Responding to Harry R. Jackson: "Desperate for Change"

"An integral part of this re-inventing must be recruiting a new field of younger non-traditional candidates rich with women, blacks, and Hispanics."

True conservatives do not care one whit if you are female, black, hispanic, white, yellow or purple. Merit is king. Color is meaningless.

Do you have principled, core values? Do you have leadership capability? Do you have integrity to follow through on the things you say? That will count more than any color or happenstance of birth.

"The average person sees us as doctrinaire, mean-spirited, and hypocritical."

They may see you that way. I am seen in my community as a person with moral and character, willing to stand by my beliefs and by my words. I am a conservative. I am not a politician.

The vast majority of Americans may see politicians that call themselves Republican that way. That is a richly deserved and broadly painted brush that affects most of the Republicans currently holding tenuously onto their seats in Washington.

Those seats are not deserved if they do not hold on to their true principles. If they are to embark upon massive spending, and the uncontrolled growth of government, they may as well change their party affiliation and stand for the position that they really embody.

Liberals play the game of classification. They pay attention to your color, your sex, your religion. They then turn it to their advantage. Leave classification at the door. It has no place in the future of conservatism.