Posted on 11/08/2006 9:40:09 PM PST by Aussie Dasher
When Americans voted to put Democrats in power Tuesday, they did not reject conservatism but the Republican establishment and its big-spending habit.
"It [the election] was not a repudiation of conservative ideas or values," said Pat Toomey, president of the Club for Growth, a PAC that backs fiscal conservatives for Congress. "It was a rejection of the Republican Party, in part, we believe, for having failed to commit itself to the conservative ideas that are at the core of the coalition that elected Republicans."
While Toomey acknowledged that the Iraq war, coupled with President Bush's low approval ratings and six-year run of full Republican power contributed to the devastating loss, he said the biggest problem was the GOP's abandonment of the core principle of conservativism: the idea of limited government.
Toomey said it's this principle that unifies the Republican coalition -- fiscal conservatives, the libertarians, social conservatives and foreign policy and defense hawks -- because it’s where they all find common ground.
"When Republicans abandon that that central idea, it shouldn't be surprising that they demoralize their own base and they drive Independents and swing Democrats away," Toomey said.
The Club for Growth's internal polls leading up to the election showed public disgust with the bloated size of government, sending many voters over the edge to vote for Democrats. They see Republicans as the party of big government and are upset that GOP leaders didn't enact the fiscal discipline many in office originally stood for.
Americans' willingness to support fiscal conservatives over establishment spenders is evident in the success of the Club for Growth's candidates this election cycle, five of whom are incoming freshmen headed straight for the Republican Study Committee (RSC), the largest conservative caucus in Congress.
Similarly, Rep. Jeff Flake (R.-Ariz.), one of the few true fiscal hawks in Congress, told bloggers on a conference call Wednesday that it wasn’t all the scandals and unhappiness with the war that brought the GOP down.
"Earmarking really came back to bite us. I think we Republicans simply lost our brand name," he said. "We are no longer considered to be the party of limited government and that came back to hurt us badly."
Sen. Tom Coburn (R.-Okla.), who has shamed many of his congressional colleagues for pointing out their pork-barrel spending sprees, said the results should be interpreted as a "total failure of big government conservatism."
Illustrating his point, Coburn said, "Republicans oversaw a seven-fold increase in pork projects since 1998. Republicans increased domestic spending by nearly 50% since 2001, increased the national debt to $9 trillion, passed a reckless Medicare expansion bill and neglected our oversight responsibilities.
"While some of these decisions may have helped secure specific seats in the short-term the totality of our excess did not secure our majority, but destroy it."
Rep. Jeb Hensarling, budget and spending taskforce chairman of the RSC, said he thinks the loss in Congress will draw Republicans back to their conservative roots, given that their excessive pork projects didn't get them very far.
"Instead, over the last several years, Republicans have experimented with big government, and we have now seen the result," Hensarling said. "The Bridge to Nowhere has led us here. The era of Republican big government is over."
oh well get over it.
Neoconservatism was defeated. Neoconservatism was originally a liberal idea in the first place. Big government nation-building has no place in conservatism.
Well, pardon my relentless and annoying optimism...
This *might* have a good thing hiding in it somewhere. Now that the Dems are in power, America is about to get screwed...which...MAY help our chances in '08!
"When Americans voted to put Democrats in power Tuesday, they did not reject conservatism but the Republican establishment and its big-spending habit."
Truer words and all that.
"Sen. Tom Coburn (R.-Okla.), who has shamed many of his congressional colleagues for pointing out their pork-barrel spending sprees, said the results should be interpreted as a "total failure of big government conservatism."
I love this man.
(ahem) in a totallty platonic...admiration sort of way.
I feel like banging my head against a wall. Was I the ONLY ONE who heard Schumer say the administration gave the Dems everything they wanted (in order to get funding for Iraq)?
PErhaps. That being said there are many reasons for this loss. Also to be quite honest for what is being styled as message to COnservative it would seem if that was true then why was this not seen on a much more National Level. FOr instance in Texas there was really only one seat in contention. In my home state there were no Republican seats in danger.
Also, it fails to note why some big conservatives went down this election. For instance look at Missouri.
These guys are right. Yeah most of us in the "base" voted Republican anyway. What happened was the middle ground voters, the conservative democrats originally brought in by Reagan saw spending, wrong headed ness about immigration and pork and yeah corruption and said the hell with them.
Its only 2 years, hunker down and let the Democrats implode as you know they will as they try to juggle all their disparate constituencies.
Why should conservatives feel defeated...they were out voting to keep the Democrats from power. They did their jobs.
That's a very respectable statement. Forget the label neoconservatism. The USA cannot abandon the security role it has played in the world since WWII, though other nations like China with North Korea have got to start carrying their weight.
President Bush never backed down from being opposed to nation-building as conceived by wide-eyed liberals. The USA engages with the Middle East because it is a real danger that cannot be ignored by withdrawing into "Fortress America." It is the same reason we engaged the Cold War.
It is a long war, and there will be battles lost. Two horrific regimes were eliminated, and, what do you know, there are still horrific forces in the region. Nation building in these two instances is responding to an emergency.
Not a bad point but what concerns me is our men and women in harm's way, seems like many have just forgotten them altogether and they have the MOST to lose...
Conservatism cannot be defeated when it is not represented by candidates on the ballot. And it does not look like there is a conservative candidate even on the horizon to be on the Presidential ballot in 2008.
I've seen lots of rejoicing (as one person said, "We taught the GOP a lessons"), and some who say the war is a minor issue that doesn't compete with their cause. Few people have even considered the impact on the troops.
In 2008, this is how we can retake the Senate
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1735336/posts
Well, yeah, that's because we've re-enetered the era of Democrat big government.
If Republicans want voters to even consider believing them they will have to start by refusing ANY pork from here on it. By refusing Big government programs from here on out. I have my doubts Republicans have it in them.
This is such BS. Wait until they see democrats spend! It's been 12 years. Memories are short.
We were defeated by 365, 24/7 pounding and bashing of POTUS and the war in Iraq by MSM in collusion with democrats.
People love their entitlements and government spending. They just want it spent on them and not on the war in Iraq.
Yep. I don't know any conservatives who didn't vote Tuesday and who didn't vote Republican. They might not have agreed totally with their Republican candidate but they understood the alternative.
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