What is Wrong with the Republicans?

There is a simple answer to the question of what is wrong with the Republicans. The answer is that they moved away from their conservative roots and tried to join the mainstream media and to get along with the Democrats.

Most of the people that read this blog already know this, but for you liberals and Democrats that have this read to you, here’s a little newsflash for you. John McCain is not Conservative. I don’t care how many times he claimed to be, he is not a Conservative. There is only one thing that saved him from being beaten into oblivion in this past election. Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. She is a Conservative.

When the head of a ticket is a Conservative, they don’t lose. Ronald Reagan won in two landslides. He also carried George H. W. Bush to the Presidency in 1987. President Bush, however, raised taxes (not a conservative thing to do). That caused a short recession. He lost his next election. He probably wouldn’t have lost had it not been for Ross Perot, but Perot wouldn’t have been a factor had Bush stuck to Conservatism.

Bob Dole was not Conservative. He was a moderate. He lost. George W. Bush ran as a Conservative and he won. That’s about when Conservatism went into hiding. In 1994 Republicans nationalized the election and ran on the Contract With America. They promised open debate and votes on ten items within their first 100 days. They won the majority on that promise. They followed through on their promise and voted on all ten in less than 100 days. Not all passed, but they held to their promise and had open debates and votes on all ten items. One was vetoed by President Clinton and they overrode his veto.

After George W. Bush was elected, the Republicans had the House, the Senate and the White House. That’s when Conservatism disappeared. There were a few, but for the most part, the Republicans started buddying up to the press (who hate them) and they started spending like Democrats. I will give them credit for one thing. They did do better than Democrats. Not only did they spend like Democrats, they spent better than Democrats.

The Republicans have an opportunity here. Now that the House, Senate and White House is all Democrat, we know they will do more to take away rights and impose taxes on the American people. However, they should be going after all with another nationalized election in 2010 and beyond. No more of keeping one or two Democrats around to remind us. We can win again and will win again, if we put forth Conservative ideas and promises and follow through on those promises.

First of all, the Republicans should not go on any political programs, such as the Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, nor any of the repeated versions following that like Campbell Brown’s “all bull all the time” nor on Larry King, nor on Anderson Cooper. They also shouldn’t go on programs on Fox like Hannity and Colmes or Bill O’Reilly or any of the others they have on.

If a Republican is going to be on television, it should only be in the form of a press conference. Tell the press what they are looking at, what they plan to do, why the Democrats are wrong and then leave. The Press is not the friend of the Republicans.

The Republicans also need to start putting together their conservative principles into the form of an agenda for the next election. I believe they should start with these, although it’s not an entire list.

1. National Security: Protect our borders and invoke the Bush doctrine again. If you sponsor terrorism, you’re a terrorist. If you harbor terrorists, you’re a terrorist.
2. Free Market. No more bailouts. If a company fails, it fails. No more of the government buying stock in companies.
3. Illegal Immigration: If you are in this country illegally, leave. You have one year to leave on your own. You’re welcome to come back as long as you do it legally. We will put you on a list and welcome you back quickly if you’re legal. If we catch you here illegally and you haven’t taken advantage of the one year chance to leave on your own, you will be deported and will not be allowed back.
4. Taxes: Debate the Fair tax and other tax plans to revamp the tax code. What we have is not working. People are not paying their fair share. I’m speaking mainly of the poor.
5. Cut spending: Line by line through the budget and eliminate the ones that aren’t working. This could take some time because there are a lot of things that are not working.
6. Social Security/Medicare: This needs to be fixed. It could be fixed with an implementation of the Fair Tax, but I still prefer privatization. Not the way the liberals describe privatization, but the truth and the facts.
7. Reduce the size of government: Eliminate the redundant and the dead weight.
8. Revamp the voter registration: There are simple ways to count the vote. Purge all voter registrations nationwide. Make the registration process uniform through each state.
9. End Earmarks.

I’m sure there are more things that I’m forgetting or not thinking of right at the moment that can be added to this list, and I’m open to hearing them from anyone.

Power is lent to the government by the people. In our day and age, it seems to me that the people are allowing the government to take the power away from the people and claim it as their own. We are a Republic, not a Democracy.

It’s time that the people got tough with our elected officials and told them what we want or that we’ll get rid of them. Conservatism is the only way for Americans to maintain the power to lend to the government. If the Republicans don't get back to being Conservate, we'll all be asking the government for our daily needs.

Your comments are welcome.

Brett