Associate Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor was recently confirmed with a vote of 69 to 31. Chief Justice John Roberts was confirmed by a vote of 78 to 22.

Both votes were mostly along party lines, but each featured drastically different rationales for not supporting the nominee despite ideological differences. I cannot find a single democratic senator who voted no because of something Roberts said, either during the hearings or as a matter of public record, though some cited a number of his specific rulings. Not a single one said the fact that he was a white guy was a hindrance to their voting yes. By way of contrast, the republican opposition to Sotomayor, almost to a man, mentioned her "Wise Latina" comments as evidence of her "Judicial Activism" yet not a single one cited her actual rulings. 

I am surprised nine GOP senators voted in favor of her nomination given the GOP's performance so far in the health care and stimulus debates. Even Lindsey Graham was quoted as saying:

[Sotomayor] has not been an activist judge in the sense that would make her disqualified.... I hope her being on the Supreme Court will inspire young women, particularly Latina women, to choose a career in the law.

Seriously.  Lindsey Graham.  I was floored.  Not that he has all of sudden turned reasonable on other important matters, but I think this presents an opening of sorts, however small. 

It also presents a contrast to the 31 republican senators who voted against her confirmation on what appear to be purely racial lines that have very little to do with her actual rulings from the bench.  I am sure this came as little surprise to the democratic faithful.  They are constantly having their worst opinions of the GOP confirmed by the "performance" of those at the highest levels of the party apparatus as well as those screaming from the margins.  The positions they take and the tone they offer to the national discourse gives the impression that most "mainstream" republicans see themselves as being members of the Old White People Party, despite the inclusion of token minorities to give the GOP a patina of diversity and young republicans for energy.

What baffles me, though it probably shouldn't due to America's pathetically low turnout numbers for primary elections, is the total lack of importance racial issues appear to have with moderate conservatives.  As far as I can tell, moderates are quite happy with the idea that barriers to a fair shake should be lowered, even if many have come to the conclusion that such barriers are more classed based than race based these days.  Most moderate republicans I have spoken with are not against health care reform, yet the republican party hasn't offered a single bill that would address their very common sense concerns with the democratic party's current plans.

What saddens me about the current state of affairs in the GOP is the total lack of representation moderate conservatives have in Congress and their seeming inability to vote for someone new.  They accept piss-poor performance in Washington as the price they have to pay in order to fight democratic proposals.  Proposals they don't even understand because most Americans don't have a clue as to what is actually being considered.  Moderates have become comfortable being fed partisan and paranoid explanations for what amounts to common sense changes to the way we do business.  That's if they bother to tune in at all.

Given the history of the GOP, its current state is sadly ironic.  The progressive movement in American that they so rabidly fight against actually grew out of the republican party to begin with.  The republican party used to be the home for minorities when the democratic party was the sole province of white America.  Over the years, the roles of the parties have changed as they always do, but somewhere along the way the republican party lost all connection to its place in American history.

I believe Nixon (and all the subsequent neocons who started under his administration) was the ax that cut the party's mooring lines and set it adrift on ideological seas.  It is long past time the party's moderates took back the bridge and brought the ship back to shore.  We have important work to do that shouldn't be left up to liberals if we want it done right.  They are all vision.  We are all process.  Such a teaming environment can be very successful if everyone can understand their place and act accordingly. 

We need to marry the progressive with the pragmatic in a way that helps transform America into the 21st century country it must become. 

We can no longer aspire to empire by turning the Cold War into the Long War.  We must drastically reduce our military footprint by bringing all our troops back to America.  Fire up the BRAC and open bases in our hardest hit states this time even as we close them overseas.  We need to realign our military to face the real threats and opportunities inherent in today's landscape instead wasting more money than we should focusing on yesterday's fight.  Since a domestically-based military would be drastically cheaper, we can use this as an opportunity to change the way government contracting works and what our spending priorities should be.  That doesn't mean we are killing defense contractors, but it does mean they will be more accountable to We The People for contract performance and will be working on plowshare projects instead of forging swords.

That is only one of a dozen different ways that a more rational and reasonable and common-sense oriented conservatism could help with our national project. 

The republican party MUST regain our sanity and our innovative spirits if we are going to survive as a nation.  I realize the status quo is a natural state for the average republican, but we cannot afford such stasis right now.  It is creating an America that is unstable and unable to face the numerous challenges we are sure to encounter in a more globalized world economy.  This is a pivotal moment in American history and it is incumbent upon all republicans to create a party that Ike or Teddy or Abe might recognize.