It is the Inequality that is at issue

No matter how you define the core issues of the 2010 and 2012 elections, it is about wealth and income distribution, as that is defined by jobs and tax policy. Tax policy is not only about income tax rates, although those unfairly benefit the rich.  It is about all of our forms of taxation.


It has not been, EVER, except for the single issue extremist tea party voter, about culture war issues of homophobia, islamophobia, or gynophobia/misogyny and abortion.

The right can pretend that they are in touch with this reality, they can lie about this reality and their role in causing and institutionalizing the inequality, or they can simply fade away like the preceding political parties have disappeared in our history.

There IS a clear mandate, and it is NOT on the side of Grover Norquist.  It is a mandate for the President to push through a tax increase on the wealthy, to end loopholes and subsidies where appropriate - like the oil industry.  And it mandates cleaning up the financial industry where there are abuses, and to regulate everything else where there is a problem (like our food safety and a clean environment).  It is about promoting R&D, and green energy, and other growth industries.  It approves of the new increases in the manufacturing sector, and it is a clear mandate to end damaging practices like outsourcing jobs.

The right can face reality, or the right will - as a political entity - die, be struck by lightning, catch on fire, and fall over, sinking into the swamp of forgotten history.

The GOP WAS, NOT IS the party of Lincoln.  The GOP WAS, in the 19th century, a party that supported minorities and women; that was NOT true in the 20th century, and has been less true in the 21st century.  When the GOP became conservative they were not the party of civil rights, they were the party of oppression and civil rights violations.  The GOP is NOT the party of freedom, the GOP is the party of intrusive government; the GOP is not the party of fiscal responsibility, it is the party of wealth redistribution to the rich and failed economic policy.

Conservatives have, consistently been on the wrong side of history.  They continue to be consistent, but sadly they continue to be consistently wrong.  They have lost any ability to innovate, moderate, or adapt.

If conservatives are EVER going to survive, they need to do what the VP outlines below.  A few token minorities will not impress; a different spin (LIE) will not convince. They need genuine change, genuine repudiation of the extreme and fringe.  The GOP needs to rediscover moderates, whom they define wrongly as liberal.  Most of all they must abandon their failed ideology, or die by it as a political entity.  They appear to have decided to go down with their sinking ship, while tightly gripping the anchor.