The best advice I can give to Republicans — or anyone — is to be willing to have your viewpoints attacked. Take the time to talk about them and you will strengthen them.

Far too often, the message from the leaders of the Republican party (who, obviously, are miles away from Republican voters in terms of income level) is that dissent is unpatriotic. The examples are everywhere — from President Bush’s old chestnut “you’re either with us or against us” to the dearly departed Attorney General Ashcroft’s “to those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve” — and they show that the Bush Administration is none too keen on people speaking up. Why not? What’s great about a world where no one asks questions?

I advise Republicans to ask questions just as pointed and poignant as the ones some on the left have been asking for years. For example, I’d like to hear a Republican ask, “How our president can have a pro-life policy when he’s responsible for the deaths of thousands of people?” From his time as governor of Texas to his sending our troops unnecessarily to the meat grinder of Iraq, he seems more like a pro-death kind of guy.

I’d also like to hear republicans ask why no one has taken responsibility for the mistakes the party (led by the Project for the New American Century Neo-Cons) has made in international foreign policy. After 9/11, the world showed us an outpouring of grief and support. Now, after the Iraq blunder and the presidential election, the world goes to sorryeverybody.com and tells us they’re sorry we’re all stuck with Bush for another four years. I think it would serve Republicans well to examine this.

Oh, and please, Mr. and Mrs. Republican, stop repeating the trite talk you hear on the news. Speak from the heart. Look deep into yourself and ask if your party’s anti-gay platform really squares with your personal beliefs.

I’m told time and again that there’s some connection between Christianity and the right — even thought the Pope frowned on the Iraq war — and I know the Bible preaches a lot about loving other people. Sure, there is some stuff in the Old Testament about not eating pork and about men in bed with men and not working on the Sabbath, but isn’t it still OK to love gays, people who eat hot dogs and work on Sunday (or Saturday, whatever)? Does your faith really teach you to deny happiness to others?

Is that what you want it to teach?

I’d like to see Republicans examine these issues themselves.

Currently, I’d like to advise Republicans against siding with the president and continuing to say this war in Iraq is a good thing. None of our reasons for invading that country — except for taking Saddam out of power — have panned out. The Iraqi people are not free (the country is under martial law); Iraq never posed a threat to the United States, and Saddam didn’t have ties to al Qaida.

And what did it take for us to learn all this? Too much.

The Washington Post has an amazing site dedicated to the fallen soldiers of the Iraq war: www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/iraq/casualties/ facesofthefallen.htm).

Somewhere between 14,000 and 100,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed because of our invasion. Is this the type of action you, as a republican, support? Isn’t it time to say the war was wrong? My advice is that you do.

I understand that these issues are complex, and that there may not be simple answers to these questions. My advice, then, is just to open the door a little crack.

We need to have a civil conversation in this country about our national priorities. raising questions and bringing up inconvenient facts is only the beginning.