Time to Speak

GOP aims to rebuild, refocus:

Colorado Republicans, sifting through the ashes of three disastrous election cycles, are in the midst of a vigorous debate over how to win again in a state where their future looks bleak.

That struggle is likely to play out over the next few months, key players say, starting with a fight over the party's leadership.

Insiders say big defeats Tuesday at the presidential, Senate and House levels could play out two ways: an invigorating period of rebuilding and new ideas or a divisive fight over the party's direction that could debilitate it for years.

The Democrats might be the big winners in 2008, but advocates of individual rights should take advantage of the Republican defeat by clearly and forcefully arguing for a separation of the GOP from Jesus. You can tell your state and local Republican Party officials that they will continue to lose elections unless they reject the theocratic ambitions of the religious right.

To win, the GOP must become the party that champions fiscal responsibility and individual rights. More particularly, as Ari Armstrong has argued, the Republican Party can form a winning coalition based on (1) religious freedom, (2) freedom of speech, (3) free trade and economic freedom, (4) immigration sanity, and (5) a foreign policy for America. If the GOP does that, it might just recover from the evangelical legacy of "W."