Well JPShelton, although I agree in principal with all you say, what does the Republican Party have to say that we haven't already heard? They tell the conservative what they want to hear, but never actually deliver on any of it.
I am not a registered Republican anymore and I am not a fan of the Republican Party of today. I do believe that the current Republican Party leadership do tell a conservative base what it wants to hear without the intent of delivering on any of it. It is a simple case of power over principle.
That said, I wouldn't mind at all if the Republican Party would say a few things that I've already heard, particularly if they were many of the things that I heard President Regan say when I was in my early teens. I wouldn't mind at all if they talked about limited government, liberty, and personal accountability like Regan did. It wouldn't bother me a bit to hear a lucid argument for supply-side economics again. It wouldn't bother me a bit to hear my President put forth a compelling argument for the need to invest in a strategic missle defense program that would protect us from nuclear ballistic missile threats. It wouldn't bother me a bit to hear my President speak to the world about those things that make America and Her people great. It wouldn't bother me a bit to hear some great conservative ideals championed once again. The fact that I heard it all before nearly three decades ago from Ronald Regan wouldn't bother me in the slightest.
To be more accurate, it wouldn't bother me in the slightest if it came from people like President Regan, who I believe to have been a genuine "kindred spirit" who really believed in liberty and limited government. Regan wasn't perfect. He was human. But he remains the closest thing to perfection to ever occupy the Oval Office in my lifetime.
As an impressionable teen, I believed him when he said that I could achieve anything my ambition, drive, and determination could dream because I was an American and that's what Americans do -we dream big dreams, set loftly goals, work hard to achieve them, and keep on striving, even when we falter and fail, never giving up or quitting until our goal is fully realized. I believed him when he said that I was blessed to live in a land where a person could rise from poverty to fortune and fame just like he did. I believed him when he said that the best thing that government could do for me was get out of my way and let me be the best that I could be and achieve all I was capable of. I still think he was sincere in his beliefs and I'll probably carry that mindset with me to my grave. Many have tried to convince me otherwise. All have failed.
There was a time when men of principle fought the good fight in the battle of ideas and ideals, and many of them were in politics and had (R) next to the their name.
Sadly, it seems that the United States of America that I lived in when Ronald Regan was President now exists only in fond memories.
And yes, I blame the Republicans for that as much as I blame the Democrats.
But the group that I really blame the most are my fellow Americans who, in the span of three decades, proved all too willing to sacrafice liberty on the altar of a sense of entitlement, allowing selfish greed to trump the concept of freedom when they marked their choices on their ballots. I blame them, because people like Pelosi, Fienstein, Schumer, McCain, Specter, Bush, and Obama can't occupy offices that they don't get elected to. I also blame those so supremely selfish that they can't be bothered to get involved with the process, be informed, and execise their franchise at the ballot box.
We still have a government of the people, and by the people. Right now, in many ways, we have exactly the kind of government that the majority of us deserve. That doesn't mean that all of us deserve it, however. For those that do, their selfish government is a reflection on their selfish selves.
As for me, I'm ready to seceede from the union and leave this self serving government to the same self serving citizens who have allowed it to exist.
-JP