An Open Letter to Mr. Chip Saltsman: Hello, my name is Dennis Sanders. I’m not anyone special, just some guy in Minnesota who blogs from time to time. I wanted to write to you about your little storm that has been brewing since you sent a holiday CD with a little ditty called “Barack the Magic Negro.” I think the whole idea of sending out this CD was a major bad idea and isn’t a good omen to what you might do as Chairman of the Republican National Committee. Yeah, I know:...

Now that President Bush has decided to go over Congress’ head and provide General Motors and Chrysler bridge loans through March, I think now is the time to see how the GOP and conservatives in general handled the issue. This is only my view and it’s the view of a crank living in Minnesota. However, in the glorious age that we live in, with handy little computers connected to the internet, one crank can share his views with the whole world and that’s what I am about to do. In...

About four years ago, I wrote something in an old blog based on a David Brooks essay from 2004. I called the post, “Towards a Progressive Conservatism” and it went something like this: I’ve been reading the new book by Jim Wallis called , God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets it Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It. In it, he talks about a essay written by New York Times columnist David Brooks last summer. I remember briefly looking at it, but not really getting around...

In my last year of seminary, I took a class where one of our assignments one evening was to debate the issue of slavery. Both sides used the Bible to justify their arguments. When the exercise was done, the professor told the side that was against slavery (the side I was on) that it was a losing battle to use the Bible in your argument since the other side could back up their argument with Scripture that indicated that slavery was “okay.” With that in mind, I thought this post by Adam...

From former Governor Christine Todd Whitman: To fully understand the importance of centrist Republican candidates in the 2008 elections, it is important to take a look at the results of this year’s hard fought Republican primaries and see how these candidates performed in the general election. It is in primaries, after all, where the voters must choose the candidate that best represents their own positions on the issues, the District at large, and the chances for victory in November. Their...

In the wake of the recent victory by Joseph Cao, the folks over at The Next Right envision what it might be to run a Cao-type candidate in San Francisco. They name this guy, who is Korean, Rob Wong (I thought Wong was a Chinese name). It’s an interesting and even an appealing read until you get to the last few paragraphs: At the same time, this Gay Marriage stuff has gotten under Rob’s skin. While he has gay friends, and doesn’t really have a problem with Gay Marriage, he was...

Megan McArdle has written some good pieces over the last few weeks about the domestic auto industry. While I haven’t always agreed with her, she does put forth some sound arguments. But the day after the auto bailout bill dies in the Senate and Michigan newspapers are talking about what could happen next in my home state, what is McArdle talking about on her blog? Holiday cookbooks. Bad timing. Totally bad timing.

The Detroit News is reporting that the bailout deal has failed in the Senate. In the weeks since this has become an issue, I’ve gone from saying let them hang, to doing what we can to help the Big Three, to thinking that maybe bankruptcy wouldn’t be such a bad idea. In normal times, I would say, no to any government help, but then these aren’t normal times. Maybe my fellow conservatives are correct that giving the Big Three money is just throwing good money after bad. But I...

A reader responds to a post on Rod Dreher’s blog: I am that, which for many American conservative and or literalistic and or fundamentalist Christians, does not exist: A gay man who is a Christian. And that is a big part of their problem. Beginning roughly in the late Nixon era and increasing by leaps and bounds, a very intolerant, totalitarian faction of Christians shouted down all other Christian voices in the Republican Party. Just as anyone who dared to argue that torture was not an American...

While I don’t agree with him on every issue, I have to like Michael Steele. The former Lt. Governor of Maryland is running for the leadership of the GOP. There have been rumblings from some “true believers” that, because of his work in reviving the moderate Republican Leadership Council (a group I support), he would make a bad leader for the Republican party. For a while, he was trying to distance himself from the RLC and all things moderate. Now he seems to be changing his tune: ...

There are conservatives out there that actually are for gay marriage and are also willing to call a spade a spade: The supporters of traditional family values are afraid of giving same sex couples equal protection under the law because they wonder if the next law we’ll want will allow traditional family values people like Warren Jeffs to do what they do legally. Last time I checked, the bible (which I generally consider to be a fairly authoritative source for “traditional family values”)...

It’s not often that I start to write something shaking in anger, but two fellow conservatives, Joe Carter and Daniel Larison have done just that with their callous response to a Newsweek cover story on gay marriage. What’s so callous about it, is that their words are written without understanding the life of a gay person who isn’t interested in tearing down society, but just wants that he and his partner have the same rights that Joe and Daniel have. What makes me mad is that...

I was going to blog about this sooner, but it looks like there is already an effort among Republicans to retool and renovate the GOP. Called “Rebuild the Party,” it’s a group of young conservatives under the age of 40. In many ways, they have learned from the Obama campaign and are using technology to help in finding ways to modernize the party. Here are a few words from the homepage: As Republicans, we face a choice. Either we can spend the next several months — or years...

As I write this a day after Election Day, I feel a bit angry, not at the election results, but at the party that I have tried to make a home in: the Republican Party. For years, I have been involved in trying to help steer the party away from the hard right and more to the center right. It has not been easy and at times, it has felt rather fruitless. Tonight, it not only seems fruitless, but pointless. Republican leaders seem to have a tin ear when it comes to dealing with the future of the party....

One of the reasons that I have liked John McCain is because he adheres to some old values like honor and respect. As the Arizona Senator delivered his concession speech, he did it with the grace and humility that is classic John McCain. How we lose is just as important as how we win. If Obama showed solemnity in winning, McCain showed honor in losing. Kudos to Senator McCain.

It’s hard for me to hold back tears right now. Philosophically, I am a conservative and a Republican, so some level it is sad to see the GOP lose so dramatically. But I am also an African American. My father grew up in the Jim Crow South, and I’ve faced my share of racism and discrimination. Tonight, as my partner Daniel and I heard now President-elect Obama speak, I started to shed tears and that says a lot, since I don’t cry that often. I’m crying because something unimaginable...

My partner Daniel and I went to vote at our polling station around noon today in North Minneapolis. It was nice and sunny here in Minnesota for early November, with temps in the upper 60s. Strangely, there were no lines at the station, so we went in to vote immediately…almost. Daniel and I had moved five blocks away and we didn’t think to update our state with our new address. Thank goodness that Minnesota is one of the few states that has same-day registration, so we were able to...

Since I am now one of those “Obamacons,” I wanted to ask a question of those who are questioning those who would jump-ship and vote for someone that is so opposite from our views. Daniel Larison can understand why people are upset: the most credible pro-Obama argument that can be made is that the GOP must be held accountable and Obama is not McCain, but I still don’t think that is a persuasive case for casting a vote for Obama, much less urging others to do likewise. You have to believe...

Republicans Against 8 have released one final ad before Tuesday’s vote that, if approved, would ban same-sex marriage in California, which has been legal since the summer. The ad goes back in time to 1978, when the Briggs Initiative threatened to ban gay teachers from teaching in schools. Ronald Reagan came out against Briggs. The ad then flash-forwards to the present when current Governor, and fellow Republican, Arnold Schwarzenegger came out against banning gay marriage: If you know of...

A few weeks ago, my partner Daniel woke me out of a deep sleep. He was complaining of chest pains, so we got dressed and went to a nearby hospital. I went into emergency with him as they tried to find out if this was his heart or something else. It turned out he was having a gallbladder attack and he was scheduled to have surgery the next day. The day of surgery, I met up with his sister and her husband and also placed a copy of Daniel’s health care directive in my backpack just in case....

We haven’t even voted yet and there are people thinking about 2010. One of the things that I have noticed over time is that the hard left in the Democratic Party is acting very eerily to the far right in the GOP: looking for those who don’t fit their agenda and taking them out via elections. The Hill Newspaper is reporting that a new progressive group backed by two unions, MoveOn.org and two liberal bloggers are planning to target centrist Democrats in 2010 by running progressive candidates...

My partner told me about this post by Los Angeles Times blogger Patrick Goldstein, where he interviews Michael DeLuca, a Hollywood conservative (a rarity) who is leaning towards Obama in this year’s race, but grudgingly. His words read like something I would say, heck it IS something I said. He liked McCain, but wonders what happened to the McCain of 2000: As much as I’ve been impressed by Barack Obama’s ascension, I was sure that this year would be an easy call for me. McCain would have...

Danielle Crittenden, the wife of conservative writer, David Frum, is putting a lie to the belief among some conservatives that the only people against VP candidate Sarah Palin are elitist snobs who go to Ivy League Schools. But Ms. Crittenden is no such person. She never went to college, having gone straight into the family business of running a newspaper and becoming an “ink-stained wretch.” She says that she like the idea of the Alaskan governor: I love the idea of Sarah Palin. She...

Republicans Against 8, an initiative by Log Cabin Republicans to defeat the California proposition that would ban same-sex marriage has released two more ads: “Join Us,” and “Defending Freedom.”

One more rat is leaving the ship… This is not the easiest post for me to write. I am at heart, a moderate Republican, a conservative. I have been involved with the party and have supported GOP candidates. I’m not looking forward to the coming Democratic tsunami that’s coming. I have many liberal friends and I’m married to one, but that doesn’t mean I always agree with them – which is why I am a Republican. I also like John McCain. McCain has been a committed...