With McCain now the undisputed frontrunner and Huckabee running interference for him, seemingly making a play for a VP position on a McCain ticket, any conservative representation in the presidential race has been effectively neutered.  (And that’s not to say I’m a big fan of Romney either!) The best we can hope for is to elect a right-leaning congress capable of and willing to override a veto so as to keep WHOEVER takes the White House from doing too much damage!

Some will paint McCain’s surge as heralding the death of the conservative movement; however this is not a repudiation of conservative thought.  It is the result of the poor leadership of the GOP machine.  As Ronald Reagan once remarked concerning his switch from the Democratic to the Republican Party, we didn’t leave the Party… the Party left us.

Who was the “anointed frontrunner” early on in the Presidential Campaign Season?  The RINO Giuliani!  Who was ignored?  Thompson, Hunter and anyone else leaning right!  The party machine still loves northeastern “moderates” and RINOs, and now has embraced the most visible and vitriolic RINO of them all – John McCain!

The fact is that there are a LOT of Republicans who will have a very hard time holding their nose and pulling a lever for McCain!  While some will say that McCain’s 70-odd percent rating from the ACU makes him ok more often than he’s not, it’s that 25%+ that gives conservatives heartburn!

McCain is not simply a RINO like Hagel, Snow, and Specter et al.  He’s a “maverick”.  He ENJOYS sticking his finger in they eye of conservatism.  He doesn’t just VOTE for bad legislation, he COMPOSES AND SPONSORS it!  Look at the McCain/Feingold assault on free speech.  Look at the McCain/Kennedy Amnesty.  Today McCain says he “gets it” and will secure the borders FIRST.  OK, but what about what he intends to do SECOND??

For some inexplicable reason, in recent years Neo-Conservatism displaced Reagan-Conservatism, and the Neocons have sold us out time and again.  From Bush 41’s “No new taxes” to the time the party machine anointed Bob Dole because it was “his turn” to GW’s Harriet Meiers, Dubai Ports, McCain/Kennedy and on and on, the Rockefeller Country-Club republicans and the PNAC Neocons have consistently given lip-service to the conservative base while moving the party to the left.  Our national sovereignty, our border security, our economy, our military supremacy and our national pride have all suffered.

The conservative values that Reagan embodied and which swept the GOP into the majority in 1994 are no longer the driving force behind the GOP leadership.  The Reagan Coalition is thrown an occasional bone by invoking Ronnie’s name, but his values and principles are rarely represented by the party machine.  The party does not rally to support candidates who espouse the Reagan ideals, but is quite content to support RINOs.  They take the Conservative Base for granted, with a “Where else they gonna go?  The Dems?”

The Elephant has lost his trunk and tusks, and now has a horn on his proboscis!

And so, at least for this writer, Rush Limbaugh was right in his prediction that McCain would be the ruination of the GOP… as I can no longer comfortably and in good conscience claim any direct affiliation with the Republican Party!  I believe many are waking up today with the same thoughts… whether or not they act on them as I do today.

I have carried the water for the GOP, despite the embarrassments and disappointments, in the hope that they would return to the values that brought them to power.  They have not.  And the water’s heavy.  And my arms are sore.

While I will continue to support candidates for any office who represent conservative thought – and most will still carry the R after their names – I am hereby withdrawing any official affiliation with the Republican Party and declaring myself to be an Independent.  The party machine can no longer count on my financial or volunteer support for the party itself.  I am today tendering my resignation as Vice President of my local Pachyderms chapter.

Sadly, there is not a national Conservative Party, as if there were, there would be a mass migration from the GOP to it.  So, until and unless the GOP wakes up and recognizes that they must return to Reagan Conservatism as their platform, principle and position, color me INDEPENDENT.

Copyright © 2008 by Doug Edelman