Where is the Bravery?

Mr. Brooks ("Medicare Survival Guide") writes of the Republican party being punished for being brave on the issue of entitlements. Where is the bravery in the Ryan plan? Where is the bravery in the party itself?

Who among them will address the hard issues like the hand outs to the pharmaceutical companies? Who among them has taken on big oil? Who among them is willing to stabilize an economy in trouble off the backs of the wealthy, not the old, the sick or the impoverished? Who among them has suggested that the Supreme Court went a step too far in the Citizens United decision? Who among them will say that the issue of raising the debt ceiling is not the time or place to play chicken with this country's well being? Who among them will be the first to govern not to bring down the Democrats but to bring up this nation? Who among them is willing to denounce the Tea Party for what it really is, intellectually bankrupt? Who among them is willing to govern from the middle and not the extreme right?

There was no bravery in Mr.Ryan's plan. There was just more of the old Republican theory of catering to the rich and leaving the rest to fend for themselves, packaged in a new box. No, Mr. Brooks, this was not the Republicans being harmed because they threatened to be different, but only because they refused to be.