I wrote this, and then sat on it, wondering whether – no matter how passionate I am on this matter, or how right I might be (naturally I do think I’m right in what I’m saying) – I ought to either post it or spike it.  Finally I decided to go ahead and post it, both because it reflects my position, and because it may lead to some serious discussion of one of the major issues we conservatives face as we come up to elections next year and in 2012.

Just so you’ll know where I’m coming from, let me say that when I became old enough to vote, in 1978, I registered Republican.  My very first presidential vote was for Ronald Reagan in 1980 – a fact that I remain very proud of.  I voted mostly Republican for 12 years after that, taking the view that I would vote for the best candidate regardless of his party affiliation – and finding that in the vast majority of cases the Republican candidate was superior.  In 1992, with the Democratic nomination of Bill Clinton, a proven prevaricator and adulterer, who had lied and then fled to England to avoid the draft, and then had gone to Moscow to participate in anti-American protests, I changed my policy.  I became a “yellow dog Republican,” choosing to vote for the Republican candidate every time, even if it was just a yellow dog.

Then came the 2008 election, when the Republican Party nominated John McCain, whom I had voted against in 2000 (I was not enamored of George W. Bush, but he was not as liberal as McCain).  I have no use for McCain’s political views.  The last useful thing he’d done prior to 2008 was his service in the Navy; the only useful things he did in the campaign were first, choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate, and second, unhesitatingly declaring that a child gains human rights “at the moment of conception.”  After the election, which McCain seemed to hardly care whether he won, I agonized for a long time – and finally, on Valentine’s Day of 2009, I sent in a form to the county clerk changing my voter registration from Republican to the Constitution Party.

With that in mind, I want us to consider whether we, as conservatives, can trust the Republican Party anymore.  Think of this fact: The last conservative presidential candidate the Republican Party fielded was Ronald Reagan, in 1984.  It has, therefore, been 24 years since the party saw fit to choose a conservative to run for president.  It’s as though, having secured landslides in two presidential elections, national prosperity, and the defeat of the Soviet Union through the courage and integrity of Ronald Reagan, the party became ashamed of its outstanding success, and decided to slink around thenceforth.

Congressional Republicans are little if any better than its presidential candidates.  Indeed, we have seen Republicans in Congress falling all over themselves to be bipartisan (meaning doing whatever the Democrats want), to “reach across the aisle” (meaning to be Democrats in everything but name), to be “mavericks” (meaning to side with the Democrats almost every time), to in short act completely contrary to cherished Republican principles.  And now the party’s leadership is openly – if not avowedly – liberal; the 2008 platform explicitly opens the party to liberals while containing little conservatism, and the new RNC chairman has attacked Rush Limbaugh while urging Republicans to take it easy on Barack Obama.

With all this in mind, can we conservatives trust the Republican Party?  Does it truly represent us?  Or is it, rather, a party of liberals who don’t want to call themselves such, of Democrats in everything but name, of enemies who hate the principles we hold dear?  Many conservatives have not left the Republican Party – but hasn’t the party most thoroughly left them?

I’ve been saying for months, in the Conservative Principles and Action mailing list (you can find it at www.groups.yahoo.com – just search for that title), that though I think they’re wrong, I hope those who think they can return the Republican Party to conservatism succeed.  But as time goes on, not only do I think that the effort is futile, but I begin to think that the belief it can succeed is naïve.  The Republican Party has gone RINO, and the conservatives who remain have no power at any level (there are conservatives in the party – as there are, believe it or not, a few conservatives left in the Democratic Party – and they even run for office here and there, but beyond that their influence is nil).

I have come to believe that the party of Reagan has turned into another party of Obama.  It has shocked me to see a few Republicans in Congress standing up and voting against Barack Obama’s programs, for I’ve come to expect congressional Republicans to act just like Democrats.  I’ve seen them doing it for years, hoping and praying that for once they’ll stand up on their hind legs and act like Republicans.  When Republicans voting against liberal bills is a surprise, something is extremely rotten in the state of Denmark – or in the Republican Party.

Today, I firmly believe that if you’re a conservative, the Republican Party doesn’t want you, doesn’t want your money, and certainly doesn’t want your input.  Indeed, I think that the Republican Party would just as soon silence Rush Limbaugh as the Democratic Party would; I believe that congressional Republicans would vote for the "fairness doctrine” (under whatever name) just as quickly as the Democrats would.  They don’t want to hear it.  They don’t want to hear about reducing taxes, about the right to keep and bear arms, about reduction in the size of government, about ending such unconstitutional and ultimately unworkable programs as Social Security, about getting the United States out of the hatefully anti-American United Nations, about anything that is truly conservative.

The day is coming, I believe, when the Republican Party will go on a witch hunt a la the Democratic Party.  For the conflict now isn’t between the two major parties – they’re far more alike, in 2009, than they’re different.  The conflict is between ideologies.  The battle is not between the Republican Party on the one hand and the Democratic Party on the other, but between conservatism and liberalism – with liberalism controlling both the major parties.

So what do we conservatives do?  Well, if you truly believe that there’s a chance of success, you can continue to fight against the Republican Party, seeking to return it to conservative principles.  But I predict that you’re going to get weary of fighting a party which hates your views, and which wants nothing more than to be Democrats without the donkey.  I think you’re going to wind up defeated in that fight, and that the energy you put into it will be a complete waste.

Or we can abandon the Republican Party to its liberal decay, and go elsewhere.  The question is where.  I don’t profess to be an expert on all the political parties out there, but I know for a fact that no conservative has a place in the Democratic Party, or the Green Party, or any other liberal party.  Not only would we feel very uncomfortable there, but they wouldn’t have us.

Nor would conservatives truly fit into the Libertarian Party.  That party seems conservative at first glance, but on some key issues it’s as liberal as anything you’ll find in the Democratic Party.  It is, perhaps, conservatism minus its moral compass – and that is not really conservatism at all, since we recognize that all ethical positions, and all legitimate laws, have a moral basis (e.g. we support laws against murder because murder is wrong – a moral judgement).

The American Conservative Party is attractive, and I gave it serious consideration when I was wondering where – if anywhere – I ought to go.  But it seems to be a rather amateurish operation, if its Web site is any indication, and it has no finalized platform.

What I recommend to conservatives is the Constitution Party.  I’ve read the platform, and find more to agree with there than in any other platform I’ve read or have any knowledge of.  The Constitution Party explicitly recognizes and supports the contributions of Christians to the United States.  It stands firmly on the principle that if a program or expenditure has no clear basis in the Constitution, then the federal government has no right to run that program or spend that money.  It favors smaller government, which by definition means more money our pockets, and more power in our hands to shape our lives as we see fit.  It is – according to its literature, which I have no reason to doubt but no independent evidence to confirm – that it is the third-largest political party in the country.  And I think that if conservatives will acknowledge that the Republican Party has become Republican In Name Only – that it is, in fact, the RINO Party; that instead of the Grand Old Party it is now the Tired Old Party – and flock to the Constitution Party’s standard, we can make this conservative party the next major political party in the United States.

And if that happens, the Democrats and Republicans both will be in for a fight.  They will, in fact, have suddenly to contend with conservatives voting as a bloc, something that hasn’t happened in decades.  The liberals will be, finally, in a position to lose the White House and Congress and state legislatures and governors’ mansions and county boards of supervisors and city councils and mayors’ offices.  If conservatives will come together as one under the banner of the Constitution Party – or at least vote for Constitution Party candidates – that party can come roaring into prominence like the Third Army stormed across Europe, sweeping all before it.  And if that happens, we can then began working to not only halt the expansion of our current Big Brother federal government – we can begin to actually reverse the damage that decades of liberalism have wrought.

I’ve come a bit afield from my original point, and I’ve been more prolix than I usually am in these posts.  So let me summarize:

     1. I don’t think we can trust the Republican Party to represent us

     2. I think that we can trust the Constitution Party to do so

     3. Therefore, I urge all genuine conservatives to reregister with their county clerk not as Republicans, but as members of the Constitution Party, to support the Constitution Party with time or money or moral support, and to vote for Constitution Party candidates at every opportunity

I know that it sure feels a lot better knowing that my new party hasn’t gone liberal, the way my old party did.

I first heard of One Million Conservatives on the Conservative Principles and Action mailing list.  And one of the reasons I hunted around on Yahoo Groups for a conservative list is that I am beginning to be very unhappy with the Republican Party.

In 1980 the GOP nominated Ronald Reagan for president.  He beat Jimmy Carter so easily that it looked almost as if Reagan were running unopposed.  Some might say that Jimmy made it easy – he refused to campaign, he hid out in the Rose Garden, he generally sat in the White House looking as incompetent as he really was.

So in 1984 Reagan did it again.  This time his opponent (Walter Mondale) tried as hard as he could to win.  He lost by another landslide.

And so we had a conservative president for eight years.  I lived through those years.  I was 16 when Jimmy Carter took office and began to dismantle the country’s pride and economy.  I was 20 when I voted in my first presidential election – for Reagan.  I was 28 when Reagan reached the constitutional limit to his presidential service, and liberalism took over in the person of George “Mo’ New Taxes” Bush.  We have had nothing but liberalism in the White House ever since.

We expect the Democratic Party to run liberals.  It doesn’t surprise us when the Democrats run people like Bill Clinton or Barack Obama.  The only question is whether they’ll be honest about what they want, or pretend they’re in step with the majority of Americans.  But the GOP is supposed to be different from the Democrats.  The Republican Party is supposed to hold different beliefs, adhere to different principles, have different goals, and use different methods.  But there’s been precious little difference for the past 20 years.  From George Bush, to Bob Dole, to George W. Bush, to John McCain, the only difference between Republican presidential candidates and those the Democratic Party nominates has been one of degree.  The only question has been how liberal the GOP’s candidates are – they have all been, to some degree, liberal, and can appear conservative only if you compare the least liberal of them with the most liberal among the Democratic candidates.

So what’s the point in being a Republican?  And that brings us to the crux of this post.  I have been a registered Republican since 1978, when I turned 18.  I’ve been a yellow dog Republican (that is, I’d vote Republican even if the only Republican running was a yellow dog) since 1992, when I lost whatever respect I still had for the Democratic Party.  (How can any honest, intelligent person respect a party which would nominate Bill Clinton?  The man is a liar, a fool, and an unrepentant draft dodger.  Anyone who can vote for him and still look at himself in the mirror must be as dishonest and foolish as Clinton.)

But I find that harder and harder to justify.  If I’d had any better choice at all, I would never have voted for John McCain in 2008.  I looked forward to voting for Mike Huckabee in the primary – but by the time the New Mexico Republican primary rolled around, McCain was the nominee and Huckabee wasn’t on the ballot.  I voted as much against McCain in 2000 as I did for Bush (W is not a conservative, and I dislike voting for people who aren’t conservatives).  When the GOP keeps nominating people like that, why should I be a Republican?

I ask that question honestly.  Why should I be a Republican, if the party’s going to continually, year after year, deny me representation?  Why should I be Republican when the party moves further and further to the left, betraying not merely Ronald Reagan’s legacy, but the voters who made Reagan victorious?

I have been looking into alternatives.  I’ve said for years that voting for a third party candidate is to, in effect, vote Democratic.  But there comes a point when even the fact that voting for someone else helps the liberals win has to yield before the fact that one’s conscience can only support so much.  If the barbarians are at the gate, obviously you want to support the man who’s fighting to keep them outside the walls.  But at some point, if the commander of the city’s forces becomes indistinguishable from the attacking barbarians, conscience requires that you look to someone else for protection and leadership.

I’ve looked at the American Conservative Party, and found that I could comfortably fit there.  I’ve been looking at the Constitution Party, and it seems compatible with my views.  Perhaps there are other parties to look into.  But I’m finding that it takes an act of will to act deliberately, and consider my choices patiently and rationally, rather than grabbing the first bus downtown to the County Clerk’s office to change my registration.  That’s how fed up I am.

I’ve had a pleasant surprise – I’ve had plenty of responses to these posts.  I’ve had an opinion blog for a good while now (A Piece of My Mind), and I’ve had maybe half a dozen responses the whole time (most recently, back during the summer, someone asked – using a bad word – why I would want to “quoten” Rush Limbaugh; when I responded, he vanished from the scene).  Here I’ve gotten at least one response to every post, and as I think about it I don’t think that I’ve ever posted something that only got one response.  The people here at One Million Conservatives actually read and respond.

And that’s one reason for this post.  I want responses.  I would like to know what everyone thinks.  I’m going to make up my own mind about whether to stay Republican, or to switch to another party, but I want to do it on the basis of as much information as possible.  I want to be sure before I change my registration, first that a switch is the best thing to do, and second that I’m moving to the right place.  And others’ views are worth considering – I am not, after all, either omniscient or infallible.

It seems to me that the GOP has perhaps two more chances to do something right.  There are the 2010 mid-term elections, where we’ll vote for members of Congress.  Will the Republican Party finally get its head out of its butt and nominate conservatives, or will it field the same old liberals?  And then there’s the 2012 presidential election.  There is at least one very visible conservative who can inspire enthusiasm and loyalty, and who isn’t afraid to stand up on her hind legs and be a conservative – Sarah Palin.  She’s the one I hope the party nominates.  If she’s not the nominee, I want another conservative.  But will the party nominate Sarah or someone else equally exciting, or will it – again – run a tired old liberal?

Looking at it that way, I’ve got two and perhaps four years to make up my mind.  But I’m not sure there really is that much time.  If I’m going to switch, it may be that I ought to do so soon, so that I’ll have time between now and 2010, or now and 2012, to agitate for my new party – whatever it might be if I do switch – and promote that party’s candidates.

And so I’m sort of thinking “out loud” here, and hoping that y’all’s thoughts will help me to reach a conclusion.