What we need are consevative leaders....

What's Missing

The missing ingredient in the Republican Party is a true conservative leader. Someone who, like Ronaldus Magnus pounded away and pounded away on what it meant to be a conservative. It seemed like in every speech and every news conference, even every comment on the way to Marine One on the grass of the White House he worked into the conversation how important it was for each of us as individuals to be the best we can be, so that collectively we would be a greater nation. And in order for that to happen, he would say, government has to get out of the way. I contend, there is currently no one in GOP leadership that can articulate that message as well as the 'Great Communicator'. If Ronald Reagan were president, he would speak right past the Democrat Leadership and directly to the American people. Reagan understood from his first shot at politics in the 60's that his message would always be that of The Conservative Movement.

“Our hopeful joy upon the 1994 takeover of Congress was like finding a new pony by the Christmas tree. Now it’s more like finding it slumped over dead on top of the presents.” —Jonah Goldberg

There are pockets of individuals in the GOP who believe much of the Reagan Doctrine of Conservativism. Rick Santorum comes to mind. Unfortunately, he has sided with President Bush on too many occasions, especially when it comes to the out of control pork barrel spending that is all too common in Washington, which explains why The Club For Growth (http://www.clubforgrowth.com/) gives him only 73% rating. Until Congressmen and Senators start looking at what is best for all the people instead of what is best to line the pockets of their biggest contributors this situation will never get better. But even more importantly, until we get someone with a national voice that can articulate our message, we will continue to elect RINO's (Republican In Name Only) like Linc Chaffey, Olymipia Snow, Arlyn Spector, etc... Without strong conservative leadership we will be stuck until the next Ross Perot comes along and pulls the rug out from under us again.

Leadership on the Issues

The current economy can sustain us in the short term, but there are several major economic changes coming that require leadership now. For instance, since the national debt is largely financed through issuance of bonds to foreign governments we are relying on countries like China, Japan, S. Korea to buy our debt so the government can continue to finance entitlements while we continue to buy their products. Between our debt being sold overseas and our reliance on oil from other countries, they will have us literally over a barrel pretty soon. Additionally, to have a truly self-sustaining economy we have to be leaders in converting raw materials into finished goods whether in through mining, manufacturing or agriculture. Right not (I have not checked my facts, but I'm sure someone will...) the only one of those three items where we are close to a net exporter is in agriculture. And yet agriculture employs less people every year.

However, immigration will be the next big issue. There are several ways to look at immigration. The easiest one for people to wrap their mind around is the national security risk we take by not having our borders secured. It's quite simple really. How many of you sleep with your door unlocked. How many sleep with the door open? How many of you have no walls to your house at all? The area of concern it the strain on public infrastructure the uncontrolled growth causes. Emergency rooms are shutting their doors in the Southwest because they cannot afford to treat these people for free, they cannot afford to pay someone to translate and the problem is spreading east. The last issue with the uncontrolled growth is that they do not seem to integrating into the United Stated of America. Instead, they look at the US as a suburb of Mexico. They come to the 'burbs to work, take the money & send it home. Again, this provides a huge strain on our economic system.

Taxes will also be a hot button issue. Soon less than 50% of the US population will even be paying taxes. Once that happens you can forget any major tax reform. Here are the latest data (FY 2003):

• 96.54% of the taxes are paid by the top 50% of wage earners.
• 65.84% of the taxes are paid by the top 10% of wage earners.
• 54.36% of the taxes are paid by the top 5% of wage earners.
• 34.27% of the taxes are paid by the top 1% of wage earners.
• Only 3.46% of the taxes are paid by the bottom 50% of wage earners.

Source: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/03in05tr.xls

So, what so you, oh great ones.....?