Doug Ross suggested the following:
STRENGTHEN NATIONAL DEFENSE – increase the size, capability and efficiency of our Armed Forces, bringing back our defense spending to historical levels as percentage of GDP.
GAIN ENERGY INDEPENDENCE – open up ANWR and the OCS to exploration; aggressively pursue nuclear energy and green technologies; and incent private industry to aggressively pursue clean, renewable energy sources.
SECURE THE BORDERS – build physical barriers immediately as a precursor to an overarching, sensible immigration policy. If the boat’s sinking, you plug the holes first.
DEATH TO EARMARKS – zero tolerance for earmarks.
DEATH TO CORRUPTION – zero tolerance for corruption.
ENGLISH AS NATIONAL LANGUAGE – national unity requires a national language. That language is English.
IMPLEMENT FLAT TAX OR FAIR TAX – simplify the tax system by eradicating a tax code gone mad.
REDUCE SIZE OF GOVERNMENT – provide “whistleblower-style” awards for reducing the size of government and task the IRS (which will no longer have to worry about enforcing the tax code) with achieving the reduction goals on an annual basis
SPUR HEALTHCARE COMPETITION – Address health-care deficiencies – with competitive, free-market solutions, not Government largess.
ADDRESS ENTITLEMENTS – engage a bipartisan consortium to create a multi-million dollar competition to incent teams from private industry and academia to create solutions for our social security and Medicare liabilities.
I think that’s a darn good baseline.
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a very good baseline indeed. added to my blogroll.
About frigg’n bloody damned time.
If only we had a presidential candidate who felt this way.
Nice roadmap, now…. who do we have to help implement it? I’m afraid we will have to allow Obama to reap his destruction first before we can swing back to the right. That of course is if while reaping his destruction he does not implement laws to forestall that. As far as being a roadmap for the Republican party… Good luck on that one…. The Republican party has left the room.
I’m ready to bail. I don’t see Republican congressman making any effort to convince me the party remains intact. I need to see them on the steps of the Capital, ala ‘Contract w/America’ style, begging forgiveness and pledging their commitment to constitutional principle. I’m slowly climbing the steps of Libertarian ethic.
If the Rep’s can’t do the commit, my Representative can kiss his political seat goodbye.
Yes, pun intended.
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Nothing for social conservatives? We can’t include ending abortion, euthanasia and embryonic stem cell research, and preserving traditional marriage? I agree with everything you have here, but we need to recognize these other important planks of the conservative platform.
Amen I’m in!
I like the idea. Overdue actually.
I agree with Willys and Bob Sloggin. The Republicans had a chance with the Contract With America. They did zilch. I am ashamed to say I voted for Bush both times. He had opportunities to turn this country around and turned it toward the left. McCain is the best we can offer? Please! There don’t seem to be any conservatives ready to step up. I’m voting for whomever the Democrats nominate. Maybe after four years with Hil or Bama America will be ready for the real deal. If McCain chooses a conservative VP, I might vote the ticket, just betting that the VP would come into play sometime during the first four years.
How about reform Social Security and addressing education?
I would really have liked 4 categories…! I was really torn on a couple of them.
Reform SS – comes under “Address Entitlements”
Social conservatives – while I agree with your points, these are negatives in a sense. That is to say, I believe abortion is morally wrong, but no one demands that you have one. Euthanasia is also a personal decision as yet. Embryonic stem cell research would be addressed in “reduce government size”. Preserving traditional marriage is also a private decision. Yes there are governmental actions/decisions that affect social standards, but it’s up to individuals to preserve traditional marriage, not the government.
Education. Comes under “reducing size of government”. Return it to the local school boards where it started.
Under the encouraging medical competition category, I’d like to see the encouragement of more medical schools, and restriction of entry of foreigners into US medical schools unless the entrant intends to return to his country of origin to practice medicine. Expand the number of acceptable entrants to med school. Don’t lower standards to graduate, but lower standards to enter. Don’t limit entrants to the top 10% of the top 10%. If we were to have national health care tomorrow, there wouldn’t be enough doctors to carry the load. When was the last time a new medical school opened? What is the ratio of doctors to population throughout the US? I don’t think it’s going up! Supply/demand is a problem in medicine just like anywhere else!
These are all good points and we also need to get conservatives more involved in getting the message out.
This is a great start though and am happy to join in getting conservatism back in hte forefront and get the GOP to come back to its roots.