For New York Republicans, today represents the beginning of a powerless period unprecedented in their lifetimes. When Barack Obama takes the presidential oath of office, federal, state and city government will be totally controlled by the Democratic Party. How long this monopoly of power will last depends on at least two considerations.

On both a federal and state level, the executive and both legislative houses will be overwhelmingly Democratic. New York City will be controlled by a mayor who intentionally rebuked the Republican label and by a City Council that has 48 Democrats and three Republicans.

Make no mistake, for good or ill, the Democratic Party will promulgate all policy under which New Yorkers live.

For some Republicans, the visceral reaction is to hope for Democratic failure. Such a notion is abhorrent and self-destructive. It is to emulate those Democrats who appeared to relish death and destruction in Iraq since it seemed to vindicate their position.

The vast majority of Republicans realize that, should the Democrats falter, the common good suffers, negatively affecting Republicans as well as Democrats.

If Democratic policy leads to a robust and growing economy for everyone, an end to terrorism and war, declining crime rates and solutions to the health care, energy, education, deficit and social security crises, we can all celebrate.

When Barack Obama places his hand on the Bible and takes his oath, our hopes and best wishes are with him and his party.

Nevertheless, it has been the mantra of "progressive" Democrats to espouse the use of so-called social engineering "experts" and an-ever expanding government, relying more and more on taxes and borrowing, to try to create a heaven-on-earth scenario for all citizens.

They seem to believe that no one should suffer bad consequences due to bad choices. Everyone is a victim to be helped by government. Such a policy, most recently in the mid-1960s under Lyndon Johnson, fell far short of its supposed goals and in the process created problems that haunted America for generations.

Moreover, today's progressives seem to advocate government worship while denigrating spiritual worship. They declare "the culture wars" over while claiming that opponents of matters such as gay marriage and partial-birth abortion are Neanderthal in mental makeup, ignoring the fact that the vast majority of Americans oppose both.

Perhaps Mr. Obama and the "new" Democrats will learn from history and from a progressive perspective take only what has worked and abandon those progressive notions that have been tried and failed. Perhaps 21st-century Democrats will be sensitive to the will of the vast majority of Americans even at the risk of alienating the radical wing of their movement.

If not, we all can expect the American people to again abandon the "progressive" ideology and seek new leadership.

Should this occur, the Republican Party, provided it too can learn from its past, will again rise to power. However, Republicans must first promote new leaders who can better communicate the principles upon which the party stands.

It must rebuff the deficit spending, government expansion and other policies of the Bush administration, while reaffirming an ideology that balances budgets, lowers taxes, disdains corruption and shrinks government while providing opportunity - not handouts or bailouts.

Republicans must be a party that protects the rights of individuals to succeed and, yes, to fail.

The party must remain an advocate of the usefulness of family values and constraints on the right to abortion but we must limit feel-good, yet freedom-restricting and socially insignificant policies regarding things like flag-burning and prayer in public schools.

Finally, the Republican Party must resoundingly reject narrow-mindedness by expanding its base to include so-called minorities and new Americans. This can readily be done by recognizing that love of freedom and family, conscientiousness and civic-mindedness are traits valued by both our party and many whose allegiance to the Democratic Party is based upon the erroneous perception that Republicans are determined to suppress the rise of non-whites. The Republican Party must be both sensitized and responsive to the needs of hardworking people of all colors, ethnicities and places of origin.

The Democrats indeed rule the day, but in the end, power will be retained by the political party that best escapes the clutches of its radical wing and better learns from its own past mistakes.

A native Staten Islander, Robert Scamardella is a West Brighton attorney and active in Republican politics.

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