Weeks after the mid-term elections Republican leaders are still trying to figure it out. The loss of power has stung the party and there is a feeling of deep despair among many GOP leaders. Unfortunately, several prominent “moderate” leaders believe the message of the election was that the party had moved “too far to the right.”

According to Sarah Chamberlain Resnick, the Executive Director of the Republican Main Street Partnership, “The American people made it clear that our party’s decision to ignore the middle of the American electorate was a disastrous one.” Of course, such a statement is nonsense because almost everything the Republican Party has done over the past six years has been an abandonment of the conservative principles which built the GOP into a majority party.

The GOP became known as “big government conservatives,” which is ridiculous because conservatism is supposed to stand for limited government and the advancement of personal freedom. However, George W. Bush began his presidency touting a platform of “compassionate conservatism,” so that quickly translated into bigger government, much bigger government. Unfortunately, the GOP congressional leaders went along for the big government ride and became cheerleaders for the expansion of unseemly earmarks, pork barrel spending, unnecessary government expansion, the creation of new entitlements, and so on.

With the exception of the Bush tax cuts and the approval of some good judicial nominees, almost nothing this Congress and president did over the last few years has been conservative. To review, the supposedly conservative Congress and Bush White House passed pork barrel stuffed bills such as the Farm bailout bill, the No Child Left behind Education boondoggle bill, the Energy bill, and the Transportation bill just to name a few. An entirely new government department was created, Department of Homeland Security, which during Hurricane Katrina proved to be nothing less than a total disaster. A brand new government entitlement was created, the Medicare prescription drug benefit, which will literally add trillions to the debt of this nation. During Bush’s presidency, government spending has increased 25%, the greatest growth in the federal budget since Lyndon Baines Johnson’s Great Society of the 1960’s. So, what does the Republican Main Street Partnership mean when they claim that the party moved too far to the right. To be kind we can say that the GOP has been spending like drunken sailors, trying to buy votes from each and every group of Americans.

The only people forgotten were the conservatives which are the grass roots and foundation of this party. The real activists have been disgusted with what has happened and for the mid-term elections. Many stayed home or voted Democrat in protest. The way to win them back is not to lurch even further to the left, but that is what President Bush is proposing. No sooner had the election ended than the President was talking about working with Democrats on “immigration reform” which means passing his guest worker/amnesty travesty. He also believes that he can “find common ground” on the issue of raising the minimum wage. According to the conservative weekly Human Events, “In sum, his policy seems aimed at bringing in foreign workers so employers can pay them less than American workers, then passing a law mandating that employers pay the foreign workers more.” He talked about working “together for the sake of our children” to reauthorize his No Child Left Behind legislation, which led to a doubling of federal spending in education, but did not correspond with any significant improvement in test scores, educational experience or improvements in the classroom for American children. It did give bureaucrats billions more to waste and pleased a certain Senator from Massachusetts named Kennedy, a good reason for all conservatives to oppose the reauthorization. There are also disturbing rumors that Treasury Secretary Ken Paulson is now trying to work out a deal with Democrats to raise payroll taxes to solve the Social Security problem, so called entitlement reform.

So on everything from immigration to Social Security; this White House is trying to work with Democrats to move to the left, abandon even more conservative principles in the process. A party that believes in privatization, strong borders, more individual freedom, and limited government needs to emerge to block the White House and in the process recapture the soul of the Republican Party. A return to Reagan Republicanism is just what the doctor ordered for the GOP, not more “big government conservatism” or “compassionate conservatism.” Such slogans are meaningless and are contrary to the last seven Republican platforms.

If Republicans in Congress have to become the opposition party to the White House, so be it. Better that strategy than more accommodation with the Democrats which has certainly proved to be a disastrous policy for the last six years. In the last two years of this administration, Republicans in Congress should try something new, instead of being RINO's (Republicans in Name Only), how about acting like real Republicans for a change.

Jeff Crouere is a native of New Orleans, LA and he is the host of a Louisiana based program, “Ringside Politics,” which airs at 8:30 p.m. Fri. and 10:00 p.m. Sun. on WLAE-TV 32, a PBS station, and Noon till 2 p.m. weekdays on several Louisiana radio stations. For more information, visit his web site.