There was a time when I would have supported someone like Jeb Bush or Mitt Romney for president. But those were simpler times, when liberalism hadn’t threatened to turn America into a wasteland of political correctness and government-run-amok. We live in different times today, thanks to six years of abominable leadership. And I’m convinced that things will be worse by the time 2016 rolls around, Republican Congress or not.

Only the presidency of Jimmy Carter can compete with that of Obama’s when it comes to leading the country down the wrong path. And the antidote for Carter came in Ronald Reagan. For the next eight years, America got a lesson in conservatism no politician has matched before or since. Oddly enough, it brought the country to new heights economically, strengthened our military might substantially, and ended the damn Cold War. Not too shabby.

Think Big, Republicans!

We could have such a renaissance before us. We desperately need it. But there’s no way a Jeb Bush or a Mitt Romney is going to give it to us, which is why it boggles my mind to see these two at the top of every early poll. Sure, they come across well and have the ability to keep their feet out of their mouths, but is that how low the bar is today? Bush, in particular, comes across as more of a right-leaning Democrat than a Republican. We might as well encourage John Boehner to give it a go.

Before we get any closer to 2016, it might be time to have a real conversation about the future of the GOP. Because it’s far from a united party at this time. We have the Reaganites, the Tea Party, the RINOs, the reformers, the moderate establishment, and the big-business opportunists all vying for inclusion. Oh, and the religious right. With all of these philosophies – some of which simply can’t fit together – we have less of a party and more of a loose collection.

For some reason, despite all of these interesting ideas, we keep going back to the moderate establishment. And I hear the arguments – anything would be better than Hillary Clinton. And I agree. But why do we have to settle for “good enough?”

The real problem with these types of candidates is that they play into the low-information view that both parties are the same. And the more we push the focus onto the Bushes and the Romneys, the more we feed into that myth. The fact is that conservatism and liberalism couldn’t be any more different. The Democrats are proud to run liberal candidates. They have no shame in it at all. But for some reason, the GOP is scared of conservatism. They don’t think it sells, I guess. I wonder how many presidential elections we have to lose before they realize that milquetoast candidates are what’s really driving people away.