Two days ago I wrote an essay outlining my analysis of the November 6th continuing disaster for our nation. Today, I am going to speak of my view of what we should do about it. First, let’s not over react. Conservatism still wins elections, but only when it is genuine, and genuinely believed. There is an odd statistic concerning this years election, and that is the number of Republicans who just stayed home, did not feel as though they should be bothered with the task of voting. If our side had voted in the same numbers as they historically have, Mitt Romney would be President Elect at this moment. While he would have been a tremendous leader, and just what our country needed, he and the rest of the Republican Establishment did not do a sufficient job of convincing even our side of the aisle of that fact.
On Monday, and bear in mind that I was a Romney volunteer who donated financially to his campaign, I had coffee with a long time friend who has been a life long registered Republican. He went for that whole, “hope and change,” stupidity in 2008, and while he was dead set against voting for Obama this year, he was not yet sold on Mitt Romney. I have not yet had the chance to debrief with him, but judging by the odd turnout in this year’s contest, I would say that he simply stayed home on election day.
In his usual spot on analysis, Charles Krauthammer has hit another home run.
The country doesn’t need two liberal parties. Yes, Republicans need to weed out candidates who talk like morons about rape. But this doesn’t mean the country needs two pro-choice parties either. In fact, more women are pro-life than are pro-choice. The problem here for Republicans is not policy but delicacy — speaking about culturally sensitive and philosophically complex issues with reflection and prudence.
Additionally, warn the doomsayers, Republicans must change not just ethnically, but also ideologically. Back to the center. Moderation above all!
More nonsense. Tuesday’s exit polls showed that by an eight-point margin (51-43), Americans believe that government does too much. And Republicans are the party of smaller government. Moreover, onrushing economic exigencies — crushing debt, unsustainable entitlements — will make the argument for smaller government increasingly unassailable.
The Republican party does not need to moderate in order to sound even more like the Democrats. Given a choice between liberal and liberal lite, the voting public will choose the real thing each and every time. While we can whine and obsess over the split of sore loser third party types, who will insist upon splitting our vote whenever they fail to win in our primaries, (Gary Johnson and Ron Paul,) these idiots are a fact of life that will not be going away at any time in the future. If we believe ourselves to be the side of smaller and less intrusive government, then we need to put candidates forward who are not only articulate in stating that position, but who actually feel passionately that this is what’s best for our nation. While I do believe that Mitt Romney was a solid candidate, and would have liked to see him as our President, I also recognize that he came across as a man for whom Conservatism was a second language. This was most especially noticeable in the last two weeks before the election. When Diane Sawyer, the true definition of a bubble headed dolt made exclusively for television reporting notices that in the third debate, Mitt Romney sounded more like George McGovern than Ronald Reagan, then it ought to be pretty obvious to all of us that either the man was moderating to the middle in order to pander for votes or those were his actual beliefs. The result of course was just exactly what I have described, not a single person who had a predilection for voting as a liberal switched, but plenty of conservatives stayed home.
We need to vet our own candidates, and not through some conservative purity test based on what ever we feel are our own singular pet issues, but for honest to God competence. Todd Aiken and Richard Mourdock lost their elections, not because they were not conservative enough, but because they were, and remain true morons. I am not going to get into the whole abortion versus right to life discussion here, that is not my purpose. But when an absurd hypothetical is thrown at a candidate for the pure purposes of playing gotcha, and there is not a human being alive today who should doubt that it is coming, what on Earth is so hard about saying the following? “While pregnancy that results from rape or incest would be terrible indeed, it is not the baby’s fault for this circumstance, and that in my opinion, the protection of innocent life triumphs the admittedly unfortunate circumstance of the mother of that child.” Aiken’s statement of, “legitimate rape and stated belief that a woman’s body would simply miscarry the resultant pregnancy out of God’s will,” was simply too bizarre for words to express. He lost because he is an incredibly stupid man, and that little fact should have been known by those who voted in the primary, prior to his winning the nomination.
I am tired of people who claim that positions should be taken for the sole purpose of winning elections. We, or at least I believed this prior, are a group who vote honestly based on the beliefs we hold dear. I do not care if fiscal responsibility is a winning campaign issue, it is the right thing to do. I could care less if a strong national defense and projecting our strength around the globe is popular at the moment, it is what is the right thing for our nation and the world, and that will not change. I am not at all interested if free market economics are viewed as a superior model for our nation to follow and the mistaken belief that Keynesian economic theory is more popular today due to a national press corps who is more interested is swaying public opinion than in honestly reporting the news. What I am interested in however is the fact that I am right in my beliefs that free markets are the only tool that has repeatedly improved the living standards of the ordinary citizen, no matter where on our planet that he has lived. We need to stick to our guns, articulate our beliefs clearly, and not change them.
When you look at the actual voting numbers of this election, it was again a very close election, almost a statistical tie, or at the very least, a razor thin model. I am not saying that we should all be waiting for the ghost of Reagan to swoop down and save us, just that we need to put in a little thought about who we nominate on the front end, and quit taking advice from our adversaries.
I’ll say it now though, as I promised full support of Mitt Romney once he secured the nomination. Newt Gingrich would have won this general election.
Cross Posted from Musings of a Mad Conservative.
Tags: Newt Gingrich
