Jonah Raises A Good Point

Here is a great piece by The atLarge Editor of NRO, about the battle between the GOP and conservatives. He raises a bunch of great points about the difference and helps me to raise a point I have mad in private before.

One thing he states is

To a principled conservative, it is bad news when the Democrats lurch to the left, even if it makes the Democrats less likely to win elections. Why? Because when the Democrats move left, so do the Republicans.

This confirms the truth that most of my conservative friends state without hitting the nail right on the head. We may support the Republicans more often because they are on average closer to conservative values, but then there are always going to be Republicans who are as far from conservative values (Linc Chafee) as the majority of Democrats are.
He also states

of course the GOP is a mess (although I would remind liberals that it is better to be a majority party with problems than a minority party with problems).
Congressmen are hanging out in K-Street warrens like addicts in 19th-century opium dens - but instead of Chinese dudes passing out pipes, there are lobbyists handing out checks, golf trips, and other prizes from behind Curtain No. 2 on Let's Make a Deal. The Contract With America that brought the Republicans to power more than ten years ago is a distant blur in the GOP's rearview mirror. Smaller, competent, and restrained government has been sacrificed to the new coalition of Republican rent-seekers.

This, along with having wonderful mental pictures, is the source of most all of the problems with the conservative movement and Republicans. Read thewhole piece to get the true flavor of what he is getting at when it comes to Big Government Republicanism.
Now onto that point, I have a comment the builds off of this:

When the Bush presidency is over, it will be more obvious in hindsight how much he moved the GOP to the left - by making the nanny state bipartisan.

Here he gets to a root problem with this administration that I have been gnawing on for a couple of years.

George Bush is Richard Nixon. Not in the evil way that the LLL portrays him, but in a different way for followers of American politics.
Just as Nixon moved to the right in the primary season to defeat a liberal Republican darling of the media, Nelson A. "Boots On" Rockerfeller, and had to run against an uber-Liberal "war hero" half way thru, he has spent the rest of his administration building up the government and helping to grow the size of the fever swamp known as Washington.

Even with the great things done in the WOT, the War On Big Government is being lost daily.

Now the best thing we on the right can hope for is another Ronald Reagan, a man on a white horse who will ride in and set the GOP right.