Memo to GOP: No guts, no glory ~ By Tom Tancredo

From WorldNetDaily

By Tom Tancredo Posted: October 03, 2009 ~ 1:00 am Eastern © 2009 Thank God John McCain lost the election. Citizen activists are now energized to defeat Obama's Marxist radicalism – with no help from McCain's anemic pragmatism. Eight months into the Obama presidency the Republican opposition is suddenly thriving because of the patriotic reawakening provoked by Obama's Marxist agenda. But this Republican revival will be short-lived if party leaders ignore the real message of the tea party protesters and 9/12 marchers. We are witnessing a grass-roots rediscovery of our constitutional traditions and a principled resistance to the expansion of entitlement spending. This resurrection of principled conservatism could never have happened if John McCain had won the 2008 election and enshrined his anemic "hands across the aisle" opportunism as the Republican Party's new orthodoxy. The last thing the country needs is another Republican administration dedicated to the "no entitlement left behind" Kool-Aid that Karl Rove and his clones sold to Bush and party leaders. Obama's radicalism has generated a genuine, mushrooming, rational fear for the future of our constitutional republic. The grass-roots revolt is not about which political party gets to preside over the death knell of liberty. It is about halting this slide into tyranny. The Republican Party can decide to help lead this revolt, or it can get out of the way and stop obstructing it. In my home state of Colorado in the last month, Sen. McCain attempted to dictate the Republican nominee for the 2010 U.S. Senate race. He made calls into the state to persuade a favorite of the party establishment to take on conservative Ken Buck, who had already launched a strong campaign. Apparently, McCain and national party leaders want a nominee who is not so conservative on the illegal-immigration issue. This kind of "play it safe" thinking is a replay of past mistakes, and it is not a formula for leading a successful citizens revolt against Washington hubris. The citizen activism that brought over 1 million ordinary Americans to the Capitol Mall a week after Labor Day is only in part a reaction to Obama's radicalism. It is also more than that – it is more than "just say no" to Obama's health-care plans. It is also a rediscovery and reaffirmation of the conservative principles that were abandoned or belittled by Republican Party elites in the Bush era. [CLICK HERE TO READ MORE]

Tom Tancredo is a former five-term congressman from Colorado and 2008 candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. He currently serves as chairman of the Rocky Mountain Foundation and co-chairman of TeamAmericaPac. Tancredo is the author of "In Mortal Danger: The Battle for America's Border and Security."