Does anyone have a Political Philosophy?

This is an interesting read from the CS Monitor. To sum up, it basically states that Republicans feel their party has been hijacked by big-spending, big government politicians and that Obama won the election because he promised lower tax cuts and an Audit of all Federal Agencies. It is basically up to the Republicans to reinvent themselves. WHAT? First, to have the Republicans admit publicly that they wasted their opportunity and resorted to pork barrel projects and big government is surprising. If they admit to it then it happened. Second, does either party have a core philosophy they follow? Are we looking for voters or are we trying to enact our political ideals? Basically, these are all symptoms to an overall problem. We think our party is supporting our beliefs, but as they said so themselves, they are not. So how do we fix this?