Republicans have taken flak lately for being willing to lose Colin Powell as a Republican. Good riddance, many say, since Powell supported Obama and has questionable Republican values.
Republicans are usually willing to kick fallen members from their ranks in an effort to retain a purified ideological core. In essence, if you're not acting like a Republican, Republicans say, why should you be allowed to call yourself one and confuse the public?
Such was the case with the recent Republican Congress, who was booted from office for ignoring the principled values that got them elected in the first place. They gave Republicans and fiscal responsibility a bad name.
On the flip side you have the Democrats, who are truly a party of anything is acceptable as long as your check clears. There are few real lasting principles associated with the Democrat Party, save for the negative ones of high taxes, abortion on demand, weak on defense, and fiscally irresponsible government. Sure, Democrats favor some good things, but in the end they support whatever keeps them in power.
A good example is how they took control of Congress in 2006, promising to have the troops home in mere weeks. Three years later, liberal President Obama is putting MORE troops in harms way, and the liberal-controlled Congress lifts nary an eyebrow in opposition.
So too does it go with President Obama's Supreme Court nominee Sonya Sotomayor, who has questionable qualifications for such an important position. Her own recorded statements about her nationality making her more qualified, and that judges make policy, should make her questionable to anyone. Add to that her statements that the 2nd Amendment does not allow for individual gun ownership, and we should all be up in arms - Democrats and Republicans alike.
However, she is expected to win confirmation in the Senate easily - not because people thinks she's anywhere near the best candidate - but because politicians are too afraid to oppose a Hispanic woman. That's frightening to me. Regardless if she is the first one-armed, red-headed, albino Eskimo, she should be evaluated on her qualifications, not ethnicity.
So what we have are Republicans who strive perhaps to deep into the ideological purity pool, and perhaps lose some good men like Powell, and Democrats, who are willing to put up with anything as long as there is political gain.
Republicans would do well to remember Reagan's line that someone who agrees with you 80% of the time is your friend. Democrats would benefit from actually standing for something by opposing poor choices once in a while. Sotomayor is hardly the best choice for the Supreme Court, and Democrats should, for a change, put substance above symbolism.
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