What would Ronald Reagan do? Here's a quote to get us started: "Despite Republican control of the White House, Senate and House, federal spending has increased 45 percent since 2001 and government is more intrusive in the everyday lives of Americans. ... America is facing a catastrophic fiscal meltdown that has the power to cripple our society."

Nope, that's not Hillary Clinton or even John Edwards. That's Dick Armey, Republican and former majority leader of the House of Representatives, quoted in The New York Times.

The specific Republican-created meltdown Armey referred to was the lack of movement on Social Security, but he could also have been referring to the 18 percent of our tax dollars that go to pay for the interest -- not even the principal -- on the vast debt Congress has created since 2001. Our Republican-majority Congress is making room for this huge interest payment with Congressional cuts in tuition assistance, veterans' benefits and even school-safety grants.

To my Republican friends in Durham: Is this really what you thought you were signing up for when you supported these "compassionate conservatives"?

Ronald Reagan, a lapsed Democrat, was fond of saying that he hadn't left the party, the party had left him. Given the deep ditches of corruption, quagmire and creationism that Republican leaders have driven the party into lately, I wonder if Republicans in Durham County feel like the 21st century version of their party has left them behind in its forced march to a libertarian dystopia.

I'll bet that many of them do indeed feel left behind. Perhaps those who don't feel the party has left them are still blaming Clinton for all the problems of the past six years.

Unless you're a member of the super rich, riding in the Jaguar bought with your tax-cut money, what can you point to that makes this all worthwhile? Soccer moms and NASCAR dads who've been voting Republican don't have much to show for 12 years of right-wing control of Congress or six years of an imperial White House.

Be honest. Did you want thousands of our sons and daughters to be killed and maimed to turn Iraq into a failed state and a terrorist boot camp by our Chicken-Hawk-in-Chief? Did you want one-fifth of your federal taxes to go to interest payments rather than national security, leaving your kids and grandkids the job of paying off our debts? Did you want your grandma to illegally buy American-made drugs from Canada? (Because Canadians are allowed to negotiate lower, wholesale prices, but American providers -- by law -- basically buy retail and then charge us a mark-up.) Did you really think you were voting in favor of cutting tuition for good kids, cutting benefits for brave veterans, cutting school-safety grants and for higher drug prices for grandma and grandpa? Please don't say "yes," even if it's true.

So what's a Republican who's been left behind by a party taken over by rich, corrupt, incompetent, radical, libertarian chicken hawks to do?

You can do the same thing that Ronald Reagan did before he officially switched parties. Support the moderates in tight races on the other side. Granted there aren't too many Durham Democrats that a Republican would want to support and there aren't many tight races here, but in North Carolina I can point to two moderate Democrats -- Larry Kissell and Heath Shuler -- who could help winch us out of the ditches these right-wing radicals have put us in.

Kissell, a school teacher, is the guy who campaigned at a gas station, where he pumped the gas and only charged $1.22 a gallon -- the price of fuel when his opponent was first elected. His campaign fund made up the difference. His opponent in the 8th District race near Charlotte, Robin Hayes, flip-flopped on CAFTA, voting for the policy that undermines U.S. manufacturing after saying he was unalterably opposed to it. His district has lost 10,000 manufacturing jobs since 2000. Hayes, the Republican, was also voted one of the two "most spineless" members of congress by staff and colleagues as reported in the Washingtonian Magazine.

Shuler, a former NFL quarterback, is a National Rifle Association member and favors a phased withdrawal from Iraq. His opponent in the 11th District, the far west corner of North Carolina, Charles Taylor, is a banker who voted to cut student loans and is in favor of drilling for oil off the N.C. coast. Taylor, the Republican, also received contributions from clients of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. He refuses to answer reporters' questions about those contributions or about his co-ownership of a Russian bank with the wife of a former KGB operative.

Both of these very moderate Democrats have about a 50-50 chance of unseating the Republican incumbent. If you have been left behind by the so-far-to-the-right-it's-wrong agenda, you can help tip the scales toward moderation and bipartisanship by checking out their Web sites -- www.larrykissell.com and www.heathshuler.com -- and making a donation with your credit card.

So given the radical tilt of Republican Washington, you have to ask, "What would Reagan do?"

(Frank Hyman is a former member of the City Council who wishes Republicans would run for office in Durham, just to keep things more interesting.)