"The whole trouble with the Republicans is their fear of an increase in income tax, especially on higher incomes." ~Will Rogers

Moderate Republicans, Where Art Thou?

Fareed Zakaria is correct ("right" is a loaded term) about the Republican Party.

"Watching the extraordinary polarization in Washington today, many people have pointed the finger at the Tea Party. It's ideologically extreme, refuses to compromise, and cares more about purity than problem solving."

David McCullough, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian having known seven American presidents, was asked what made a great president. "The capacity to move the country to do better than it thinks it can with the use of the English language." And, "The power of the written word, the spoken word, very, very important. An ability to stick to your principles, an ability to work with people with whom you disagree and may dislike."

That's true of every great leader. Sadly, the Republicans have no one in the queue who fits McCullough's portrait. Gone are the moderate Rockefeller Republicans like John Danforth, Arlen Specter, Theodore Roosevelt, Nelson Rockefeller, Dwight Eisenhower, Charles Percy, and Mark Hatfield.

Republican Senator John Danforth from Missouri, wrote in the New York Times that “Republicans have transformed our party into the political arm of conservative Christians…” and, “The problem is not with people or churches that are politically active. It is with a party that has gone so far in adopting a sectarian agenda that it has become the political extension of a religious movement." Danforth is an ordained Episcopal minister.

All very sad to see the Party of Lincoln in self-inflicted tatters, pulling our country down their true-believer rabbit hole.

What Ever Happened to Moderate Republicans?