Americans know the Republican Party has lost its way and the effectiveness of party conservatives has been neutralized. But it is not just the Republican Party per se that is the problem. All three branches of the federal government have seized our inheritance to the point where now we citizens are the ones who support and defend the Constitution, and career politicians and judges are destroying what is left of it.

It is indisputable that the Republican Party offers no united opposition to the tyrannical Left. Indeed, in the recent government shutdown fiasco, Republican senators repudiated their fellow House Republicans and stood against them with the Democrats. That action was a slap in the face to not just those Republicans trying to rein in the Left's disastrous fiscal policies, but to all Americans who are concerned about the socialist agenda that is destroying our nation. The question before us is what to do about it.

There are two major schools of thought on what should be done. One is to change the Republican Party from within. However, the Establishment members have been so long entrenched in their power positions that there is no way they will just move aside and let the conservative members assume positions of leadership in the party. In a disgusting show of grandstanding, both Democrat and Republican senators and congressmen publicly attacked Senators Ted Cruz and Mike Lee, who are fighting for us and our country. These two conservatives are real statesmen, and by their actions and values, show the contrast with political hacks in stark relief. Political leadership today has more in common with the mafia than with statesmanship.

Andrew McCarthy understands what happened in the 2012 election. He nails it. Millions of voters decided to sit out that election, rather than cast a meaningless vote for another RINO. Those who did vote had hoped that Mitt Romney could at least stem the hemorrhaging caused by the socialist agenda.

Of course, the 2008 election fared no better with John McCain as the Republican candidate. Too many voters saw McCain as the RINO he is, and from all accounts, those who did vote Republican did so only because Gov. Sarah Palin was the V-P candidate.

In his article, McCarthy highlights the downward trend in voter turnout from the 2008 to the 2012 elections. Eleven million fewer voters from both parties stayed away from the last election. There is no expectation that this trajectory will halt its death spiral without aggressive action of some type.

That brings us to the second school of thought on what to do to put our political house in order: Establish a new political party. Without arguing the fine points on whether we need a bona fide second party or whether it should be called a third party, the fact remains that the time has come to do something different so we can get different results.

Many people evince abject fear that third parties will only split the vote and hand victory to the Democrats. But we need to ask ourselves if the end result of a split vote is any different from the result of millions of voters staying away from the polls? More voters will continue to stay away if they are not offered a candidate who has strong conservative values. It is only a candidate with tea party credentials who can bring out Americans all across this country for the 2016 election. Yet, pigs will fly over the Capitol's dome first before Establishment Republicans will ever put a fellow tea party member on the 2016 ticket. That ship left the harbor a long time ago.

Americans do seem to be awaking to the dire need for a new political paradigm. Point of fact, on October 11, 2013, Gallup published the results of their question on a third political party. It hit a new high in the question's ten-year history. Sixty percent of those polled stated that a third party is needed because the current parties do such a poor job.  Twenty-six percent, a drop of nearly twenty points from 2012, said the two parties do an adequate job. For Americans who experience a real lack of representation in Washington, D.C., a third party may be the only alternative. A New Republican Party could be our answer.

In the early 1800's there were political parties with "Republican" in their names. However, they were not predecessors to the one today. Today's Republican Party formed in 1854 as a new party comprised of anti-slavery Whigs and free-soil Democrats who were against slavery. The Republican Party has been in a state of flux to one degree or another for the past 159 years, so a new Republican party today would reflect that heritage.

President Ronald Reagan epitomized American conservative ideals like none other in recent history, yet how many young voters know what we had in our 40th President? How many of them have even heard his famous "shining city on a hill" speech? President Reagan stands as our example of what we once had and can have again, but it won't happen without a price to pay.

Would there be risks in establishing a third party? Of course. We may lose an election or two until a New Republican Party becomes established. However, by that time the old Republican Party may very well have become the third party. That can happen if we unite, rise up, and help it meet its destiny on the rag heap of history.

Let it sink in: We are not going to change the Republican Party. We need a New Republican Party that represents millions of Americans all across this country. We don't have such a party now. A New Republican Party name acknowledges what the old party once stood for and what a new party will uphold. It comprises both name recognition and name differentiation, and throws down the gauntlet to the status quo and inertia facing us. This is not just a political issue, but one that touches our very existence and fundamental freedoms.

If we conservatives can honestly acknowledge that we are on the ropes and have nowhere else to go, that can be the first step to change. It is either allow Establishment Republicans to continue leading us by the nose, or come out swinging with all we've got, come hell or high water. Personally, I relish the fight. What about you, my fellow Americans? Would you join me in getting behind a New Republican Party and help stand it up?

Comments or questions can be sent to Kathleen Gotto at kingskid@reagan.com