A few years back, the people of the United States stood up, and in a moment of clarity voted the Republican Party a majority in congress. At that time our party really stood for something. The Contract with America proved that. The Republicans promised to start work on several bills to limit the Federal Government on the very first day and when they were elected that’s what they did. Though they fell short of getting everything passed, it was a move in the right direction.

At the onset, the Republicans of the 104th congress were exceptional, upstanding men. The Party was going to prune the government down into a manageable and efficient machine. We were going to see REAL reform, not just the kind politicians talk about to get elected.

There was a proposal for a statutory balanced budget, targeted middle class tax cuts, a bill that would require the loser in a law suit to pay all legal fees, and many other fiscally conservative policies. Most of these bills passed easily with a majority in congress.

Cut to today. The Republican Party is filled with corrupt, hypocritical, and arrogant politicians. We are nothing like we were. We are giving the Democrats valid issues to attack us with. The Jack Abramov scandal has made the Republicans look very dirty (even though it seems to be a bipartisan scandal).

When the citizens of the United States voted for President Bush they thought that they were voting for a fiscal conservative. A President who would carry on the Republican revolution and we could finally get everything we wanted accomplished done. Unfortunately, in the past five years, the government has grown… a lot.

For instance, rather than trim the government down, we have a new federal department (the Department of Homeland Security) which has already failed us several times (look at the handling of Katrina). Big government is still inefficient and dangerous. The Department of Education which serves no purpose has grown in size with a failed liberal testing program called the “No Child Left Behind Act” even though the Republican Party used to oppose the whole Department. The National Debt has grown to over $8.2 trillion and the President has proposed a budget with a 521 billion dollar deficit

So what can we do about the shell that is the Republican Party? Is there anything we can do? I don’t have that answer. The Party is so far gone that what we need is fresh leaders. Unfortunately from what I can see of young members of the Republicans they are being indoctrinated into the Party and have unquestioning loyalty. What happened to questioning authority in the interests of keeping the government in check? Perhaps the Party is simply lost for a few decades.

So should we vote for Democrats in the mean time to make a point? It’s not hard these days to find a democrat who will be more fiscally conservative than most republicans. What about the Libertarians? We all need to take a different strategy when we vote. Rather than vote party line, learn about the candidates, spend a Saturday before an election and find out who you are going to vote for. If you don’t know a candidate, don’t vote in that race. Make sure you aren’t blindly allowing anyone to gain power under the Republican banner.

We need major reform in our Party as well as in the government. And until Republicans experience some stress, like losing elections, we aren’t going to change. We need new people, new strategies, and a return to the fiscal conservative’s ideals. It is going to be a very long struggle to get the Party back to its roots. Hopefully we can return to a conservative agenda, where a small government rules without interfering in our daily lives.

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