My Comment to the plan on rebuildtheparty.com

I posted this as a comment on the new plan at rebuildtheparty.com.

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To identify the 800lb gorilla in the room, the Republican party is in shambles because of:

1) Drifting to the left away from the principles of individual freedom and the free market.

2) Looking towards technology, grassroots support, recruiting, and fundraising, to address the problem instead of addressing the problem (see #1)

A reason why I left the Republican party is that Republican leaders have lost the philosophical battle by default - they choose not to identify and advocate the principles that won elections in the past. In the process they conceded their values to the new ideal of "the center". A centrist is someone who tries to escape the responsibility of thinking by not taking a consistent stand on relevant issues. By doing this they also implicitly reject the concept of certainty.

Observe that politics is the application of morality in a social context. If challenged, Obama would have been unable to make a consistent moral case for his socialistic policies - but nobody challenged him on a moral basis. All it would have taken is for McCain to ask during the debate:

"Sen. Obama, what is the proper role of government?"
"Sen. Obama, how do you differentiate right from wrong?"
"Sen. Obama, how do you know?"
"Sen. Obama, by what process of reason would you convince a rational person who disagrees with you that your policies are good and proper?"

In summary: as a party *you are your principles*. Republicans need to win the intellectual battle first, to do this Republican leaders need to choose to fight it. Republicans have traditionally been the defenders of individual freedom in the United States, and will only be a viable alternative to Democrats if they understand this role with it's full ethical justification.


Sincerely,

Matthew W. Yucha
Mentor, OH