Republicans must be more like Ike

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There is a lot of blabber, on the corporate media, about the "radical left" taking over the Democratic Party...I am still looking for signs of this so-called "radicalism" myself.
Anyway...the real question instead ought to be; are the Republicans going to abandon the neocon fundamentalism that definitely has taken over their party?

Good article here from The Christian Science Monitor:

Republicans must be more like Ike
By John Hulsman and Anatol Lieven
BERLIN AND WASHINGTON

The American people rightly, and overwhelmingly, punished the Republican Party in the midterm elections, chiefly because of the Iraq war and the neoconservative ideology that helped bring it about.

Iraq is a disaster today partly because of the neoconservative fantasy that democratic nationhood can be built from scratch, at the point of a gun. This is crazed nationalist utopianism - and it is wholly alien to core Republican traditions.

Worse still, neoconservatism has endangered the core values and traditions of America itself. As Thomas Jefferson pointed out, empires require emperors. Instead of adhering to core principles of balanced budgets, smaller but accountable government, fiscal responsibility, local political control as the preference for governance, and a belief in the sanctity of civil liberties, Republicans have embraced highly centralized, militarized big government. The Founding Fathers would be horrified by the shameful excesses of such neoconservative folly: warrantless wiretaps, Abu Ghraib, Gauntánamo Bay, renditions, and torture.

If it is to join with responsible Democrats in promoting an alternative to the neoconservative train wreck, the GOP must rediscover its roots. To do so, it must return to the tradition represented by President Dwight Eisenhower. No one, we assume, can seriously accuse him of weakness or lack of patriotism.



CONTINUED:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1204/p09s02-coop.html

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1. A timely Eisenhower quote:

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence-economic, political, even spiritual-is felt in every city, every state house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

FULL TEXT:
http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/farewell.htm