The Republican Party lost control of Congress in 2006 because the party had lost its way, Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., said Tuesday evening at an event in Mary Graydon Center.
"I still don't believe the American people hired Nancy Pelosi," Pence said to a crowd of about 30 students at the College Republicans-sponsored event. "I think they fired us. We lost sight of what it was that we had come to this city to do."
Pence decried Republican-sponsored legislation such as the No Child Left Behind Act as betrayals of limited government ideology.
"When government expands, freedom contracts," he said.
The Republican Party must return to values of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, according to Pence. He defined these values as pro-life, limited government and free-market principles.
"Democracy is almost meaningless if life is not sacred," Pence said. "The pursuit of happiness ... is an endorsement of the principles of freedom in the marketplace, of private property and private enterprise."
AU College Republicans President Will Haun said he agrees with almost all of Pence's ideas and said the Republicans need to adopt a message that will unite the party. The problem with the Republican Party is not the presidential candidates' conservatism, he said.
"This party is fractured - [the candidates] need to know what unites people," he said.
President Bush's administration has reached out to only certain areas of the Republican Party, specifically evangelical Christians, Haun said.
"What we have done is we have set [an abortion] litmus test for our nominee based on a division within the party," he said. "[Republicans] all have the same ideology of individual empowerment, or empowering institutions that empower individuals, like the family and the community."
Amy Schultz, a junior in the School of International Service and a member of the AU College Republicans, said she did not think some of the Republican presidential candidates were conservative enough in their stances on social issues. In particular, she said, she was concerned about former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani's position on abortion.
"Some of the candidates call themselves Republicans - I would not," Schultz said.
Pence also discussed how to win back blacks to the Republican Party.
"[Blacks] have been caught in generations of dependency on welfare," Pence said. "I don't say to them, 'What's your problem? How come you don't get it?' I say, 'How do we reach out ... so we can deliver an effective message of individual responsibility and integrity in public life and draw people to the Republican Party?'"
Pence said he still has not endorsed any Republican candidate for president. He said he would support whoever ends up being the Republican nominee and believes the party has a good chance of winning the presidency in 2008.
"I think it's a good stock to buy right now," he said.
