Will most historians look back on a party who promised to end tyranny across the globe, use American troops as the world’s 9-1-1 and engage in nation building on an unprecedented level consider Bush Republicans too conservative or too Wilsonian? Don’t waste your time answering. The verdict is obvious.

And for all the weeping and gnashing of teeth I have had to endure over the radicalism of this tea party Congress, to my worried liberal friends I say “take a valium and relax.” This right wing, radical, reactionary tea party crew has meekly gone along with their statist party leaders far too often for my tastes. As a result, they added $1 trillion to the national debt their first year in power and got outmaneuvered by President Barack Obama at every turn.

Too many in the media (and the conservative movement) have been distracted by stupid statements that have been streaming out of a few Republicans’ mouths instead of keeping their eyes on the bottom line. When you focus on the one issue that really matters — individual freedom vs. state expansion — the GOP fails every test on true, blue conservatism.