the future of the republican party?

[millwx]

I think the republican party is getting more and more Christian right. Chafee, Snowe, Collins, McCain and the like don't like where the party is going.

I only hope that folks like those four gain and drive the party back to its origin and its roots (which is not the religious right).  My signature is indicative of my support for that line of thinking.  Until three years ago I was a lifelong Republican.  I've given up.  I am a "big tent Republican"; that is all talk in the party now, there is no genuine "big tent".  "Big tent" doesn't mean lots of entitlement programs (which I'm against), but it does mean tolerance... not just begrudgingly tolerant, but openly and abundantly tolerant.  Moreover, the party is no longer fiscally conservative.  So, they've lost one of their great advantages over the Dems.  Sorry to go on ad nauseam, but this is a sore spot for me.  I'm a lifelong Republican repulsed by the direction of my party for 20-30 years now, and it came to a head in 2000.  I seriously pray for the "moderates" (the true, old fashioned Republicans) to take back the party.  The polarization of both parties is responsible for the divisive nature of our society.  It is pitiful and sad.  United we stand, divided we fall.

[millwx]

I only hope that folks like those four gain and drive the party back to its origin and its roots (which is not the religious right). 

Gee, I must have been dreaming when I read the 1860 Republican Platform which explicitly named slavery as "immoral".   And I must have been dreaming when I read the writings of the Confederates when they left the Union because a party calling the South "immoral" had won the election.

What a weird dream.  Thanks for setting me straight on that!

Glad I could help (I say with a snicker, because that's not at all what I'm talking about).  For one thing, there's a difference between being "moral" and the religious right.  Nice way to parse my post as well.  I emphasized tolerance, which was the main reason for opposing the immorality of slavery.  Take a look at some of the speeches and quotes of the Republican founding father.  They were strongly opposed to injecting religion into politics.  In fact, Lincoln made some rather derrogatory remarks about religion in his time.  He would be excommunicated from the Republican Party these days.  The platform on slavery simply proves my point that the Republican Party was the party of tolerance and social moderates.  Consider that segregationist Strom Thurmond was a Democrat for much of his early time.