After the Dec. 17, meeting at the Pachyderm Club, I wanted to put down these thoughts. After the last couple of speeches from our local state legislators, it seems that some of them are upset with questions being asked by some of us fed-up conservatives.

The problem is that the Republican Party, at all levels, is treating conservatives like an abused spouse. When we entered the “marriage” they told us how great it was going to be, how they were going to keep those evil Democrats from spending our hard earned money, etc., etc. Then they hit us time after time by voting for more taxes or more spending and more government. Then they tell us again, just like an abusive husband, “Oh honey, I won’t hit you again, you’re just overreacting, everything will be alright, and we need to be unified if we are going to beat those pesky Democrats. Sweetie, you just don’t understand the big picture, this is politics and you need to let us experts handle it. We need you and want you, especially at election time. Just give me your money and your vote, and then shut up.”

We are not going to fall for this voting for the lesser of two evils nonsense any more. Evil is evil, whether it is a Republican, Democrat, or a Rino (Republican in name only). Using the Democrats like some boogy man just won’t work anymore. (Oh, my gosh, there is scary old Hillary, boo!) Just voting for the guy with an R by his name won't work anymore either.

If some of our Republican legislators don’t want to answer hard questions from constituents, then they should cast their votes correctly or resign and let some real leaders take over. Just because you won an election with 10-15% of the electorate showing up at the polls, and the rest staying home, doesn’t impress me much. That just means that 85% of the people didn’t want you. How is that for your fragile egos?

What some of you don’t seem to get is that Ron Paul is setting records in campaign contributions in the Republican presidential primary. He is benefiting in part to some of these “abused spouses” coming over to his side. Conservative Republican commentators like Limbaugh and Hannity are worried and keep saying he has no chance blah, blah, blah... This is just damage control because they have enough insight to see that he has given true conservatives a voice in the Republican Party. Be that as it may, in a practical sense what he has really done is raid the Republican party of some of its conservative support, both financial and philosophical, and the Republicans only have themselves to blame. Why has this happened? The answer is simple; the conservatives have virtually nowhere else to go.

Democrats' positions aren't hard to figure out because they just come out and say they want to increase taxes and expand government. It is easy to see where they stand and vote against stated policies. You know, when a snake crawls on its belly, you might say, there goes a snake but you’re not surprised it is on its belly. When we see elephants (they look a little like Rinos don’t you think?) crawling on their bellies, it seems just a little odd. In other words, we have noticed for quite awhile that some Republicans say they are for conservative principals and then most of them vote Democrat-lite.

Ron Paul has noticed just how frustrated this spouse has become. He knows that the time is right, to get her away from this lying, cheating husband who continually makes fun of her, and ostracizes her when she points out just how wrong it is to tell us one thing a vote another way. He will raid the Republican Party and make Libertarians of these disenchanted voters. We spouses have done nothing to deserve this treatment except notice the deceit and ask questions accordingly. If you don’t like our input or questions, we can always go to Ron Paul and the libertarians and the Republicans can go back to the minority party for another 50 years.

Now I am sure that some of you will say (especially in my case) good riddance. Most will do the same thing you always do, attack me personally without addressing the facts. Well that might be a pithy come back, but it won't change the outcome of the Republican Party losing some of its conservative support. This is more important than losing a couple of elections. Short-term thinking will not work anymore.

Tim Price
jat-55@msn.com

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You may not like the Republican candidates but to say that conservatives will go to Ron Paul is crazy. I would even vote for McCain over Paul. His positions are crazy. Withdraw basically from the world and then wait for the crazy to come to us. None of his positions on ending parts of the government would ever be passed by Congress. He would be a third party leader without any support from either party.

The basic fact is that he is not electable nationwide. I don't think he will win any primaries. It doesn't matter how much money he raises because his positions are nuts and very few will vote for him even if those few give him money. It is a waste of their money but that is your right to do so.

Your main argument though is that there is no difference between the Republicans and Democrats other than Paul. You should be very scared if a Democrat is elected with a Democrat Congress. Socialized medicine, taxes looking like Europe at 60-70%, running our lives in every other area, and they will leave the security of our country to the UN. That is why any Republican is better than the Democrats. Paul does not appear to be electable and that is good because he scares most people with his withdraw from the world views.

Bruce Caldwell
Signal Mountain
sarmatt25@comcast.net

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While I agree with the author's basic premise that true conservatives are many times overlooked and unheard in what is supposed to be "the conservative party" I must take issue with the comment regarding the low turnout.

I believe it has little to do with what or who people like. It really just means that most people, given a choice of voting or doing something else with their time are, for now, choosing "something else" as long as their "immediate world" is going OK and looks OK for the near future.

If America has any shame it is in the fact that participation in selection of those who would represent us has sunken to such a low priority that it usually doesn't make the cut on election day.

Tim Alan Wolf