Briefly put: Some members of the GOP are looking at ways of expanding their horizon in hopes of securing more voters in upcoming elections.

 

More briefly, the GOP is looking for a more voter-friendly role in the continuing debate over gay rights, to include marriage.

That oughta knock some cobwebs out of the belfries of the staunch ones.

 

It’s an absolute must, I think.

 

As long as the GOP is thought of as the social “don’t do party,” they will struggle at the polls.

 

Many of their platforms, such as the economic issues, are right on. They, as I, am adamantly against widening the hog trough - the continually-widening government cash sluice to which far too many Americans are getting used to as getting something for not doing the work they should be happy to do in the first place.

 

But that’s not the issue here.

 

It’s the social issues embraced by the Democrats and laid to waste by the GOP that had led to their undoing.

 

Now, they want to look at being seen as embracing gay rights? Some of them, maybe. Enough of them to warrant a new position statement and a headline in the daily paper.

 

So, where will this be going? We’ll be watching, as you, with curiosity.

 

The gay rights issue has been one that has steamrolled the GOP from the public at large. We saw that with the defeat of a constitutional amendment two years ago. Early polls had the amendment to deny gay marriage by a wide margin.

 

By the time the voters were done, the GOP had been dealt a major blow and gay marriage prevailed. It is now the law of the land in half our states.

 

There is an even-larger issue which I feel has created the vast chiasm between the GOP and the public at large over the years.

 

That is the right to life issue - or if you wish to approach it from the other direction - the right to choose.

 

Since the landmark Supreme Court decision, Roe vs. Wade, 40-plus years ago, women have had the legal right to have abortions.

 

That has been the law of the land. And I suspect 70% of American women have this issue in the back of their minds every time they step into the ballot booth.

 

The more conservative of the GOP have railed against this issue for long times. 

 

They have a right to do so - it is their moral right to do so.

 

But it is their  obligation to look outside their “moral rights” and understand the thought processes of the millions of American women (and men) who deal with the issue in their own personal way.

 

The GOP will not win the hearts and minds of the majority of American voters without significantly softening their stance on these two issues.

Despite my disagreements with my GOP brethern over these two issues, I won’t (and can’t) leave their camp.

 

There is even more damage done to American society by the other side which continues to embrace throwing everyone (else’s) dollars at every conceived problem in society.

 

Their hog trough is farmore treacherous to the  fabric of our land.