The First Gulf War ended in a mess. I knew back then that we'd be back, and the the Bush Sr. rationalization to stop in order to keep the Arab members in the coalition was a mistake. I knew it just a couple of nights after we halted, and we could watch the Iraqis in the distance lighting up the Shiites.

A "bigger tent" is what the republicans need, but NOT by becoming more statist by buying the votes of entitled victim groups, the democrats already have that down.

It is the teaching of the traditional American values of Individual Freedom and Equality that is the answer, and is the one concept that has alway culturally unified us. (the basis of American Exceptionalism) But that was before the Balkanization, by the Democrats, of our country into a mess of unconstitutional, sociopathic, statist, religious, entitled victim sub-cults.

I prefer wood to plastic, leather to nylon, waxed cotton to Gore-Tex, and split bamboo to graphite.