In President Bush, Americans see a man who says what he means, and means what he says. Certainly, politics generally enters the equation, and compromises, however unpleasant, must occur, given the constant indoctrination of "the center" by our educational system, our mainstream media and Hollywood.
We need a judiciary that refuses to bend to political pressure in areas such as "affirmative action" when the University of Michigan defends its program by calling diversity "a compelling state interest"?! The attack on competent, presumably conservative judges like Priscilla Owen, Miguel Estrada and Charles Pickering demonstrates the importance of electing sincere, limited-government Republicans who believe in states' rights, and who reject the notion that the "right to privacy" exists in the "penumbras" of the Constitution. We need Republicans who understand that giving people their hard-earned money back, or better yet, not taking it in the first place, jumpstarts the economy.
Recall former Democratic President John F. Kennedy, in urging a tax cut, " . . . It is a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high today and tax revenues are too low -- and the soundest way to raise revenues in the long run is to cut rates now. . . . Only full employment can balance the budget -- and tax reduction can pave the way to full employment. The purpose of cutting taxes now is not to incur a budgetary deficit, but to achieve the more prosperous expanding economy which will bring a budgetary surplus."
So, after much soul-searching, on Friday, May 9, 2003, I filed to change my voter registration to the Republican Party. Not because I find the party pure -- indeed, many Republicans like Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., George Voinovich, R-Ohio, and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, talk the talk but fail to walk the walk. Yet, because of my Republican friends such as Congressman David Dreier, R-Calif., writer-director-producer Lionel Chetwynd, and many others, I have a greater understanding of the day-to-day difficulty of moving intransigent Democrats, and some Republicans, in the right direction. I can exercise greater effectiveness cajoling, pushing and advocating on the inside, than nagging as an independent from the outside.
So, to my fellow Republicans: Fight the good fight, explain to the American people the importance of limited government, low taxation, strong self-defense, and trust them to have the maturity and common sense to govern their own personal and financial lives.
Make no mistake: My libertarian principles remain unchanged. But as writer Midge Decter once said, "There comes a time to join the side you're on."
Count me in.