The cover of a recent issue of Time magazine featured Ronald Reagan with a single tear rolling down his cheek. Next to the picture was the bold proclamation: "Where the Right went wrong." Indeed, the movement that Mr. Reagan started more than a generation ago and succeeded in capturing the imagination of the nation has become a dysfunctional and stunned minority party.

I don't think that is such a bad thing.

The electoral failures of the Republican Party in 2006 were the result of the party's leadership — and indeed the party itself — losing sight of what had created its success in the first place. The party that had been rebuilt by Reagan on the high ideals of freedom, personal responsibility and the basic decency of the American way of life found itself mired in scandals and division. It is no wonder that many voters began to question the party's commitment to the moral high ground it had claimed and owned for two decades.

Not only that, but we lost our message. We no longer communicated the ideals that Mr. Reagan won on in 1980, or that Newt Gingrich solidified in the "Contract with America" in 1994. Instead, we focused on the shortsighted goals of winning elections rather than governing and leading.

In that absence of ideas, the Democrats and their leaders filled the void with pronouncements of health care for all, an increased social welfare state and more money for public education. It is true that no one can argue with helping the poorest and most vulnerable in our society, and when the Democrats are the only people talking, where else is the public to turn?

The differences between our parties are great. Where they believe that government is the solution to all of society's problems, we believe, as Mr. Reagan said, "Government is the problem." The Democrats' solution to health care is to have the government provide it. To fix the welfare system or public education most, they would have us throw more money at the problems without addressing why they are failing.

Conservatives think differently. We know that it is the power of competition and free markets — with free people — that is the solution to our problems. Health care can only improve when we allow hospitals to compete for the best and brightest and allow patients to see the doctor of their choice without miles of bureaucratic red tape. Our schools will improve if we break the public school monopoly on K-12 education in this country. Competition forces us to address the underlying problems of why our schools fail and avoid whitewashing the failures we must face if there is ever to be true improvement.

Quite frankly, conservatives have forgotten how to dream — and how to dream big. There is no passion, no fire and no drive in our leaders anymore because for too long we have focused on short-term electoral gains rather than what is truly important for the future of our nation.

Our nation has always been a beacon of freedom and of hope for the oppressed peoples of the world, and Mr. Reagan, the man who everyone running for president in the Republican primary is clamoring to invoke, believed that more than any other president of the 20th century and staked his political life on it. He believed that the American dream and the American way of life were not corrupt or outdated, and that freedom and democracy would ultimately defeat the evil empire of the Soviet Union.

Where is that conviction, that level of commitment, from today's conservative leaders? We have committed to nothing of substance or consequence without endless reservations and caveats for years. In fact, the only thing that we have done that looks to the future and stakes a single person's entire political life and legacy on is the Iraq war.

Even there, we see virtually nothing but a never-ending parade of half-hearted statements of support or stubborn shortsightedness. Yet British Prime Minister Tony Blair was able to sum up this issue — this war — in very simple terms: Do we believe that freedom and democracy are values which can only be known or cherished by Americans or Europeans? Or do we believe that freedom and democracy are gifts that belong to all of humanity? If so, are those beliefs worth fighting, worth dying for?

The enemies we face are brutal and determined. They have no regard for human dignity or innocent life, and make no mistake: They are determined to destroy us. If that is not worth our present sacrifice and struggle, then we may indeed be too far gone.

I don't believe that it is, but we must stop feeling sorry for ourselves as conservatives. We must stop the endless hand-wringing and stand up to say that we are proud of our principles. We are not ashamed to be conservatives, and once we have done so we will again be the party and the movement that will capture the nation's attention. We have a deep and abiding faith that America has always been and will continue to be the shining city on a hill and an example to the entire world.

We must once again dream big and believe in what America can be. Her best days are not behind her so long as we have the courage to believe it.

Mike Hahn ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in history and political science.