"Conservative" is Not a Political Party

Regular readers of this blog will not be surprised that I have sympathies with the Libertarian Party. As it turns out it's a little more than that. I registered Libertarian in 2003 after the Iraq debacle began. The Libertarian Party today is closer to the GOP in 1981 than to the GOP today. When we get my party back, I'll be back on the rolls (hopefully my blog will be some small part of that effort). A friend of mine said it best - the guy is an venture capitalist with some $$$, so 20 years ago he would have been an steadfast Republican - and we need him today more than ever. Unfortunately he now has a bumper sticker that says "I left the Republican Party when the Republican Party left me". Good riddance you say? Well of course - who wouldn't want to get rid of all those despicable self-made, brilliant investment professionals? Who needs them in the GOP anyway? They're just plain un-American!

To many people the idea of an American calling him/herself "conservative" and not being Republican is just plain unthinkable. Conservative equals Republican, right? If you're not Republican, you're not conservative. If you're not conservative, you're not Republican. It's the same, right?

NO, it's not the same. We should be loyal to principles and values, not to political parties. Right and wrong don't change. Parties do. When Lincoln got elected, the GOP unambiguously represented the liberals. His positions are just as right today as they were then, but the political landscape of America has, of course, changed. If you're a small-government conservative who believes that political decisions should be based on fact and reason, and your party wavers on that(there will be a future entry on this), you try to fix it, or you get out (and THEN try to fix it). I'm hoping McCain's nomination will put the party back on the right track.