What do you want?

The Republican Party completely confuses me. What do they want? I understand that in today’s hyperpartisan political environment, everything that one party does the other must decry as the beginning of the apocalypse. But attacking Obama has had some low points that seem to contradict Republican ideology.
During the 2008 campaign, Sarah Palin was the first to attack Obama for being a community organizer, as if that was worse than abortion doctor and easier than a toll clerk on the highway. But isn’t community organization exactly what the Republican Party should be championing? Conservative ideology stresses that government should get out of the way and that the best way for social ills to be addressed is through personal responsibility and decentralized power/control. I understand (but don’t share) the skepticism of the federal government its role in improving the quality of life of its citizens. I understand (and do share) the belief that local governments and individuals can greatly influence and better the lives of the people. But with Sarah Palin’s bashing of community organizers and Rush Limbaugh’s tirade against Obama’s call for national community service day in honor of the 9/11 attacks, I just get confused on what Republicans want. Actually, I understand what they want; they want the Democrats and Obama to fail so Republicans can have the power back.
I refuse to believe that Republicans as a whole don’t really care about the lives and well being of the less fortunate but it seems they have this false ideology that they seem to not really support when the Democrats and Barack Obama promote the same thing. Republican ideology and rhetoric are falling out of sync. If Republicans believe in local and personal responsibility why do they not support the President when he calls for community involvement? Why do they not praise community organizations? It can be argued that community organizations, such as ACORN, can be used primarily to gain influence in the federal government. This could be true, but this is not what the President was calling for today. Obama simply calls on every American to think of other Americans and lift a hand to help, if only for a day. Isn’t that the Christian way? Isn’t that what Republicans should be all about? So far that has been an outcry against Obama’s promotion of community service by the right-wing media. There is not much being said about this by elected officials on the right (yet), but the question remains for everyone on the right to answer; if not the feds and not organized community groups, then who? Who?
Maybe Rush is just scared that if people start to realize that it can be very rewarding to help out those in need, that maybe this healthcare reform will pass. One of the most famous rhetorical lines of all time is “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” Kennedy was right and Rush is wrong. Kennedy did not mean “what can you do for you government”, he meant “country” as in a collective whole comprised of the people of the United States. This is EXACTLY what Republicans claim to be for; how individuals can help the people/country not how the government can help its people. But just like everything else, Republicans are just going to jump and yell at everything that the Dems and the President do simply just because. It is shame we can’t agree even when we agree.