Back in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, there was a Senator from Arizona who was never afraid to speak his mind. He didn’t worry about being “politically correct” and he didn’t worry about what the New York Times might think or write about him. He cared about truth, justice, the greatness of America, and the promise it held for all who gathered to its flag.

His name was Barry M. Goldwater and he did not actively seek the presidency. A determined group of young conservatives selected him. They seized control of the Republican Party and, whether he liked it or not, they nominated him.

Conservatives care about issues; they care about the ability of a candidate to understand and articulate conservative ideas; and they care about the ability of a president to lead the country… to command respect at home and abroad, in peace and in war.

Grassroots politics also gave us Ronald Reagan, the finest Republican president… perhaps the finest president of either party… in the twentieth century. His strength came from the legions of Goldwater conservatives who flocked to his banner in Miami in 1968, in Kansas City in 1976, and in Detroit in 1980. Like Goldwater, Reagan inspired people because they knew his instincts were good and that his patriotism was the old-fashioned kind… the kind that made people feel good about themselves and about their country.

Unfortunately, two very important things happened in Republican ranks beginning in the early ‘80s. First, after forcing Ronald Reagan to accept their candidate, George H.W. Bush, as his running mate, the liberal-moderate wing of the party regained footing in the party. And second, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, the “religious right” diverted the party’s focus away from the broad range of national and international issues and onto a far narrower range of conservative social issues.

As a result, Republicans went from a position of having liberalism flat on its back with a foot on its throat, to what we have today: a re-energized and well-funded liberal movement, back on its feet and in the ascendancy; an impotent and politically brain-dead administration in the White House, and ideologically neutral and leaderless Republican “benchwarmers” in the Congress.

Neither of the Bushes, George H.W. or George W., are products of the conservative base; both won nomination through skillful manipulation of the primary system. Neither are conservatives and neither would ever have been recruited or drafted by Goldwater/Reagan conservatives.

The current administration, after swearing to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States,” leaves our borders open to foreign invasion, prosecutes and imprisons border patrol agents for doing their jobs, sends unarmed national guard troops against drug smugglers armed with automatic weapons, refuses to indict and prosecute those who leak critical national security secrets to the press, and refuses to prosecute a former White House National Security Advisor who stole and destroyed top secret documents from the National Archives.

And when the administration decided to replace eight U.S. attorneys, reportedly for failing to prosecute cases of Democratic vote fraud, the administration’s most incompetent neuter, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, successfully turned even that innocuous event into a major political scandal.

Meanwhile, at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, House and Senate Republicans labored hard at reversing traditional Republican values of small government and fiscal restraint. Under Senate Leader Bill Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, congressional Republicans seemed intent upon making themselves indistinguishable from Democrats. During their tenure as Senate and House leaders, Frist and Hastert did more damage to Republican congressional prospects than all of the Democrats in America, combined. A Republican president watched all of that happening and did nothing to save them from their own rapaciousness.

Between them, the Bushes, father and son, have given us a decade of the most tepid and uncertain kind of leadership. During their years in the White House we’ve been confronted by history’s most deadly enemy abroad, by a political opposition at home that may be even more dangerous and destructive than any foreign enemy, and by a mainstream media that is both dishonest and politically partisan. They have not been up to the task and in each instance they’ve left their party far weaker than when they entered office.

When George W. Bush defeated Al Gore in 2000, there was great hope that Americans could once again feel a sense of pride at the playing of “Hail to the Chief.” Now it appears that a more fitting theme song for the Bush Administration and the Republican Congress might have been “Send in the Clowns.”

If conservatives entertain any hope at all of retaining the White House in 2008 – an absolute imperative if we are to escape the national suicide guaranteed by a generation or two of liberal domination of the U.S. Supreme Court – Goldwater and Reagan conservatives must once again seize control of the Republican nominating process.