How do Republicans make a resurgence?

While liberals, the media and Hollywood elite, and Europeans are giddy with nothing but adulation and an arrogant exuberance over the fact that Obama is now the President-elect, we as conservative members of the Republican Party are left to reflect on how this happened. Many of the political pundits (especially those who will identify themselves as Republicans) have wondered aloud about how the Republican Party can make a resurgence and make themselves relevant again. This is definitely a point worth pondering. However, I find it highly ironic (and somewhat maddening) that it is these same people who are partly to blame for the recent demise of the party.

We remember back to 1994 when Newt Gingrich led a group of solid conservatives into Congress with the Contract With America, a plan to get this country back to its conservative roots. They won in a landslide, and because of them, much of the success of the 1990's was able to realized (even though Clinton still takes credit for it). Anyway, some of these folks left office, because they promised they would abide by self-imposed term limits (which is noble on their part). Others remained, but they lost their way over time.

They became arrogant in their power, losing sight of why they were there. They forgot that they were there to serve at the will of the people that voted them into office. They forgot about fiscal restraint, bringing on massive budget deficits. They cast aside the Contract With America (and the underlying conservative principles), and thus did not have a unifying theme that conservatives could get behind and promote. Then there were the scandals, whether it had to do with taking money from lobbyists or getting involved with interns. It is no wonder that they lost the majority in Congress in the 2006 mid-term elections.

Even with the existing incompetent, over-partisan, hateful, un-American, Democrat leadership in Congress, the Republican Party could not manage to get enough people to vote for them to get back into the majority. Why is this? After all, the approval rating of Congress is lower than that of the President. Apparently, they never learned from the mantra that "Those who do not learn from the past are destined to repeat it."

Now, everyone is scratching their heads, wondering where we go from here. It is almost like the game where you bend over, put your head on a baseball bat, and spin around 5 times. When you stand up, you have no idea where you are or where you are going. All of the pundits have suggestions for us, but they are not truly interested in a conservative resurgence. Their idea is for us to give in to the liberals and join them. Well, that is just not an option.

After giving it some thought, here is my outline on how the Republicans can re-find their way.

1. Don't listen to the media pundits and liberal elites. They have no real interest in seeing conservatives and Republicans come back to prominence on the national scene. They would rather destroy us, not help to build us up again. Look what they did to their dearly, beloved John McCain in this election. They loved him in 2000 and in 2004. They loved him when he was opposing President Bush. But when he ran against Obama, they were all over him. Now they love him again. It is not in the media's interest to have conservatives and Republicans come back into the limelight, so stop listening to them.
2. Get rid of the RINOs (Republicans In Name Only). We all know who these are. They have very little in common with the conservative base of the Republican Party. They find themselves voting many times with the liberal members of the other party. Send them a change-of-party form, and then they can be in a place where they can enjoy the company of those who agree with them. The more that the party tries to become moderate (at the request of media elite and democrats), the more seats that party loses in Congress. It does not take a rocket scientist to see this and understand it.
3. Understand that there are many more conservatives in this country than we realize. I have to admit that I was surprised to find out how many conservatives that I work with, people I never would have realized hold many of the same opinions that I do. Why else would Obama need to promise tax breaks and try to be more conservative in the weeks leading up to the general election? Because his people knew that he had to in order to win over some of the wishy-washy people that do not know how to make up their mind. Apparently, the Republican candidates and so-called conservative pundits don't realize this,a s their idea is always to reach out to the middle, becoming more liberal in the process.
4. Get back to your conservative roots. The government is in place to protect us and allow us to work and operate freely in this country. It is not there is put impediments (i.e. taxes, regulation, excessive laws). It was not the goal of the Founding Fathers to have an overly-regulated bureaucracy that gets in our way and restricts our freedom. They intentionally sought to restrict the role of government in the lives of the people so that they would be free to thrive and be successful. 'Bringing home the bacon' is not what I am looking for in a candidate. They allowed the deficit to balloon. (By the way, the deficit is mainly the fault of the Congress, as they are the ones that spend the money. Yet they blame the President.)
5. Don't compromise for the sake of 'reaching out to the other side.' There are some things on which we can find common ground with people from the other side of the political spectrum. However, on our core values, there is no room for compromise. The things we hold dear (lower taxes, less government, no abortions, no gay marriage, etc) should be non-negotiable. This is one thing that really annoys me. I vote for a candidate because of what he/she believes and stand for. Once they get into office, I do not expect them to throw that aside. I expect them to do their best to put those principles into practice and enact legislation that will help to reach those goals.
6. VOTE!!!!!! For those who sat at home for the election, I do not want to hear you complain. Why should we hear your voice now when it does not matter. Let's hear your voice when it does matter. Also, let's vote in our own primary so we can elect the good, solid, conservative leader that we want (and need). I know Rush Limbaugh had 'Operation Chaos' in gear for the primaries, but maybe if we would ahve voted for our own candidates, we may have had a more conservative voice that could best stand up for us and the beliefs that we hold dear.

There are many more things that we need to do, but this will be a good start. It is only when we get back to our conservative, Judeo-Christian values that we can find the success that we have had in the past.