If you have something to say...
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If you have something to say...
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The Blog
Political leaders and the media are failing us on so many levels. But there is hope. Quietly, and without fanfare, groups and individuals are reaching out to each other. I've been involved with one such effort, called "Living Room Conversations."
Sen. Richard Lugar's loss in the Indiana Republican primary last week raises a number of troubling issues about the current state of politics and the future of governance in our country.
While I was working on a graduate degree in comparative literature at Indiana University, Dick Lugar was Mayor of Indianapolis and though he was Nixon's favorite Republican mayor, Dick Lugar was not Richard Nixon.
The recent primary victory by Richard Mourdock over Dick Lugar should send greater shock waves through Washington than merely the one Senate seat now potentially up for grabs. Evidently, Tea Party-backed candidates will be continuing their war against the politics of compromise.
In a legislative body like the Senate where compromise and bipartisanship have long been necessary, this is another blow for getting things done.
Republican Sen. Richard Lugar joins the ranks this month of his ousted moderate colleagues and predecessors. Frankly, it is a little depressing. Wait, more than a little. A lot.
Lugar is a fount of knowledge on the most important public policy issues our country faces today, including energy, national security, foreign relations, the federal budget, and agriculture.
Winner-take-all voting incentivizes partisanship, compels centrists to squeeze into restrictive ideological boxes and rewards the "us-versus-them" mentality moderates resist.
Too often, moderate incumbents like Lugar lose perspective of why they were elected, how to do their jobs and the plight of their constituents.
The defeat Tuesday of Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana in the Republican primary -- trounced by a Tea-Partier -- is one more nail in the coffin of the...
Democrats now think they can pick up Lugar's Indiana seat this fall. But even if they do, America is worse off for losing him.
It's time for the American public to move beyond petty partisan politics and support a cooperative and responsible American role in the world. Partisanship used to end at our nations shores. Now, partisanship permeates Capitol Hill like a festering disease.
Years ago the radical Republican fringe began targeting RINOs (Republicans in name only) for extinction -- and by RINOs, they meant Republicans who might value the environment, education, and the general welfare over and above ideological rigidity.
Ten years from now, we may look back at a small GOP primary as the tipping point for Democrats' return to dominance on national defense.
The Tea Party cost Republicans Senate seats in 2010, and they're poised to provide Democrats another gift in 2012: Indiana State Treasurer Richard Mourdock.
