The Myth of Republican Conservatism by Laurence M. Vance

The New American offers up their Conservative Index (aka Liberty Index) for 2004 and Vance conveys what these results mean. Ron Paul scored 100 out of 100 after that it gets very ugly.

So how does this index refute the myth that Republican Party is the party of "conservatism"? Bernie Sanders (I-VT), the only member of the House of Representatives who admits to being a socialist, scored a 47 – about average. Former Republican Jim Jeffords (I-VT) scored an even 50. But 174 Republicans in the House (76 %) and 23 Republicans in the Senate (45 %) scored less than Sanders. Twenty-one Republicans in the Senate scored the same as or less than the 40 of Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton. None of the Republican leadership in the House or the Senate managed to score over 50. House Republican Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) scored a 50. Senate president pro tempore Ted Stevens (R-AK) and Senate Republican Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) each scored a 40 – tying Senate Democratic Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD).