Posted on 10/22/2008 11:32:45 AM PDT by grundle
Why the Republicans Must Lose
Nothing short of defeat will put the GOP back on its limited government track
I grew up in a particularly conservative part of the already conservative state of Indiana. I voted for Bob Dole in 1996 and George Bush in 2000, generally because—though I'm not a conservative (I'm a libertarian)—I'd always thought the GOP was the party of limited government. By 2002, I was less sure of that. And by 2004, I was so fed up with the party that I did what I thought I'd never do—vote for an unabashed leftist for president.
Since then, "fed up" has soured to "given up." The Republican Party has exiled its Goldwater-Reagan wing and given up all pretense of any allegiance to limited government. In the last eight years, the GOP has given us a monstrous new federal bureaucracy in the Department of Homeland Security. In the prescription drug benefit, it's given us the largest new federal entitlement since the Johnson administration. Federal spending—even on items not related to war or national security—has soared. And we now get to watch as the party that's supposed to be "free market" nationalizes huge chunks of the economy's financial sector.
This isn't to say that Barack Obama would be any better. Government would undoubtedly grow under his watch. And from my libertarian perspective, he has been increasingly disappointing even on the issues where he's supposed to be good. We may not go to war with Iran in an Obama administration, but we'd likely become entrenched in a prolonged nation-building adventure in the Sudan. Obama's vote on the FISA bill and telecom immunity also suggests that, for all his criticisms of President Bush's use of executive power and assaults on civil liberties, Obama wouldn't be much better. On the drug war, Obama has promised to end the federal raids on medical marijuana clinics in states that have legalized the drug for treatment, but he wants to resurrect failed federal criminal justice block grant programs that have had some disastrous effects on civil liberties.
While I'm not thrilled at the prospect of an Obama administration (especially with a friendly Congress), the Republicans still need to get their clocks cleaned in two weeks, for a couple of reasons.
First, they had their shot at holding power, and they failed. They've failed in staying true to their principles of limited government and free markets. They've failed in preventing elected leaders of their party from becoming corrupted by the trappings of power, and they've failed to hold those leaders accountable after the fact. Congressional Republicans failed to rein in the Bush administration's naked bid to vastly expand the power of the presidency (a failure they're going to come to regret should Obama take office in January). They failed to apply due scrutiny and skepticism to the administration's claims before undertaking Congress' most solemn task—sending the nation to war. I could go on.
As for the Bush administration, the only consistent principle we've seen from the White House over the last eight years is that of elevating the American president (and, I guess, the vice president) to that of an elected dictator. That isn't hyperbole. This administration believes that on any issue that can remotely be tied to foreign policy or national security (and on quite a few other issues as well), the president has boundless, limitless, unchecked power to do anything he wants. They believe that on these matters, neither Congress nor the courts can restrain him.
That's the second reason the GOP needs to lose. American voters need to send a clear, convincing repudiation of these dangerous ideas.
If they do lose, the GOP would be wise to regroup and rebuild from scratch, scrap the current leadership, and, most importantly, purge the party of the "national greatness," neoconservative influence. Big-government conservatism has bloated the federal government, bogged us down in what will ultimately be a trillion-dollar war, and set us down the road to European-style socialism. It's hard to think of how Obama could be worse. He'll just be bad in different ways.
The truth is, unless you vote for a third-party candidate (which really isn't a bad idea), you don't have much of a choice this November. You can either endorse the idea of a massive, invasive, ever-encroaching federal government that's used to promote center-left ideology, or you can endorse the idea of a massive, invasive, ever-encroaching federal government that's used to promote center-right ideology.
Sadly, if the GOP does lose, it's likely to be interpreted not as a repudiation of the GOP's excesses, but as an endorsement of the Democrats'. When the only two parties who have a chance at winning both have a track record of expanding the size and scope of government, every election is likely to be interpreted as a win for big government—only the brand changes.
Voting yourself more freedom simply isn't an option, at least if you want your vote to be taken seriously (and I'm not denigrating any third parties here; I'm just reflecting reality).
Which brings me back to why the Republicans need to get throttled: A humiliated, decimated GOP that rejuvenates and rebuilds around the principles of limited government, free markets, and rugged individualism is really the only chance for voters to possibly get a real choice in federal elections down the road.
Of course, there's no guarantee that's how the party will emerge from defeat. But the Republican Party in its current form has forfeited its right to govern.
Thank you Jim.
It is a straw-man argument to suggest that conservatism can't rebound on its own merits but needs a catastrophic liberal administration to justify its value system.
He makes some fair arguments, surrounded by unfettered bullboop
Um...
Ok...
I am going to take the road back down the Palin road. We will get lost in the woods if we allow Obama to win. He will act as a Castro or Chavez, and you may never get another chance.
Are you old enough to remember Jimmy Carter's presidency? Take an 0bama 4 years and multiply it by 10... How long did it take Reagan to turn it around... Look at the POLICIES we got under Carter... Want to guess where the sub-prime BS started?
I'll take my chances with McPalin...
The only problem with your theory is that John McCain isn’t for limited government or smaller goverment either.
The real idiots are the ones who think voting for a third party candidate - which is pretty much a vote for Obama - will somehow get them closer to that conservative ideal they crave.
I guess the last two years of ‘punishing’ the GOP with Reid and Pelosi really did the trick! Why not four to eight years of a real out and out socialist? Just think of how we’ll punish those nasty RINOS like Mc Cain!
NO! You will have no vote in 2010 or 2012 when ACORN/SEIU/CAIR run our elections. Obama wins and you speak up - you get Joe the Plumber police state treatment.
We elect McCain then we start kicking the asses of RINOs and tell them to start acting like Conservatives or we will vote them out. We start beating on RINOs like a “red headed step child” or a “rented mule.” Note I am not abdicating child or animal abuse. I am for RINO abuse.
:-)
I think we may get the House back. If we do we also get to the bottom of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
McCain should get on the stump and say - “we are going to get answers on Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac and people are going to be indicted if they broke the law.”
Three supreme court appointments by a neo-liberal will assure that we have no “Ron Pauls” to muddy up future elections. Don’t go slapping your forehead too hard, now!
Obama is a “nation-killer”. There’s no way I will throw my vote away at this point.
Not so!! The changes Obama plans will be irreversible... America as any of us knows and loves it will cease to exist. America will be immediately and permanently unrecognizable and will NEVER recover from an Obama administration.
The only problem with the Republicans losing is that we may not have another chance to regain power. The “Fairness” Doctrine will be reimposed by Dem supermajorities in the Congress and signed by the Obamessiah. Say goodbye to talk radio and Fox News and probably also to FR and all right-of-center blogs. Say hello to ACORN running the FEC, and nationwide same-day registration and voting, plus votes for felons and “long-time” US residents.
Sorry, but you vote your heart in the primaries. In the General, you vote to stop the greater evil (assuming your first choice isn’t the nominee). Voting for Ron Paul, or any third party candidate, or pouting like a child and not voting will all do as much good as pissing into a hurricane.
Vote. Vote to stop Obama as President and to lessen his support in Congress. He IS the Manchurian Candidate, and if he wins we won’t recognize this country in 4 years, let alone be able to reclaim it.
I may be wrong, and I pray that I am, but I fear that I’m not. This country is NOT immune to dictatorship - we are NOT forever by birthright, we have to fight to keep what we’ve got. Voting for pie-in-the-sky candidates as a protest does not constitute “fighting.”
I’m voting for McCain, and he’s going to win. And because he’s going to win, the gop should have 44 or 45 senators. So after the election we have to go to work on them to kill the global warming bill, the amnesty bill, the fairness doctrine crap. If obama wins, the number of gop senators could be as low as forty. And with Senators like Snowe and Collins in there, for example, you can forget about having a filibuster threat. Then Obama is president for life. Illegals gaining the right to vote, supreme court justices that make up laws and throw out the constitution, it’ll be real ugly fast if he wins.
“I’m voting for Ron Paul, because I want the government to get smaller, not bigger.”
And I always wear a raincost when taking a nice hot shower.
I can’t believe these absolute idiots who seem to think if the Obamanoids win, a stronger, more conservative party will somehow emerge.
The clampdown on dissent will be so quick, and so complete, that NO opposition party will even have time to catch its breath. At the same time, the Obamanoid Administration and Democrat Congress will be busy “redistributing the wealth” far and wide to create a majority class of grateful parasites who will vote with them, and them alone, for decades.
If McCain-Palin loses, get ready for full-blown Socialism. Within months, not years.
I couldn’t agree more. While McCain isn’t my dream candidate, the alternative is A LOT worse. While I believe that an Obama (shudder) presidency will allow Republicans to regain Congress in 2010, the damage those two years of a Dem. president and a Dem. controlled Congress (with the Republicans not having enough to filibuster) is too horrible to even think about.
Neither is MoRon Paul.
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