Making the Grand Old Party grand again

Being a conservative right now is difficult.  Why?  The GOP, frankly, sucks.  The party is divided between people with extraordinarily different views, and is being run by conservative extremists.  Generally, besides poor candidate selection, this extremism has lost many voters who are attempting to jump ship to the marginally more neutral Democratic side of things.  PS, the key word in that sentence is marginally.

Yet, I happen to be one of those voters, and this issue has been bothering me for quite some time.  Then, one day in microbiology, I was surfing through yahoo when a news article came up mentioning how Karl Rove (key Republican party strategist) believed changes were on the horizon for the upcoming election cycle.  I was interested, so I looked further into the article.

Farther down, Rove discussed how the Republican Party needed to reach out to Latino voters.  His suggested solution, and I quote, is:

"We need to take our spokesmen—like Susana Martinez and Brian Sandoval, governors of New Mexico and Nevada, and Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz—and get them out there along with the rest of the party, communicating around the country,"

.........you've got to be kidding me.

Let me get this straight...your plan.......to get more Latino voters....is to send out the Latino members of the Republican Party to talk to people, which will get them to vote for you?  Are you serious???

This is the most racist, ass backwards idea I have ever heard of.  That's like saying that we should send caucasion members of Congress out around the country to get the white vote.  Or Asian members of Congress to get the Asian-American vote.

Don't worry though Mr. Rove, I'll help you out.  THE REASON YOU ARE NOT GETTING VOTES IS BECAUSE YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT WHAT THESE PEOPLE WANT!  

And this is the problem with the Republican Party.  If you want the Latino vote, you're going to need to listen and act on pertinent issues, and that is how you get someone's vote.  I don't care how many Latino senators you send out, you need to stop and comprehend what the Latino voters desire.  And trust me, there are many different members of Latin-American society who represent diverse interests, and want different things from their environment.

Want to know why Barack Obama received the overwhelming African American vote?  Because African Americans believe that he understands the issues and desires of the African American people, and that he is willing to lobby and act on their behalf.  Those who believe that he received this vote SOLELY due to his ethnicity are blatantly racist and closed-minded.  Surely his ethnicity played a partial role, but his policies and opinions are those that represented these voters.  Mr. Obama managed to energize an entire voting profile who's votes in the past were not cast whatsoever.  He energized them and made them believe in what he was trying to accomplish.

So how can the Grand Old Party become grand again? 

By listening.  By shutting up and understanding the current social climate of the American people and implementing that climate into the cornerstone of their platform.  By doing so, the party will become a lot less radical, and gain large amounts of voters.  Additionally, the stereotype of the Republican Party must be changed from that of a bunch of cranky old caucasian men, to a diverse crowd of young, energetic, diverse, and revolutionizing members who will drive the party forward.  Only then can the Republican Party truly thrive.

This article is written by a Conservative-Independent who would like to vote conservative again.

The Distribution of Wealth in America

I guess this sort of thinking started this past fall, corresponding with the presidential election.  I go to a University that is highly conservative which is a good thing because I have conservative views as well.  But this political election, to be honest, really upset me because of the misunderstanding of economics.

I still am rather new in my economic understanding, so forgive me if this sounds really simplified.  Actually, screw that.  It's my blog and I'll do whatever the hell I want.

Okay, so my issue with the past election has been the notion that President Obama practices a redistribution of wealth system, and that Mr. Romney and other conservatives do not.  This is not true. Both parties redistribute wealth among the country, but manage to do so in different ways.

Liberals attempt to achieve this by a progressive tax, which takes a greater % of wealth from rich and gives it back to the poor through numerous social programs, such as welfare.  Conservatives do the same thing, but they do this by lowering taxes for the rich in an attempt to create savings which can be reinvested back into their respective companies.  The hope is that the company will be more profitable, and employ more workers.  My issue with this system is that people have a marginal propensity to save, meaning, that given $10, people will save $5 and spend $5.  This means that the money saved by this wealthy individual will not all be reinvested back into the company, because a portion of it is saved or spent by the owner.

This is, in fact, a redistribution of wealth. The issue with both is that the liberal plan funds those who are not working, and the conservative plan is inefficient while posing little incentive to invest money

My proposal is one that is simple, but ultimately effective.  I believe that there should be a flat tax, and that the government should not impose a higher tax on individuals just because they are wealthy.  Whether you make $500,000, or $40,000 your tax rate should be the same.  A separate tax rate is like saying if you get a speeding ticket, the amount of money you pay should be different according to your economic well being.  Simply put, that's a whole lot of bull shit.

Additionally, I think those on welfare should have to work in some fashion to earn their welfare paycheck.  There has to be some sort of government infrastructure we can send people to work on that others do not want to do.  Possibly something with agriculture to keep food prices down, and keep efficiency levels high.  That way, it is a self sustaining system which can create profit and induce desire for work.