American Chronicle: GOP - Geriatric Old Party

American Chronicle: GOP - Geriatric Old Party:

"It’s usually a cycle of Republican politics that every so often a candidate comes around that excites young voters and thereby transforms the party itself. Young Wendell Wilkie and his gang of youthful bond traders, bankers and magazine publishers helped push him to the GOP nomination in 1940. In 1963, Barry Goldwater’s campaign was launched when his forces took over the Young Republican organization. In the 1980s, many young voters identified with Ronald Reagan. Now here’s Ron Paul in 2007 energizing young voters and more than just the College Republican types. ...

But more than just age, all the aforementioned candidates that rode waves of young voters to the GOP nomination, did so because they had new messages or at least those that seemed new at the time. That seemed fresh and concise compared to what the party elders were saying. Maybe Paul couldn’t beat a Hilary Clinton in a general election, but what Republican out there can? Wouldn’t it be better, if the GOP is going to go down, to go down with man of principle and character? Wouldn’t it be better to go down with a candidate that’s drawn thousands of new voters to his cause and who provide new blood into sclerotic party organizations the way Wilkie, Goldwater and Reagan did? All three of these candidates took advantage of the decrepit status of the GOP in their times and transformed them into new, invigorated parties. Why can’t Paul do the same given the similar status of today’s GOP?"

I can only see myself as a republican in this new light - a new generation and direction for the GOP.