Can the Republicans be Turned?

I grew up a Republican, supporting Robert Taft against Eisenhower in 1952 during my senior year of high school. I and my friends worked hard for Goldwater in 1964, and we all suffered as a result of the disastrous loss. It hurt so bad that I gave up on politics for some years. Our forces thought JFK was a dangerous liberal. Strange thing, but most of us now look back on those days and the lessons he showed us about lower taxes with fondness, because the modern Democrats have been moving steadily to the left, spending, taxing, and borrowing like never before. George W Bush must have thought he was a Democrat, expanding government and spending even more than his Democratic predecessors.

In recent years I have left the Republican Party twice, to join with the Libertarians. After my first departure, I wrote Ron Paul, House Republican from Texas, to ask why he was not a Libertarian. The answer was that it's easier to move the Republican Party to the right than to make the Libertarian Party viable. His argument persuaded me, and I returned to the party of my boyhood. After that, there was no such movement to the right by the party, so I swung back to the Libertarians.

Enter Barack Obama. He exploited the actions of errant Republican leadership and sailed into office amid shouts of "Change!" Since Obama's inauguration, however, it appears that he and his radical leftist cohorts, House Speaker Nancy Polosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, have shocked the American people with their extreme ideology and attempts at prodigious government expansion, resulting in a national debt that dwarfs George W's and threatens to inundate our grandchildren and great grandchildren with heretofore unimaginable levels of debt.

Now the people have spoken out, resulting in incredible victories in Virginia, New Jersey, and even Massachusetts. And beyond that, a new national phenomenon has arisen: the Tea Party Movement. Without clear leadership or party affiliation, these motivated individuals have begun to exert a significant influence on the national political scene. Recent news from Texas reveals a new candidate, Debra Medina, who threatens to take the gubernatorial race by storm. She comes from the Tea Party ranks, and as such, could become the first of these to achieve a significant political victory.

So it appears that Ron Paul may have been right--that the Republican Party CAN be turned. Stay tuned.