The reason I will vote for Republicans this fall is because the alternative is not only worse, it is dangerous. Perhaps that is not a principled stand, but it is the best I can do. Since the country cannot survive four years of Al Gore and the consequences he would bring down on American heads with his statist-collectivist agenda, there is not much choice. You can vote for Ralph Nader or Pat Buchanan or Harry Browne, but realistically none of them has a chance. If Al Gore were elected because of a split vote, the divisiveness of extreme leftist-collectivist Big Brotherism would kill America. This country is so polarized now that it will take a gifted leader or leaders to put it back together again. There is no doubt in my mind that if Gore gets in and the Democrats take over one or both houses of Congress, the Republic, what is left of it, will be finished. We are not talking partisan, Democrat versus Republican, here; we are talking about the fate of the Republic. Unfortunately, the fascist left now controls the once great and good Democratic Party. Oh, life will go on in the United States, but there will come a day when we will wake up and we will not have the country where liberty lives. The Bill of Rights for all intents and purposes will cease to exist. We will no longer be a Republic; we will be a mob-ocracy with benevolent dictators at the helm and an emasculated and frightened opposition incapable of preventing the worst abuses in the growing trend toward a corporate police state. If Bush is elected and the Republicans keep both houses of Congress, perhaps we will have breathing room to develop a long-term answer to the growth of the state and its abuse of power. His election will only give us breathing room – that is all it will do. What is worrisome is the talk from the Bush-Cheney camp that in a future Bush administration the Republicans will reach across the aisle to the Democrats. A bipartisan group hug will be in order to do the people's business. The people's business, however, requires only one thing – for government to get out of the way and re-establish the Bill of Rights and the Constitution as the law of the land. The Republicans don't need to reach across the aisle. They have been there and done that and compromised every single principle they stood for. They fail to realize that the Democrats fight a war in which there is no compromise. The sole option they offer is total agreement to growing government and restraining or ending liberty. The only reaching across the aisle Republicans need to do is to yank the rug out from under the statist Democrats and their Republican fellow travelers. One must ask the question, what could possibly make any self-respecting, conservative Republican become so totally obsessed with power, image or the shallow approval of the media or the left that it sells its conservative soul. Politicians on the left do not care about conservative concerns, nor do they intend to compromise on any issue. They understand that it is an ideological war they are fighting, and its only conclusion is the obliteration and unconditional surrender of the other side. They are good at it. The last couple of years in Congress, Democrats – along with the Clinton administration – have shown they are good at winning political warfare. Their agenda, with few exceptions, has been passed and funded. Yet the Republicans still haven't figured out this is a war, and they scratch their heads hoping no one will notice and criticize them for not being quick enough with the rubber stamp. The Republicans need to get a grip. American doesn't need more bipartisanship. It is nothing more than appeasement of a statist philosophy and its advocates, a philosophy that would destroy anyone or anything in order to accomplish its goals. On the other hand, Republicans have not been true to their stated goals, and it is no wonder many conservatives are disheartened. Over the top, you say? Well, let’s look at the facts. According to the Cato Institute, the 106th Congress is going to be the biggest-spending Congress on domestic social programs since Jimmy Carter. Total federal non-defense spending is going to grow in real terms by $33 billion, or 11 percent, between 1999 and 2001. Cato maintains that more than 200 programs and departments the Republicans pledged to eliminate in 1995, like the National Endowment for the Arts and the Department of Education, now have fatter budgets than ever. Congress has violated its own spending caps every year. But it isn't only fiscal irresponsibility that the Republicans have been guilty of or compromised on. For instance, the giant surpluses should have been given back to the taxpayers. But instead they are being used by the Clinton administration and the Democrats to fund more black holes called government programs. By and large these programs do nothing to help those for whom they are intended. Rather, they fund the paper shufflers that welfare programs firmly ensconced in high-paying, big-benefits government jobs. From Head Start to the Department of Energy and the EPA, failure is failure and in the real world would not be tolerated. Yet failed programs and departments continue, and Republicans have done next to nothing about it. Again, spending and bureaucratic power continue unchecked. Weren't Republicans supposed to foil stupid programs that the Democrats try to keep and prevent new ones they would inflict on Americans? Aren't Republicans supposed to be the guard dogs for the Bill of Rights and the Constitution? Weren't Republicans elected to prevent or curtail corruption in government and prevent police-state tactics being used against citizens? The Republican Party, however, has done little but speak loudly and carry an ineffective twig, saying, "Naughty, naughty, but we aren't at fault; government is only guilty of bad judgment." Shouldn't Republicans on the Judiciary Committees have stopped the hundreds of agenda-driven left-wingers from becoming a majority in the court system? Thanks to Republicans like Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, the real Clinton legacy will be the profoundly left-wing and statist judiciary. No matter who is president for the next eight years or what kind of Congress is elected, the judiciary will be loaded with Clinton appointees. These leftists will continue to erode the rule of law and the Constitution. Republicans and Impeachment The Republican majority in the House and Senate could not fulfill impeachment strictures and convict the most corrupt president in our nation's history. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that Republican "moderate" Chris Shays of Connecticut recently revealed that he had seen evidence during the impeachment that indicated Juanita Broaddrick had been brutally raped not once but twice by Bill Clinton, yet he voted not to impeach. Chris Shays is considered by the New York Times to be a "reasonable" Republican – which is left-speak for Republicans who go along with most of the leftist horrors that Democrats propose. Chris Shays is notorious for giving away land and proposing environmental solutions that are nothing but giveaways of the territory of other states. He does this without any concern for the Ninth and 10th Amendments or the sovereignty of those states. But Shays' Connecticut yuppie constituency includes the brilliant political and economic philosopher Paul (I never saw a government program I didn't like) Newman. Most likely his constituents know more about the contents of a Ralph Lauren or an L.L. Bean catalogue than the Bill of Rights and its intent. The former chief counsel to the House Judiciary Committee for impeachment, David Schippers, states in his upcoming book "Sell Out": "Fighting vicious Chicago mobsters was nothing compared to dealing with certain members of Congress!" Schippers took notes and has the names of members of both parties who ignored evidence and betrayed the impeachment process. He says, "I had no inkling of the extent of Bill Clinton's guilt – until I saw the mountains of yet-unreleased evidence." Schippers will name Republican names as well as Democrats, men and women who allowed the rule of law and the Constitution to be trampled on. What will come to light is just how complicit Republicans are in the irreparable damage done to the rule of law. Power of the Purse The Republican Congress had every opportunity to unfund the overzealous police agencies such as the FBI, but they didn't. Investigations and hearings on alphabet agency corruption led to no net decrease in agency budgets. These agencies allowed themselves to be used by an administration that nearly destroyed a good and decent federal employee during the Travelgate affair. From Billy Dale to the late Cardinal John O'Connor, the premier police agency of the United States has been compromised, and it is doubtful that this police agency, as well as others, can be trusted to abide by the Constitution and its guarantees. Yet while this corruption was going on, where was congressional help to keep these agencies honest? Where was the full-blooded effort to help whistleblowers and maintain proper oversight so that the Clinton administration would not have free rein? This administration uses the power of the executive to bully and intimidate the FBI and the IRS into abusive actions against American citizens. Add the recent whitewash of the Waco tragedy by former Republican Senator Danforth of Missouri, and we have a confirmation that justice is not a great concern to some Republicans. Nor is there any indication that in the future they will rein in the federal agencies guilty of unconstitutional abuse of power. We may expect government abuse for decades to come. It is a pretty good bet that another Waco can and will happen again. Danforth made that possibility more likely by finding no fault with government actions in Waco. He merely implied that the government used "bad judgment" as agency actions resulted in the fiery conclusion to the 51-day standoff. In the real world, such bad judgment can get you thrown in jail. Apparently there is little hope that federal agencies will ever be held accountable, no matter who is in office. The final accounting will belong to history. Making Bad Laws Results in Worse Policy Republicans are also partially responsible for such bad laws as the CALEA (Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act), which gave law enforcement the power to do extensive electronic eavesdropping by requiring the various phone companies to make it easier for government to listen in on private conversations. This law tears at the fabric of liberty and negates the meaning of the Fourth Amendment. Add it to the list of other invasions of privacy, and Republicans who do not want to appear soft on crime will contribute to making criminals of us all. Now we find the FBI has another eavesdropping system called "Carnivore" that has the capability of snooping into everyone's e-mail. There is congressional flurry over Carnivore, but whether anything will be done about it remains to be seen. Where was congressional oversight while all this was going on? Perhaps Congress was too busy passing expensive and unneeded legislation to notice Carnivore. The recent Hatch and Feinstein drug bill will compound the first mistake with CALEA by allowing searches of computers without warrants and without the subject of the search having to be told about it till later. The Hatch/Feinstein Methamphetamine Anti-Proliferation Act of 1999 will add greater intrusive capability for the federal police agencies as well as deny certain free speech rights even as they continue to look for enemies of the American state. The failed war on drugs is the excuse, but the result is a heightened and more powerful Big Brother for everyone. Yes, Orrin Hatch brags about how well he reaches across the aisle to work with Democrats. Then there is good Republican soldier Dan Burton. He holds hearings on campaign finance corruption in the Clinton administration even while threatened with retribution from the Reno Justice Department. Burton tells them to bring it on. As much as he may wish otherwise, don't hold your breath that anything will come out of the Burton hearings – just as nothing came out of the Thompson hearings or any other Republican attempts at uncovering and seeking justice in regard to the Clinton administration. If Bush is elected, there may be a quiet clean-up of the various departments, including Justice, but Clinton and his henchmen will still skate off into the sunset to bash Bush and whatever changes Republicans attempt to accomplish. Republicans could have done a great deal to help all Americans by getting rid of the IRS. They had endless hearings that uncovered case after case of IRS brutality and bullying, but in the end nothing much has changed. The IRS is still being used by the Clinton administration to go after perceived enemies. The Republicans continue to be ineffectual at preventing this persecution. All too often, even with new laws, citizens are forced to spend copious amounts of money on legal defense, not to mention the mental harassment and the loss of respect for the entire tax system. What ever happened to the Republican promise to dismantle the IRS? The party of Lincoln mouths nonsense about how the American people aren't ready for that. That is baloney and BS. Actually, it is leftist Democrats, the power-hungry in government, plus the media, who aren't ready for it. Clinton has used the IRS against his enemies far more than any other occupant of the White House – from the Western Journalism Center to Paula Jones to Juanita Broaddrick, Bill O'Reilly of Fox News, and the Heritage Foundation, and the IRS has removed the tax-exempt status of the Christian Coalition. Yet quasi-religious environmental groups and the labor unions continue to give money to leftist political candidates without bringing on IRS investigations, while environmental groups accept government grants and handouts to pay for lawsuits against private property owners and legitimate business. The Republicans could solve this problem by getting rid of the agency and creating a national sales tax or a flat tax. Oh, Give Us Land, Lots of Land The Clinton land grabs taking place in various parts of the country could have been stopped. However, six wimpy and scared Republicans joined their socialist colleagues in the Democratic Party and failed to pass such measures as the Nickles Amendment, which would have halted the land-grabbing under the Antiquities Act. With a majority in both houses of Congress, if Republicans had the will they would have been able to pass laws that would end the abuse of executive orders by any president. Complaints about the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Forest Service and other "green" agencies abound. In some western states, counties have declared that such agents no longer have the right to throw their weight around in their counties or carry firearms. But with a few exceptions like Helen Chenoweth, Jim Hansen, Larry Craig, Scot McInnis, Ben Nighthorse Campbell, Don Nickles, and a couple of others, the western state representatives seem more interested in being national "statesmen" than protecting the sovereignty of their states and their states’ citizens. They get very little relief from their Republican colleagues in the East. When gas prices spiked this summer, the Republicans had a golden opportunity to reduce or temporarily roll back taxes, but they didn't. Instead they mumbled and bumbled about how that wasn't such a good idea. The Democrats didn't have to worry about one less tax inflicted on the public; they could count on the other party to carry their water for them. As one draconian law after another has passed, the Republicans cannot join in common cause to defeat them. For some reason many Republicans don't seem to care about how dangerously close they are to empowering and aiding the creation of a corporate police state. Additionally, Republicans know that many government agencies need to be dismantled. The Department of Education, for instance, is a total waste of money. But Republicans have been ineffectual in getting that message out. It isn't all the fault of the left-wing media, either. Where are the Republican moneybags to generate ad campaigns in order to inform Americans what constitutes truth? Where are the infomercials and documentaries on the limits and duties of government? Are Republicans more afraid of what the elite Northeast media will say about them than they are about doing what is right for the country, the Constitution, the rule of law and America's children? The current crop of Republicans seem to have great memory loss when it comes to understanding that Ronald Reagan did not win the presidency by huge margins because he softened his message to suit moderates or the left. He was elected twice because he had no doubts about the rightness of his beliefs and his message. He knew that these beliefs made America a better place and enhanced the Constitution and the rule of law. If the Republican Party has core beliefs, it is muted by the way it acts. It seems that most Republicans have subscribed to the message and modus operandi of the Northeast Republicans and the dunderhead losers in the Rockefeller wing of the party. Should the Republicans win in November, the big question asked in conservative circles is whether or not there will be eight more years of what appears to be not a dime’s worth of difference between the parties. Will we continue down the road to a corporate police state, Republican style? This Is War A booming economy may continue and it may appear to be party time for one and all, but liberty will be a casualty of the malfeasance of both political parties. Cybertechno-commentator Jon Katz of Slashdot.com made an astute comment recently. He said, "Democracy and freedom aren't about prosperity. You can be poor and quite free. Democracy is about the legitimacy of the individual, whose voice and vote should count for more than any other single interest or group." NewsMax's Chris Ruddy also told it like it is: "Democrats understand politics is war." The Democrats have absolutely no hesitation in getting their agenda passed by any and all tactics, up to and including lying to the American people. They have done it time and time again. Pick an issue, and the left demagogues it – from Representative John Lewis of Georgia loudly proclaiming that Republicans were coming after the poor because of welfare reform, to the Democrats scaring old people by saying that the Republicans were going to take away their Social Security. Democrats understand this isn't a game, that the stakes aren't merely who sits in the White House. What is at stake is the nature of government and the society we will live in during the 21st century. If the Democrats have their way, the United States will give up its sovereignty to such bodies as the U.N. and as long as the economy is good no one will care. That is not merely my opinion. Clinton foreign policy guru Strobe Talbot has repeated more than once that the days of the nation-state, including the United States, are over. So in a Democratic administration count on ever more allegiance to supra-governmental bodies such as the U.N. Under a Gore administration the military will decline more than it already has. Permanently relegated to misdirected experiments in social engineering, it will degenerate in ranks and in its ability to fight America's battles. The purpose of the military is to kill people and break things, not to juggle sexual issues to the detriment of readiness. At some point, in the name of "the children" and in defiance of the Bill of Rights, guns will be outlawed and eventually confiscated, as they have been in Australia. Again, the outcome of the gun issue has been discussed and promoted and predicted by every leftist in and out of government. The ultimate result will be the end of gun ownership in the U.S. except under the most arbitrary and oppressive conditions, which will make the "right to keep and bear arms" moot. If the leftist Democrats have their way, hate crimes will include thought crimes as well. This will include the mutant child of the left, political correctness, which will suffocate creativity and deny the natural law. Religious organizations and individuals will find themselves breaking the law because of their beliefs. Men and women of the cloth will have to keep their religious opinions to themselves or be subject to government investigation and possible criminal penalties. What isn't overt persecution will be subtle and offer those with strong beliefs no alternative but to break the law. The government lumps pro-lifers with the murdering, abortion-clinic-bomber group. Otherwise, why would it keep files and conduct investigations on even the most benign pro-life groups? The FBI has admitted doing just this. Think the government will leave the religious alone? Under the Democrats and the Clinton administration, it didn't stop the feds from keeping a dossier on Cardinal O'Connor nor from intruding into the private lives of many religionists including Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. The Democrats have often stated their belief that the Bill of Rights is not relevant to our times. If they have their way, their court appointments will make that document as meaningless as plans on how to construct an eight-track tape deck. Soccer moms: Get used to it. The environmental movement owns Al Gore and the Democrats. Not only will you be faced with higher gas prices, you eventually will be driving vehicles that have been pre-approved by the federal government. That borders on socialism, but perhaps that is what soccer moms and the women who vote for Democrats desire. You also may look forward to paying higher costs for your trips to the national parks. When you are older, you will not be able to use a motorized boat on any lakes in wilderness areas. That has happened in northern Minnesota and elsewhere. Prices for all goods, including, oil, natural gas, timber, and other natural resources, are going to go up because we have run producers out of business with environmental regulations run amok. Everyone wants clean air and clean water. However, the government and the environmental movement want it so pure and pristine that life as we know it in America today will go the way of the dodo bird. Additionally, rural America might just as well head for the hills or move to town because a vote for a Democrat is a vote for the destruction of private property and the end of the rural way of life. That is, unless it involves conglomerate corporate farms, which funnel money into the DNC. Republicans had better put on the armor of strength and steadfastness. Their cause should be nothing less than a return to constitutional government. They are the party of less government, fewer taxes and more liberty. They would do well to remember what it is they are about and be proud of it. Republicans used to stand for some wonderful ideals. So did the Democrats, but the party of civil rights has become the party of civil wrongs. The tragedy of our times is that the late, great Democratic Party forgot and helped destroy the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. They bought into the notion that growing government is better than growing individual liberty. Perhaps the Republicans will be granted one more chance. If they blow it this time, they will become the minority party forever. More importantly, their spineless equivocating and trying to be bipartisan and outdo each other in left-wing moderation will cost us what remains of our liberty. Republicans don't need to reach across the aisle to left-wingers with a statist agenda. They need to start kicking some left-wing butt – or move out of the way and let someone else do it. News to Use – Why Democrats are worse Apparently, Al Gore's brownshirts are wearing yellow these days. Incidents on the Gore campaign trail illustrate the growing new fascists on the left. In Michigan recently, a Mennonite couple and their eight children carried pro-life signs at a Gore rally. Gore thugs manhandled and pushed the couple and the children and confiscated their signs. The 10-year-old daughter was knocked to the ground by one of Gore's yellowshirts. There were several witnesses, and a local TV station interviewed them as well as the Mennonite couple. The Michigan occurrence followed on the heels of a similar episode in Wisconsin. In that case burly men wearing yellow shirts manhandled peaceful sign carriers protesting Gore's stance on various issues. The campaign's response was "well, they probably weren't in the area designated for protesters." But no apology was ever forthcoming from Gore. So besides Al Gore being a slumlord, he and his people are hypocrites and bullies. While the left seems to prefer yellow rather than brown shirts, the chilling effect on free speech is the same. Minnesotans of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party are going to learn about the cost of leftist programs. Their natural gas prices are going up 30 percent this winter. Thanks, Paul Wellstone and Bruce Vento and the rest of you guys, for all the regulations on the use of clean-burning coal by utility companies. Thanks for always voting for every dippy environmental regulation and law. Thanks, guys, for funding the EPA to the max without leaving room for common sense. Thanks for bringing the costs for environmentalism home to your any-government-program-is-good DFLer voters. But then, we know the Democrats are for the "working man.” Yeah, sure. ------------------------------ Diane Alden is a research analyst, writer, historian and political economist. She writes columns for NewsMax.com, Etherzone, Enterstageright, American Partisan and many other online publications. She also does occasional radio commentaries for Georgia Radio Inc. Reach her at wulfric8@yahoo.com or www.inflyovercountry.com.