What happened to the Republican Party?

The GOP is driving itself into a ditch and there is no one who is going to take the effort to pull it out, even on a  Sabbath. Since 2004 I have been arguing that the GOP is the party of compromisers. In light of their conspicuous decrease in numbers and their lack of popularity nation-wide, many find this to be the time to establish a new face, a new phase in the history of the GOP. Sunday GOP talkers believe this is the time to make the tent bigger. One exception is Joe Scarborough. On Meet the Press he argued, contrary to many, that the GOP does not need a bigger tent. He argues that we have lost our way and that we need to return to fiscal conservatism. He even had the audacity to say that the Republican Party has expanded our military into places where we should not be. That is a healthier approach than many in the GOP today who continue to argue for the increase in US military presence world-wide.

Though to many Ron Paul’s presidential presence in 08′ was not the great success people envisioned, yet it has left a lingering taste of paleo-conservatism in the mouths of current bloggers and media faces. Paul’s consistency has been praised by the left and the right. Herein lies the key to a future Republican Party: consistency. Perhaps we may even desire Constitutional consistency. The GOP must begin to see its own faults first before continuing to a new path: humility before exaltation. Nevertheless, for some this humility seems impossible. The GOP–for the most part– does not see any faults in the previous administration. These faults are outlined by Pat Buchanan in his most recent column:

Why is the party in trouble? Simple. Dubya got a hold of the keys, got high on neocon hooch, and crashed and rolled the family SUV.

He launched an unnecessary war against a country that had not attacked us. With his utopian No Child Left Behind scheme and his Medicare drug plan, he did his passable imitation of LBJ, and blew a hole in the budget.

Those who were mostly in favor of the Bush policies are the ones who appear most vociferously opposed to the Obama policies, though in principle, both commit the same errors.  Both have no interest in shrinking the department of education, both continue in their fiscal lunacy, while Bush appeared to be pro-life in principle, he left the office very much like when we arrived: little change. On the other hand, when he vacated the office, he opened it up to a pro-death president; both continue to spread our military (to be fair, Obama has been less hawkish; but again we are only in the first 100 days), both have no interest in closing our borders, and to conclude the Obama administration–though committed to ending torture–has ruled unecessary to pursue the previous administration for their approval of torture. Of course, Washington is all about trading favors.

But what happened to the Republican Party? Nothing. They are just actors playing the same game. If they regain power in a few years they will simply change roles.