The parallels to 1994 are all around us. A Democrat president is elected. He pushes big government agenda items like health care. His presidency gets mired by scandal and circumstances. His poll numbers begin to drop quickly. In 1994 Republicans rallied around a set of principles and won a congressional majority. Today, unfortunately, those principles often appear to be missing.

The Contract with America was a critical piece of the Republican victory in 1994 because it let voters know there was an alternative to the big spending ways of the Democrat Party. Today, not so much.

Republicans appear to be all over the map and the clear principled default lines are missing.

Nowhere does that appear more evident than on the Financial Reform legislation. The bill passed the Senate after the Democrats broke the Republican dam. Sen. Scott Brown joined others in moving the bill to a House Senate Conference where things are going from bad to worse. Republicans didn’t help make the bill “better” by voting for amendment’s like the Durbin price control amendment.

The time has come to for Republicans to begin to draft distinctions between Democrats and their big government policies. The Financial Reform legislation is a good place to start. The bill contains bailouts, takeovers, and price control schemes — via the Durbin Amendment — that is corporate welfare at it’s worse.

Should BP have it’s profit padded by an act of corporate welfare by Congress? Should the marketplace or government set the price of credit card transactions? Does anyone honestly believe that the government can set price controls and not have a negative impact on consumers? These questions are easy to answer for principled conservatives. Apparently they are not so easy to answer for some Republicans in the House and Senate that are trying to “help their friends.” We need principled leaders who can clearly and effectively communicate a vision defending free markets.

Republicans are seeking to become the majority party in Congress this November. But grass roots conservatives continue to demand leaders who can clearly annunciate the principles of limited government and the free market. They are not looking for Republicans to be “less bad” than the Democrats. They need leaders willing to stand up to special interests looking for a leg up against their competitors — even if they are financial contributors.

Republicans standing up for free markets will feel immense pressure to “support their friends.” Lobbyists pushing for price controls to pad the bottom line of their corporate interests are telling their benefactors that Members of Congress who oppose the Durbin price control scheme are “flipping the bird” to certain industries.

In an email to his membership, the head of NACS — the lobbying arm for retailers and petroleulm markets — objecting to a letter circulating throughout the House of Representatives objecting to the Durbin Amendment wrote corporate executives:

From: Lyle Beckwith

TO: State Convenience and Petroleum Retailing Association Executives

FROM: Lyle Beckwith

DATE: June 11, 2010

SUBJ: Interchange Enemies List

The attached letter should OUTRAGE you!!!! The Members of Congress who are signing it should OUTRAGE YOU MORE!!! Please see who is flipping the bird to our membership and let them know what you think!!!!! DO IT TODAY to give them a chance to get OFF the letter!!!

The Durbin amendment is bad policy. It is government picking sides in the marketplace to pad the bottom line of one industry over another. That is not what the free market is about. Members who support price controls to help companies are also “flipping the bird” — to freedom and free markets.

The Republicans’ defining moment is rapidly approaching. Will they stand with their price fixing lobbyist friends or will they stand with consumers? If Republicans are unable to stand unified in opposition to something as plainly and incredibly out of line with their party’s principles as government price controls, then how can voters ever trust them with the majority?

So, the Republicans’ fates are in their own hands. The only question is, are they up to the task?