There is a lot of bandwidth being used lately in the discussion over the rebuilding of the Republican Party.  The moderates and the folks on the further right (like me) seem to be talking past one another in heated discussions, but lets recognize some common ground and move forward.  Having now elected a new party chairman, it’s best we do so quickly.

I use the ‘big tent’ cliche in my title; we can attempt to create it two ways.  One is by trying to be all things to all people, in the manner that the Democrats have used in the past.  This works at some level, particularly among the segment of the electorate that does not dig too deep into the issues to realize the contradictions inherent in trying to please so many factions simutaneously.  Another way is to focus on a very few core principles, commonly held by a majority of the electorate.  Before I get into those core principles, let me set up my argument on that theme by covering what I hope is some common ground for most Republicans.  I’ll make some assumptions that I’m sure you all will be quick to correct me on if go astray.

 One assumptionI I’ll make is that we prefer that the decisions made about how government is to impact our lives be done as locally as possible.  In other words, the concept of Federalism  and the primacy of the states is something we can agree on (after all, it was the states which formed the union, not the other way around).  There should be 50 experiments in government going on with regard to most of the issues which concern us, rather than one ill-fitting solution dictated by a distant central government.  This also holds true when a national Republican Party attempts to craft a platform on a cornucopea of issues, most of which are better left to the state parties to decide.  The solution a Conneticutt Republican Party finds viable with regard to an issue may be entirely different from the one a Tennessee Republican Party has.  When the National Party is asked “what is your platform on issue A”, the reply would be, “That is something the for individual State Parties to determine, since we believe that particular issue should not be decided at the national level’.  This would put an end to the concern raised by Sen. McConnell and others about the danger of the Republican Party being a ‘regional ‘ party.  There are indeed regional flavors to certain issues which divide us, so let’s not attempt to address them with national solutions.

Another assumption I’ll make is that we prefer fiscal responsibility and free-market capitalism to the alternative.  As to the first half of that assumption, the public sentiment is in our favor generally (notwithstanding the sentiment influenced by human nature more specifically).  Please tell me we can agree that a “compassionate conservative” deficit spending program is functionally the same as a Modern Liberal deficit spending program – and cost us dearly in the 2006 election.  As to the second half of my assumption, I’ll go out on a limb here and maintain that this too is a widely held public sentiment, although one that is constant need of shoring-up through education and empirical evidence.  These are examples of two elements of a national platform.  A strong national defense is, of course, a third.

Someone made a comment that “the Republican Party has too many principles”.  Well, I place a great value on principles.  I would rather say we have too many planks in our platform, which alienate some folks unnecessarily.  Some issues are vastly more important than others for our survival and continued prosperity as a nation, let’s focus on those at the national level.  Some of the more divisive social issues (where ‘one size does not fit all’)  should be settled at the local level – and I say that as a Social Conservative.

(I don’t know if I am authorized to institute an open thread, but here goes)

The color guard for the Super Bowl opening ceremony will not be allowed to stay & watch the game as in times past.  Just an easily-corrected oversight, I’m sure – completely unintentional. 

http://tank.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZDRiNzYwYzcyYjQ2ZWYwYjhlNzY0OWJjNTU4MmFkZGI=

Of course, if we contact Roger Goodell of the NFL and point that out, he can straighten it out pretty quick.

I work in a large Federal Building, home to many different agencies and administered by the General Services Administration (GSA).  I have daily arrived and departed through the entrance beneath the benevolent gaze of Vice President Cheney & President Bush, from their poster-sized portraits on the walls on each side of the doors.

For a couple of months now, I had my desire to obtain those portraits made known to our agency’s facility manager.  I would remind him from time to time, and last week I was present when he made the call to the GSA rep to obtain them.  The guy on the other end of the line was assured that I had no nefarious purpose in mind, so he would see to it.  I don’t know how many of the portraits were in the building, but at least they were at each public entrance to the building.

Yesterday morning I was informed that I could not have the portraits, because the message from GSA HQ was that they were to be shredded.   I asked if destruction documents were required (as for destruction of classified documents) to prove that it had been done, but the guy didn’t know.

Now, you can decide for yourself the reason for the GSA policy.  I will choose to chalk it up to bureaucracy: the “we don’t have enough to give out to everybody, so nobody will get them” mentality.  Yeah, Lord knows the government wouldn’t want to be seen showing favoritism to anybody, or giving away through misappropriation the peoples property.

The cynical among us will say that it’s just another example of Democrats within the government bureaucracy getting in one last jab at President George Bush.  At least it’s not as extreme as the pharaoh’s policy of defacing the hieroglyphs of his predecessors, but I’ll bet we see a more refined version of that.  We have heard snatches of it in the inauguration speech, and can see it on the new White House website.

 As I left work yesterday I wondered if the portraits had been replaced.  Upon arrival at the first floor, I found they had not, only bare wall was in their places.  This morning the portraits of the new administration had still not been emplaced.  In my active duty days, when a portrait was unavailable for the chain of command wall, a statement in the frame would say “photo not available”.  I guess we won’t be doing that here.  I’ll be counting the days until the deficiency is corrected, as an indication of the efficiency of the new administration

William Henry Purcell was born this day in 1920, delivered by a country doctor in rural North Georgia.  The next-to-youngest sibling of three brothers and three sisters, he grew up on a farm learning what a day’s work was all about.  He could raise corn, pick cotton, milk cows (but not ever as fast as his mother); and during the Great Depression when money was scarce, learned how to make un-taxed whiskey.

As a teenager during the Depression, he lost his father to a stroke; and, along with his unmarried siblings, helped his mother hold on to the farm for a short time.  When war came, his job in the TNT factory kept him from going right away.  When he did leave in 1943, he didn’t return until 1946.  Among other actions, he and his unit fought the battle of Manila; rooting out the enemy from the rubble, block by block.  He was witness to the enemy’s use of women and children as hostages and shields, and the aftermath of their brutal rape, murder, and mutilations of innocent civilians within the Intramuros section of the city.

Upon his return, he finished his schooling on the GI Bill; and worked at a service station, as a truck driver, car salesman, service department manager, café owner, private club manager, bank loan officer, and finally, bank vice-president.  Somewhere in that timeline, an old friend with a funeral home needed a hand one day, and he pitched in to help.  Not because he needed the money, but because his Depression-era work ethic wouldn’t permit him to ignore the opportunity to make more money did he turn it into a long-running part-time job (even after he retired at age 72).

Bill Purcell was a man of many talents.  He could make the best steak you ever put in your mouth, and also knew how to make chitlins and calf fries.  He did his own maintenance, and could passably fix just about anything.  He used the vacant lot next door to raise the most productive garden around.  He and his fellow bank officers also had an acre plot in the country as a community garden.  Just for fun and to prove he could still do it, he plowed and cultivated it with a borrowed mule – and kept the rows arrow straight.  He was adept at numbers and compound interest.  He was a quick judge of character and seldom failed to correctly size a person up in short order.  If there was a baby anywhere near, he was sure to pick it up.  A man of few words, yet he could and did strike up a conversation with anyone, anywhere, at any time.

He once saved a man from drowning in basic training, and as a member of the Civil Defense squad in the early 1960’s he helped in several cave rescues.  He was recognized by the local Red Cross for a lifetime achievement as a blood donor.

Bill Purcell was a hero to me.  When I was a child, it was the sight of his old Army uniform tucked away in a storage closet; with its Combat Infantry Badge, rows of ribbons, and the 37^th Inf Div combat patch, that led to my Army career.  Although I gained a few more stripes than the ones on his sleeves, he will always outrank me.  When he was laid to rest a few years ago, I was glad to see that the funeral detail was led by an infantry sergeant from the local recruiting station.  

I mention Bill Purcell’s birthday here at RedState because his ethic of work and service to his country and to others is something to be fostered in new generations of Americans.  The shame of it is that the world his generation saved and built for their sons and daughters was perhaps too benign to produce the same character traits in them.  Our current situation, with its wars and coming economic crises, certainly promise to be a character-building exercise, however.  I have no doubt that a nation of citizens in the mold of Bill Purcell will prevail, if we could raise them fast enough.