Before I begin, I wish to beg the forgiveness of those that have enjoyed my writing for the lack of letters since those first two. I have been putting some thought into this latest letter and decided that, during this calm in the campaign (at least on the Republican side), this would be the most appropriate time to write this (you can also blame writer’s block to some degree for the lack of letters until now).

   At this time, I feel that there are many who either need to find out and be reminded what a conservative is and the fundamental philosophy behind our movement. I also wish to go a bit further and tie that philosophy to the issues that affect us now and later because philosophy is just empty words if it isn’t relevant to the issues we face today. However, this is a general letter; I’ll get more specific later.

   First, conservatism gives our country the freedom to be happy and to make our own choices or, in the words of the Declaration of Independence, “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Liberalism robs us of all these things.

   Liberals rob us of life by taking the lives of those who have no voice. Liberalism takes away our liberty by government expansion so it controls everything we do. Even now, it tells us what kind of light bulbs to use to save us from global warming, and it wants to control our health care.  

   Conservatives believe, in the words of Henry David Thoreau, “that government is best which governs least.” People can make the right decisions themselves; they don’t need the government telling them. For example, tax cuts give people the money and the means to make better lives for themselves; less government regulation allow businesses and their communities to grow and spread their prosperity to others. Government can’t give everything to everyone; it can only give to one and only by taking away from another, like in the case of welfare.

   Liberals steal our happiness by focusing on what wrong and not what is right, and making us believe that our prosperity and success come at the expense of someone else.

   For example, according to liberals, the evil oil companies want us to have high gas prices so they can make more profits. They never mention that approximately 13 percent of the gas price is taxes levied by the government, according to the Energy Information Administration, which tabulates the government’s official energy statistics. In other words, $0.43 of the retail gas price of $3.33 nationwide is taxes. Furthermore, those oil company employees, from the CEO to the average oil field worker, have to pay the same price we do. Do you think they like this anymore than we do?

   Why do liberals not celebrate what is right with America? The freedom we provide to everyone and the strength our country gains from it enable us to spread freedom to others beyond our shores. Does anyone believe the people of Iraq would be better off with Saddam Hussein’s tyranny, his torture rooms and mass graves? Granted, the situation in Iraq isn’t perfect but neither was America when it first gained its independence. Liberals state that guidelines and goals must be set for Iraq to become a true democracy but the 13 colonies’ only guideline when they fought for their freedom from Great Britain was the Declaration of Independence. Independence is never a nice and neat business, there’s always going to be some discord associated with it but freedom is worth the price paid, no matter how large that price is.

   I am angry. And, my conservative friends, we need a revolution in our party.

   Let’s start with John McCain. He clearly wants us to believe he’s a conservative. His ads brand him as the “True Conservative.” However, words mean nothing to me. Actions mean everything and McCain’s actions prove he is not a conservative. For example, we have that assault on the First Amendment, the McCain-Feingold Bill. We have that assault on our sovereignty, the McCain-Kennedy illegal immigration bill. Now there’s the assault on our pocketbook, the McCain-Lieberman bill that would raise how much the American family pays for gas by almost $1,000 per year to fight global warming. McCain also opposed the Bush tax cuts when they were passed. But he said supports the tax cuts now, Jessica! Yes, he’ll support them until he gets elected.

   John McCain is not a conservative. But a President Clinton or President Obama would be worse. So, what’s a conservative to do?

   Simple, we need to look beyond November. We need to look to the 2010 midterm elections and elect new blood into office. Conservatives need to kick the moderates in Congress out the door as soon as possible. So who needs to go?

   Any senator or representative who believes we should pull out of Iraq, that our foreign policy should be subject to approval from the United Nations, that we should negotiate with Iran and North Korea, that the government should take care of us from the cradle to the grave (in other words, universal health care), that the American people’s money is better off in the government’s hands rather than the people’s needs to be voted out of office. Any elected official who doesn’t believe in the sanctity of life should have no place in the GOP or in our government.

   We should also refuse to vote for anyone who believes in “comprehensive immigration reform.” It means the candidate won’t build the fence, won’t secure our borders and will grant amnesty the moment they can do it. The Republican establishment thinks that if it grants the illegal immigrants amnesty they’ll vote Republican in the next election. They are absolute fools! The immigrants will vote Democrat because they know the liberals will give them their free health care, education, and unemployment benefits at the average taxpayer’s expense.

   In short, we need to vote out any Republican who capitulates to the Democrats’ demands and whose voting record supports bigger government, higher taxes, amnesty for illegal immigrants and the moral degradation of our country.

   My friends, vote for whom you wish this November; after all, all our opinions, not just mine, will count on Election Day. But look to the future, to November 2010, and let’s take back our party and force McCain, if he gets elected, to be a conservative.

   I must say that Rich’s column was insightful but not in illustrating the Republicans’ supposed detachment from reality but in shining a light on the Democrats’ detachment. Rich touches on a number of issues which I will respond to one by one.

   First, there’s Ronald Reagan. I often wonder why liberals like Rich consider Reagan’s ideas to be outdated. What is outdated about lowering taxes so the American people have more money to spend and therefore have more money to give to the government in taxes? What is outdated about reforming welfare so there aren’t as many “welfare deadbeats” dependent on the government and simply sitting at home waiting for their check?

   Furthermore, what is wrong about being optimistic about the future? Rich calls it “mindless optimism” but positive-minded people tend to do more for the good of our country. The one thing I don’t like about Democrats is that they always seem to find something to complain about but only have one more big government solution for the “problem.” For example, unemployment and interest rates are at all-time lows; the stock market may be slipping but it has still experienced astonishing growth in the long term.

   However, liberals would like us to think that we are still heading for a recession because of the housing mess, which boils down to lenders approving people, like illegal immigrants, for mortgages they weren’t qualified and couldn’t pay for. Also, we’re headed for a recession because of our record deficit. As for that deficit, there are a number of solutions for that.

   First, we need to solve our energy crisis. As Rush Limbaugh pointed out in his 1/23/08 broadcast, over 65% of our oil and 13% of our gas is imported. Why is this? First (and yes this comes from Rush), we can’t convert all the oil we’re drilling into gas because we haven’t built any new refineries in over 30 years. It is too expensive for even the billion-dollar oil companies to build more due to all the regulations that were put in place in the 1970’s by the Democrat-led government. Furthermore, we can’t drill in places like ANWR because of the Democrat Party’s environmentalist wing. In short, we the people have the Democrats to thank for our energy crisis.

   Second, the government needs to tighten its belt. Admittedly, the Republicans are as guilty of this as the Democrats but are the Republicans proposing $600 billion in new spending on ideas like universal health care? I find it amusing that the Democrats would come out with idea after idea like this but don’t bother to mention how they would pay for it. Perhaps they don’t need to; anyone with an iota of sense knows that the government’s chief revenue source is taxes paid out of your pocket so how do they pay for new spending? They pay for it by raising taxes which inevitably leads to people having less money to spend, slowing down the economy, and it makes people more dependent on the government for things like health care.  

   The other issue Rich raises is race. I’m going to be blunt -- the only reason race is still an issue because Democrats keep bringing it up. Rich claims that the lack of diversity among the GOP’s field of candidates shows how out of touch the party is on the “issue.” However, shouldn’t who becomes President be based on the merits of the candidate and their ideas and not on race or gender, in the case of Hillary? I believe the majority of America doesn’t consider race or gender to be a deciding factor in who they vote for and the minority that do are very shallow indeed.

   Rich then closes his column with praise for Huckabee and McCain for “breaking out of the pack.” In response I ask, like Ann Coulter did in her latest column in Human Events, why a committed liberal like Rich would praise those two candidates in particular despite the fact that he obviously despises their party. The reason: because they’re liberals trying to convince us that they’re conservatives. Voters beware.

   Hello all and welcome to my new blog! I'm trying to make a career out of writing as well as politics and hopefully this will help. Comments are welcome! I will first be posting two columns I've written in the past and then will be periodically posting more columns as well as my own comments on current events as I see fit. Enjoy!