How to be a conservative in December 2008

It's hard to be a conservative these days.

President-elect Obama has made a number of choices that have garnered praise from both the left and the right. Republicans received a very public beating in the election.

I said earlier that it is hard to get in front of people and tell them that government won't solve their problems. Going against the nanny culture that is so popular today is seen as political suicide. The neo-cons screaming about Obama's birth certificate, Clinton conspiracies, broken tax-cut promises and the like don't help the conservative cause.

I'm not losing hope. I believe there is still room for conservatism in goverment, but it must be ACTUAL conservatism, not the doctrine that has been pushed on us in recent years.

I'm calling for a total return to the principles of Goldwater, a reinvention of the GOP. We need to go back to the pre-Reagan era. There is exactly ONE politician on the national stage who embodies those values, and he is Ron Paul. I'm puzzled and disappointed that the GOP treated Rep. Paul as a second-class member of the party when it came to the RNC here in Minneapolis, treating him so poorly that he felt the need to hold his own convention. Ron Paul represents the only future that the GOP truly has, but our party leaders are too blinded by special interests to see it. The Democrats have their unions and environmental groups and the GOP has corporate donors and religious extremists. A special interest is a special interest regardless of party affiliation.

We need to return to the planks of small federal government, strong local government, strong national defense, fiscal responsibility and individual rights. We need to not hide behind the American flag but to wave it proudly with one hand and hold the Constitution in the other.

There is room for conservatism now more than ever, and our job...nay, our duty is to convince the American people that our cause is their cause.