Conservatism hasn’t changed. What is clear is that many who call themselves conservative have lost sight of bedrock conservative values. Doug Ross has laid out a great baseline of what those values are.

STRENGTHEN NATIONAL DEFENSE – increase the size, capability and efficiency of our Armed Forces, bringing back our defense spending to historical levels as percentage of GDP.

GAIN ENERGY INDEPENDENCE – open up ANWR and the OCS to exploration; aggressively pursue nuclear energy and green technologies; and incent private industry to aggressively pursue clean, renewable energy sources.

SECURE THE BORDERS – build physical barriers immediately as a precursor to an overarching, sensible immigration policy. If the boat’s sinking, you plug the holes first.

DEATH TO EARMARKS – zero tolerance for earmarks.

DEATH TO CORRUPTION – zero tolerance for corruption.

ENGLISH AS NATIONAL LANGUAGE – national unity requires a national language. That language is English.

IMPLEMENT FLAT TAX OR FAIR TAX – simplify the tax system by eradicating a tax code gone mad.

REDUCE SIZE OF GOVERNMENT – provide “whistleblower-style” awards for reducing the size of government and task the IRS (which will no longer have to worry about enforcing the tax code) with achieving the reduction goals on an annual basis

SPUR HEALTHCARE COMPETITION – Address health-care deficiencies – with competitive, free-market solutions, not Government largess.

ADDRESS ENTITLEMENTS – engage a bipartisan consortium to create a multi-million dollar competition to incent teams from private industry and academia to create solutions for our social security and Medicare liabilities.

It is imperative for conservatives that hope to see the GOP reclaim it’s strength adopt the attitude of understanding and demanding real conservative values. With that in mind I have started Reclaim Conservatism. Along with some others we are discussing what direction to take. Come join us as we Reboot the GOP.