Rebuilding the Country

by Whitney Pitcher

They talk about rebuilding the party. How about rebuilding the middle class? They talk about re-branding the GOP instead of restoring the trust of the American people.

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We’re not here to re-brand a party; we’re here to rebuild a country.
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We’re here to restore America. The rest is just theatrics. The rest is sound and fury. It’s just making noise.

–Sarah Palin

It seems there has been a lot of sound and fury in the conservative movement over the past week. Disagreements are not necessarily all bad. We’re not sheep. In the midst of all this though, it seems that something has been lost–perspective.

News emerged Thursday that last week’s initial jobless claims rose by 28,000 to 385,000–the highest in four months. This is roughly equivalent to the entire population of Cleveland, Ohio losing their jobs in one week.The labor force in the month of March has not been this small since May of 1979 at 63.3%. In the meantime, between Friday, March 29th and Thursday, April 4, the national debt increased by about $20 billion.

To be sure, the messaging and methods of the conservative movement need to be discussed. However, method and messaging are meaningless to those who don’t have a job and to future generations who will foot the bill for our “leaders” misspending. LOLcats and “good” conservative movies may pad someone’s wallet, but not those who have gotten lost in the shuffle because we’ve focused on the wrong battle.