Posted on 05/11/2009 7:49:21 AM PDT by Reagan Man
The Republican Party is in the political wilderness. Out of power after eight years of George Bush, its minorities in Congress and state governors are hammered daily by the media, heirs to every mistake -- real or imagined - that Bush made.
The bubble of Japan’s economic “miracle” came to a crashing halt in the early 1990s. Floundering politicians left the Japanese economy flat on its back for what became known as Japan’s “lost decade.”
The GOP needs to face the fact that it may be in the wilderness for a very long time. Unless it can shake the Bush Brand and regain the trust and confidence of voters, it may be in the first year of its own lost decade.
But is the party really lost?
No, at least not yet.
The man who charted the path that was known as the “Wilderness Road,” Daniel Boone, once said “I have never been lost, but I will admit to being confused for several weeks.”
The Republican Party has been confused for years, not just a few weeks.
The confusion emanated from George Bush’s brand of Republicanism, the oxymoronic “big-government conservatism.” Principles such as fiscal restraint were sacrificed for political expediency. The war was fought indecisively, committing us to the self-imposed quagmire of nation-building in Iraq. Competence -- a Republican byword – was replaced by cronyism.
Bush rebranded the Republican Party so deeply, Americans lost trust and confidence in its leaders. Which is why President Obama, Congressional Democrats and the mainstream media are working so hard to convince voters that the Republicans are still the Bush Party.
Democrats won’t let go of the so-called “torture memos” and the possibility that Bush administration officials might be prosecuted for authorizing the alleged abuse of terrorist detainees. Every time President Obama talks about the economy, it’s in terms of the crisis he inherited. While Obama spends us into an inflationary oblivion he speaks of past wasteful spending. As he nationalizes more and more of our economy, he excuses it by saying that it began with the Bush bank bailout. Which, alas, it did.
To revive the Republican Party it will have to shake off the Bush Brand. And its members need to do more than speak, they need to act.
That is enormously difficult for a party out of power. But it’s not impossible.
The answer is not to emulate British conservatives. Under David Cameron, the Tories have become, in too many ways, more liberal than the liberals. Cameron’s party is succeeding not because they’ve become more “moderate”: they’re succeeding because under Tony Blair and now Gordon Brown, the Labor Party has done to its brand what George W. Bush did to the Republicans’. If Brown were any less popular, his government any less competent or more corrupt, members of his own party would probably lynch him.
Top Republican congressional leaders are swamped by the tsunami of legislation and appointments by which Obama is transforming our nation into a European-style welfare state. They have little time to do more than deal with daily crises. But some are trying, and others are planning to climb onto the national stage with initiatives of their own.
Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va) has created a “National Council for a New America” – formally a congressional caucus -- which had its first public meeting recently in Arlington, Virginia recently. Cantor’s team is comprised of congressional leaders and a few outsiders, such as Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin, to listen to voters’ concerns. His objective is not to rebrand the Party, but to get the public more engaged in opposing what the Democrats are doing.
Conservatives remain skeptical because the group is burdened by some pols, such as John McCain, who aren’t part of the solution: they’re part of the problem. As laudable as Cantor’s effort may be, his idea doesn’t yet include divorcing Republicans from Bush’s mistakes.
Republicans can’t -- in the short time between now and 2010 -- shake off the Bush brand entirely, but they can distance themselves from it. To do so, they have to defend what Bush did right and criticize openly what he did wrong.
Choosing nation-building in Iraq was a mistake on an historic scale. Incarcerating terrorist detainees – and using ‘enhanced interrogation techniques” in questioning them – was right. Spending recklessly and commencing nationalization of the financial and automobile industries were wrong. When he nominated Harriet Myers to the Supreme Court, Bush was at his worst. When he nominated Samuel Alito and John Roberts, he was at his best.
The opportunities are coming in rapid-fire succession. President Obama will nominate a hyper-liberal to the Supreme Court. Conservative Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala) is now the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee. He will have to take the fight against the Obama nominee to the nation if there is going to be any chance of preventing confirmation. There will be time -- probably months -- between the nomination and the final confirmation vote. Sessions can, and should, take the issue on the road all summer, convening town hall events to make Americans aware of the nominee’s background and the dangers he (or, more likely she) poses.
Republican Study Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-Ga) plans to take the conservative message around the country in meetings just like the ones Sessions should do. The two could easily combine their efforts, enhancing the likelihood both would succeed.
The Democrats’ plan to tax energy -- the global warming tax they call “cap and trade” -- has stalled in the House Energy and Commerce Committee because the Dems are in disarray over the costs and job losses it will cause their states. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wi) is the ranking member of the House Budget Committee and also serves on the Ways and Means Committee which has jurisdiction over all tax legislation.
Ryan is as well spoken and well-informed as anyone on “cap and tax.” He can explain clearly the fact that the Democrats’ plan will be a huge burden on each household and business. If he joined forces with Sessions and Price, the trio -- separately and together -- could cover the country on every issue Americans consider most important.
It would be an Outside-the-Beltway strategy. Which is precisely what the Republicans need to recover the trust and confidence of the voters.
“Bush’s real legacy, destroying the GOP.”
My thoughts exactly. It’s almost ironic that we now find ourselves saying what the left chanted for 8 yrs: “It’s Bush’s fault!”, but it really is.
It’s not Bush’s fault. It’s the media’s.
When the next attack comes, Bush will be a hero again. Cheney too.
We can’t lay all of this at Bush’s door. He had for a while a republican congress that acted just like dems when it came to spending. And he didn’t use the veto when he didn’t.
Pretty soon, the sheeple electorate couldn’t see any major differences between the tow parties.
Now we have to somehow convince the voters that we are in fact different and have policies that will save the day. And trust me, even the voters will come to know that the day will need saving.
I expect there will be some blowback to the dems current actions and the pendulum will swing back our way. I just don’t know how far or for how long.
In the long term, I’m pretty pessimistic. Demographics and dependency are leaning to the dems.
Watching the Daily Show ain't gonna cut it.
Government workers and those on poverty assistance have the Dems. Wall Street and Hollywood support the Dems. The corporatist wing of the GOP looks after corporate interests at the expense of the interests of the middle class (ammnesty, H-1B visas, lack of regulation of financial markets and commodities exchanges). Both sides don't give a fig about our interests because we don't scare them, because most of the middle class doesn't pay attention to politics - and the hard-core liberals would like nothing better than our economic destruction so we have to move from the suburbs back to cities. So we have tolerated policies that are against our interests - and we now have been set up for the kill.
Two entities may well go extinct over the next 10 years - the GOP, or the middle class. If the middle class doesn't get its act together and function cohesively as a political entity, inflation from spending and printing money will kill it off, along with job losses. If the middle class DOES get its act together and the GOP ignores the middle class interests and instead continues to promote those of the corporatists, the GOP will die and be replaced with something else. But the GOP will continue to be beholden to the corporatist wing until the middle class rises up.
It's beyond the annoyance factor of the last 20 years of Clinton corruption and GOP spending that motivated us activists. It's now about the very survival of the middle class in America, because we are getting set up for an Argentian-style destruction of such due to past apathy. We have at most four years to halt it. And we have to start by articulating ideas that learn from the failings of the last few years - such as the fact that we do need some level of regulation of the financial sector - and show how growth in government has created a huge, voracious monster in government employees who expect to be paid better than the private sector that supports them. That IMO is the only limited government message that resonates.
So tell the Tea Party types to get onto school boards. Cut the bloated administrator layers that consume massive amounts of property taxes. Fight to get the state legislatures to cut state employees and overhead. And then turn on the federal behemoth by supporting candidates who adhere to shrinking the fedgov, not out of abstract principles, but in confronting the bugetary abyss that faces us.
Something that true FReeper conservatives have been doing all along, to the dismay of RINO"S, Bushbots and RNCbots, here and everywhere.
Republicans, go back to Reagan's big tent, don't pretend that he would come to yours.
...and "I had to sacrifice free market principles to save the free market."
Right on the mark.
NO MORE BUSHES!!
And NO MORE of those flawed policies of his or the "big TENT garbage!!!
And no more liberal tripe!
I got a solicitation from the Republican National Committee.
I quote:
“Dear Friend,
Please don’t tell me you have given up...that you have abandoned the Republican Party....
But as Treasurer of the Republican National Committee, I’m concerned that we have not received your 2009 RNC membership renewal.
....But we have not heard from you since October 24, 2008 — and I hpoe you haven’t deserted our Party.
...The only thing standing in the way of the Obama/Pelosi/Reid Democrats’ fulfilling their reckless spending, record deficits and higher taxes agenda are you and the RNC.
....urgently need you to renew....with a contribution...”
the above paragraph should have read:
“The only thing standing in the way of the BUSH43/Obama/Pelosi/Reid Democrats’and Republicans’ fulfilling their reckless spending, record deficits and higher taxes agenda are you and the (we need a new) Party.”
I just don’t know where to begin. Bush 43 got some things right. But fiscal responsibility and limited government were not part of his program. Nor the Republican Party.
Now the assault on Sarah Palin from the Republican Party is the end for me. I cannot forgive this.
Republicans are moving toward DEATH and TAXES and GOVERNMENT. We must understand that.
Libertarians seemed too kookie but maybe that’s all we have.
Is there any other way?
These should be easy times for the GOP and conservatives with this target rich environment. Our side should be pounding away at the libtards mnarch to socialism but every time the right question is teed up for them they give a political answer. Two examples: O’Reilly flat out asked Bush’s former directer of communications if she felt safe under Obama and she thought for a couple of seconds and answered “yes...so far”
O’Reilly asked a republican representative (I can’t Remember his name)if Pelosi was lying about her knowledge of the enhanced interrogations and he once again thought for a second and said something to the affect that she really doesn’t know what she believes.
Both of these are examples of cowardice of the republicans.
Better a poor plan executed energetically than a perfect plan executed too late. Go for it.
I'm not lost. I know exactly what I believe in and I know with reasonable clarity what I expect our leadership to be doing.
Democrats won’t let go of the so-called “torture memos” and the possibility that Bush administration officials might be prosecuted for authorizing the alleged abuse of terrorist detainees.
Thats why on that subject we need to attack, attack, attack. Admit no wrong-doing, none at all, because there was no wrong-doing to admit to.
The GOP is not a "conservative" party. It only adopted that label for a short while due to the expedience of Reagan's undeniable personal popularity (note who the party tapped as his successor and running mate). Reagan was an abherration to the GOP, and Newt's congress rode that pony to get into office, then reverted to form. When JB says "it's time to move past Reagan", he means the "conservative" label has played out its usefulness for the GOP, and it's time to admit what the party really is. The "middle" is where GOP power base has always been.
One more time: The GOP is no place for conservatives. We aren't going to change it.
Mega ditto’s! Right on the money.
He needs to find a mic and a platform to speak from. We need someone like him doing analysis over the public air-waves over the next four years.
We ignored him during the primaries, he couldn't get the time of day from anyone and never had more than one or two percent of us in his court, I remember too many supposed conservatives telling me "he just doesn't impress me" or worse "who?" and the result was to be saddled with the execrable John McCain and the result was to be saddled with the emptiest suit ever to occupy the White House since Jimmy "there's nobody home" Carter.
The GOP is the conservative party, but conservatives are the red-headed step-children, expected to turn out on election day and otherwise be neither seen nor heard. I'll say this; either the GOP re-connects with its soul and principles or else it doesn't matter if they never win another election.
Well said.
The problem is, many of the people who have a bully pulpit within the GOP --- insiders and elected Republicans --- are afraid of the backlash they might receive from attacking Obama. They fear the condemnation and retribution coming from the likes of ABCNNBCBS, Emanual, Axelrod, Carville, Begala, et al. Its that exact mindset which sentenced the GOP to minority status from 1954 to 1994. If Republicans remain passive, another 40 years in the wilderness is almost assured. Leaving conservatives to wander aimlessly, or construct our own political party from what is left of the GOP.
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