I started out a Democrat because my parents were Democrats. When I was old enough to conclude that the Democratic Party was so socialist I could not remain one, I became a Republican. In her nineties, even my Mother registered as a Republican. Times change and people change. Now I am considering registering as an independent. I am waiting for the outcome of the November midterm elections.

My decision will depend on how many Tea Party movement candidates are elected and my hope is that it will be a wave election that rejects so many Democratic candidates that power in the Congress–particularly the Senate–returns to the GOP. Then I will watch to see how much action they take to reverse the damage of Obamacare and other programs in much need of reform, replacement and rejection.

According to Gallup, currently an estimated 42 percent of voters today self-identify as independents. Those who identify themselves as Republicans fell to 25 percent. In 2013 Gallup reported that 41 percent regarded themselves to be conservative or very conservative, but that was the lowest since Obama took office in 2009.

A recent Rasmussen poll found that 59% of GOP voters say that Republicans in Congress are out of touch with the Party’s base. I suspect that’s because the base is more conservative than its elected representatives. Conversely, Democrats are quite happy with theirs.

The emergence of the Tea Party movement has dramatically demonstrated the unhappiness of voters with the direction the nation has taken since Obama was elected in 2008. At the heart of their displeasure are the dreadful state of the economy and the growing fear of a Big Government that extends more and more control over all aspects of their lives.

The internal debate within the GOP is showing up in commentaries among its pundits. It reflects to some degree the fears of its establishment elites who have managed to serve up John McCain and Mitt Romney, both of whom lost because they waged campaigns devoid of any serious criticism or confrontation with liberalism. The Party has lost the popular vote in five of the last six presidential elections.

They suffered as well from an incessant Democratic Party campaign to define Republicans as indifferent to the poor, aligned with large corporations, and hostile to illegal immigrants, homosexuals and women.

With the help of the mainstream media, these themes are constantly repeated. Meanwhile, cities and states run by Democrats are going bankrupt thanks to their devotion to spending and alliance with public service unions. You could line up the agendas of the Democratic Party and the Communist Party USA side by side and find very little difference.

Unfortunately, there are voices in the GOP that sound more like Democrats than Republicans. The most visible to emerge is Jeb Bush, a former Florida Governor, whose informal recent remarks sound like Democrat-light. He could have better articulated the need for immigration reform, but he did not. This is a common problem among too many Republicans in office or running for one, no matter what the issue may be.

Jeb Bush favors Common Core, a federal program of education standards that represent why education in America is failing and has been for a very long time. Regrettably, his brother, George W. Bush advocated “Leave No Child Behind” with its comparable standards. Parents today are clamoring for charter schools to save their children from the indoctrination imposed by teachers unions since the 1960s. Democrat demands for pre-kindergarten programs are just a further intrusion into their lives.

In a Wall Street Journal commentary, former Florida Governor, William W. Galston, characterizes the war within the GOP as being between “the social conservatives and defense hawks that Ronald Reagan created in the late 1970s” and the current GOP leadership who think those values should be abandoned to entice youth, women, and homosexuals. He expressed the war as a generational one between younger and older Republicans.

“The tea party offers nothing except nostalgia for a demography that is in retreat and a Constitution that never was,” said Galston. “By contrast Mr. Bush wants to run as a conservative unafraid of the future.” His wish for a campaign that avoids mud-slinging betrays a timidity that could cost the GOP another loss if he were to become its presidential candidate. My view is that Republicans, as per the Rasmussen poll, want a candidate and a Party that would more boldly fight Democratic Party and liberal lies.

In a March commentary by Karl Rove, the former deputy chief of staff to President George W. Bush, had nice things to say about the party’s reformers such as Paul Ryan, Marco Rubio, and governors such as Bobby Jindal, Rick Snyder, Scott Walker, and John Kasich. He cited their efforts to help the poor, but left unsaid was that they are poor because they are either a permanent class of the poor or the result of Obama’s failure to turn the economy around.

Rove could well have mentioned Tea Party favorites such as Senators Cruz, Lee, and Paul who are reinvigorating Republican principles and giving voice to them.

The GOP is not about the poor. It is about the middle class and too many are sinking into poverty thanks to Democratic programs emphasizing spending, borrowing, and expanding programs such as food stamps, unemployment payments, and an increase in the minimum wage. All of Obama’s blather about income inequality is aimed at those who think such programs will help the economy, but all they do is undermine it.

“Conservative reformers seek to broaden opportunity, increase prosperity for every American, restore the value of work, and strengthen markets, competition and choice,” said Rove. “If successful, their efforts would help the GOP among middle class voters.” That could have been written by a member of the Tea Party movement.

“It is hard to overstate how much the Republican Party is hurt by the persistent belief of many voters that its candidates are out of touch and do not care about people like them,” said Rove. That’s the message of the Democratic Party and always has been. It is a message that mainstream media repeats.

The Tea Party movement, however, is overcoming that message and the success of Republican governors and the popularity of its candidates suggests that many Americans see the movement as the salvation of the nation. The Republican Party too often looks pale by comparison and that must change.

© Alan Caruba, 2014

I received a letter from my congressman former Democrat converted to Republican Jeff Miller (FL District 1). Miller was an executive assistant to Democratic state Agriculture Commissioner Doyle Conner from 1984 to 1988. He was a lifelong Democrat until he switched parties in 1997 to run for the Florida Legislature

This is the first time he ever bothered to contact me and it was only to benefit him. He wanted me to sign a petition to put him on the ballot for the 2014 election. Jeff Miller is a good family man. He has been in office for almost thirteen years and that means I have been contributing to his government paycheck all that time.

But what has he done for us here in District 1 and for our nation?

He did manage to introduce a non confrontational bill that passed called the TSA Loose Change Act (H.R. 1095; 113th Congress). The legislation forces the TSA to hand over all the loose coins they find at the airports and give it to provide aid and comfort for veterans while they travel. Thanks, much appreciated. But perhaps Congressman Miller what you should have done is introduce a bill to abolish the TSA and allow private security companies to assume control at US airports?

Congressman Miller what else have you done besides support bills? How about write some bills. Mark Levin asked me once what have you done in regards to proactive legislation vice kicking back supporting the bills of others. I told Mark none that would put this nation on a new course. He said well its time for you to go Jeff.

I have lost faith in the Republican Party and its current membership. In order for me to return to the GOP I expect the following bills to be written by my Representative Jeff Miller and then be co-sponsored by his fellow Congressmen.

(1) Defund all taxpayer money to the United Nations. Return the building being used by the UN in New York back to the hands of private enterprise and the American people. Donald Trump would be in to buy it. He did mention to me once he was interested.

(2) Defund and abolish the Dept. Of Education. The US Constitution doesn’t permit taxpayer money to be collected to fund a centralized control of our education. Its up to the states to do this. Currently the Communist Michelle Obama thinks she can tell school districts that take Dept. of Education money what the kids can eat. Toss that miscreant Communist out of these schools and STOP taking money from the Jimmy Carter created Dept. of Education. Common Core, the UN inspired Marxist dumbing down of our kids paid for by stimulus money borrowed from Communist China now gives Obama control of the curriculum and standards in the states that signed up for this crap funded via Jimmy Carters’ Dept. of Education. Get rid of the Dept. of Education. Write the bill Jeff!

(3) Defund and abolish the Internal Revenue Service and abolish the 16th Amendment. Congressman Miller how long will it take you to write this bill ? Yesterday I wrote a check to the IRS for $13,400.00. WHY? Who gives the IRS authority to tax my hard work and the fruits of my labor and the risks I take? Do you know what I can do with this money? What will the IRS do with it, cover a round of golf at Pebble Beach for President Obama? Fund Nancy Pelosi’s tax payer funded jet? It would buy Michelle Obama a nice dress. Congressman Miller write the bill and I will support you.

(4) Defund the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and give control back to the states as per the Tenth Amendment. It should take you 20 minutes to write this up.

(5) Defund and abolish the Department of Energy. How much energy has the Department of Energy drilled for? How many barrels of oil have they dug out of the ground? How many cubic feet of natural gas have they extracted? How many oil tankers have they built? (ZERO) Defund and abolish it. It should take you 30 minutes to write the bill Jeff.

(6) Write a bill that restores the constitutional rights of Americans to carry a concealed weapon onto military bases. You support the NRA right? Big deal. What good is that? We all support some form of pro-Second Amendment gun groups. Your job, sir, is to change the direction of the nation not sit back in your big comfy office chair in DC and rub your NRA lapel pin. Anyone can do that. Write the bill, sir. Clinton thinks I am not responsible to carry my 9mm onto military bases. Do you think I am Congressman Miller? Fort Hood is a double tragedy but the biggest tragedy was disarming the military folks and preventing them from defending themselves from these lunatics. I spent 30 years in the US Navy. I carried M-16’s AR, a Glock 9mm, a .45 pistol and shot guns to protect you sir. But I am denied the right to protect myself. Why don’t you fix this? WRITE THE BILL!

Congressman Miller in closing my column, I wish you well and much luck in your campaign for your continued never ending career as a lifelong Congressman funded by Florida taxpayers paying you over $15,000 a month to work maybe seventy-five days a year.

And to end my correspondence to you sir. The next time you visit my friend Colonel Bud Day’s grave site in Pensacola please don’t pose for pictures at his grave for publicity pictures for your web page. Colonel Day is not a pawn for your political advancement he was my friend. I visit his grave many times privately and I share my thought with him privately. I miss his dearly. I expect you to do the same. Leave your camera at home.