Thoughts from a "Reagan Democrat"...in case you're interested

I enjoyed your post, but I think you need to clarify your thinking on these issues. In that regard...

As Rush Limbaugh points out, no one will ever write the book "Great Moderates in American History" Your post shows why. You support the war in Iraq, but don't like how it has been executed. Please show me the war that went exactly according to plan. Those mean Germans really messed up our D-Day plans, you know. News Flash: Likewise, in Iraq, there are people with weapons in Iraq who are trying to mess up our plan there. That doesn't mean we surrender, it means we keep trying until we win, sorta like we did after D-Day. As far as a strategy for success in Iraq goes, that is likely to involve more troops, not retreat. Is that something you would support? And who are the Democrat leaders who will support it?

Next, you wrote, "if embryonic stem cell research can help cure serious diseases, then I support it, and think the government should help fund it." Isn't it interesting that embryonic stem cell research has produced nothing, but adult stem cell research has produced actual cures that have helped people, yet no one is crying for federal funding of it? That's because private sector research dollars are flowing freely to adult stem cell research and they don't need it. So since embryonic stem cell research CANNOT help cure serious diseases, if you are intellectually honest, you will now cease your support of it and will not advocate federal funding of it, right?

Finally, as to government solving all of our problems, what about government creating the conditions under which individuals can solve their own problems? Suppose, for instance, the government could get unemployment down to say, 4.4 percent, and create the conditions for relative price stability, so that those who wanted to find work could do so, without creating inflation like in the 1970's? Oh wait, that's what the government IS doing! Hey, maybe those Republicans weren't so bad after all.

Cheers!
Keith
http://socalconservative.townhall.com

Thanks for your reply...here are some (admittedly brief) responses.

1. The idea that there have been no great political moderates in history is simply untrue. You can start with George Washington. He was hardly a firebrand. He was one of the last revolutionaries to join the rebellion, because he had a careful, measured way of looking at problems. He was about the farthest thing from an idealogue that you can get. Abraham Lincoln was another. Go ahead and look for an ideologically fervent speech from Lincoln, even during the Civil War, condemning the confederate citizens for their rebellion...you won't find it. The truth is that a centrist (I think that word is much more accurate) isn't any more or less ""moderate" in their views than a liberal or conservative. They simply believe that practical solutions often involve pieces that might be liberal or conservative, as circumstances warrant.

2. Concerning embryonic stem cell research...I don't at all claim to be an expert...but logic tells us that simply because there haven't been breakthroughs in no way indicts the research as a whole as being unworthy of federal funding. After all, there was a point where ALL research was fruitless...until it bore fruit.

3. I agree with you that government can create conditions under which we can solve our own problems...I am a pro-business democrat. However the idea that EVERYONE can then solve their own problems, and it's basically just every person for themselves, shows a total lack of compassion and is an inherently selfish and mean-spirited philosophy. I believe in a combination of the strength of the market and the intelligent, judicious use of government funding (along with requisite accountability).

Anyway...that's what I think...