BellaOnline has a new Republican Party Editor. Linda Sue Grimes is a PhD of Literature and Rhetoric/Composition, author of Jiggery-Jee´s Eden Valley Stories, a book of fables, and Singing in the Silence: Poems of Faith, and a former democrat. I asked her a few questions so we could get to know her.

Question: How would you describe yourself as a Republican, and what do you feel the role of government is?

Linda: I am a fairly new Republican, coming quite late to paying much attention to any politics. I always considered myself a Democrat, until I started paying attention. As Irving Kristol remarked, "A neoconservative is a liberal who has been mugged by reality."

After the attack on 9/11/2001, I started paying attention and discovered that I believed the Republicans had better ideas than the Democrats, not only now but also historically, and not only in foreign policy but also in domestic policies as well. I'm for lower taxes and smaller government, and Democrats consistently promise solutions to problems by expanding government, that is, when they promise solutions at all.

Government should be limited; it should help protect individual freedom for its citizens. It should also secure the nation and its interests from foreign aggression through a strong military. While leveling the playing field for every citizen, government should not seek to guarantee outcomes for groups or individuals. I agree with Thomas Paine's aphorism, "That government is best which governs least."


Question: The Internet has begun to change the conversation in the Democratic Party. How do you feel the Internet is changing the Republican Party?

Linda: I think one important example of the Internet's influence on politics was demonstrated when Dan Rather featured those bogus documents just before the
2004 election trying to derail the president's reelection, and a blogger noticed the type font of the letter was Times New Roman, a font that did not appear on the typewriters in the early '70s when those letters were supposedly written. The speed in acquiring information and acting on it can influence political outcomes.


Question: The Internet has allowed women, who might not otherwise be heard, to influence the political discussion. How do you feel women are changing politics today?

Linda: I don't think women, or any other group, are changing politics. Ideas change politics, regardless of whether the ideas are put forth by a man or a woman. It may be true that people can be heard who, without the Internet, would not be heard, but merely being heard does not necessarily carry influence.



Question: What do you feel are the strengths and weaknesses of the Bush administration?

Linda: Strengths: war on terror, removal of Saddam Hussein, tax cuts, appointments of John Roberts and Sam Alito to the Supreme Court, influence on other nations such as France, Canada, Australia to go conservative, influence of a spirituality based life

Weaknesses: failure to get Social Security reform, failure to get tax cuts made permanent, failure to retain majorities in the Senate and House in 06, possible failure to get immigration reform


Question: Do you think the Republicans will find a candidate for the 2008 presidential election that they can all get behind and support?
Linda: Fred Thompson might be the man for that job:
Fred Thompson


Question: And now a question Republicans seem to love to discuss, what do you think of Hillary Clinton as the Democratic presidential candidate for 2008?

Linda: My favorite Hillaryism: "We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good." Who could vote against that?


Be sure to check out The Republican Party site. Step across the aisle; see how the other side thinks by reading some of Linda’s great articles.