Decent Conservatism?

I was perusing a thread on Huffington Post regarding a truly horrific story as follows.:

Democratic Operative's Cat Slaughtered, 'Liberal' Painted On Corpse 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/23/democratic-operative-cat-liberal-slaughtered-pet_n_1224095.html

 The majority of posters deplored the action, suspecting a right-wing extremist to be responsible.

One poster protested:

"It has nothing to do with decent, reasonable­, everyday conservati­ves. Everything can be taken to an extreme. Left, right, in-between­, it can always go too far. Stalin proved that. So did Hitler, bin Laden, and just about every historical enemy of America. To say that their actions represent the views of anyone connected to them is pure fallacy."

While this poster makes a good point, I had some thoughts:

The problem as I see it from above the 49th parallel is that the decent, reasonable, everyday conservatives is that they are either cowed or don't care that their party appears to be hijacked by the extremists.

The GOP is no longer the party that pressured Lincoln to sign the Emancipation Declaration.  In fact, I would suggest that if the people who are in the ascendancy right now were there in Lincoln's time, slavery would still exist.

Look at the headlines:  


Santorum re rape; not even in the case of rape.

Gingrich explains that Blacks and Latinos don't understand  wealth the way Asians do.

The tea party wants to rewrite history in order to make slavery "nicer".

And  that's just off the top of my head.


Is there a single candidate who is even close to moderate?  No.  They are all kowtowing to the tea party, whose positions are extreme, to put it mildly.

I haven't heard a single active Republican call these people out.  I haven't heard a single Republican suggest that maybe, just maybe they should put their petty politics aside and try working with their president. 

I haven't heard a single reasonable conservative suggest that possibly it might be reasonable that increasing spending while reducing taxes is not going to solve your economic problems.  No one likes to pay taxes, but how do you pay for things you need, like cops and firefighters otherwise?

I have yet to hear an everyday conservative suggest that maybe the rich should pay their fair share.  They used to; they used to be taught, before the "I'm all right Jack" attitude became prevalent, that they owed something to the society that allowed them to be rich in the first place.  

I've yet to hear decent conservatives suggest that the hate speak of Fox News, talk radio, the Hannitys and Coulters and the rest of that crowd might be toned down, free speech notwithstanding.  j

And if these good conservatives are speaking up, they're not speaking loud enough.  They need to start yelling.

They also need to take their party back before it's too late.