Americans are youth oriented. We spend billions on hair dye, plastic surgery, hair implants... and that's just the men!

So, it should come as no surprise that any organization that has the word OLD in its name is going to have a serious problem selling itself. Look what happened to the popularity of the "merry OLD Oldsmobile".

"Never trust anyone over the age of 30" wasn't so much as a slogan as it was a way of life in the mid-60's. The Pepsi Generation doesn't drink Medamucil! Youth is rebellious, opinionated, argumentative, and very rarely do they follow the advice of their elders. Especially in politics.

The Grand OLD party needs a face lift to bring it out of the dark ages of the past. In this century of BlackBerry and Bluetooth, twitter and texting, the Republicans appear to be stuck in the past. They continue to adhere to old ideas and flawed logic, and travel on the same Republican road which brought us Nixon's Watergate, Reagan's Iran-Contra scandal, and George W. Bush's... everything.

We can forgive the personal infidelities of our young presidents Kennedy and Clinton, but not the dishonesty we've only known with our Republican representatives; Nixon's aides H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, and more recently Tom Delay, David Vitter, Larry Craig, Ted Stevens, Rush Limbaugh and Dick Cheney.

It's no wonder the Republican Party is having a difficult time selling their version of a "new" direction when the message is being given by "old" faces of 66 -year- old Newt Gingrich, or 62- year- old Mitt Romney. 

Youthful inexperience is never a deterrent when put up against youthful enthusiasm and energy. Just ask any experienced unemployed 55 year old applying for a job against twenty-somethings just out of college. 

Ron Paul's campaign of revolution might have made a significant difference in the outcome of the Republican primary had he been a young man of 47. What the young voters of America wanted, rallied for, and elected was a YOUNG President they could trust, not simply follow. A leader who would communicate with them, and not dictate to them. A brother, not a father.

Had the Republican establishment listened to, instead of dismissed, Ron Paul's message of individual rights, personal liberty, limited government and strict adherence to the U.S. Constitution , which excited so many, then found a young person to carry that message, that candidate would have led the Republican Party all the way to the White House.

But the Grand OLD Party wasn't listening then, and it's still not listening now. Seems you really can't teach an old dog new tricks, emphasis on the old, when the dog continues to play the same old tricks in spite of the lessons of past failures.

As long as the Republicans are more concerned with appeasing their ever- shrinking Christian and Conservative base with a platform of inequality under the law, total disregard of freedom, invading foreign countries, and continue to follow old men with old ideas, they will go the way of the dinosaurs.

The future belongs to the young and what that future needs need is a Grand NEW Party.

Reader Comments:

Posted By: LibertarianBlue
Date: 2009-05-12 06:45:41

One thing I would love to see the Republicans do is actually practice what they preach when it comes to small government. That would require them to stop using the government jackboot when it comes to issues like drugs, prositiution, etc, but it will be a cold day in hell before that will happen.

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Posted By: Jahfre Fire Eater
Date: 2009-05-12 10:50:59

Hi Raven West,

  I like the Grand New Party idea.  In fact, it is the only way I believe the slide into Socialism can be reversed.  I doubt there is time, but the effort to create a Grand New Party is still worthy.  Building for the future is the kind of optimism that fuels conservative principles.

I know it was just an expression but I don't think the face is the problem, I think it is the brains.  Every single GOP party official from the county level to the national level is wrong, obsolete and vulnerable.  They must go.  The only way to create the Grand New Party is for those youth, and the apathetic older folks, to get out there and take control of the party.  

They can't sit back and complain that the party isn't working when they let their enemies run the show at every level.  It takes guts and thick skin to face your neocon neighbors and tell them you're sick of the party they have created and that you are going to ensure the party promotes candidates who support the rule of law, individual liberty, limited government, free enterprise and the right to defend these principles against all enemies both foreign and domestic.

Sadly, it is far easier to quit the GOP and join a choir who likes the sound of your voice; like the Constitution, Libertarian, Green or Socialist Party are all convenient playpens for folks who volunteer to take themselves out of the fray but want to still feel like they are involved.  Nothing more than hissy fits as far as the past 30 years have shown.

For too long the principles have been offered as a brand-label for the GOP but in reality they have never been the basis for actions that elected politicians have taken.  Since Nixon allowed the GOP to join the Keynesians, there hasn't been more than a handful of conservatives elected to any position in the GOP.  

Conservative economics cannot fund perpetual religious wars.  That is the simple reason the GOP abandoned its fiscally conservative foundations.  

Those who pursue perpetual war embody the GOP from top to bottom.  Right to your neighborhood Precinct Captains.  They all need to be replaced.  No one is going to do this for us.  It can't be done from the top down.  It must be done from the bottom up.  Anger cannot fuel this kind of long term, thankless commitment.  Egos are not stroked in this endless struggle.  That seriously limits the number of people who would even consider doing the things that are necessary to bolster the defense of our liberty in the GOP.

-Jahfre Fire Eater

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Posted By: Randy
Date: 2009-05-12 11:20:31

Actually, the reason why the republicans got canned is because they didn't listen to smart people like Newt Gingrich. Instead they were being led by phonie big government republicans like George Bush. Atleast under Newt they got millions off welfare and got a balanced budget passed.

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Posted By: David S
Date: 2009-05-12 13:47:54

Randy our budget hasn't been balanced since the Eisenhower administration. The national debt went up every single year  since then. The only way the Clinton administration was able to claim it was balanced was by ignoring the money they took from the Social Security trust fund. Neither Clinton nor Newt produced a truly balanced budget.

Back to the  subject title; Most folks probably know this but it bears repeating just in case. Botox is botulism toxin. Injecting tiny doses into the face eliminates wrinkles because it paralyses the underlying muscles making it impossible for them to draw the skin together to produce a wrinkle. I would suggest that the GOP needs a much much larger dose... maybe one capable of paralysing the heart. Then a new party like maybe the Libertarians could replace it.

By the way the Democrats are no better. Their election victories were as much a backlash against W as anything else. 

 

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Posted By: gene
Date: 2009-05-12 14:52:08

Libertarians, constitutionalists, Greens, Naderites, True small government old school conservatives and old old school small government liberals. even free market socialists [the other kind are too bossy!]. There are far less diffences between all these folks than there are between all of these folks and the neo-cons/neo-liberals. A new unified party of outcasts for liberty! Add up a number of small numbers and you eventually get a powerful group.

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Posted By: Randy
Date: 2009-05-12 15:19:19

David, I said Newt got a balanced BUDGET passed. I never said we had a budget surplus those years. Of course, Clinton F&#$ed it up. 

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Posted By: Randy
Date: 2009-05-12 15:22:34

Gene, the day I join up with Greens, Naderites, or Socialists of any kind is the day I wish to be put in a white suite with cushioned walls.

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