There is no question that many office holders on the right side of the aisle are masquerading as Republicans and not deserving of reelection under the GOP banner. The question, however, is how you hunt the RINO without being devoured by the tiger crouched in the grass behind your back!

Conservatives properly argue that Republicanism generally speaking, parallels the essential conservative principles of limited government, predicated upon respect for individualism and life generally. Parenthetically, it should be noted that an American definition of conservative no way mirrors the same term in British or other national politics. An American conservative is not a Tory. Moreover, the idea of conservatism within American politics has historically evolved. Today’s conservatives are not akin to Benjamin Chew, John C. Calhoun, or even James Eastland. Instead, the modern conservative is, pure and simple, a Jeffersonian. As Barry Goldwater properly observed, conservatives are always at war with autocrats.

Translated into contemporary issues, conservatives believe in limited Federal government and stronger state and local government, because as Jeffersonians we believe the power springs from the people (read individuals) upward, not the body politic (read society) downward. From this fountainhead spring all other conservative beliefs and opinions. It is fed by the groundwater that freedom is inherent. We are, as penned by Jefferson, "endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights." Quoting again, Barry Goldwater, conservatism "is founded on the simple tenet that people have the right to live life as they please as long as they don’t hurt anyone else in the process." We suspect, indeed history instructs us that freedom contracts when government expands. As in physics, government and freedom cannot share the same space.

For example, we believe that earmarks, traditionally labeled "pork," are repugnant, not only because such is wasteful, but that the Federal government isn’t even in the business of wealth redistribution. Even if we acknowledge, as we do, that the wealthy should aid the poor, such laudable goals have not, is not, and can never be accomplished by taking from the middle-class taxpayer and giving to the multinational corporate conglomerates. We suspect, indeed we know that earmarks are merely a politically correct name for helping out campaign contributors.

Because we are Jeffersonians, we also believe in the paramount right of the individual, and we believe that such rights begin in the womb. We are pro-life because the fetus can’t speak for itself. It is a sense of charity, in the broad sense of the word. Being pro-life is not contrary to our equally strong belief as to the right of the individual. Instead, we assert, as did the Founding Fathers, to every right there is a corresponding responsibility. If a woman wants to jump into the sack with a guy, she "hooked up with" at the club, as conservatives, who are we to object. All we require is that when she wakes up the following morning, she accepts the consequences of her late-night decisions. We don’t understand how Roe v. Wade allows her to turn the "morning after" into a death certificate. Of course, as conservatives, we are equal opportunity objectors. A true conservative holds the guy just as responsible, if not more so, than the gal. In the end, they are both adults. They both knew what they were getting into.

As Jeffersonians, we believe the fruits of our labor belong to us, not to the body politic. We understand that while nothing is certain in life but death and taxes, the latter were intended to subsidize limited government, not corporate welfare. We understand that government has to provide, as an example, disaster relief. But we prefer the American Red Cross, not FEMA. Government’s role, conservatives believe, is limited to only those functions which the people cannot perform themselves. It is one thing to for our taxes to pay for police and fire departments. It is totally another matter for our tax money to pay for house trailers or hotel rooms for displaced people to reside for months and months on end. Likewise, government properly should pay for our Armed Services. But to pay for private "Black Hawk" contractors hefty profit margins to provide security guards in Iraq, particularly when the average GI still has to go begging from paycheck to paycheck, relying on payday vultures?

Conservatives also believe in proper stewardship of our environment, which we hold not merely as common sense, but biblically grounded. And because we understand the Law of the Commons, we understand that free enterprise, while fully encouraged to make profit, should not exploit child labor, discriminate against people because of color or gender or age, or pollute every stream and creek in the process. As conservatives we believe a man should earn a fair pay equal to his worth. The idea that Wall Street CEOs should be taking home multimillion paychecks because they succeeded in laying off 10,000 workers do not square with our conservative principles of respect for the individual. This bedrock conservative principle has been articulated since Frederick Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom and Milton Friedman’s Capitalism and Freedom. Conservatism has never represented nor should it ever constitute some cold-blooded commitment for the "halves" against the "have-nots." But while we believe in charity, we also believe it is more important to teach a man how to fish, instead of simply giving him a fish day after day.

If anything that distinguishes a conservative is that we are classical republicans (small letter "r"). We believe in civic virtue. We believe that public service is just that, a service, not a career. The Framers envisioned that you serve for a couple of years, then I would serve for a couple some years, then our neighbor down the street serves the next couple of years. All three of us remain politically active to the degree that we proffer civic leadership for the "better good."

Senator Goldwater once properly observed the oxymoron "progressive conservative." He observed such "to be a strange label indeed. Have we forgotten that America made its greatest progress when Conservative principles were honored and preserved?" As conservatives we believe our mission is to fully maximize each American’s freedoms and rights consistent with the maintenance of social order. We know that accumulation of political power is the most dangerous form of cancer in our politics. We know that when men are given some power, they immediately thirst for more power. And we know, as Edmund Burke warned us long ago, that "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Yet something is wrong with our American politics. RINOs run amok. But the conundrum in 2008 is that we can’t throw out the baby with the bath water.