Letters on GOP big tent, GOP circus, presidential race, Koch, wind power

Foundation of GOP begins with freedom

The result of the Iowa caucuses shows that the GOP is poised to become the “big tent” party. A Texas conservative, a big business liberal, a Cuban-American Catholic, and a brilliant nonpolitician captured nearly 85 percent of the Republican votes.

The question is whether the GOP is a single-issue party. Is there room for variety? Is the focus freedom from big government? Or economic freedom? Religious freedom? Freedom from terror?

The fundamental principle guiding the GOP is all of these. It begins with freedom.

There is room for social moderates interested in strong national defense. There is room for fiscally conservative gay Republicans. There is room for opposing viewpoints when the foundation is freedom.

Many want to invoke Ronald Reagan for their narrow view. Yet the success of the Reagan revolution was not based on a single issue. He led the way to ending the biggest threat to freedom. He embraced values and limited government. But without economic stability and national security, freedom cannot be achieved.

The choices for the Republican nominee are narrowed, and we should focus on making this nation a shining city on a hill.

GOP created circus

Don’t blame Donald Trump. The polarization in the Republican Party is not the doing of just one person. The whole party is to blame.

I understand that difference of opinion can lead to strong emotions, but even moderate Republicans banked on emotions to create difference of opinion.

Under the mantra “people are angry,” politicians set out to fuel hatred in order to gain votes. But hatred leads to irrationality. There is very little room for discussion of issues in a civilized manner anymore.

Supporting absolutely anything this government would say or do became the Kansas version of political incorrectness. Merely suggesting that there may be something positive in a single article of the Affordable Care Act could send people into a rant of “you’re an Obama lover, you kill babies, and you want to take my guns away.” Even science will brand you as a left-wing liberal.

It’s only logical that Trump emerged as a leading candidate of this party.

The Chinese said it best: “He who rides a tiger is afraid to dismount.” The Republicans will find it extremely hard to get rid of Trump without having the people they “energized” turn on them.

They created this circus, and now must deal with the clown.

Lost all interest

In a presidential year of excessively useless, raucous, nonissue debates from which I can only guess 99 percent of both candidates and American voters are now comatose – and before an actual single vote has been cast in New Hampshire – I’ve lost interest totally in this spectacle and may not even vote in November.

There are only four Republicans even worthy of the debate moderators’ attention – Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Jeb Bush and John Kasich. Collectively, they garnered only 37 percent of Iowans’ support. Of those four, the only one I could vote for would be Carson, who gathered a mere 9 percent of Iowans’ support.

On the Democratic side, after being totally ignored and dismissed by every debate moderator, former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, who is the only knowledgeable and viable Democratic candidate, received only 0.6 percent of Iowans’ support.

How can 99 percent of Democrats and 63 percent of Republicans be so dumb?

O’Malley has suspended his campaign; Carson seems a nonstarter. We might as well resign ourselves to eight years of Republican “mismanaged America.”

Life not free market

It was with great sadness that I read of Charles Koch’s problems with the 2016 presidential race (“Koch ‘disappointed’ by GOP presidential candidates,” Jan. 27 Now Consider This).

A billion dollars is a lot of money to pour into a marginal investment, but as is often the case, there is a lesson to be learned. However much we want it to, life doesn’t reduce to a free market. A market doesn’t care if a person suffers or dies; regular people do.

Name tags needed

The wannabe presidents are really stupid. They are all over the TV, and none with name tags. When they speak, I cannot identify more than Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

Proud of wind power

Kansans can be proud of the fact that we are ranked sixth in the nation in wind energy capacity. This source of renewable energy can offer a great contribution to addressing climate change realities.

Given the strong amount of wind – physical and political – that blows through Kansas, we should not be content with simply a sixth-place ranking. Taking care to address the environmental impact of future wind farms, we might take advantage of creating more local jobs, as well as sustainable energy, holding down future energy rate increases, and improving the image of Kansas, all at the same time.

This story was originally published February 3, 2016 at 6:04 PM with the headline "Letters on GOP big tent, GOP circus, presidential race, Koch, wind power."