Posted on 11/18/2006 7:36:52 AM PST by fortheDeclaration
Election Good News by Donald Devine
Conservatism is dead. Anyway, that is how the media read the “good news” of the election results. As usual, they have it exactly backwards. The real good news is that if the Republicans had won the election, conservatism would be dead as a doornail.
If you were a political party that had used earmarks and special interest government spending to a degree unprecedented in recent history to shore up weak incumbents in a tough year under an unpopular president and you won the election anyway, what would you conclude? Elections can be bought with government spending? The New Deal slogan “spend, spend, elect, elect” would become the official anthem of the Grand Old Party, no?
Spending by the now lame-duck Republican Congress set new records. Non-defense, non-security spending increased by more than under any Congress since Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society. Even without any increase, entitlement unfunded liability will soon sink the whole government. Yet, the past Congress created a wholly new Medicare prescription drug entitlement that increased the red ink by one-and-a-half times that of beleaguered Social Security’s, thereby bringing the day of entitlement reckoning to within a mere dozen years.
Where would spending be by 2008 if Republicans had won? Well, the Democrats will spend more. Want to bet? First of all, as a result of their humiliating loss and the necessity to revive their grassroots, the GOP will get religion and return to their limited government, restrained spending roots, limiting what the majority can do. Second, President George W. Bush might find his veto pen and the Democrats do not have the votes to override it. Most important, because of the previous two factors, the Democrats will not even try, knowing they will lose and ruin their chances for 2008. A good number of conservative Democrats have been elected to the House and their leaders will try to preserve their seats.
Sure, it will be tougher to win approval of Supreme Court and other federal judges but it is only a few votes more difficult and even a well-framed loss might be politically helpful. The only way a real disaster could happen would be if President Bush nominated another Harriet Miers. Otherwise, domestic policy will not change much. Being freed from having to protect GOP Congresses might even be liberating for the president and foster more conservative administrative policies not requiring Congressional approval.
Foreign policy will be a problem but the president has most of the tools here anyway. Besides, the war in Iraq is already in great difficulty and control of Congress gives the Democrats not only power but responsibility. Congressional balances on the president may actually help shape a more favorable policy direction. A reasonable recommendation from the James A. Baker III and Lee Hamilton bi-partisan Iraq commission just might have a better chance with the opposition party in control of Congress. What Democratic president in 2008 wants the Iraq war to dominate and cripple his (or her) administration?
Even yellow dog Republicans can find solace in the election results. If the Republicans had held on to Congress by a seat or two, they would have responsibility without much power to do anything worthwhile. Given the number of moderates in both chambers, there is not a conservative majority in either body anyway. With this stalemate and only the appearance of GOP control, there is no way voters would elect a Republican Party with a weakened president and a do-nothing Congress come 2008.
For conservatives and Republicans, the 2006 election could be a blessing in disguise. It is an opportunity. As Paul Weyrich argues in his following article, conservatism was in sore need of revitalization anyway. As conservatives come to realize they no longer have power, they will be forced to recognize there is no alternative to creating a new movement and a new party that will earn the right to govern. Sometimes it is necessary to take one step back before moving forward again.
Donald Devine, the editor of Conservative Battleline Online , was the director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management from 1981 to 1985 and is the director of the Federalist Leadership Center at Bellevue University.
In the GOP, conservatism seems to be dead. With the election of GOP leadership, it looks like the GOP did get the wrong message and will be too busy chasing the Democrats to the left instead of getting back to the core principles which gave them power in the first place. Very disappointing.
Calls for a restrained, non-activist, non-living Constitution judiciary, fit just fine in a policy agenda focused on getting back to the GOP's limited government principles. It obviously appeals to social conservatives who are frustrated to no end by the court's decades-long assault on traditional, mainstream values, but it should also appeal to economic conservatives, and even to libertarians who, even if they are socially liberal, have the slightest regard for having a Constitutionally-grounded judiciary.
Calls for a restrained, non-activist, non-living Constitution judiciary, fit just fine in a policy agenda focused on getting back to the GOP's limited government principles.
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For sure, but this will get in the way of the utopian, elitist (highly liberal) agendas of the elected in Washington. They have discovered that the easiest road to personal empowerment is the giving away of America's founding principles, laws, values, soverignty and rights to anyone but REAL Americans....
I'm not sure who would be a more conservative Senate Minority Leader than Mitch McConnell. You can argue about Trent Lott and what happened in the house, but MM has historically carried the conservative ideology as well as anyone in the Senate.
For the first time I really want a 3rd party. A Conservative Party. We conservatives were a part of the Democrat Party until Reagan better represented us. Then we tried the Republican Party until the Bushes disenfranchised us. Now what?
A third party should be started and it should be called the Conservative Democrat party.
Sure, it will be tougher to win approval of Supreme Court and other federal judges but it is only a few votes more difficult and even a well-framed loss might be politically helpful.
This guy is an idiot. Let me see... So conservatism won because Republicans (most of them conservative) lost. This guy acts like it was the "RINO"s that lost. Some liberal Republicans lost (like Chafee), but most of the Republicans that lost were conservative, anti-illegal, anti-big government conservatives (see Hayworth, Santorum, Allen, etc). Remember the past 12 years when Democrats lost, yet they claimed victory? This guy is the equivalent.
I am actually fine with the Senate leadership. I am very disappointed in the House leadership and the possibility as Martinez leading up the GOP.
Electing Mel'open borders' Martinez as head of the RNC and Johh Bainer (sp?) as House Minority leader doesn't bode well for conservativism.
"In the GOP, conservatism seems to be dead. "
I disagree. Conservatives have been liberated and emboldened by this election to get 'back to our roots'. Mnay GOP leaders 'get it' and those that dont are going to get cut off at the knees.
Consevatives will re-emerge stronger in the GOP. However, since the Dems now have the controls, this is a big setback for our agenda at the national level. We are now on 'defense', and our job will be to minimize the damage until we regain a majority.
Trent Lott is a Washington-insider-elitist. However, he knows how to take orders and will do whatever Mitch McConnell tells him to do.
If that does occur, then the Democratic victory will be a Pyhrric one.
The Democratic Party was never the Conservative Party, the GOP is.
Work within the Party to make it more conservative.
No, Conservatism is very much alive in the GOP.
For the first time in a generation we have a strong Senate leader.
Give the Boehner and Blunt a chance, I think they are going to be more aggressive, and have gotten the message against GOP corruption and Big Gov't spending.
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