Much is being said and written about advancing a third major political party. Many parties have existed in the United States since its beginning. The early parties are no longer with us, having outlived their usefulness or morphed overtime into what we have today. Recently there have been attempts to start viable third parties but all have failed. Even movements within the parties, such as the Tea Party, used to push toward an extreme view have ended badly. For good or ill the US is a two-party country and will likely remain so for the foreseeable future. To determine the way forward for the republican/conservative movement we will take a page out of resent home improvement shows. Couples on these shows are given the option of keeping their current home with upgrades or moving to a new home. We must determine if we want to keep our party with upgrades or move on to an unknown.

Obviously, my recommendation is to upgrade and rebrand. We got a good start from President Trump and need to build on that. Trump acting in the interest of the country as a whole and fought for the individual. We need to find a way to shed the image of racism and the party of the one percenter. This will not be easy since the left owns the news media and will not allow for any positive reports about the right, to get much coverage. We need to work around this obstacle. Local organizations must be recruited to spread the word. The word must also be moderate and less extreme than some may wish. Most of what the republican party is about is moderate action to problems and reasonable solution that work overtime. This is anathema to the left who respond to everything with kneejerk reactions and a need for instantaneous gratification. We need to push back on the radical ideas that have no basis in fact and stop fearing popular reactions to unpopular statements.

Identity politics has driven the concept of differing views to the point that there can be only one why of looking at any situation. In a recent interview on CNN Freshman Representative Sara Jacobs (D-CA) called for a truth commission to root out and combat extremism. She is not the first and I have not heard much from the right. This type of ideology, that puts itself above the constitution, needs to be confronted. We have heard from the new Secretary of Defense that he is ordering a 60-day standdown to confront extremism in the military, while most recently the acting chief of police in Washington DC said they are exploring ways to investigate police officers who may hold extremist views. What no one has defined is what is extremism. Will visiting a Proud Boys web site cost you a career or a promotion? Will there be equal examination for Black Lives Matter or Antifa?  The right should be standing up and screaming about this, but so far nothing. Where do these type of big brother investigations end?

The Republican party needs to return to the roots of American thought and culture. We must push the ideas of freedom and liberty. We must continue to push the concept of the individual above the collective state. It must be understood that America is unique in the world. Solutions that have worked or perceived to have worked elsewhere may not work here. At the same time, we must understand that we cannot export American culture.

We have reached a time in which too many of our citizens are ashamed of being American for reasons they cannot explain. We must get everyone to PLEASEThink about how great our country is and how we can work together to make it work.