Posted by
Rob Beck on Wednesday, November 05, 2008 12:36:24 AM
We've lost the White House and Republicans have taken such a beating in Congress that we'll be lucky to recover anytime soon. There is no last minute miracle. No hope that American youths will come to their senses. There's no cavalry riding over the horizon to save the day. Republicans and more to the point conservatives are now truly in the wilderness.
Sadly, there is a good chance liberals and "moderates" in the Republican Party will try to blame conservatives in general and people like Governor Palin specifically for why we lost. It will be seen in some quarters that we were not "centrist" enough in our viewpoint. Taking such hardline stances on fiscal issues or even the right to life are now seen as an impediment to our "peaceful coexistence" with the Democrat Party and such people are troublemakers that are to be ostracized or ignored and certainly not run for office. This I predicted some time ago with the resurgence of the Rockefeller Republicans. We ran their candidate and we lost...bigtime. The conservatives did their part. They appear to have shown up despite not having wanted to, but there was no money, no attempt to bring new voters over to conservative principles in the form of strong outreach and no chance McCain could win without such things.
We will be told though that conservatism is finished and the antique media will like nothing more than to spread that opinion and give it an open microphone whereever possible; mostly because they know such statements to be false, but useful to them.
I suppose, looking back on this, I appear to be pointing fingers at the Maverick and his merry band of lightweights. I am not really. The Republican strategy was flawed and the campaign was poor, but McCain still tried and even attempted some right-leaning issues late in the campaign, oddly getting a brief surge in poll numbers anytime he did so. I just don't want to see conservatives blamed for something that was never our fault. The same voters who rammed McCain through the primary didn't carry through in bringing the independents and undecidededs into the fold. And many of the most prominent of them defected in the 11th hour. So much for Party loyalty.
Well, so I am pointing fingers a little; not a very helpful course of action. We can hold our grudges and opinions, but now we must all work together to try and restore this Party and to keep conservatism as its guiding standard. Conservatism works, when tried, everytime. When you don't try it, well, you pays your money - you takes your chances. The Party gambled with McCain and lost. Moderates don't win against that kind of money and that kind of political machine.
We must educate and we must yes even proselytize a little. Our example will be the damage the Leftist majority can do now that they have the White House. We have new tools that we didn't have when Clinton was in office. We have new ways of reaching new voters. The Democrats figured that out four years ago. It's time the Republicans came to the same conclusion.
So begins our journey into the Wilderness. Let's not spend 40 years there to learn our lesson, agreed?