In the dark days of 1980, with the hostage crisis and unemployment climbing toward ten percent, Republicans were an enthusiastic bunch led by a charismatic, optimistic former movie actor.

Today, with America prevailing in the War on Terror and a surprisingly strong economy despite the stock-market plunges, Republicans are dour and angry led by a sarcastic, surly professional poltician.

One difference between 1980 and now is that Republicans were not in power then; so what was bad for country was good for them. Now the shoe is on the other foot. Most Americans believe that GOP runs Congress and blame the Republicans for the current economic mess.

But also something has happened to the character of the GOP in the past 30 years. It lost its ideals and ideas.  And it lost its hope.

Politico.com ^[1] captures a bit of this:
“McCain is behind in the polls, and the Republicans have no chance of regaining control of Congress,” Pitney noted. “Republicans are facing the prospect of unified Democratic control of the government for the first time since the first two Clinton years. And even then, Clinton’s agenda had moderate elements (e.g., [the North American Free Trade Agreement] and deficit reduction). With Obama, [Senate Majority Leader Harry] Reid and [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi in power, Republicans worry about a hard push for a hard-left agenda.”

It is time to hope that the election is not lost and to trust in the ordinary voter, who, if given reasonable and understandable information, will not vote for Obama.

Here are a few ideas;

The average portfolio has dropped some 20%. The capital-gains-tax rate is 15%. Why not suspend the tax for two years (or abolish it) and give the average investor a shot at breaking even this year?

As an added benefit, money from all over the world would flood into American markets, shrinking the liquidity crisis.

Why not demand that counties and cities roll back their property-tax assessments to reflect current market values? After all, most property taxes are paid as part of an escrow to a mortgage (i.e. part of mortgage payement). Reducing the tax assesment will reduce the size of escrowed mortgage payments–keeping more people in their homes.

The government created the mortgage bailout mess and it, not you, should sacrifice to pay for it. Why does the governing class think of the rest of us as patient cows, to be milked or fed on as they see fit?

Tune in to the Michael Reagan radio show tonight, where I expand on these themes.