Tag: Republican Party (United States)

Would Like to Use The Santorum Buzz to Remind You All About PEPFAR

~ Chris Cocca ~ 1 Comment
Logo for the United States President's Emergen...
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During the G.W. Bush administration, Rick Santorum was one of the few conservative voices championing what would become that President’s signature foreign aid program.

PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, is here.  As my friend Joe said during Santorum’s Iowa speech, PEPFAR’s successor initiative,  The Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008, is just one of things that could find itself on the perennial chopping block over the next few years.  We need to remind the Obama Administration or any incoming Republican administration to remain committed to the goals of PEPFAR/Lantos-Hyde.

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Clint Eastwood Makes a Republican Case For Gay Rights

~ Chris Cocca ~ 1 Comment
President Reagan speaking at a Take Pride in A...
They like Ike.

My wife and I saw a trailer for Clint Eastwood’s  J. Edgar recently, and boy, does it look good.  As we watched, my wife leaned over and told me about Eastwood’s recent GQ musings about human rights in general and gay marriage in particular:

“I was an Eisenhower Republican when I started out at 21, because he promised to get us out of the Korean War,” Eastwood tells the magazine. “And over the years, I realized there was a Republican philosophy that I liked. And then they lost it. And libertarians had more of it. Because what I really believe is, let’s spend a little more time leaving everybody alone.”

Make a “get off my lawn” joke if you want, but Eastwood’s right about what the modern GOP becomes when put in the hands of Michele Bachmann and other dominionists in libertarian clothing. Americans of any or no party can certainly be of good will while holding some disparate political beliefs in tension, but we need to be honest about it.  There’s certainly no good will coming from quarters that want to curtail gay rights.

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