From: eisimps@cie.uoregon.edu (Eileen Simpson)
Newsgroups: alt.politics.bush,alt.politics.elections
Subject: Re: Dear Republicans
Date: 8 Nov 92 04:49:39 GMT
Organization: University of Oregon Campus Information Exchange

In article <1992Nov3.205202.1@acad.drake.edu> vsg001@acad.drake.edu writes:
>If you are a Dem this does not concern you.
>
>Dear Republicans,
>	Do not dispare, we are far too strong a party to become split, just
>because of one election. We will remain strong. We will remain in power. We
>will remain heard. The future of the Republican party is still very strong. Our
>party has been in power for a long time, and now its time to watch WHY the
>American people have rejected Democratic ideals. It is time to see why all
>other nations have rejected liberalism. Stay involved. Stay informed. And we
>will crush them in 1996!! 

I do not share your optimism, nor do I think such a victory would be in the
public interest if the dominence of the Religious Right continues.

The Republican Party is badly fractured and facing major problems:  Bush
received less than 22% of the women's vote in this county.  The bad
economy gave women the liberty to vote against a party that has taken them
for granted for years.  Without the ability to produce prosperity--as badly
tainted on the Bush watch as it was under Carter--the gender gap has become
a real force to reckon with for the Republicans.

Republicans face the handicap of the assault of the Religious Right.  These
groups register masses of people who have no historic association with the
Republican Party for the sole purpose of taking over the party apparatus.
Some voter registration drives conducted in churches have reportedly featured
cards in the pews on which the box for the Republican party is already
checked! 

The influx of new blood into the party cannot be a source of strength
because the radical religious right does not support candidates who do not
share or cave in to their agenda.  Oregon has a plurality Democratic
governor because the religious right ran a third party candidate against
the moderate Republican  (Dave Frohnmeyer, brother of the former NEA chief.)
Local party caucuses have become blood-baths in which liberals, moderates,
and traditional conservatives wage all out war with Pat Robertson's
legions.  The latter have no interest in anything but total victory, making
compromise and inclusion impossible.

In response to the threat from the Religious Right, Republicans in Oregon
have launched the "Mainstream Movement," an effort to reassert the
traditional balance and diversity of the party and to resist the control of
the party by any one force.

The posting that follows is from the founder of the Mainstream Movement.
If you have been turned off by the Republican Party of Pat Robertson and
Pat Buchanan, and the social conservatism of the Reagan/Bush years, please
find out how to get involved with you local party at the precinct level.
Without your involvement, you will either see the Republican Party crippled
in its ability to win national elections due to its extreme and divisive
social agenda, or we will have a President from the ayatollahs of the right
if Clinton fails and the Democrats cannot stay in power.

Neither option is tolerable, and both are dangers to the country as a
whole.  Get involved.


longer 
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