We witness the Republican Party becoming (or trying to become) a minority in the true sense of the word. A debate ensues about who to include and who to keep out. The right wing of that party insists on becoming "pure."

This is the party of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was not a right wing fanatic, and he cobbled together a coalition of Americans to gain the White House. Granted, he excluded an entire segment of the population, the South, in order to succeed, and that act brought the eventual split that led to war, but he had to do that.

Today;s debate is one that reminds me of another place and another time. The Germany of the 1920s and 1930s was one where a nation tried exclusion.

First they excluded anyone with leftist sentiments. The first people into the camps were the Social democrats, followed by the homosexuals, the Gypsies and eventually the "International Conspiracy" folks, the Jews. It was the "purification" of the "Race."

There never was a German "Race." And see what their politic did to them!

If the purists win out and exclude the great number of party faithful who hold different opinions from the right wing arch-conservatives like Limbaugh, Coulter, Hannity and our ex-VP, Mr. Cheney, the party will never win another national election. A new and separate Neo-republican party will emerge to collect the moderates and Republican left.

It will not be unlike the party of Lincoln. It will again be all-inclusive. It will be truly "American," a melting pot again.