By John Seiler

The California Republican Party’s slogan is: Party of Yes.

Yes — to what? To more government? To higher taxes? Tighter regulations?

Apparently not. They’re against those things. Or at least most Republicans say they are.

So, if they’re against higher taxes, more regulations, etc. then they must be the Party of No. Yes? No. I don’t know.

Seriously, Republicans are stuck in the unenvious role of opposing Democrats’ nutty ideas. When Republicans do that, as under Reagan (mostly), they actually do well.

When they become the Party of Yes — as under Nixon-Ford, the Bushes and Schwarzenegger — they just give us more government, which means more Democratic-voting government workers. President Bush II gave us medicare expansion, expensive wars he lost, then-record deficits and debt (since superseded by Obama), new bureaucracies like Homeland Security and the groping TSA, restrictions on our liberties from the USA Patriot Act, etc. — and a massive recession, Democratic control of Congress in 2006 and Obama in 2008.

When Democrats say, “Hey, how about this great new program, which we can pay for with a small, temporary tax that — by increasing jobs — actually will boost the economy and pay for itself” — Republicans are supposed to say, “Hey, wait a minute.”

That’s why the best Republican congressman, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, also an M.D. obstetrician, earned the moniker “Dr. No” for voting against every new tax, spending program or regulation, even if it was promoted by his own party.

And in 1955, when National Review started out, editor William F Buckley penned a mission statement that read, “It stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it.”

Somebody has to be the designated driver at the party.