"Well, if I had to choose in terms of being a Republican, I'd go with Rush Limbaugh, I think. I think my take on it was Colin had already left the party. I didn't know he was still a Republican."-       Former Vice-President Dick Cheney on Face the Nation

So what is a Republican?

Watching the Republicans try and answer this question is like watching a group of people setting off for a snipe hunt. Off they go, intent on catching something that they have never seen, don’t know doesn’t exist.

In the past the Republicans had three strong pillars of doctrine. Those doctrines were, a strong national defense, fiscal responsibility, and personal freedom. Each doctrine was implemented by one or two core strategies. The strategies supporting defense were standup to the Russians and grow the military. The strategy for fiscal responsibility was cut taxes and rein in spending to eliminate the deficit. Personal freedom would be achieved by keeping government regulation on business at a minimum and keeping government from interfering in our personal lives.

If you believed in one or two these doctrines and supported their strategies – you were a Republican. Thus a Margaret Chase Smith could serve in the Senate at the same time as Richard Nixon. Ron Paul and Dick Cheney could also be in the party together. Ronald Reagan and Nelson Rockefeller could be Governors at the same time.

Since 1980 the Republican Party has systematically abandoned the strategies supporting each one of their doctrines. The result is the party has lost all trust and credibility with voters. They view Republicans with the same tired cynicism as family members of the drunk who pledges reform and temperance just before starting the next bender.

Whether it is high deficits and economic ruin that a supposedly fiscally conservative party created; the disaster of Katrina from the party of small government; or the hard line social conservatism from the party of personal freedom; or how support for a strong national defense has turned into support for torture, Republicans have totally compromised their beliefs.

As a result, the base of the party is shrinking. Now the average Republican is a white, southern, male, over 60 and less likely to have finished college. (This is also the same demographic as talk radio listeners). Mike Huckabee said that if the Republicans weren’t careful they would become a party of older white men, sipping their drinks and smoking cigars in their country club, wondering what happened. If things did not change, Gov Huckabee said, the Party would become as relevant as the Whigs. Gov. Huckabee was right except that they would be less likely to be smoking a cigar and having a drink than nursing a beer and a cigarette in a the bar across the street. 

The Republican’s best strategy would be to welcome a wider variety of moderate voters. Instead, they proudly push away the very voters they will need to win. For example Former VP Cheney – a man with as many deferments as Gen. Colin Powel had stars – and Rush Limbaugh have tried to run Powel out of the party.

Party leaders have done little to stand up to Rush and Cheney. Watching Republican after Republican, grovel before Rush, hurts them because it makes them look weak. Americans wonder, if Republicans can’t stand up to a radio bully, who has never held public office or served his country, whose approval ratings are less than Bush ’43 how can they stand up to the Russian, Korean or Iranian bullies?

The party seems firmly in the grip of the extremists. Faced with worldwide economic collapse the Republicans argued that Herbert Hoover was right and that FDR had little to do with ending the great Depression. They rushed to support another round of tax cuts–even in the face of data that proves that dollars spent by the government have an economic impact five times greater than a tax cut dollar. 

“Tea Party” protestors condemned Obama as a high tax “socialist” on the same day those same protestors began to benefit from the largest middle class tax cut in a generation. Many of them, I am sure stopped on their way home to cash their extra $250 Social Security payment – funded by the same socialist stimulus package.

Americans are not stupid. They recognize hypocrisy when they see it. They respond to leadership that they see as authentic and in their best interests. To succeed Republicans need to step back and quietly lead by example. Rather than listening tours with softball questions, Republicans are going to have to demonstrate by their actions, that they have the ability, plan and policy to govern.

They will have to show that they care enough to put Nation before Party. To regain the voter’s trust someone will have to stand up to Rush, and Cheney and the crazy wing of the party. Until that happens all the listening tours in all pizza parlors in the Washington area won’t change the perception that Republicans as the party of economic disaster, torture and intolerance.