The Wrong Right

So why do we need a "next right"? What's wrong with the one we have now?

Well, simply put, the Right is wrong.

The Right is wrong and the Republican Party is in the midst of an identity crisis.

If you know the history of the Republican Party, you know that the party is, first and foremost, one of fiscal responsibility and limited federal reach. These two pillars represent the very essence of conservative politics. Yet the political forces that call themselves the Right no longer represent conservative interests, except perhaps in the social/religious sense. These forces operate under the Republican name but defend none of the values central to the GOP.

Consider:

Republicans have traditionally been the party of fiscal responsibility, but no more. The only options anymore seem to be "tax and spend" with the Democrats or "spend and spend" with the Republicans. These new Republicans like to pretend that the party promotes tax cuts. But with a true tax cut comes a requisite cut in spending. The current Republicans simply ramp up spending while offering us a tax deferral - the opportunity to transfer the tax burden to our kids - and then they advertise the deal as a tax cut.

This new incarnation of the GOP is no longer in any sense conservative on foreign policy. The approach is to bomb now, ask questions later. A true conservative approach is to maintain a capable defense, but reserve its use only for matters of the most urgent national interest, after all other options are exhausted.

The Republicans - once the guardians of civil liberties and personal privacy - no longer even respect the rights of the individual to be free from government encroachment. The party justifies wiretapping, email interception, seizure of library/phone/credit records and any matter of other indiscretions all in the name of homeland security. And worse, these Republicans, the so-called "compassionate conservatives," condone torture and enhanced interrogation - outright violations of both civil liberty and international law.

And so the Right is wrong. It is wrong in advertising itself as a conservative force. It is wrong in operating under the guise of the Republican Party while supporting policies that run counter to the very essence of the party's principles.

Yet there is hope. There are those of us who still believe in the heart and soul of the traditional GOP: that government should be limited at the federal level, that it bears the burden of fiscally responsible decision making, that it must respect the rights of the common man, that it does not become unnecessarily involved overseas. There are those of us who remain hopeful that the party will return to its roots, and will free itself from the clutches of the neocon movement. And there are those of us commited to joining forces with likeminded souls to take back our party.

I believe we can do it.  I believe we must do it. Because I fear that if this status quo remains much longer, that this new incarnation of the Republican Party will no longer be simply a perversion of the party, it will have become the party. And if that were to happen, it would be to the detriment of not only our party, but also of our nation as a whole.