Funny how treatment of a disease has become a weathervane for the country.  Yet treatment has emerged as the issue that defines today's political parties.  According to Rasmussen (thank you, Michelle G.), 78% of Democrats support vaccine mandates; only 22% of Republicans support them; and, most interesting, only 41% of independent voters support them.  Since all elections are decided in the middle — i.e., independent voters choose — then I'd say we have a significant likelihood that November elections will go our way.

My advice to Republicans is simple.  Don't let dislike of Biden go to your heads.  It doesn't mean that voters like your ideas.  In fact, the Republican Party hasn't articulated a core idea since Reagan brought us together.  Without core principles, around which one will decide every question, this party does not have staying power. 

Reagan's core principle was simple; he said it in many ways.  "The government isn't the solution; it is the problem."  And "the most terrifying words are 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'"

Much as I despise the left, leftists have a core principle, and they've been around for decades, and they have prevailed since Obama and now Biden.  The fact that I totally and absolutely disagree with the left's principles doesn't degrade an appreciation for their longevity.  The left believes.  Sadly, that in which leftists believe is antithetical to freedom.  The left has repeatedly demonstrated its desire for control by a central government, the Borg, the collective, the true opposite of the individual.

Would that Republicans would rally around a core belief system.  Sadly, our party lacks that single principle.  We have candidates, for example, who say they are for the private citizen and free enterprise, then they pass spending bills that crush us in debt.

A conditional principle is just an opinion.   Principle must strike to bedrock, be rooted in a solid foundation that withstands the tempest of time and tide.

Our core principle was laid down in the foundation of our nation: individual freedom to choose, free of oppression.  The "united" part of the United States is that we all believe in that core principle and, as individuals, unite to protect it.  But the core principle is that we, individually, make our own choice to do so.  The power of individuals coming together is overwhelming and much more powerful than a mandate from any Borg-like government.

After much thought, the core principle of our founding is the Sanctity of the Individual.  Sanctity because it is established by the Almighty, who gave to an individual free will to decide between good and evil.  The Founding Fathers understood this principle and conceived a nation that more closely follows that principle than any other.  "A Republic, if you can keep it."  Indeed.

Image: GOP.