The left's mantra that Barack Obama will reverse the "failed policies" of the last eight years has intensified in the days following the inauguration of the incoming President. What the lapdog media won't mention is that the policies that have put us where we are today are policies of the left, not the right.

Take, for example, the Community Reinvestment Act, which codified the idea that financial institutions would be expected to give home loans to people with bad credit or be subject to extortion from community groups. Taxpayer-subsidized extortion, no less. Any Conservative values represented in that? Not as far as I can see.

How many conservatives believed that our government needed another budget-busting entitlement like prescription drug benefits?

When President Bush signed the McCain-Feingold campaign finance legislation, he said the courts would have to decide whether it was Constitutional. Most conservatives understand the First Amendment: "Congress shall make NO law..." That seems pretty straightforward. Unfortunately, for too many in elected office today, the Constitution is a speed bump on their way to ever-greater control of the great unwashed.

A government that continues to grow in scope, and expense, and in control over the governed cannot be said to be failing because of the policies of the right.

For nearly two decades now, the policies of the right have been pretty much ignored, marginalized, and maligned. Even the 1994 freshmen class in the House of Representatives, elected on a platform of reform (stated beautifully in their contract with America) couldn't - or wouldn't - stand up to the constant barrage of propaganda from across the aisle and their press agents in mainstream media outlets.

The conservative values upon which they were elected were pushed aside in an incredibly naive attempt to gain the respect of those working for their defeat.

Proven goals like tax-cutting and regulation relief were pushed aside in favor of compassionate conservatism. Being called a racist or bigot for supporting anything other than a politically-correct view of an issue became effective. The media dutifully parroted such idiocy.

Nearly twenty years after President Bush 41 uttered the famous "read my lips, no new taxes," we are spending more on bailout and stimulus plans (that won't work) than Ronald Reagan spent in his last budget. The printing presses at Treasury are humming. We're borrowing lots of money from countries that don't like us.

Give President Bush full marks for preventing another terrorist attack on U.S. soil. As for the rest of our recent history, we are where we are for a great many reasons. Just please don't try to convince me that it's because of a failure of my ideas. My ideas haven't been tried.