Rumors and accusations of fraud and deceit abound less than a week before the proceedings, and in the exchanges, lines are being drawn and sides chosen.  We do indeed have a split within the party.  The question is how it will be dealt with.  The GOP meets in Lansing this weekend to decide only one issue:  Is conservatism dead in the Republican party?  All the hand wringing and political posturing aside, this is the ultimate question.  It will come to a head this weekend.

    I have been debating as to if, how to, and where to focus attention on what has become the primary `problem' with the GOP.  My experience of 25 years as an electronics and electrical engineer, from vacuum tubes to microprocessors, taught me the simplicity of any issue or problem.  Electricity is positive or negative; our `virtual' world breaks down into ones and zeroes, lights are on or off....something is either right or wrong.  Something is wrong with the Republican party.  It has lost its `moral compass', along with the entire nation.  Now it's time for the reckoning.

    The convention in Lansing will be a turning point.  There is little doubt in my mind the treatment of the party's conservatives this weekend will determine the future of the GOP in Michigan, and perhaps the country.  Any inkling of the political games that went on in Tampa being repeated in Lansing will seal the fate of the party in Michigan.  This is not a threat, but a very simple reality;  ones and zeroes, black and white, on or off...right or wrong.  Conservatism is a simple concept, it reaches across political boundaries, most people are born with a moral compass...and know subversion of it immediately when presented to them.  How much subversion is acceptable?  Black and white when mixed becomes grey.  The Republican party is now, and has been since Reagan, grey.

    So the party will decide this Friday and Saturday, whether it is America's sanctuary for conservatives, or just another avenue toward the destruction of the American idea conceived by the Founders.  The choice is very clear, as the infighting becomes more obvious and deceitful at once; the importance of this gathering becomes more and more significant.  The 800 pound gorilla in the room will be conservatism, does it have any place in the GOP at this point?  The establishment will not address this issue directly, so the conservatives must do it for them, and they will.

    Standing on principle is not an easy thing to do at times...now is the time.