What is a Republican anyway?

Over the past few weeks a number of letters to the editor and several articles have appeared in my local papers about the ongoing disarray within the GOP ranks. Some writers have called for the firing of the state party chair and others continue to nibble away at the makeup of the rank and file like flesh-eating bacteria…but to compare those people to bacteria is to insult the germ.

While recovering in the hospital last week, I was visited by Ellen and Bill Spiegel. She is the new State Assemblywoman for my district, taking my place. She and her husband also happen to be Democrats, he more than she. I am still registered Republican, but I have often wondered aloud in conversation with Bill as to whether or not I should change my registration. The party has changed and not at all for the better.

Bill told me in no uncertain terms that I should not register Democrat. He is a consistent reader of this blog and in his opinion I am a dyed-in-the-wool Republican. It is his feeling that I would feel even more out of place in the Democrat ranks than in the GOP. Why is that? What is a Republican?

It used to be that to be a member of the party; one had to share certain common beliefs with the other members. Some of those beliefs were in the reality and rock solid foundation of our constitution. The constitution and not the casual interpretation of it by activist judges was the law of the land. To be a Republican you had to stand for freedom and civil rights, and for those rights to be available for all…equally. One group could not have additional rights or freedoms above another, period and regardless of politics.

You had to be in favor of allowing the market to do its job without governmental encumbrance. A business failed or succeeded on its merits, not because it was a better thief than the others. Understanding that the free exercise of religion was a paramount item in the formation of this country was also very important. How that religion was practiced was not so important, just the freedom to do so…and it did not matter where you did so, regardless of who became upset over your praying.

For myself, I believe that being a Republican means being honest, forthright, compassionate and pragmatic. Simply because someone has more than someone else does not mean they are a better person or have more rights and privileges within our society than anyone else. We are supposed to be a nation of law, not of lawyers. As for the free market, it is meant to be survival of the fittest, not survival of the fattest. The government has no place in commerce outside of general regulation to keep everyone honest. Anything beyond that is a direct violation of our constitution.

Tammy Bruce opined the other day that a lot of people in Washington deserve to be behind bars. I tend to agree with her. She only mentioned Democrats, but I say that the crimes are bipartisan and we have more than enough villains in both parties to go around. Money has become the chief arbiter of power and legislation these days and today’s Republican Party cannot abide an honest man. I may not fit in the Democrat niche, but it is certainly no picnic here in the GOP closet either.