AUTHOR

Lou Zickar

  • Editor’s Note: In This Edition

    For years, fiscal gurus and budgetary experts have been warning us about the long term implications of spending more than we take in. The economy will collapse, they warned. Social Security and other important programs will become unaffordable. The standard of living that millions of people had grown accustomed to will no longer exist. For…

  • In This Edition

    One of our goals for each edition of The Ripon Forum is to focus on a particular issue or theme. This current edition is no different. But as we began work on it, we began to wonder whether we had failed to accomplish this goal. This edition does, after all, feature as its cover story a terrific…

  • The Rise of Value Voters

    “To reach independents, Republicans not only need to tap into the frustration they have over the growth of government, but tap into their desire to make government work.”

  • Medicare’s Crisis of Accountablility

    Accountability seems to be a watchword in Washington these days. It is preached by the President, spoken by the Speaker, and has become a standard component of Democratic rhetoric this year.

  • Editor’s Note: In This Edition

    by LOU ZICKAR

  • The Coming Generational Shift on Capitol Hill

    “When Republicans won control of the House of Representatives on November 2nd, it represented not just a partisan shift on Capitol Hill, but a generational shift, as well.”

  • In This Edition

    One year before the last presidential election, THE RIPON FORUM ran an essay entitled,“Entitlement Reform: The 800 Pound Gorilla of the 2008 Campaign.” 

  • Moderates and the Wimp Factor

    Lou Zickar, the Ripon Forum’s Editor, challenges moderate Republicans to be tough rather than live up to their reputation of being soft. “To counter this perception, moderate Republicans need to find the fiscal equivalent of a pork rind – something that will let them demonstrate their fiscal resolve and commitment to reducing the national debt.”

  • In this edition

    by Lou ZICKAR Twenty years ago this fall, 367 Republican candidates from all around the country gathered on the West Front steps of the U.S. Capitol and signed the Contract with America. At the time, it was an historic moment because it helped give Republicans control of Congress for the first time in four decades.

  • In this Edition

    September 11, 2001 was a day without adjective. Even a decade later, it is hard to properly describe the grief, anger, horror and pain we all felt watching the attacks unfold. 

  • In this Edition

    With the 2012 general election less than a year away, it’s probably safe to say that the current crop of GOP presidential candidates has not exactly set the world on fire. 

  • In this Edition

    For many Republicans who were young at the time, and for many other Republicans who look back on at that time fondly today, the 1988 campaign of Jack Kemp for President represents, in some ways, the GOP equivalent of the “dream that was Rome.” It was a moment when the possibilities that lie ahead for…

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