I haven't been happy with calling the extreme right conservative for some time. There have been conservative political voices in the past that deserved that name - not only in the Republican Party, but in the Democratic Party. A lot of people may not realize that once upon a time when the issues were less complicated, the parties divided along specific issue lines, and each party had its own liberal, moderate and conservative factions. Teddy Roosevelt was a progressive Republican. I would have to do some studying to see how much the rise of extreme politics in the 20th century affected the separation of right from left thinking, but I suspect the rise of fascist and communist thought had a lot to do with the separation, because each became the big boogey man for the other side, and the rift grew.

The problem we have in this country now is not conservative thought, which is, in its purest form, simply a difference in focus, with real, logical, points in its favor. We do need tax reforms, we do need less government in some ways, we do need to remember traditional values in forms that respect the diversity of American life. The true problems we have are with non-progressive thought and obstructionist action in a time when we can't afford it.

 Keynesian economics, which means government spending more in a time of recession to help the country regain economic balance, has been proven to work. The Republican cry of less government and less taxes has shown it doesn't work. The lack of Republican government intervention at the time of the economic upheaval in 1929 caused The Great Depression. The The Great Recession we are still suffering from started in 2000 - not 2008. You may not believe me, but I was working in an industry that acted like a canary, the wholesale business. Wholesale business started dropping the year tax rebates began and increased with each tax cut. It got worse with each year. Go take a look at wholesale statistics in the past decade - you'll see the curves that foretell the recession and current struggling recovery - and yes, there is a recovery going on, if non-progressive politics don't stop it.

Which brings me back to my original unhappiness. I have no battle with actual conservatives. It's the non-progressives, the obstructionists, who hurt us all, who take advantage of the conservative and liberal electorate alike, but especially are taking advantage of the party loyalty of conservatives. That has to stop.

The so-called top three contenders for the Republican nominee for President of the United States includes one that thinks corporations are the people that matter, one that can't keep even simple facts straight and if pushed for answers falls back to  robotic statements that don't answer the questions, and a man whose end idea of being an efficient leader is a threat of some kind of rebellion or violence. What is conservative about any of those choices? Would you make a choice from any of those three to run your own business, let alone your country? The Republican party does not need colorful attention-getting stars - that puts candidates in the same category as Lindsay Lohan and Charlie Sheen. The Republican party needs a new Teddy Roosevelt right now. There isn't one. But President Obama could use more of Roosevelt's form of "bully!" attitude if he will. We could all use it.

Those are the thoughts of an angry unemployed woman for today.