I have been asked – very frequently, of late – the question that Republicans the nation over are asking: What might they do, what strategy might they employ to regain a majority in the House and Senate, and ultimately retake the White House?

My initial response is one I typically don't verbalize, that being: Don't bother.

Amid concern among Republicans that Democrats are within nanometers of having a filibuster-proof supermajority in Congress, the defection of GOP Sen. Arlen Specter to the Democrat Party is an object lesson in both the duplicity of American politicians in general and the counterfeit nature of altogether too many Republican lawmakers in particular. Practicality dictates that if the GOP isn't going to be any different than the Democrats (as evidenced by their behavior when they had a congressional majority and the White House), why not save their energy and let the Democrats run America straight to hell on white-hot rails?

I have found the overtures on the part of Republican politicians to the American left in order to accomplish this "return from Elba" disgusting in the extreme. Rather than examining their own failure as a direct result of spineless gravitation away from conservatism, for some reason they have taken the Democrats' recent successes as an indictment of conservative principles.

Apropos Sen. Specter's party switch, radio talk-show host Tammy Bruce commented last week that the Democrat Party already has a de facto supermajority, considering all of the Republican lawmakers who are "willing to carry the water for this socialist [President Obama]."

He shocked the establishment in 2008 – now read Ron Paul's clear-thinking manifesto on constitutional government: "The Revolution"

Bruce is right, of course; Specter's recent vote for Obama's $781 billion stimulus bill and his subsequent bailing on the GOP ought to have provided the proverbial two-by-four across the head of the Republican Party. Apparently it did not; still, examining the history from 1980 up until the present, three things become clear:

1. The "Reagan Revolution" was called such for a reason. The principles Reagan embraced and implemented, which had not been in force in our government for over 100 years, revolutionized America – particularly the economy, which enjoyed positive effects for the next quarter century.
   
   
2. Unfortunately, this "revolution" died as soon as Reagan left office. All of our presidents since that time have been progressive globalist elites.
   
   
3. If it is to survive as a discernibly dissimilar and viable entity, the Republican Party must throw its full force behind advancing conservatism; this means that there must be no room for so-called "moderates" and unprincipled chameleons such as Specter.

I think Jack Kemp would be alive today [had the GOP pursued more funding for biomedical research].

– Sen. Arlen Specter, May 3, 2009, on Rep. Jack Kemp's recent death from cancer

As someone who spent over 20 years in the field of biomedical research, all I can say is that Specter's statement was as disingenuous as hell, the kind that plays upon people's ignorance of the matter at hand. It's like saying that Jack Kennedy might be alive today if we'd only had more gun control. Then, of course, there's the crass timing vis-à-vis beating up on the GOP after having just left the party.

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Certainly, the senator has some credibility on the topic, having battled Hodgkin's lymphoma, and it's all very nice that he survived the ordeal. If one is not ignorant of the matter at hand, however, one knows that the multibillion-dollar field of research is as capricious as any other multibillion-dollar industry. In other words, if you think it's all a bunch of altruistic crusaders bent on curing the sick, think again.

In exchange for his vote for the stimulus bill (which Specter hopes went no small way toward securing his next term), Specter received $10 billion for the National Institutes of Health, our largest funder of medical research. Although it is certain that the NIH underwrites many worthwhile projects, millions (perhaps even billions) are wasted every year on dead-end studies, slick, practiced grant writers and degreed mediocrities who are simply trying to keep their jobs. Add to that: Pennsylvania has one of the highest concentrations of public and private biomedical research facilities in the nation.

Just in case you had any lingering illusions as far as Specter goes …

The bottom line is that Specter is, although an extreme example in practice, typical of those we continually send to Capitol Hill, regardless of party. In other words: A self-serving slime who can scarcely see past his own retirement.

Again, the utter failure and defeat the Republican Party has seen in recent years was due to internal forces. Yet, I still believe that any return to conservative principles and tendencies toward natural law in America must come from within the Republican Party. But it will need to be shaken to its foundations, again, from within.