As the President of the United States leads the Democrats’ assault on the American economy and taxpayer, the opposition party has posted an “under construction” sign over its political platform. The disagreement is over the future of the party and whether it will pursue a more conservative line or a more moderate line. The problem is that, while conservatism is already pretty well defined, “moderation” is more ambiguous but as a centerpiece I expect that they advocate bipartisanship and reaching compromises on particular issues. Well, here in Florida, Republican Senate candidate and current Florida Governor Charlie Crist represents the “moderate” wing of the GOP while Marco Rubio, Republican Senate candidate and former Florida state House Speaker, represents the conservatives.

Fortunately for us watchers of these campaigns, the “moderate” Crist has made it clear what it means to be “moderate.” Apparently, to be moderate means to be an active supporter of a national “cap-and-trade” system, an active supporter of the Obama Stimulus/Spendulus bill, and to host the Democratic president in your home state while he pushes for a stimulus bill that undermines state government. This means that I am clearly NOT in the “moderate” wing of the Republican Party, because:

a) I reject a Stimulus bill that essentially increases the deficit to historically high levels, burdens the US taxpayer, infringes on state rights, is a handout to special interest groups, and does not work.
b) I reject a Cap-and-Trade system that punishes the American energy consumer instead of focusing only on incentivizing entrepreneurship and innovation that would help the environment
c) I reject any and all politicians who push for excessive government intervention in the free markets and the expansion of government power and size

For these reasons and more, I cannot support the theory of “moderation” of the Republican Party. What the moderates imply is that the conservative wing is out-dated and that surrendering to the will of Obama is the way forward. Conservatives need to emphasize their core values of independence, freedom, and opportunity to a constituency that has been brainwashed into thinking that government is the answer to everything. Those core values, though, represent the American Dream while the liberals believe in liberal spending of our wealth, liberal taxation of our wealth, and liberal appeasement of our enemies. Any Republican message should represent these values:

Independence is the ability to BE
Freedom is the ability to DREAM
Opportunity is the ability to BE what we DREAM

Therefore any government that promotes America’s dependence on government, or curtails our freedoms, or blocks opportunity through obstacles, economic or otherwise, must be opposed. America’s principles are being twisted beyond recognition during this period of one-party rule in Washington. Republicans need to do a better job in stopping them.

-AG