Once upon a time in a faraway galaxy, there were Republicans such as Dwight Eisenhower. These men were of a financially conservative timber. They also tended to believe in the power of state and local government to create and administer law and regulation, and conceived the Federal entity as a rather unwieldy and wasteful structure which should be primarily limited to interstate law and commerce, and to making war and peace.

From the time of the Civil War until the 50s, the Republican Party was also involved with not only states' rights issues, but oddly enough, civil liberty concerns. These were the days of the Democratic Solid South, when the Democratic Party often stood for power for the laboring poor, except when it came to blacks. Republicans often stood up for voter's right is those early days, as well they should, considering Abraham Lincoln was a founding member of the party.

The shift began with the imposition, by Kennedy and Johnson, of enforced integration in schools and government. This dictation of national will over local power stood in contradiction to Republican principle, but meshed oddly with Republican Lincolnite tradition, and a choice had to be made. In conjunction with this, opposition to the developing conflict in Vietnam created a rallying point for the World War 2 generation. I watched my parents, lifelong Democrats and working people, convert to the Republican Party as this trend solidified.

Ronald Reagan was the ultimate expression of this newly emerging Republican Party, a reaction to years of what was seen as over-regulation of trade, the environment, and business, and a lack of resolve in using American clout to influence world events. More than ever, it was a return to "old, proven values" and a supposed literal interpretation of the Constitution. The first stirring of what eventually became the "Christian Right" was also seen, and the early emergence of the radio demagogues like Rush Limbaugh who successfully wedded anger with a selected number of the grand old party's traditional principles.

Now we have reached another plateau, primarily due to 2 things: The passage of legislation which allows unlimited and unidentified contribution to political campaigning, coupled with the penultimate importance of advertising as a tool for electing candidates. The congress will be re-districted after this election, and work will continue that was begun by Tom Delay to realign electoral areas to insure continued Republican dominance.

Most of us are giving away our freedom, while the rest are busy buying and selling it. Today, men like Eisenhower, principled men who followed a centrist path, would be shouted down by the likes of the Palinites as weak on liberalism. And make no mistake...the driving force in tomorrow's election is not anger, although, truly, many voters should be angry and will vote in anger...the driving force is MONEY, and it is the one force which my country appears to be helpless to defeat.