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Can the GOP change its colors? | page 1, 2
America is always looking to renew itself, and that is why McCain has, so far, excited people. Change always begins with the articulation of an idea, which then must gradually shift sensibilities, and finally results in developing policies that reflect those new sensibilities into law and government programs. It's a long march. McCain has blown the whistle on the GOP for punking out to wealthy special interests, and deciding that the burden of paying for running the country should be dropped on the middle class and the poor. But McCain, when the time came, himself punked out on the subject of the Confederate flag -- and for all his talk about compassionate conservatism, so did Bush. Still, there have been a few signs of change in the GOP in this campaign. Steve Forbes put two black men in top positions to run his now-defunct second bid for the nomination. Like Clinton, he was saying that black people can stand tall at the top. Meanwhile Alan Keyes on the right, exactly like those nut-ball "people of color" on the left, has proven that being at least partially descended from slaves doesn't protect you from irrationality and smugness -- or, in his case, an unwillingness to stand by the separation of church and state that lifted our civilization out of the kind of theocracy that bedevils Islamic politics. For all their fumbling and all of their refusals to look at the shape and the nature of the country they are in, we have no idea what the Republicans will become once they take enough losses to bring them to their senses. History, after all, is always the dark horse. Lyndon Johnson proved that as well as anyone. One can be a supporter of something as odious as segregation, but evolve into another kind of animal in the world of politics. Johnson knew that pushing civil rights legislation would cost his party the South. But his courage brought the country closer to realizing the true richness of its best ideals -- and later let another Southerner, Clinton, preside over a renewed Democratic Party, while Republicans struggle to regain the White House without offending racists and the extremists of the religious right, which may prove to be impossible. Even that lady I met in the restaurant, that "lifelong bleeding heart liberal," would have had to take it seriously if Bush or McCain -- or better yet, both of them -- had the heart to boldly risk losing South Carolina by coming out against a flag that is a stationary symbol of racism. The moment Republicans have the courage to give up pandering -- to anti-abortion zealots nationwide; to Confederacy defenders in the South -- in the interest of higher principles, they will get the attention of those who have, over time, tuned them out, convinced that Republicans have nothing to offer them. Unfortunately for the Republicans this year -- but for the good of the party in the long run -- the segment of voters who distrust the GOP may be growing, rather than decreasing, as this election season continues. But they may teach the elephants some lessons they have yet to fully grasp. The more lessons the better. As we know, Republicans are slow learners.
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