As Tom Del Beccaro so aptly explains in his book entitled “The New Conservative Paradigm,” there are three fundamental pillars that conservative principles stand upon - optimism about America’s future, belief in the goodness of America and respect for American traditions and values. These are the principles that President Ronald Reagan held and that Americans responded to as they went to the polls and gave him two landslide victories over his Democrat opponents.

Our optimism holds that America is, and always has been, the best hope for mankind and that our best days are not to be found in society’s rear-view mirror. This optimism has dominated our nation’s history from the time of the first immigrants from England who sought a life free of Europe’s repressive monarchies, religious persecution and never-ending wars. Those brave souls were not just optimistic; they were also filled with a burning desire for independence. Although it would take a century and a half for that desire to be realized, the seeds of America’s destiny were planted in Plymouth and Jamestown.

Our optimism for America’s future has been sustained by our Constitution, which is based on the premise explicitly stated in America’s Declaration of Independence that government receives its powers from the people and not the reverse. To that end, America has implemented capitalism as its economic system - a system that rewards individuals who understand the work ethic and possess the moral fortitude needed to successfully trade the fruits of their labor with others on a value-for-value basis.

Our optimism for America’s future calls for elected officials who advocate...

• Reinforcing our free-market economic system with pro-growth economic policies
• Limiting taxation to amounts needed to protect individual rights and liberty
• Passing only laws that are authorized by the US Constitution

Our belief in the goodness of America echoes the hopes and dreams of America’s Founding Fathers. In arguing their case for America’s Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams spoke of their vision of a magnificent nation not only for their generation, but also for all of mankind in generations to come. In his 1981 inaugural address, President Reagan reflected the vision of Jefferson and Adams when he said, “we are too great a nation to limit ourselves to small dreams.”

Our belief in the goodness of America is based on the freedom we enjoy and a burning desire to preserve our freedom and pass it on to future generations, just as it has been passed on to us.

Our belief in the goodness of America calls for elected officials who advocate...

• Maintaining a strong national defense
• Rejecting the “blame America first” defeatist ideology
• Presenting America at home and abroad as a “shining city on a hill”

Our respect for America’s traditions and values reflects our desire for a society based on strong moral principles. This reflects America’s Founding Fathers’ wisdom, which held that only a moral people are capable of self-governance.

Our respect for America’s traditions and values begins with the self-evident fact that all men have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Our rights are ours by our nature as men and women and are not granted by government. One of our most fundamental traditions is our independence as individuals, which requires limited government because unlimited government always leads to unlimited dependency.

Our respect for America’s traditions and values upholds Americans' right to practice religion neither with interference from government nor with de facto (and unconstitutional) establishment of a state religion (such as liberalism).

Our respect for America’s traditions and values calls for elected officials who advocate...

• Limiting the size and scope of government
• Conducting themselves in a morally upright manner
• Eliminating government programs that breed dependency
• Rejecting laws based on income redistribution
• Opposing attempts to suppress long-standing American traditions

The current Republican Party leadership is attempting to stand on the single pillar of belief in the goodness of America. With its constant intrusion into areas that are unauthorized by the US Constitution and its numerous insults to America's traditions and values, the current leadership has toppled the other two pillars. Just as a one-legged man needs a crutch to walk, so the current single-pillar Republican leadership needs gullible conservatives as their crutch. Ask yourself if such people are fit to lead our great American Republic.