It takes TWO starkly different ideas for real change and real choice within a society. 

Bold, brash, brazen, haughty, eager, audacious, fearless;" these are just a smattering of the adjectives being used to describe one political party in America these days.  It's the Democrats who have a newfound sense of joi de vie under Barack Obama. We can also add the word "hasty" and not be out of line. Their rivals, the Republicans, are being referred to as "rudderless, out-of-sync, hopeless, harried, stymied, out-of-date", and so many other adjectives that wouldn't be in good taste to include here. The best analogy that I've come across was the GOP being described as "weeping like a little school girl who has been bullied on the playground."Those of us who believe in having choices that the free market offers know deep in our hearts that nearly everything is improved through competitive action. From aardvarks to ZZ Top, tangibles to philosophical concepts, laying out your product, plan, policy, what-have-you and letting the consuming public at large make their choices, not only requires accessibility (which in turn requires "selling" the tangible or intangible item in common, honest, and effective language), but also knowledge that what you bring to the table is something someone else cannot do without. It's up to the seller of a product or an idea to plant that "seed of need" into the mind of the final consumer.

Readers may scoff at this concept and flippantly reply that it cannot be done under the guise of honesty. The naysayers are only reacting in a way that they've become accustomed to; politics has historically been brutally untruthful as well as blunt. Politics is as muddy a sport as dirt biking – bringing exhilaration that some find positively irresistible. They, however, remain a scant minority in the larger picture. The rest of us don't like our lives, freedoms and very existence to be toyed with or become fodder for opportunistic gain. The latter makes many of us downright cranky, irritable, and belligerent.

Just released are the results of a new Gallup Poll showing that 40% of Americans interviewed in the national survey describe their political views as conservative, 35% as moderate, and 21% as liberal. Yet, what are the Republicans trying to do? Basically, move to the center and become "Democrat-lite" (or "lefty-lite", as some might have it). It wasn't hard to see this coming, either. Americans are bugged about the potential of losing their freedoms and individual earning power. 14.5 million of our fellow countrymen (and women) are now out of a job. Since the President was elected, firearms sales have shot through the roof. There has been "buyer's remorse" expressed openly on many American city streets in the form of T.E.A. (taxed enough already) parties, letters to the editors in local newspapers, and by other means.

People on both sides of the philosophical aisle are thoroughly fed up with seeing their hard-earned wages going to prop up bankers, investment houses, and auto companies without any scintilla of success. The country is taking a hard leftward lurch and that scares civil libertarians, conservatives and even many who call themselves liberals. As of the 16th of June, 2009, America has seen at total of 18 people appointed to unelected, unaccountable "czar" positions. Who knew that Communist Russia had taken over the country? Bondholders are being threatened, CEOs are being fired or else they are having their earnings capped at problematic levels; ironic in that much of the Democrats' strongest support in the last Presidential election came from Wall Streeters and many corporate CEOs.

Even the National Organization of Women swung into action on the heels of David Letterman's tasteless and offensive attempt to do comedy about Alaskan Governor, Sarah Palin. Good for N.O.W. They were M.I.A. when Bill Clinton soiled Monica Lewinsky's dress. This shows the rest of the country that principle can still stand above partisan politics and complaisance. Letterman, feeling the grip of heavy pressure, finally apologized to Governor Palin, her two daughters (Willow and Bristol), and in Letterman's word, "everybody else who was outraged by the joke."

Yet, there sits the Republican Party, weeping like a little girl, cowering and gnashing its collective teeth. Michael Steele, a Catholic conservative, ran away from the Church's pro-life stance. Ah, but you're thinking, "alright, Quayle, no mixing of politics and religion here." Well, I would say to you that being pro-life is a cornerstone in the very foundation of the Catholic faith and all of Christianity, for that matter. Steele, as a faithful Catholic, should be wholly imbued with Christian Doctrine. It should define who he is as a person. Despite what others may think, one simply cannot divorce themselves from their faith if it is truly what they believe in. If this is how Michael Steele defines himself, he is ideologically stunted, nay, impure in his belief structure. He is dragging down the Republican Party with him.  It ought to be flexing its collective ideological muscle in the face of the resurgence of widespread conservative values and ideology.

The GOP has done everything it can do, as an organization, to distance itself from the political philosophy of Ronald Reagan and of Barry Goldwater, Reagan's mentor. Both men knew deep down that true conservatism is deeply rooted in libertarian principle. It's high time for the Republican Party to abandon its wishy-washy attitudes in favor of giving the country real philosophical and ideological choice. You may ask, "alright, Quayle, what about the middle?" Ah, that's where the salesmanship comes in. Believe me, selling personal liberty and responsibility shouldn't be too tough in the face of events of recent months.

Line up and choose your sides, everybody. Freedom is a thing deserved by every man, woman, and child. It's time for a political party to grasp this concept and turn it into a movement. It takes TWO starkly different ideas for real change and real choice!