Time for New Republican Leadership, Conservatives Say

CNS News ^

[Sub-Driver]

Time for New Republican Leadership, Conservatives Say Wednesday, November 05, 2008 By Susan Jones, Senior Editor

U.S. Capitol (AP Photo) (CNSNews.com) – Voters on Tuesday did not reject conservatism, a longtime conservative activist said. “They rejected Big Government Republicanism in all its forms, including the Bush administration and the Republican leadership in Congress.”

Richard A. Viguerie, chairman of ConservativeHQ.com, said the Republican defeat in 2008 “can and will be laid at the feet of the Big Government corporate Republicans who abandoned the Reagan coalition, massively expanded government, and ignored the needs and values of regular, grassroots Americans. They protected Wall Street and K Street and forgot about Main Street."

According to Viguerie, Republicans will make a comeback only when they return to their conservative roots.

“That process starts with the replacement, with principled conservatives, of all of the Republicans' elected Congressional leaders, as well as most members of the Republican National Committee and most state party officials. It's time for new leaders, from top to bottom."

New leadership

Republican Conference Chairman Adam Putnam (Fla.) already has announced his intention to step down.

“I have enjoyed every minute as Conference Chairman, he wrote in a Nov. 4 letter to colleagues, “but I believe it is time to step off the leadership ladder and return my focus to crafting public policy solutions for America’s generational challenges – the very reason I ran for Congress in the first place.”

[dbz77]

The country is reliably about 61% center right. The reason 0 won was because McCain’s message was erratic and weak, and because he outspent McCain 6 to 1, and because he ran as a centrist. I wonder how long before buyer’s remorse sets in. When they see the results of his policies.

[LaurenD]

“The majority of people in the U.S. want to be taken care of by their govt’. They want socialized medicine, they want to take the “evil” wealthy down,”

I think what the majority of people in the U.S. want is fairness. People that get rich should do so ethically, legally, and in a fair way that does not exploit others or harm our overall economy in the process. What speculators did to the price of oil is just one example. Even the most democratic, black people I know, are pretty socially conservative.

Furthermore, I know of many who usually vote Republican that did not vote for Pres in this election to include both my husband and I and my parents. The line had to be drawn somewhere. Even as a former fighter pilot and active duty military that has been deployed in this war, my husband could not vote McCain and he’s the most conservative person I’ve ever known. More so than I am even. We have to hit rock bottom in this country the same way it hurts to let someone you love that is an alcohol hit bottom.

Pres. Reagan never wavered from his principles and he was popular among even those that didn’t agree with him. This game of trying to out liberal a democrat in the hopes to steal so called moderates is a game the Republicans have been had in. I’ve been trying to warn people of this since the primaries and I’ve been called every name in the book for it. The Republican party was played this time.

[FrustratedGOPmember]

What kind of Conservatives??

[Convert from ECUSA]

"Richard A. Viguerie, chairman of ConservativeHQ.com, said the Republican defeat in 2008 “can and will be laid at the feet of the Big Government corporate Republicans who abandoned the Reagan coalition, massively expanded government, and ignored the needs and values of regular, grassroots Americans. They protected Wall Street and K Street and forgot about Main Street."

Ain't that the truth! To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, I didn't leave the Republican Party, the Repubican Party left me.

[rahbert]

They can start by:
1) Keeping their fingers out of the cookie jar
2) Keeping their pants zipped up

[NormsRevenge]

Thanks
New Majority!
Thanks
RMSP!
Thanks
GoP!

[WOSG]

“Let’s take back our party from the RINOs and moderates. That is the only chance we have of winning in the future.”

Excuse me, but let’s look at the data. We had many conservatives lose races yesterday. Good conservative incumbents kicked to the curb. From Senators down to our county commissioner.

I am all for fixing the Republican brand, but its not as simple as kicking people *out* of the party, when its already smaller than a majority.... HOW for example, would you win back seats in the Northeast, where we have precious few seats at all? How will conservatives take over seats that liberal Democrats win? Name a conservative in Illinois, New York, California, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, that can win those seats.

[WOSG]

“The country is reliably about 61% center right. The reason 0 won was because McCain’s message was erratic and weak, and because he outspent McCain 6 to 1, and because he ran as a centrist. I wonder how long before buyer’s remorse sets in.”

Good point... Obama ran a health care ad that pretended his way was the ‘middle way’; Biden lied with his ‘drill we must’ and they both backed away from ‘bankrupting coal companies’ comments. And Obama ran on a middle-class tax cut - I thought enough voters would remember Clinton’s lie from 1992, but it worked, so I guess you can recycle that kind of dishonesty every 16 years and get away with it.

Lucy and the football.

I think where the conservatives are OFF BASE is in looking at the voters. We didnt lose the rock solid conservatives, we lost the centrists to O.

So while fixing the GOP and getting back to small-govt will help the party etc. how does it win back centrist voters?

[Skooz]

I never said to kick anyone out of the Party.

I said the conservatives need to take the Party back from the RINOs and moderates.

They can stay in the Party (plenty of RINOs and moderates stayed in during the Reagan years), but allowing them to run it guarantees that yesterday will repeat itself election after election.

The conservatives have been marginalized in the Republican Party. It’s time that came to an end.

[Luke21]

We tried it your way, and have been wiped out twice in a row. Elections are about giving people a choice. Being lesser versions of the Democrats doesn’t cut it.

We need to start defining a simple plan of action that works across the board, then can add social issues in the conservative districts.

[Tucson]

Good points. We may have found ourselves relegated to the position of the 3rd party guys who seek only the top spot and avoid any thing beneath. We need to begin again at the local level; what could now be called the Sara Palin Model. School Boards, Town/City/County Councils, State Legislatures; Governorships. Shake the stink of the RINO and even the counsel of “Republicans or Die” talk show hosts (Medved; Hewitt). They contributed to the dilution of the Conservative gene pool because they supported the incumbent Dem-Lite Repub rather than a legitimate candidate.

It has been said before but clearly not enough. Republicans who run as Conservatives generally win elections. Republicans who run as Democrats will lose to the Democrat. Why vote for a pseudo-Dem?

[Harrius Magnus]

The country is reliably about 61% center right.

Respectfully, I disagree: 61% identify themselves as center-right.  There is a big difference and until those on the right are ready to grapple with the truth about this statistic, we will continue to piss and moan about losing elections.  

In addition, soon (perhaps before the end of Barry's first term) a majority of voters will be net receivers of federal largess.  What are the chances of these people honestly being center right?

A majority will not receive a sound education in the classics, which teaches us both to recognize truth, and to value it once found.  What are the chances of these people honestly becoming center right?

A majority will continue to identify themselves as Christians, but already, a minority actually hear the lessons of the Bible on Sunday, can recite a single non-banal verse, or have a independently identifiable relationship with God.

Most of us know that it will also be very soon that a majority of Americans will not be of Western European ancestory,  the greatest civilization of all time, and forever dear to God.  What are the chances of these people honestly being center right?

[WOSG]

” We have to hit rock bottom in this country the same way it hurts to let someone you love that is an alcohol hit bottom.”

I am sorry but that thinking has led to a result that has permanently destroyed the future of the country.

Dont let Obama destroy the country first and think you can put the pieces back together later. Those who helped depose the Russian Czars with the communists had the same thinking ... it was too late before they realized their error.

STOP OBAMA’S SOCIALISM

[WOSG]

You dont know “my way” - my way has NOT been tried.
Go here for my ideas:
http://travismonitor.blogspot.com

I just know that the simplistic ‘get more conservative’ is not enough... if it were, how come so many conservatives got dumped in this election? If conservative policies are so popular, how come liberals didnt get trashed?
baby out with bathwater.

My question, which is genuine, still stands:
“HOW for example, would you win back seats in the Northeast, where we have precious few seats at all? How will conservatives take over seats that liberal Democrats win? Name a conservative in Illinois, New York, California, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, that can win those seats.”

We KNOW how to win back conservative voters. That’s not the hard part. The grueling HARD PART is how to reach out and get a majority from the diverse voters in those blue areas, without which we will remain a permanent minority... How do we turn the Dems areas back to the GOP?

I live in Austin/Travis county, Texas. The GOP slid from 45% of vote in 2000 to about 35% now... you tell me, how can we win back this urban, university+hightech+govt worker town?

[WOSG]

“I think what the majority of people in the U.S. want is fairness. People that get rich should do so ethically, legally, and in a fair way that does not exploit others or harm our overall economy in the process. What speculators did to the price of oil is just one example. Even the most democratic, black people I know, are pretty socially conservative.”

Okay, good statement but ‘fairness’ is in the eye of beholder. Obama has convinced many that ‘fairness’ means sticking it to those near the top and adding $800 billion in new Federal spending in 4 years.

We will be fairly bankrupt and poor after such a socialist scheme. Fairness = equality of result, or fairness = freedom and equal-opportunity.

What ar ethe specifics behind ‘fairness’ that we should tout as Republican values?

[Round 9]

Yours is a scenario I hope and pray for. A quick case of buyer’s remorse. My fear, though, is that the media will cover for this guy for years. The dupes will not recognize they are headed off the cliff until it’s too late. Splat!!!