RateItAll: The Opinion Network

The Republican party isnt really conservative, unfortunately, but is the better of the two major parties.

They're okay, but they've really gotten crappy over the past few years. They're close to being downgraded to 2-star.

Any objective person can't count the record of the last five years as a success.
-Wages falling behind inflation.
-Declining influence/Moral Authority in the World.
-Osama Bin Laden's goals accomplished. Out of Saudi air base. U.S Citizens living in fear. Secular Gvt. out of Iraq, Islamic theocracy in. Iraqi occupation helping recruit Al Quida members.
-New Orleans still a mess.
-Defecit/National Debt. Oh My God!
With the Oval Office, the Senate, and the US House the accomplishments are underwhelming. A horrible political party that Reagan, much less Goldwater wouldn't recognize.

The republican party is NOT A CONSERVATIVE PARTY, IT IS NOT EVEN RIGHT WING. The fact that a neoliberal and neoconservative party can go around calling themselves conservative or right wing is sad and a good example of why this country is so messed up ideologically. The Republican Party does not even support the basic things that you need so support to even be a conservative such as Fair trade, Non intervention, small government, and lower taxes for all just to name a few. Now I keep on hearing about these Republicans that are becoming incremental socialists just like the democrats so that they can win some congress race (The Republican Party has no standards) . The republican party was a little conservative until around the time of Nixon where they started to support free trade which led to the party essentially giving up a big piece of what conservatism stood for; economic independence. Now the other countries around the world, like china for instance, have the ability to run our businesses out of our country and destroy what is left here with goods that are not taxed with tariffs at all.
The party has given up on the idea that this country is only supposed to use its military at times when the county is under an attack, not to change other countries and spread democracy which, in the end, helps the big corporations which pay for the war and benefit from the peace afterwards. Democrats are no better, just look at Lyndon B. Johnson. The Republican Party also cares more about doing the things that win elections instead of doing the things that help the country (along with the democrats). The party lies about the ideologies that it supports and it lies about anything that goes against the partys neoliberal beliefs ( like when they say there is no global warming when even the CATO institute (libertarian think tank) says there is and they are even more capitalist than the republicans claim to be). The behavior of this party is not the fault of the party but more the fault of the election system in this country. The fact that there are only two major parties is very bad. The Republican Party and the Democratic Party are both corrupt because they have no noticeable competition (they made sure of that with one-sided election laws). The Republican Party also is not defending the moral beliefs of social conservatism, which is causing the party to become more socially liberal every day.
Conservatives support a very small government that is almost laissez-faire where the income for the government comes from tariffs and taxes are kept as low as possible except tariffs that are kept high to promote a better economy and to promote economic independence. The Republican Party is against fair trade, which means they are against conservatism and, sadly, even the American people who will lose their jobs and become poorer while the rich get richer. I am a conservative and I give this party 1 out of 5 because this party is the worst thing that has happened to conservatism. Need an example? Look up Mark Kennedy (2006 candidate for congress from Minnesota).