on the other hand. Between the neoconservatives and evangelical Religious Right Republicans you have no friends.

The good news is that most Americans support you. And if you will just get in the face of the Republican Party and call their bluff you'll be surprised how many individual ordinary Republicans will support you, not to mention the rest of us. America is sick of the Republicans.

The Democratic Party won for a reason: the Republicans failed and have taken us all down with them! You're doing your presidency and America no favor by extending an open hand to the perpetually knotted fist of what has become the embittered lunatic fringe of our country. They would rather go down in flames than "compromise" their ideology.

As you showed us again at your press conference of Feb 9, you are a brilliant, articulate and decent man. Your Republican opponents are not decent people but ideologues bent on destroying you. To quote the biblical adage sir, don't cast your pearls before swine.

Frank Schaeffer
New York Times best-selling author

 

Threr are some excellant points in there;
including but not limited to Rev Rick Warren.

Another big, big difference between the Democrats & Republicans;Gov Mike Huckabee [R]did offer a sincere apology @ NRA concerning [one] 1 gun safety commandment violation/joke.

Contrast that to Mrs Clinton making apparently a serious statement about the Kennedy assination, which was a crystal clear threat to President Barack , about the time he pulled ahead of her in the primaries.

Maybe you remember her apology, it wasn't about the threat to Senator Barack , she applogized to Ted Kennedy. Amazing.
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Mrs Clinton is interesting in that she is one of the few to still call the global warming scam''global warming.'' Most of the scammers now call it climate change. But some still think God is in charge;
& low level living [below sea level]in New Orleans has consequences.

 

That's what they SHOULD do. NObama wants to transform USA into USSA*... nothing much worse than that.

*United Socialist States of America

 

A perfect illustration that there are at least two completely different world views out there. - - The one puts its faith in individuals, the market, and business to produce benefits based upon one's efforts. The other puts its faith in the collective and trusts those in government to distribute benefits to everyone based on "each according to their needs". - - Neither of these two groups see that the middlemen (bankers & politicians) play by completely different rules and agendas. For them 'private enterprise' means private profits for them and the public bears losses. For them 'social justice' means whatever I can bribe the voting public with before an election. Fiscal responsibility is important . . . unless my guy in office wants to spend like crazy. War is bad . . . unless my guy in office wants to start or expand it. The True Believer partisans rant and rave . . . while being played.
Personally I am of the view that the minimal interference of these power hungry people in our lives is preferable.
An example of the opposing world views: I listen and read as much as possible from both sides of the spectrum. Yesterday I was listening to liberal Ron Reagan and he posed the question that if Americans were so generous with their personal charity, what was so wrong about extending that charity to everyone (through tax supported govt programs)? The problem Ron - - - is that in private charity one has a choice and is not coerced. The problem is that in private charity you can impact directly how your donations are spent. The problem is that private charities are far more efficient and get more benefits to those that need them than govt run bureacracies. (And conservatives give more to charities - through their churches - than liberals.)
But I'm afraid that decades of indoctrination have softened the brains of t.v. watching Americans for far too long. Many think the idea of a European type socialist nani state sounds just fine. -- Hell, there are plenty that think Cuba is wonderful ! - - Of course they won't use the 'socialism' label - - - its been transmuted to 'progressive' now. (I am surprised how many of these socialists come to a website dedicated to trading - an example of pure Darwinian survival capitalism, however.)

 

I would prefer that there be no bailouts.

That said, when for decades you've had the gov't taking up to Half of your profits and taking None of your losses, it is hard to blame them for wanting recompense. All of this talk about banks and business wanting to keep the profits and socialize the losses doesn't really bear out when you look at historical tax rates, does it?

Just another way of looking at things.

 

I'm not talking about the vast majority of businesses - - just those 'connected'. Unless youre one of the companies getting billion dollar TARP money, if you take a loss . . . youre just out of luck. The rules are different for them. - - And the rest of the productive business community will pay for this just like everyone else - including small businesses who generate most of the jobs in the country.