Can we trust Republicans?

Republicans should work for less spending and lower taxes, thundered Scott Baugh, Orange County GOP chairman and former Republican leader in the California Assembly in a speech yesterday. Sounds good. Amen!

But can we trust them? They need to prove it.

Baugh and OC Republicans, after all, kept supporting President Bush long after he went on the wildest spending binge in American history. Bush didn’t veto a single bill in his first term, yet O.C. GOPers plastered “W’04” stickers on their Mercedes.

And they supported Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in his 2006 re-election bid, even after his infamous 2005 about-face when he switched from being a slightly pro-business, pro-jobs governor to being an anti-business, anti-jobs, environmentlist Al Gore clone.

Baugh himself in the 2008 GOP primaries supported Mitt Romney, who as governor imposed on Massachusetts a state version of socialist Obamacare — which, predictably, is a disaster.

Every year, Republicans say the same thing: “Trust, us. This time, we’ll be different. We won’t spend the country and state into bankruptcy again. We won’t increase your taxes and inflate your currency again. We won’t be beholden to the special interests who own us again.”

But who can trust them?

This time, voters need to say to Republicans: First, show us we can trust you. And we mean it.

–John Seiler