Okay people, take a deep breath. Reading about all of this and hearing it on the news might make you feel like all hope is lost, that the country has irretrievably fallen prey to the lure of socialism. It might seem that way, but it is not so. Poll after poll in the last few weeks show that while Obama continues to have high approval ratings personally, approval ratings for his policies are steadily dropping. The Republican Party was written off for dead during the FDR years, then again after Goldwater, and Nixon, and they are being written off today. But I promise you that conservatism is not dead. It is alive and well. The problem is that as a national party, Republicans failed to live up to the promises they made to the people that elected them. They got in office and grew the size and scope of government, increased spending, and got caught in corruption scandals. They succumbed to the temptation of earmark spending, and the perks and power they derived from that. They lost credibility as the party of fiscal discipline with the TARP bill and the bailout bills. In short, they failed to govern as conservatives.

That is where we will see success. I truly believe that the Republican Party is the party of the common man, of the individual. If we actually govern by our principles, people will see that our party is the party that believes that every man and woman can succeed, regardless of race, religion or creed, as long as they are willing to work hard. If we actually regain credibility and govern by the principles that we define in our platform, instead of using them as quaint words on a doormat, most Americans will gravitate to that message. We just have to act like we believe it, and we do that by living the principles we proclaim.