The Failure of the Republican Party

The Republican Party has completely lost its base. Does that get your attention? The Republicans, when the modern day party was founded, were supposed to be conservative, an alternative to the growing liberalism in the Democratic Party, as is seen today in the party. Now, so called “Republicans” that we elect to our government are no longer supporting the base we the people of this party believe in.

The Republicans are supposed to support a free market. This means not allowing government control of the market, basically letting the market take its course. With the recent economic upheavals in September of 2008, through today, March 2009, the Republicans in both the House and the Senate have supported these bailouts, which continue to throw money in a black hole, never to be seen again, nor to produce anything. The Republican Candidate for the 2008 Presidential Election, Sen. John McCain, even supported the first bailout bill! He helped craft it during the election, and he is supposed to be a Republican! A true Republican would never do this; a Conservative Republican would not even consider it. For the recent Economic Stimulus Package, which in my opinion was another black hole to throw money into, several Republicans in the Senate supported it. Although the Republicans in the House had a change of heart, and refused to support it, it still passed, and the Republicans in the Senate still are not being “true Republicans”. These are other examples of the Republican Party betraying conservatives like this in our government.

The Republican Party is supposed to stand for a law-abiding citizen to own a firearm. If this is the case, then why in the last few decades have Republicans supported laws, like the Assault Weapons Ban, which would effectively make it impossible to purchase guns the government deems should be on this list? The Republicans are very strict-constructionists, meaning they favor interpreting the Constitution exactly how it is written. The Second Amendment states: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” This was written by the Founding Fathers with the interpretation that law-abiding citizens could own a firearm, not matter what kind, as long as no laws were broken. The Republican politicians in D.C. have sided with Liberal Democrats on this issue, forcing through many laws restricting guns, and making them much more difficult to possess. This puts a huge strain on the normal citizen who merely wishes to purchase a firearm for self-defense (i.e. a handgun), or a citizen whom wishes to purchase a firearm for sporting purposes (i.e. a rifle, shotgun). The Republican Party is no longer truly supporting, or believing in amendments such as this.

This party is also supposedly opposed to big government, which has expanded rapidly during the post 9/11 Era. Under President Bush, the American government expanded largely, the biggest in decades. The Federal Government, in the Reagan-Republican’s mind, is to be small, and not all reaching and all powerful like liberals seem to enjoy. The Republican politicians have managed to take many powers from the States, and vest it in the Federal Government, obviously against the Tenth Amendment, which states: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people”. The Federal Government in the past twenty to thirty years has managed to ignore this amendment, along with our Supreme Court allowing them to slip by it. I find it appalling that the American people have allowed our government to grow so out of control. The Republicans in our government have done nothing since the Reagan Era to end these. They did small things, like putting Medicare back onto the States in the mid-90s, however, other than that, no major rollbacks have occurred since.

I personally have become disillusioned with the Republican Party after the 2008 Presidential Election mainly because of the lack of the Conservative Principles this party is supposed to hold. Instead of supporting the people, these politicians have decided to benefit themselves instead of benefitting the People as a whole. Sen. John McCain, who reached out to the conservative voters, asking for our support to him, promised to follow through on his campaign promises. Although we will never know if he would have, I doubt he would have followed through. President Bush, then Governor Bush of Texas, in the 2000 Election promised a conservative government, and asked the conservatives, like Republican candidates previously, to give our vote to him, and not third party candidates like the Constitution Party, or the Libertarian Party. Again, as previously, we did as asked, and he was elected. He then proceeded to “make friends” with our Democratic and liberal counterparts, in the process of stabbing us, the conservatives who have supported the Republican Party for decades, in the back.

Thus, after seeing and reading the history of the betrayal of the Republican Party, I promise, to the Republican Party, and to myself, to never support a Republican candidate for any Federal level office. Many conservatives feel this way, and many, such as I, are now throwing our lot in with parties like the Constitution or Libertarian Party. The Constitution Party is to conservatives what the Republican Party is now to moderates and moderate liberals. The Constitution Party fully supports the repealing of gun laws, of big government, and many other conservative principles that I and others find refreshing, and we are enthused by it. After the 2008 Presidential Election, and the failure of the Republicans, many conservatives hope for a realignment period where the Democratic Party and Republican Party merge into one party, as both are essentially the same. This would be the honest thing to do, instead of duping voters into supporting a candidate that lies to them. This would allow for a third party, i.e. the Constitution Party, to step forward and fill the gap that is already there that has been created by the Republican Party not fulfilling its promises to keep to its conservative base. This is why I urge all readers to support a conservative third party, as it will not betray you as the Republican Party has done. The Constitution or Libertarian Party can be great, but only if enough support is given. I will only come back to the Republican Party the day it readopts its conservative base values again, and refuse to be “friendlies” with these Liberal Democrats in Congress, and do what is right for conservatives like myself.