Update: Some time in the wilderness is exactly what the GOP needs to get its act together, and I'm proud to be a part of booting them out.  They've become a party of big spending theocrats that is starting to look more like a regional party of the deep south, than any sort of national player. 

Maybe some time out of power will bring them back to their roots of small government, pragmatic foreign policy, and personal responsibility.  I will welcome them back to the national scene when they do this.  Let's leave the fringe lunatics to represent information challenged voters at the local level, and bring the adults back to represent this grand old party at the national level.

Original: ** The Republicans need a drubbing in the upcoming elections, I think. The American people gave Republicans control of the house, the senate, and the executive, and they have utterly failed us. Our reputation and moral standing around the world has been trashed, our spending is out of control, and the party of morals and family values is paralyzed by sex and corruption scandals. The combination of a Republican president and Republican congress has been a catastrophe. Wherever you stand on on the political spectrum (I voted Republican for governor of California and will likely vote Republican for President in 2008), it's time to hold politicians accountable for their failures. ** I have serious Republican tendencies, or at least I thought I did. I am a fanatical capitalist. I believe that there is no shame in being successful. I believe that everybody can make something of themselves through hard work and perseverance - I abhor the victim mentality. I think that the United States has traditionally been a force for good around the world, and even with all of our current shortcomings, that we continue, for the most part, to try and do the right thing. I'm proud to be an American. But I also believe that a good government is like a good referee in a sporting event - if they're doing their job well, you should barely notice them. All of these things being said, I disagree with, no I DESPISE, the current direction of the Republican party. I hate the bloated, intrusive, fiscally irresponsible behemoth government that George W. Bush has built. I hate the future tax burden he is placing on all of us, especially our children. I hate his belief that government knows best, and that federal government should be used to regulate our activities in our homes, our bedrooms, and our thoughts. And I'm terrified by the rising theocrat movement that seems bent on replacing reason with religious fundamentalism. The Republican Party of George W. Bush is almost unrecognizable from what it was under Ronald Reagan. Its principles of small government, fiscal responsibility, and pragmatism have been scrapped in order to broaden the Party's base - a tactic that has worked to decimate the Democrats. It's time for a third Party, as the current two don't make any sense to me.