Dear Sane Republicans

You must know the republican party is now dead, all the furious thrashing around currently in progress is just the final death throes, not a sign of recovery.

So what's a sane republican to do? You still don't agree with democrats, you need a place to go. Why not start building a new party? Yes it will be hard, yes you won't win any races for a long time, but when you grow enough you'll have a party to be proud of, not one that makes you cringe.

Many many years ago I wrote up these naive thoughts about how to create Government by Performance. I'm not suggesting they are flawless ideas (and it doesn't help that I'm a lousy writer), but they are a place to start thinking about a new party.

Highlights

What is the proper role of government? To do what works! How do you know it works? Measure the performance! Which governments should be responsible - federal, state, local? The one that does the best job, of course! What if it doesn't work? Stop throwing good money after bad!

What if the main work of congress every year was to come up with an explicit list of actual goals which are important for the country to achieve? Progress towards those goals is what needs to be the measure of how well government is performing. Imagine finally having a road map of what the government is trying to do. People might actually know how to answer when pollsters ask if the government is heading in the right direction. Heck, if they see real progress towards real goals, they might not mind paying for it.