Well it seems that while Republicans lost, there is no evidence it was because of conservatism. Steve Pearce didn’t lose because he was too conservative, he lost because he didn’t have a tenth of the money needed to win. The same can be said about so many of our conservative Senate candidates. They had no money to counter the media as well as their opponents millions. So many of our candidates were relative unknowns and their biggest challenge was being unknown.
McCain faced a similar task, he was expected to fight the war with a peashooter while Obama had a bazooka plus a band of media mercenaries and Republican turncoats when McCain had a band of semi-committed conservative radio talk show hosts and his sometimes fellow traveler Fox News. McCain’s situation where money was concerned was voluntary, he kept his word and he suffered for it. We brought this on ourselves though and by we I don’t necessarily mean those of us here at Freerepublic. I think we more than did our part but many of our churches didn’t do their part. Many of our Radio Talk show hosts did nothing to help raise the profile of Senate and House races. Locally in my state the local conservative radio barely discussed the Senate race outside of the polls. It didn’t used to be this way.
I remember 1994. I remember how Newt Gingrich put together a platform and united the party in conservative principles.
We won that year. We came close to seeing this same level of commitment when House Republicans led a House protest on energy and actually achieved their goal but unlike Democrats I don’t remember them declaring victory in a big press conference. That is what the Democrats do but instead we took our victory against the offshore drilling band and quietly let the issue fall to the background. The Republican brand improved to that point. Then the economic crises hit and at first it looked like House Republicans were going to win again and they defeated the first bailout bill to cheers of the common man and then many of them went back on their own plan and voted for that same bill. Instead of presenting the alternative to the American people who were eager for it they decided against being heroes in the eyes of the people and instead voted with The President, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid. McCain suspended his campaign rode to Washington looked around and rode home and then threw away his chance to differentiate himself in the eyes of the people and voted for the bailout. He wasn’t being bipartisan he was rebuking the fates which laid in his lap an opportunity. Instead he squandered it and while I know politics is not simple but playing it safe when you are behind can only guarantee your ultimate loss.
McCain could have won this election and I think in the last few weeks after the third debate he really wanted it and found his voice but he only had an empty paper towel roll to project it through and Obama had a megaphone. We now have a responsibility not to capitulate to President Obama but to hold his feet to the fire and learn again how to be not just an opposition party but the party of the people.
The American people proved with their rejection of gay marriage again the power of social conservatism. Yet even tough the American people are clear on this issue we heard very little about it during this election. Obama opposed Prop 8 yet not one ad tried to call him out on this issue. We also heard very little about school choice which is particularly relevant to Hispanics. No effort was made to use these powerful wedge issues to improve the numbers in the Hispanic community. The reason McCain lost was largely because of lost margins among Hispanics and religious conservatives.
McCain could have won Virginia and Ohio if he’d gotten bigger margins among churchgoers than Bush. Instead he didn’t. He could have won New Mexico if he’d gotten bigger margins among Hispanics. He didn’t. He could have won Florida if he’d gotten more of both groups. He didn’t.
This is election is more about what wasn’t done than the mistakes that were made.
The problem with the Republican Party isn’t conservatism of any kind. The problem is that the people running it are in the line of work of running political campaigns. They live in a world that is an echo chamber, and may not have much common sense or have held a real job in their lives. These are the people who think they know the conventional wisdom. Here is how to win an election:
1. This country is great because of the freedom it allows its citizens, not because of the government. I propose not only lower taxes, but smaller government.
2. Abortion and embryonic stem cell research/cloning/human animal hybrids are THE moral issue of our time. I am stating that flat out, and without apology, and will do what I can to end the practice. I am a new abolitionist.
3. I’m sure the journalists will want me to detail the programs I feel we can cut spending on. Please check out my website for details, but I’ll tell you that the first to go would be governmental funding of Planned Parenthood. I am not going to continue the practice of some in my party of just paying lip service to the idea of being pro-life and anti-big government.
4. Check out the Constitution for the guiding pronciple of these cuts. As the Founders knew, governemtn works best when you take care of things at as local a level as possible. There are less layers of bureaucracy and more direct accountability. The cost savings will be applied to our national debt.
5. I apologize for nothing. The differences between myself and my opponent are real, as you can see.
6. Lest I forget foreign policy ... foreign aid will be conditional on results and human rights record. I am not a protectionist, but our trade policies will seek to balance the government subsidies many comapnies get on the other end. As a common sense, but also a populist measure, I will require that all food from foreign countries (including food that contains ingredients from foreign countries) be labelled as such.
7. I seek this office to serve the people, not because it is the best job I can get.
You are quite right. One of the reasons for that was the RNC was sending most of the money to McCain who had chosen federal funding. No money was available for those further down the ticket. And McCain had alienated so many Reps who refused to provide contributions to the RNC. Gilmore was lamenting that fact to us when he appeared at a Rep meeting in NoVA. McCain really hurt the Reps down ticket.