Being a Republican used to mean something that you could be proud of. It used to mean that you were a champion of freedom, liberty, and personal responsibility. It used to mean taking a balanced budget approach to personal, business, and government finances. It used to mean working to get the government out of the way of the people. It used to mean enforcing the rule of law in the cause of justice, not gain.
But over the past 13 years, it has come to mean something different. It now means compromising principles to be more appealing to a press corps that hates us. It means less government (as a relative term) but not small government. It means spending a tiny bit less than your opponents’ want to spend, but making sure not to cut into any of the largesse that has driven our country towards bankruptcy because that wouldn’t be “popular” or “fair.”
I’m no longer proud of what it means to be a Republican. But I know who to blame for this change for the worse in the Party I have always loved: Karl Rove.
And I say it’s time for Rove to retire.
