What has Happened to the Republican Party?

Originally my blog was called "republicrat" but that's not really reflective of my position. Let me say first and foremost that I am a REPUBLICAN....and I'm proud of that. But I am a Republican as it was originally intended. The Republican Party has always stood for limited government and fiscal responsibility. Stay out of the pocketbooks of entrepreneurial Americans...let them do what they do best -- create jobs, invent new and exciting technologies, take risks and reap their due rewards.

But I have to say that it is hard to identify today with the party as it has evolved over the past few years. It's really hard to be proud to be Republican right now when our party, under the Bush Administration, has led the biggest spending spree since FDR faced coming out of the Great Depression and on the brink of World War. That's right....it was 1933-1934. That's eight decades...almost a century. Not only that, but the current Administration has tried to insinuate its "moral" agenda as well on the American public. You really can't get more anti-"Republican" than that. Stay out of people's wallets but try to tell them how to live their spiritual lives? What is THAT about? So it's safe to say that the leader of the party, George W. Bush, hasn't exactly exhibited the tenents for which the Republican Party stands.

It's also important to remember, however, that it is the Congress, NOT the Executive Branch that has control of the country's purse strings. And that body has been controlled, in the past two years by the Democratic party...both houses. So it is equally safe to say that there is enough blame to go around. It is also important to note that it was John McCain who criticized the freedom of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to deliver loans where they weren't deserved...not Barack Obama. In fact, Obama was one of the biggest proponents of deregulating Freddie and Fannie and, as such, is one of the three largest recipients of those two bodies' money of any other senator. Moreover, sub-prime mortgages were not only allowed but ENCOURAGED by former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan during the CLINTON administration.

Bottom line: I still believe...in my gut...that the Republican contract of lower taxes, limited government and incentives for growing businesses is still the better solution to our economic woes. You have to ask yourselves: "Why has the stock market continued to post negative numbers over the past three weeks...even after almost a trillion dollars being injected into the financial sectors? The higher the poll numbers go for Obama, the lower the stock market goes. I don't think it's a coincidence.

But the Republican Party will never regain its former glory until it detangles itself from the evangelical Christian Right movement. They're an important fundraising base...to be sure. But that's all they should be...a fundraising base, NOT a monopoly on the party's ideological platform. I mean REALLY are the conservatives going to vote for Barack Obama if McCain doesn't jump through their ever escalating hoops? Republicans have always been associated with highly educated, reasonable voters. Now it's associated with people who believe that Darwinism is a "nice" theory, but "creationism" is an equally viable educational protocol. Excuse me? What's THAT about? What exactly does "intelligent design" mean? I take that term directly from the McCain website. Huh?

My frustration with the McCain campaign for presidency mirrors that of the Republican Party. This is NOT the campaign I signed on for...and this is defnitely NOT the Party I have known my entire adult life. I liked McCain when he actually thought for himself, instead of touted the "party" line which has been polluted by the conservative right. This is not the CHANGE voters want.

I will vote for McCain because I think he will be a better leader in foreign policy and I think he has a better solution for our current economic crisis. But I do so with great trepidation. And that makes me very, very sad.