Are the Republicans finally heeding the Tea Party?

The GOP is apparently on the verge of a major announcement: something similar to the Contract for America, a masterstroke of political maneuvering which almost single handedly gave the Republicans control of Congress back in 1994. The real question is, why has it taken so long?

Haven't the Republicans learned from the Tea Party movement that the health care debate is far from over, and that average Americans are sick of such massive government intrusions in their lives? Don't they see that the people are sick of high taxes and want them ended? Isn't it obvious that the core of folks most likely to vote for the GOP are those who believe in fiscal restraint?

Some Democrats are deriding the intention as a mere electioneering ploy, seeing as it is coming so late in the cycle. But they would complain anyway, so such criticisms are rather hollow and self serving. They can be dismissed as electioneering themselves. Yet the Republican party, so lacking in a clear vision in recent years, has just about had a platform dropped into their lap. The conservative revolution within its own ranks ought to have served as a clarion call to action. Why has it taken the GOP so long to heed it?

Probably because so many Republicans are wedded to the beltway mentality themselves. That's why you have a Mike Castle in Delaware so reluctant to accept defeat at the hands of Christine O'Donnell, or Lisa Murkowski up in Alaska unwilling to concede that she lost. They're the career politicians, don't you see. they're the truly compassionate leaders, whose job it is to dispense largesse.

That's the real arrogance in our nation today: leaders who look down upon the regular folk. We do not need such inherent disdain from those we elect. We need leadership which understands and respects the common man and woman. If the GOP can include that in any new contract, they will have learned a great lesson. If they do not, then we need more grass roots activists to teach them the lesson in greater detail.