George,

[In his recent opinion piece, Bob Gibson said,] "Democrats willing to try to get elected to national office without a strong appeal across the South would rather be right than president."

[I ask,] What do you mean by "would rather be right"? What do you define as "right". Bush thought he was "right", God told him he was meant to be President, is that what you mean? How were the Democrats right?

I have comments on the following:

"First, don't run as the anti-Bush. Plenty of people can see and point out shortcomings, but a positive vision that fits a candidate is a must."

Kerry did not run as an anti-Bush, Bush ran as an anti-Kerry - and the media got sucked in.

"Second, faith and values are not dirty words. They do not require anyone to be mean or nasty to gays and embracing communities of faith with a set of common values is as American as anything in politics. If faith and values fit the candidate, the candidate may better fit the electorate."

Faith and values are dirty words when used the way the Bush campaign used them.

You are right, no one is required to be mean or nasty to gays, Bush wants the government to be mean and nasty to gays so the born again don't have to and can feel righteous. Faith is a dirty word when used as CODE for "We want a government that will dictate to people how to live their lives, control their choices about love, children and religion. According to every dictionary I have consulted, faith is defined as "accepting the existence of something for which there is no evidence".

The USA is not a faith based nation. Our founding fathers took great care to see that it was not, and that it would avoid that fallacy as it grew. American values are freedom and the pursuit of happiness for all. Current Republican values are for government control over the lives of our citizens (not control over the corporations, which they have had success with by confusing the difference in the media). Republicans claim to get their value based policies direct from God, or Jesus, or whoever is online when they pray. I think there must be a lot of static on the line. It seems they are getting messages to trash the environment, ruin the economy, ignore the poor (insure that the poor get poorer and the rich get richer) of the nation and the world and invite our enemies to "Bring it on".

I have read the King James edition of the Bible several times, word for word, did not skip the "begats". Unless you take things out of context, there is nothing in the Bible to support the above policies now being enacted (I know, they will deny that they are doing any of these things and the spin machines have been effective controlling the media).

So, yes, values is a dirty word when used by the Republicans to mean something very different than values we get from the Bible or from the Constitution of the United States.

"Third, running as a moderate does not require anyone to run as a light Republican. Moderate can mean inclusively big tent and middle of the road in a party of liberal and moderate pragmatists who believe in common values and high ideals. It does not require poaching on the grounds of the remote right that some in the GOP have carved out as their exclusive territory and promised land."

I agree, especially about the remote right, but would like to point out that what was "moderate" a few years ago is now "liberal". I voted for Goldwater, and always considered myself a conservative - until the Newt G/Bush/NeoCons/Bush redefined the term conservative. From what I can see, the term "liberal" now refers to those who espouse what I always considered Conservative ideas - Constitutional integrity (freedom and the pursuit of happiness for all), fiscal responsibility, a strong economy and educational system, a strong national defense (including building strong alliances), states rights, etc. None of these are on the current President's agenda (he daily does thing to undermine them), yet he proudly claims the title of "Compassionate Conservative". To me, instead of Conservative, it looks like radical - and his main compassion is for those he addressed as "Some call you the have mores, I call you my base".

Paul Brant (electronic mail, November 13, 2004)