A Republican Looks At His Party

I am a 41-year-old small business owner in the financial energy space. I went to the University of Illinois, started as a clerk on the Chicago Merc and now am a well to-do-businessman (I even appear on Fox Business every Tuesday as an oil analyst of sorts). My father was a wounded Marine veteran of the Korean War. I have military members of my own family. So I understand well what conservative values are all about. I give thanks for my success (knock on wood) to the opportunity afforded me in this country. And for the economy, I give credit to the policies of Ronald Reagan, as much as any one individual can have an impact on such a complex engine. I believe in low taxes, less government spending on social engineering, school vouchers, freedom to opt out of the Madoff-like coerced Social Security scheme, a strong military, killing terrorists, etc. Yet I often feel the need to present my bona fides so to speak before having often heated discussions with unlikely foes lately... other conservatives.

I tell them I am old enough to remember Jimmy Carter -- Obama is eerily reminiscent -- but I really came of age under Mr. Reagan. I consider myself a true conservative and I do believe that the government that governs best governs least, as Jefferson said. (Although I am hardly a libertarian). I have watched in dismay how the Republican Party has been rendered impotent by straying so far from what I consider to be its apogee -- the Contract with America -- while appearing to be a bunch of gun-toting yahoos and religious zealots. (For the record I am a gun owner and am active in my Catholic Church...again more credentials). Since 1994, I have watched the party decay from a vibrant, energetic force of conservative values and policies into a consummate Washington insider behemoth, no more fiscally responsible than the Democrats they so often chided for their "tax and spend" ways. A group that seemed more concerned with Terri Schiavo than the fact that its party leader lobbed a placating health bill that Ted Kennedy could love! With "conservatives" like Bush, who needed liberals!

I remember when Zell Miller lamented in the 2004 convention, about what happened to the Democratic Party he once knew and loved. I now ask the same question today. It is a shame.