Posted on 11/10/2006 5:33:32 PM PST by Pokey78
1. It has to rain sometime.
Some people seem to believe that their party could and should stay in power forever, always holding all branches of government, and that any loss any time is inexcusable, and always is somebody's fault. This is insanity. No party has enough of the people, or enough of the truth, to make this sustainable: The system is built around balance of power, frequent reverses, enforced House cleanings, and changes in tone. As David Brooks notes, lack of power corrupts absolutely. In the 1950's, having lost the White House for five elections running, Republicans produced Joe McCarthy. In the past decade, Democrats lost Congress and some very tight races, and produced Michael Moore. Few conservatives are morose at the loss of the House, which ought to flip every decade for reasons of hygiene. Turn the rascals out, and bring in new rascals. And then throw the new rascals out.
2. If it has to rain sometime, let it rain now.
If you must have a bloodletting--and most presidents need one--this is the time for it. Better now than 2002, which was still the beginning; better now than 2004, which was presidential; better now than two years from now, which is presidential again. Let the Democrats vent, relish their triumph, and blow off some of the steam that would have exploded in 2008. Actually, this result drains the left of one of the big advantages held by the out-party after eight years of other-side dominance: the natural hunger for change. A centrist conservative who is stylistically different from Bush now has a better chance in '08, as a change from both the president, and from a left that is bound to pick up some baggage. Some of its chairs are accidents waiting to happen, and the strains in its caucus are evident. Will it be beloved by the '08 election? We'll see.
3. Adversity Rocks.
Sometimes, good outcomes can be too rich for one's health. In 1992 and 2004, two bright politicians named Bill Clinton and George W. Bush won big elections, carried both houses of Congress, and were hailed far and wide as political geniuses who had cemented the gains of their parties for the next generation. Both proceeded at once to take leave of their senses, and had their rears kicked hard two years later. As it turns out, people work well on a short leash under pressure, when they are aware they are being watched constantly, and know an opposition nearly at parity is well-poised to strike. The Republican Congress was the making of Clinton, who became so great on defense that people forgot he was a klutz when on the offensive, and Bush gained his reputation as a political wizard in a come-from-behind race against Governor Ann Richards; when facing Democratic control back in Austin, and governing in Washington on a razor-thin margin, after losing the popular vote. Bush has got to get back to the agile politician that he was when he was fighting adversity. It's not as if he doesn't know how.
4. This is still, after all, a center-right country.
The old allocation of conservative-moderate-liberal seems to have changed not a bit.
5. Iraq?
If Iraq is the killer they think it is, why did Ned Lamont lose 60-40 to two 'war' candidates in sky-blue Connecticut ; and why do McCain and Guiliani, two of the biggest hawks in the country, lead all comers in 2008 polls?
6. 'The conservative movement is dead!'
Not even Rasputin has died so many times as the modern conservative movement, which has been dying since mere moments after its birth. It first died in the 1982 midterms; it died a second time with Iran-Contra; a third time in 1992, when Bush pere lost to Bill Clinton; again in 1996, and after the 1998 midterms; a fifth time during the Florida recount, and now, wouldn't you know it, the damned thing is dying again. Of course, this time it IS dead, but, but they said that the last time, and all the times previous. It has been shot, strangled, stabbed, beaten, stomped on, had its hands cuffed and been tossed into the Neva River, and, sure enough, a short time later, is rising up with a grin. And it will again.
Noemie Emery is a contributing editor to THE WEEKLY STANDARD and the author of the forthcoming Great Expectations: The Troubled Lives of Political Families (Wiley).
Very good! However you forgot one thing "Buy my book".
"The Weekly Standard has gone squishy."
They've been squishy for a long time, ever since they were cheerleading McCain...
This hopeful article is just an attempt to soften the blow.
There are many ways for us conservatives to not lose *confidence* in our beliefs and our principles, they shone through... but to feel that this is anything other than a body blow to our chances of advancing conservative causes is cock-eyed! In one fell swoop, we have:
- endangered the Bush tax cuts and the prosperity it created
- possibly cost us the war in Iraq, or whatever hope we had of real victory
- cost us the ability to control the judicial nominations process, taking off the table the possibility of advancing conservatism there for the time being
- set the worst types of anti-war leftists in charge of the war on terror from Congressional POV.
Our principles are intact but our power structure was just smashed. Very bad indeed. Sure, it could be worse, but dang it could have been a lot better too.
I don't know folks...looking at the who is up for re-election in 2008 in the Senate, I think we may well lose more seats in 2008 sigh. It is hard to get back into power-losing stinks. If you break your leg, I guess you could be happy you didn't break your neck, but you still have a broken leg.
I think we have worse things to worry about with the latest Al Quada tape-they take the Dems winning as proof America is weak and have promised to blow up the Whitehouse. Nancy P said Iraq is not a war but a 'situation'-God help us. I believe the reason the terrorists have stayed away from the US for the most part is because they feared retaliation from Pres. Bush. Now they have no such fear. It's like somolia-only worse.
Our grandparents won a World War in 4 years. Sure, millions of people were killed but we won the damn thing.
That was a conventional war against three very specific nations. This war is not, it's a guerrilla on a worldwide scale, and guerrilla wars are long, messy, and hard to tell how you are doing, and generally unpopular.
Instead of WWII it (IMO) is better to think Cold War.
No way, because they come to Washington and caucus with the Dems. The Dem leaders push a liberal agenda. Most of those 'conservative' Dems are only conservative during their election. After, they are Democrats. Bipartisanship with Democrats-total BS. Your friend and others like him did this country a huge disservice by voting for the Dems period.
Yep, principles without any power is cold comfort as we watch the Dems in action. Any bets on how long before the impeachment hearings?
Well maybe, national security is too important to sacrifice in middle of a war...it would have saved the country's bacon in this case.
You make some great points. My point is that a good many folks who vote Democrat are DINOs, hence we may view this election in a somewhat brighter light. Life goes on, and we can aim to articulate better what we are about as conservative Republicans since it would most like align very well with folks like my aquaintance.
Cheer up! Strumneck Pelosi and Ghetto Bull Rangel don't run the show by any stretch.
Yeah. We'll have to keep an eye on things. I don't think the freshman Dems will fold so easily to the extremes because the people who elected them are not extreme. Misinformed, perhaps, but not inclined toward partial birth abortion and quitting the war on terror.
Our enemies were exploiting the same lack of attention and the same conceit that conflict between nations is some freak accident that only happens rarely when men are stupid or something. Truman was tossed for not winning that in 2 years, anything he did to put good cold war policies in place being ignored because he failed to deliver outright victory immediately (fighting China, not a pissant militia in podunk).
The war was emphatically not over in 1945. We just pretended it was because we were sick of it. And it came back and bit us, repeatedly. Tens of millions of innocent people died in direct consequence, and billions lived under grinding tyrannies for generations. Throughout, the same crowd of screechers who just won were (1) flaking for the spies who gave the greatest mass murder in human history atom bombs (2) opposing every measure to defend the west as incipient fascism (3) swooning for new dictators at least as murderous as the old (4) slandering their own countrymen (5) demanding and getting defeat and withdrawal with disgrace and slaughter of our allies.
The problem is not new, our fathers did not have a solution for it, times were not better then and we were if anything less awake than we are now.
Nor have we every had any serious problem winning guerilla wars as wars. That guerilla methods are inherently unstoppable is sheer commie propaganda and completely unsupported by military history, our own or anybody else's. What is true is that the modern west since WW II has not have the political stomach for long foreign wars. That is something our political enemies did much to encourage.
It also appeals to a basic American optimism about human nature that is poorly supported by the facts anywhere else in the world, which leads us to think war is some weird anomoly. The rest of the world more sensibly regards it as the center of political life in all times and all places.
Whether so pampered and sheltered a people can sustain a free government remains a matter on desparate trial, which any one generation can fail.
We can hope for the best...I am feeling somewhat pessimistic. Sometimes, I think we are living in the 30's again...the calm before the storm.
I'm with ya. Definitely prefer to hang with folks who care about it than folks who don't give a rip. At the same time, life is too short to be down and bitter more than two hours out of a day. We live in a generation that can serve up the MSM's toasted, biased ass on a silver platter. It's going to be fun, just as it has been already.
I love your attitude-you are absolutely correct. Also, this is a great country. The Dems won't destroy it.
"I don't [know] folks. I agree with some of the points in this article:
1. Certainly better now than 2008
2. Lamont did lose which blows a hole in the its-all-about-Iraq theory.
3. In every life a little rain must fall.
4. Maybe somethiing else -- but I can't remember what."
I agree as well. We've won two straight Presidential elections by razor thin margins. It's not reasonable to expect to hold power forever with such an evenly divided electorate. Better that the Republicans' failings caught up to them in 2006 rather than in 2008. It will be nice to go into the next election with our side at least as pissed-off and fire breathing as theirs. The Republicans got soft and flabby after 12 years in power. This will be good for them.
We still hold the White House. I worry a little about an amnesty bill, but other than that, the dems won't manage to rise above the nuisance level. Bush is still going to do what needs to be done in foreign policy (assuming he still has the guts) in the face of congressional opposition just like Reagan and G.H.W. Bush did before him.
Take heart. The loss was annoying and hard to swallow, but it's all about 2008 now. Better to fall off the cliff and regroup now than to get it handed to us in that election.
Great article. Thanks for posting it.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
30,000 Americans lost their lives when Democratic President Truman sent them to Korea in 1950-52. More died in the ensuing years. The Republic of South Korea was saved .
Bush sends troops to Iraq, 3,000 American troops die, and the Democrats want us to cut and run.
And many of the voters are too young to remember how bad things were under Carter.
"And many of the voters are too young to remember how bad things were under Carter."
Heck, many of them can't even remember what it was like under Mitchell and Foley (Tom, not Mark).
But now they're going to see what it's like under Pelosi and Reid.
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