America's right made a left!

"Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then gets elected and proves it." - P.J. O'Rourke

The Economist, a magazine that is very kind to conservative ideas, leads this week with the story about "What's gone wrong for the right?" (Subscription needed.) It speaks of the indictment of Tom DeLay, fiscal troubles and the aftermath of Katrina having tipped George Bush's presidency into deep trouble.

Bush's compassionate conservatism has translated into big government. According to the same Economist article, Bush has spent more than any president in the past half century save liberal President Johnson, author of The Great Deal (aka Mr. Spend). While spending like a drunken sailor on shore leave, the GOP has dropped its revenues by significantly lowering taxes. So, our government increasingly grows bloated on debt.

Now, if that remarkable drift of Republican idealogy from fiscal conservatism to free-spending liberalism wasn't alarming enough, there are also the numerous and major mess-ups, the down right incompetence and managerial sloppiness to deal with. The most recent was FEMA's dealing with Hurricane Katrina, one among many. The lack of WMD evidence in Iraq was another. It takes competent people to make one of the largest and certainly the most powerful government on earth effective.

The Economist hit the nail on the head. What has gone wrong with the right? They look like an eagle but fly like a pea-hen. Please get back to the basics, to the platform. And I am not alone in such feelings. Conservative media such as The Weekly Standard are calling for a focus on Republican basics. Even the National Review of all places had a lead article on Pork-barrel Republicans.

Is that too hard to ask for? Someone please step up. I want my old Republican party back.
Photo by Pam Roth c/o Stock.xchng (also see her website)