Every four years, the all too long season of Presidential electioneering starts earlier and earlier. This cycle it seems will be no exception to that rule, as some of our hopefuls have already inflicted themselves upon the forever suffering people of Iowa and New Hampshire. Cruz, Rubio, Jindal, and Paul so far have been caught glad handing and speechifying in those two early bird primary states, talking about all things esoteric and shallow, while raising campaign funds far in excess of the necessities for retaining their current offices.
As usual, the very same authorities on all things political have declared the GOP dead in the water, with nary a chance of wrestling the reigns of power from the rightful holders of such, The Democrats. With the current woeful bench and the complete lack of acceptable message known otherwise as Democrat Lite not being enough like the message of the left, the view is that the GOP will remain in the electoral wilderness until time itself ends. Based on what, we may never know, the prevailing conventional wisdom, against a veritable mountain of evidence to the contrary, holds that the GOP candidates for the upcoming midterm elections and the next Presidential election, should take the bulk of their advice from those very same people whom they wish to defeat, and wish to defeat them. This advice is being floated and accepted despite the fact that it produced the electoral defeats of 1992, 1996, 2006, 2008, and 2012. It also managed to turn what should have been a cake walk in 2000 into a nail biter that eventually necessitated the involvement of our top dispute settling forum.
Lost in the narrative that our message must become more liberal of course are some interesting pertinent facts.
From Red State:
In 1995, Republicans in Washington shut down the government. They got creamed by the media and Democrats. The Democrats were interested in scoring points. The media was interested and remains interested in “good government,” never mind what that may or may not be.
But what actually happened?
The House Republicans lost only nine seats. Nine. In fact, nationally, the House GOP got 47.8% of the popular vote to the Democrats only getting 48.1%. In fact, the House GOP outperformed Bob Dole who only got 40% of the vote. The total loss wound up being a net of eight as the GOP picked up one Democrat seat. At the time, Gingrich credited the hard line the GOP took as helping the GOP hold their own.
The Senate Republicans actually gained seats. Two.
To be fair, Erickson’s analysis is misleading, at least partially. It fails to take into account the fact that Ross Perot siphoned off much of Dole’s support, and there was no such siphon to challenge the GOP House members. Over all though, the point is solid, in that during a Presidential Election year, the winning party only managed to pick up 9 House Seats, which was an incredibly weak showing when compared to other election cycles.
The more astute of you also managed to notice other things about the entire shellacking at large seemingly suffered by the Republican Party during this reign of Rockefeller Wing terror that has existed since the days of Goldwater’s defeat. Those Republicans most likely to lose elections and their battle ground seats are the very same who swallow this bait. Those nine lost seats in 1996 were all moderates. In 2006, when the GOP ceded both the House and the Senate, it was the moderates once again who failed to retain anything. In 2010, when historically unprecedented gains were made by the GOP, it was a grass roots conservative movement that made those gains a reality. The Conservative Movement was told unceremoniously to sit down and shut up in 2012, and the opposite happened. The GOP lost seats in the House, Senate, as well as the Presidential Election, once again seeing moderates getting creamed.
We have been treated to many polls telling us how unpopular our Congress is with the American People, but those polls have been incredibly short of detail as to why that unpopularity exists. That little fact has, as it has always been, left to the individual interpretation of those delivering that happy news to the public. Agenda driven news and interpretation is worthless to any who seek the truth. No questions are asked as to why those congress critters remain so unpopular, and the reason given always seems to be tied to that same old bizarrely foolish meme of, “there’s not enough compromising going on out there.”
I am just going to offer up this alternative view point, mostly because it makes a hell of a lot more sense. Let us say for instance, that it is possible that a nation as deeply divided as ours is right now, may not be in agreement with why we are all so irretrievably angry with our Legislative Branch. Each of us may in fact have our own reasons, and as is usually the case in such matters, those various reasons may indeed be aligned according to the basic philosophies of those who hold that resentment. My reason for holding a low opinion of Congress for instance has nothing to do with Congress not moderating enough according to the core principles that they professed to hold while campaigning. In fact, my anger is caused by the opposite. My particular anger is due to the capitulation of my elected representatives. I am tired of those running for office in the Republican Party promising to put an abrupt end to the leftist agenda, and then once elected, offering to work together in some kumbayah moment to push through this very agenda in order to accomplish that exact thing that they promised to prevent. (As an example of this very phenomenon in action, look no further than the current battle being waged over Immigration Reform, the Debt Limit, our complete lack of a budget, the endless stream of continuing resolutions for spending run amok, and the recent capitulation that saw Richard Cordray confirmed as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Czar who’s chief duties seem to be the complete destruction of our national economy.)
Conservatism wins elections, and true conservatism has produced results that has been supported by the vast majority of our citizenry. It is only when we stray from these principles that we receive the well deserved shellacking at the polling place. When Ronald Reagan ran in 1980, he was viewed, by most of the pundits placed in charge of the conventional wisdom of that time, as a dolt with zero chance of beating Jimmy Carter in that ill fated reelection bid. Those very same purveyors of a clearly superior intellect have not changed their talking points since the Goldwater defeat of 1964, and with the track record of them never once being actually correct, I can certainly see why the GOP is so very eager to listen to them once again.
Here’s who I like so far for President in 2016, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Bobby Jindal, Scott Walker, John Kasich, Sarah Palin, Rudy Giuliani, Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, and probably a dozen or so other fine representatives of our brand. This is the important part to remember, all of them are hugely electable if, and this is key, they stick to their guns and remain unapologetically outspoken advocates for smaller government and the free market principles that are what made America Great, and coincidentally the wealthiest nation the world has ever seen. (Yes that last sentence was meant as a poke at the morons who insist on saying that diversity is what made America great.)
Cross Posted from Musings of a Mad Conservative.
Tags: Rockefeller Republicans
