Greetings, all. My name is Dennis Sanders and I was asked by Travis to join this bold enterprise. I currently live in Minneapolis, but I was born and raised in Flint, Michigan the son of two autoworkers.

In a way, I am probably considered the oddest person to be considered a Republican: I’m African American and I’m gay. At least, that’s what people tell me: that people like me should be Democrats since Republicans don’t like gay people like me.

So, why am I a Republican and to answer Travis’ question, what does it mean to be a Progressive Republican?

I can answer by splitting up the two words and telling you what they mean to me.

First that Republican word. I am at essence, a conservative. No, not in the way that it has been presented publicly, as someone that says they hate government, but then want to use it to exclude people and pry into the lives of Americans. No, conservatism is a long tradition going back to Edmund Burke, the person that many consider to be the founder of conservatism. For him, being a conservative meant the importance of tradition and institutions. You see, here was Ed living in England in the 1700s and seeing revolutions taking place in two places: France and what would become the United States. He saw that the French Revolution was way to radical, trying to start things anew without using what was the foundation of the past The result was the guillotine and pure choas. The American Revolution was a more “conservative” revolution, changing the established order, yes, but doing on the foundations of the past, such as the Magna Carta and other “old” ideas.

Conservatives aren’t bound by tradition, but they see it as a guide to how we should live. Take something like marriage and the controversy of allowing gays to marry. Those who call themselves conservatives cite the longetivity of the tradition. They are correct, it is a long standing institution. But they try to keep it in the past, not allowing it to be able to change and yet still be tradition. When two men or two women want to get married, it is not to destroy the institution, but to join this long tradition. The tradition changes, but also remains the same.

Conservatives also believe in limits, which means we think that government should be limited in scope. We don’t believe it is the answer to all life’s questions, but we do think it is important institution in modern society. We have seen the dark side of unchecked power, so we want to form a government that is right-sized for society.

Limits also mean that we are prudent. In regards to the budget for governing, we seek to be thrifty. Tax cuts are fine, but to be prudent, they have to paired with spending cuts. And sometimes, to prevent a deficit, we must raise taxes as well.

All of these traits have found themselves in the GOP at one time or another. I know that these days some of these ideas have gone by the wayside, but that’s why I’m around- to help bring them back. Even with all of its faults, I believe to Republican Party is the best vehicle for conservative ideas.

Okay, now that word Progressive. I tend to hesitate using that word since it has been co-opted by the political Left. But I believe one can be conservative and “progressive” if you mean forward looking.

To be a progressive conservative means looking ahead and looking back. It means achieving social change through conservative principles. It means looking at ways to provide health care to millions who don’t have it, without going to a single-payer system. It means at looking at ways to lift people out of poverty,without leaving them on the dole. It means caring for the environment through market incentives and not simply through punishing people and industries. It means seeing America as a nation of immigrants and welcoming those who want to legally become Americans. It means giving space to those of who are gay or lesbian and allowing us to live our lives as couples and families.

So that’s what being a Progressive Republican means to me. I don’t know if it was the best description, but there it is.

If you want to know more about this odd Republican, you can read my blog over at NeoMugwump. You can also read two blog posts about why I stay in the GOP here and here.

Be seeing you!

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Tonight, Travis asked that I discuss why I am a ‘progressive Republican.’ To be honest, I have never used that label to describe myself. No matter. A term is just a term.

Really, Travis was prompting me to explore the growing insurgency within the GOP, the movement for reform of which I am a proud member. This I will do, happily.

I desire a return to normalcy in the Republican Party, and the amputation of those weighty ideological appendages that threaten to sink America’s most viable conservative institution. That is why I am a ‘progressive Republican’: Because our party needs a serious makeover, in terms of both tone and content.

Interestingly, to move forward, the GOP must look backward. The basic principles—tested by time and tuned through empirical application—must be recognized and respected. They have been utterly violated over the last eight years, but (take heart!) it is not too late to reclaim them.

Let the Republican Party once again champion the taxpayer and the Constitution. Electoral success and popular favor will flow from a commitment to individual liberty, personal responsibility, and self-government. Fixation on the private lives of gays or the ‘democratization’ of distant peoples has no place in the new century.

Republicans must embrace and forward a platform of tolerance, civil dialogue, gentle-mannered traditionalism, and political conservatism. Fiscal discipline, limited powers, prudent and peacable diplomacy, and judicious, kindhearted moderation regarding social matters: These should be the feathers of the new ‘right wing.’ A tight hand on the purse, and a close watch on those who handle it—sounds easy enough, mm?

As for the dreaded ‘culture war’: There’s no denying that, for instance, same-sex marriage and abortion are morally troubling and culturally consequential. Of course they warrant conversation and scrutiny. However, righteous concern over such issues need not give way to vitriol-generating anxiety. Consternation must not color the national face of Republicanism, and the party should guard against undue influence from religious factions. Especially those who have an elemental misunderstanding of the nature of our pluralistic nation and secular government.

Matters like abortion are best handled democratically and on a state-by-state basis. For his many mistakes, Sen. John McCain justly ignored ‘red meat’ in 2008, deferring to the federalist process. Following his lead, the GOP’s new line should be: “There’re many ways to live in this country, and it is not the place of Washington to impose one specific cultural template.” And, in the end, Republicans must accept necessary evils (abortion).

Onwards. What is the place of the market in a ‘progressive Republicanism’? We accept—nay, encourage—government oversight, while remaining constantly mindful of the stifling power of the regulation. And, of course, greater market freedom is usually worth the benefit of the doubt.  No trifling managers are we! That said, the party must redefine its relationship with business. Chamber of Commerce types, not Wall Street cats, should be Republicans’ target audience.

What should top Republicans’ to-do list for the coming decade: Learning the language of social inclusion. And learning it fluently. The GOP has to recalibrate its friendship with evangelical Protestantism, tone down its white working class sympathies, and shed entirely its smirking distaste for urban sophisticates. That’s to say nothing of tempering nativist sentiments, those reckless and destructive variations on the good and patriotic desire for a nation united by language and customs.

As for race relations, the GOP can extend the hand of friendship to minorities through honest and frequent dialogue. Straight talk will help blacks and Hispanics realize that Republicans have nothing against their skin, nothing. Rather, we dislike the nanny-state coddling and liberal paternalization that has undermined communities of color by perpetuating a mentality victimhood. The hope for deghettoization lies not in hand-outs, but in hand-ups: In the legimitization of education (vouchers, people!) and enterprise as worthy pursuits.

Finally, in the footsteps of the Tories across the pond, the GOP should work to co-opt issues typically associated with the other side. Environmentalism, for example, can be plucked from liberal hands and made a Republican strong suit. A conservatism mindful of our natural inheritance could prove most attractive to younger Americans.

Ideally, the new Republicanism will be lofty and genteel, measured and levelheaded, a philosophy of caution and pragmatism, a creature of politics instead of ideology. Its message: The best policy, for men and markets, is freedom. This rejuvenated, up-to-date GOP will understand tradition as a tool for shaping and tweaking—rather than bludgeoning—the natural advancement of culture.

The new Republicanism, above and beyond all else, must be a partisan of the human spirit, a fighter for the individual. It must vigorously combat the temptation of collectivization and the base instinct of discrimination. It must, with every fiber of its being, oppose those efforts which seek to dictate the terms of men’s existences beyond the narrow bounds established by the Constitution.

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First let me introduce myself to the readers of this site. My name is Martin Rybicki, a Progressive Republican and someone who will be contributing, hopefully on a regular basis, to this site. I am currently a student at the University of Texas at San Antonio majoring in political science. To let you know, this is conservative country so being a member of a conservative republican party establishment I do rather stick out when my opinions are voiced at meetings. Nevertheless, I refuse to leave the party and although I could become a conservative democrat, I’d rather stay as a moderate to liberal Republican and help the party recover and regain the esteem it had of the American people when it was led by such greats as Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight D. Eisenhower. I am honored to be part of this movement, whose future success will depend on the decisions we make, chance, and ultimately what the American populace will decide when it comes to our ideals and principles that we put forth.

To me Progressive Republicanism is a rejection of far right ideology that has helped lead this country astray in its policies in nearly every regard. Some of us will call ourselves progressive conservatives, although I just don’t like the sound the word conservative as it seems like something that merely stands for the status quo. No, I am not a Conservative Republican, I am a Progressive Republican. A republican who believes in smarter and leaner government, not “get government as small as possible, even if it means the American people lose”. It’s about pragmatism to be able to see more clearly where things should lie. If something should be better run by the free market because it is more efficient and has a better system, then so be it. But if it is deemed through pragmatic thought which puts the American people first that government would do a better job at running the program, then so be it. Maybe, a combination of the two would be in order if it can maximize efficiency and quality of the service. In the end, we must not see policies as whether or not it fits in the far-right of the political spectrum; we must see them in all self honesty whether or not they work for the people. It is to serve the people effectively that Republicanism should be about, and doing so by embracing pragmatism, the Federalism idea of working from the local government on up, and overall leaner (but more importantly smarter) government is how we can best serve the American people. It is an ideology unto itself, one worth standing up for and one that will be expanded upon in the near future by myself and others. More importantly, it is a Republican ideology and principle that has been forgotten over the course of the last few decades.

To me for the party to embrace the extremist ideology of the right, is to do just as much harm to our nation’s economy and subsequent well being as would embracing that of the far left. As the centrist republican Thomas E. Dewey said, “It is our solemn responsibility to show that government can have both a head and a heart; that it can be both progressive and solvent; and that it can serve the people without becoming their master.”

A man, some half century ago, once stood up at a republican convention and made the case for what was then the extremist wing of the party. His name was Barry Goldwater. Years later, even he ironically ended up denouncing the extremism, this time extremism being of the religious right. He denounced the people then who made up the party as a “bunch of kooks” in reference to the theocrats who were newly empowered and had now become “the base”.

I end this today, with what I would have said in response to Barry Goldwater’s speech in ’64 embracing the far right wing of the party.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, I would remind you, that moderation rooted in pragmatism to find real solutions to real problems… IS NO VICE. And let me remind you also, that extremism rooted in unrealistic failed ideology… IS NO VIRTUE.”

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or “What Progressive Republicanism Means To Me”

With the passing of the presidency of George W. Bush, so dies the grand experiment known as neo-conservatism. It was a beautiful and tragic idea that finds itself with no place in the modern world, despite its very modern ideals. Ideals such as “seeing the world in good/evil terms,” “a low tolerance for diplomacy,” “a readiness to use US military force,” and “an emphasis on US unilateral action,” were used to serve American foreign policy in the age of extremism. But did it work?

The best example of why it didn’t work is to cite the history of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld while serving under the Bush administration. As he came into office with the new president in 2001, there was renewed energy and outlook as to how to lead and change the U.S. military forces. His philosophy of transformation was brazen as it was bold. It was new way of thinking, to bring the military to the modern age, not just in terms of technology and toys, but in thinking and in strategy. But the timing of do this could not have been any worse. 9/11 changed everything. Was Rumsfeld capable of transforming the greatest war machine the world has ever known and fight a war on terrorism at the same time? Rumsfeld seemed to think so. And there, for everyone to see was the first of many flaws that neo-conservatives suffered from, hubris.

At first, Rumsfeld’s transformation did arguably work. Soldiers on the field were more informed and had the tactical information they needed to surprise the enemy and prevent casualties. But the enemy was a quick learner and realized that it could never win through traditional, armed combat. What they needed was to hit the invading forces (the Americans) when they lest expected it, and so the IED was utilized to the terrible affect that it’s had. And this was when things started to turn for Rumsfeld’s plans of transformation. Americans were losing the guerilla war in Iraq, but Rumsfeld held to his core beliefs on how to win the war, replacing the generals on the front line who disagreed and was unwilling to change tactics. The second of the neo-con flaws is revealed, stubbornness.

And eventually, the American public lost patience with the war. Arguably, this is irony in its most absurd form, as Andrew Becavich points out in his book, “The Limits of Power.” But regardless, someone had to be the scapegoat…Rumsfeld. And so the third of the neo-con’s fatal flaws appeared, the lack of responsibility. The finger-pointing was rampant, no one took any responsibility for anything and Truman’s adage of, “the buck stops here” was nowhere to be seen. Abu Ghraib, water-boarding, wire-tapping, and Guantanamo were the rallying cries of the enemies of neo-conservatism. I found myself with no argument for any of those issues.

As a Republican living in New York City, I found myself defending my beliefs and questioning them practically every day. And though my belief in the President and his ideals were strong at the start (especially after 9/11), I found it harder and harder to defend my position. I would argue with my friends about Bush and his cronies as they rattled off the countless impositions that were demanded of the American people and found my faith waning. My argument for their paranoid delusions on who they thought was running our country was, that if I believed that Bush was as evil as they are making him out to be, then I would move out of the country. That tended to shut them up.

I believe that President Bush is not an evil man, rather a president caught in the wrong time, during one of the darkest hours of our history, who did the best he could under the circumstances. Mistakes were made, surely, but the intentions were always about protecting Americans. I think he did a pretty good job at that.

But his presidency will always be marred by the ideals of neo-conservatism. Whether or not these ideals were his own or his father’s and those selected to advise him, we may never know, but he must live with that legacy of being a part of the neo-conservatives greatest hour and its darkest. It was an ideal that crashed and burned with the end of the presidency. I say, good riddance.

It’s time for something new, something fresh, a more ‘progressive’ ideal, if you will. What Progressive Republicanism means to me is, a new start. A bold and courageous idea that rejects the old shackles of strict conservative standards and modern, neo-conservative ideals, while retaining the fundamentals of what it means to be a Republican in America today. Ideals that speak to what’s best in all of us; responsibility, service and love of our country. We need a new map with a path that leads us away from hubris, stubbornness and the unwillingness to accept responsibility and takes us to the promise land of humility, open-mindedness and responsibility. The Progressive Republican believes in the ideals of social justice, civil rights, a clean environment, a small government and strong national defense. You know, stuff that everyone wants.

And part of this new ideal is embracing what the other side has to say. They have some pretty good ideas too. Ideas that can only work if everyone is on board to pitch in and help, ideas like fixing our collapsing economy, climate change, health care, unemployment, and education (the list goes on). And I say we embrace our enemy only because all of those issues were important in the last eight years and nothing was done to fix them. So, as a Republican, I say, let’s give the other guys a shot at making things work. I’m ready do my part, to roll up my sleeves, to get to work and help. If they succeed, then we all win. And if they don’t then I get to say, “I told you so.” It’s a win-win.

And in four years, if President Obama has done a miserable job and things are worse than they are now, we will hopefully be ready to replace him with a Progressive Republican.

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The past few years have been a fascinating journey politically speaking. My formative years were spent at a very conservative college where I was indoctrinated Republicans were the way, the truth and the life although I didn’t need that much convincing. I was also taught to believe that anyone less than 100 percent conservative was neither correct nor in many case a bible believing Christian. As I left the fold, I was astonished to meet well meaning people who were not conservative but despite our differences in ideology, shared a commitment to public service and to improving our country via the political system.

As I began to spend more and more time working with moderate Republicans and yes even Democrats, I began to realize that not only did I not have all the right answers, many times my conservative dogma kept me from asking the right questions.  I was asking how each and every policy would fit within my own rigid ideology.  I dismissed many good ideas because of this thinking and I fear that our congressional leadership is stuck in this quagmire as well.   To emerge from this political desert  our leaders should be asking the following questions:

1. Will it work?  This should be obvious but many times in Government laws are created and budgets spent without asking this simple question.  Many times however, there is a lack of expertise and legislators take the word of either lobbyists or bueracrats without knowing if it the program will do what is says it will do. If that question cannot be sufficiently answered, there is usually cause to wait until until it can be answered regardless of any so called emergency.

2. How much does it cost and is it worth the price? The two questions go hand and hand. I have noticed that sometimes legislation is passed without knowing the cost but usually there are at least some estimates. The more important question is whether or not it is worth the price. Many times the end result is worthy but not when that money can spent more efficiently in other areas.

3. Who does it benefit?  The current political structure is tilted in favor of those who have money and power.  And they use both of those resources to continue the monopoly and reward their own interests.  Too often the average citizen’s interest is either placed on the back burner or ignored completely.

4. What are the unintended consequences? Sometimes even the best laws or government programs can have a lasting negative effect that was never discussed or even thought of.  This almost always occurs when things are rushed and ideas do not recieve a proper vetting.  The end results are usually worse than whatever benefit was intended.

Let’s apply these questions to the current “stimulus” package being proposed.

1. Will it work? Maybe, maybe not. No one really knows for sure but they want to scare us into thinking that we are in such an emergency that inaction is worse than action.  No one has demonstrated exactly how this package will lead us out of recession.   This especially true with the amount of special projects in the proposal that have no real tie to job creation. It will be an expensive gamble to take the same people’s word that gave us the first stimulus package last year that didn’t grow the economy and the banking bailout that didn’t free up credit.

2. We know the intitial cost is over $800 billion dollars.  That is a lot of money even by DC standards.  Oddly nobody knows exactly how they came up with number other than someone plucked it out of the air.  But put aside the cost and just judge it by the number of jobs it is supposed to create. Or lack of jobs might be a better way to describe the proposal.

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On this, the day that America demonstrates the strength, power and majesty of its democracy, I will not be making any partisan messages on this blog* but just reveling in the knowledge that we live in one of very few nations in the world where such a radical change to the fabric of our society (for good or ill) can occur without the use of violence or civil disturbance.

If there’s any message we should send those who would hate us and see us destroyed it’s this: Democracy and freedom WORK. They work better than any system ever tried on this planet. Nothing you say or do will ever change that. As long as we have elections, we will be a free society,

I’ll be posting later today with pictures and description of the Inaugural activities.

*Though I may be on the BBC between 1PM and 2 PM today.

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Things have been publicly quiet on the Progressive Republican front over the past few weeks, but, behind the scenes, things have been getting pretty exciting! Â Here’s a few highlights of what’s been happening:

• New Bloggers! The  number of folks blogging for progressiverepublican.info has increased dramatically.  Starting this week we’re rolling out a rotating complement of around ten writers from various walks of life who will discuss the issues of the day from a Progressive Republican point of view.
• Interviews! We are actively seeking out Republicans of a more Progressive nature, or ones who are open to expanding the Party’s base to include our ideology to interview for the site!
• Chapters and Affiliated Member Organizations! The first affiliated organization “The Progressive Conservatives” of Wright State University were recently formed. In a few days we will have a set of guidelines posted on our site for groups who want to join our cause.
• Social Events! In a few weeks, we’re going to announce a series of Progressive Republican social events across all 50 of the United States. It’s important that this movement grown from its internet roots and make an impact in mainstream America!

And these are just a few of the near term actions we have planned. Stay tuned!

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