Joe Beltran, North Las Vegas

Sat, Jun 28, 2008 (2:04 a.m.)

Another national election cycle is upon us and, like the previous elections, the conservatives are at it again, trying to demonize the “socialist” liberals and the “tax-and-spend” liberals and their policies.

This is the same old refrain from previous elections, yet it is the conservative approach that seems to be not working so well.

With the Clinton administration we had peace and prosperity and hope for the future. With the conservative Bush administration we have Americans at one another’s throats and countries that hate us more than at any time in history (thanks to the “great uniter”).

Let the economy speak for itself.

Oh, and let us not forget about that democracy Bush started in Iraq. We won’t go into detail about the thousands of lives lost, the billions of dollars squandered and the haplessness felt by 70 percent of the country.

The conservative smoke screen has done nothing to keep people in their homes or to comfort grieving families that lost a son or daughter, father or mother in Iraq.

The conservative approach has been a disaster. The government under this conservative president is fractured. The conservative members of the once noble Republican Party have systematically destroyed the GOP.