After eight years in power, conservatives are down in thenmouth. The right feels as out in the cold as it wasnduring the wilderness period, fifteen years ago; and this timenit does not even have much of a communist menace to fallnback upon.nEstablishment Republicanism, as personified by GeorgenBush, is in the saddle leading the nation under a conservativenbanner, but with a pragmatic agenda. The RepublicannParty itself is a captive, the indictment continues, so the onlynanswer is for conservatives to turn away from all of this,nestablish a new party with a pure agenda, and to rush off tonbattle the GOP country club crowd.nDeja vu: it is 1976 again and Ronald Reagan has beenndefeated for the nomination. The Republicans are led bynGerald Ford, and the only possible future for our party isnmore establishment control. So, from Kevin Phillips tonRichard Viguerie, the goal becomes creating a new conservativenparty as the only possible route to power. Yet, as mynDonald Devine is president of Citizens for AmericanEducational Foundation in Washington, D.C. He was thendirector of the U.S. Office of Personnel Managementnduring Ronald Reagan’s first term.nA Federalist AgendanSome Advice for the Republicansnby Donald Devinenopposing paper for a national meeting of conservativenleaders just following the election in 1976 argued, we werenon the threshold of taking over the Republican Party; and wenneeded to stay to complete the job.nAn American political party is simply a set of electoralnrules and a group of potential voters whose past feelings ornfuture hopes identify them with it. The party is a legal andnorganizational shell that must be infused with vitality, vision,nand leadership by a group with a mission. The task of anconservative movement in 1976 or 1990 is the same: to fillnthe Republican shell with its agenda. In 1976, that missionnwas accepted; and the result was impressive: eight years ofnconservative government, with hundreds of billion fewerndollars wasted by the national government, a shift of thenaction to the private sector and state government, and thenway prepared for the end of communism in Eastern Europenand beyond.nMoreover, George Bush is no Gerald Ford. He is notneven the George Bush of 1980, having shifted 45 degreesnby learning from his former boss, President Ronald Reagan.nAs was predictable (and predicted) a year ago, Mr. Bush cannbe relied upon to do a competent, if not visionary, job ofncontinuing what Reagan started. This will be chipped awaynnnMAY 1990/21n