SmallGovTimes.com

By: John Cox | Published on 03/06/07    

In late 2006, America spoke, and it rejected Republican control of Congress. That rejection has also been felt in many statehouses and state legislatures in the nation. Now it is time for our party to return to its principles, find its soul, and rebuild itself again. Republicans must once again act like Republicans.

The election disaster for the Republican Party can be laid squarely at the feet of party insiders and career politicians who had grown comfortable, lazy, and even corrupt, while serving in Congress.

To be blunt, the Republican Congress let conservatives down.

* The Republican Congress was fiscally irresponsible. Conservatives have been outraged at an attempt to outspend the Democrats, including the largest expansion of Medicare in that program’s history.

* Career politicians in Congress succumbed to the corruption of long-term power. A focus on re-election and raising money to hold onto power engulfed many Congressmen, causing them to abandon their conservative principles.

* The failure of Congress and Pres. Bush to change the strategy for dealing with Iraq and its economy in a realistic, competent and timely way was a major reason why Americans rejected the Republican Congress.

The Republican Party has ceased to be a party of Big Ideas, as it was under Ronald Reagan. While they had the majority, Republicans failed to reform Social Security, failed to reform our outrageous tax system, botched immigration reform and border security, and all the while, greatly expanded the size of government.

Today. we must begin reforming and rebuilding the Republican Party. But as Americans look toward the 2008 presidential election, we Republicans cannot expect some of the same political elites in Congress who gave us this defeat attempt to guide us to a solution.

I am seeking the presidency because I want to restrain spending, stand up for Republican values, project a foreign policy of Peace through Strength, and inspire Americans to embrace big ideas.

Let us today begin this journey together to create a new Republican Party of which the American people can be proud.

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