Duke: Thanks for your usual thoughtful and cogent response.

I mentioned on another thread how horrified I was watching Palin and her celebration of ignorance.

I remember a Jesuit priest describing Faith and Reason as the two wings that were necessary to lift you. I don’t know at what point intelligence and spirituality gave way to ignorance and religiosity in the Republican Party, but this is what we’re left with now.

We need to find our way back to those core beliefs that defined us and recognize that the Reagan Revolution is over. We need to recognize that ideas do matter, as well as finding the flexibility necessary to reach out to those groups that we’ve managed to alienate and disenfranchise.

Allowing the Palins of the party to continue to dominate will sound the death knell of the GOP. This election and these last eight years are a clarion call we’d better heed. Or else.