LIMBAUGH COMMENTARY: TO BE OR NOT TO BE REPUBLICAN

One e-mailer asked, "Why vote at all, when there is no difference between the Democrats and Republicans?"

This is a legitimate question. The federal government has grown way beyond anything the Framers contemplated, and Republicans seem as unwilling as Democrats to dismantle this behemoth. But as frustrated as we conservatives sometimes get at Republican officials, there are still major differences between the parties that will have significant consequences for the future of this nation.

There is no excuse for Senate majority leader Trent Lott and his Republican colleagues to have conspired with the Democrats to pass the impeachment resolution, circumventing a genuine evidentiary impeachment trial. But what if all senators had been Democrats?

West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd's frivolous motion to dismiss would have passed effortlessly, and there would have been no hearing at all. Then, the Senate would have passed a meaningless censure resolution to mask its protection of Clinton.

Had defeatist Republicans prevailed in 1980, Ronald Reagan would never have been nominated nor elected, much less been able to pass legislation reducing top marginal income tax rates from 70 percent to 28 percent. We would probably still be caught in the stranglehold of a double-digit misery index. We might still be fighting the Cold War.

Had the 1994 Republican Congress failed to reign in spending, we would not be approaching a balanced budget today, something the naysayers said was impossible.

Democratic presidential frontrunner Al Gore's vision of America includes an even more intrusive federal government. Just this week, he promised federal intervention to micromanage such local problems as traffic control. Patrick Henry is rolling over in his grave.

Democrats favor injecting more federal money into education and increasing federal control over local school decisions. Republicans favor less federal control and the adoption of school-choice measures with the belief that added competition will improve the quality of public and private schools.

With the tantalizing prospect of budget surpluses, Democrats are already chomping at the bit to repeal legislatively imposed spending caps that have been instrumental in bringing the federal budget nearly into balance for the first time in three-plus decades. Republicans insist on adhering to the caps.

Republicans advocate saving Social Security by programs involving partial privatization. Clinton and his cohorts stringently oppose privatization and favor instead a shell game involving a double counting, accounting scam that uses non-existent budget surpluses (which are actually temporary Social Security surpluses).

Republicans advocate overhauling the Medicare system with elements of privatization and reductions in automatic cost increases. Clinton sabotaged his own Blue Ribbon Medicare commission led by Democratic Sen. John Breaux.

Clinton and his dupes on the commission rejected Breaux's recommendations in favor of another Ponzi Scheme involving the diversion of a portion of the phantom budget surpluses to shore up Medicare. Just as with his Social Security proposal, this does absolutely nothing to solve long-term Medicare insolvency. Clinton Democrats still support socialized medicine. If we give up, they'll get it next time.

Republicans have been stalwarts in support of military readiness and have generally been unwilling to use the military as a glorified Peace Corps. Clinton has systematically emasculated the military while expanding our commitments throughout the world.

Republicans since Reagan have supported a strategic missile defense initiative to protect the nation against burgeoning nuclear threats from numerous countries. Only after the recent revelations concerning China's theft and development of nuclear delivery technology are the Democrats beginning to come around on this vital issue.

Conservative Republicans favor tax cuts to spur sustained economic growth and because they believe the people's money should be restored to them. Washington Democrats prefer class warfare to growth.

Democrats still want to appoint activist federal judges, while Republicans want strict constructionists. And the GOP is pro-life and ardently supportive of the Second Amendment.

Our children deserve to be bequeathed an America that continues to blossom in political freedom and economic prosperity, and that still aspires to be a nation under God.

Those who advocate not voting should look at the 1998 congressional elections for proof of the consequences of quitting. They should examine Ross Perot's impact on the 1992 presidential election if they are tilting at third party windmills.

Just because the Republican Party isn't everything we want it to be is no excuse to quit. We must stay engaged and fight to ensure the party remains conservative. Freedom requires responsibility, and not voting is an abdication of that responsibility. Those who drop out, cop out. Abandoning the fight is no different from joining the other side.

~David Limbaugh of Cape Girardeau is a columnist for Creators Syndicate.