Mirror Mirror

Republicans need to think carefully about what happened and why

Lots of people have been offering their opinions regarding the outcome of the election. And in some places Republicans have reacted emotionally by saying that Americans are stupid for electing Obama. I understand the frustration and hurt feelings that give rise to this view, but I have to disagree. It is important for Republicans to think clearly about the dynamics of this election and what it means to the future of the party and how we can win next time around. Americans are not stupid as a rule. And if Republicans want to regain lost ground, they had better start being honest with themselves about what happened so that they don't repeat their mistakes

The reality is not that Obama won so much as Republicans lost. We lost because the party as a whole has strayed over the last several years from its basic conservative message of small government and fiscal responsibility. It has not governed or acted in a conservative manner. And we did not have a candidate in John McCain who could address the economic issues.

Aside from the issue of national defense, it would be difficult to argue that President Bush is anything other than a liberal republican. Spending by the government and the size of government under the Bush administration in general have increased dramatically. And this happened while Republicans had both the White House and the congress. Did they act like conservatives or did they act like big government liberals? I think we all know the answer to this one and so does the public. Voters, including the base, are sending the Republican party a message. They were unwilling to vote for another liberal republican. We need to listen to that message. America has a leftist party. It needs a genuine conservative party too, but the Republicans strayed over the last several years.

Conservatives have not been fond of McCain in the past because of his tendency to go far off the reservation and to undermine the conservative base of the party. And we have evidence that a significant portion of conservatives either didn't vote or voted against McCain. Consider this from American University’s Center for the Study of the American Electorate:

“A downturn in the number and percentage of Republican voters going to the polls seemed to be the primary explanation for the lower than predicted turnout,” the report said. Compared to 2004, Republican turnout declined by 1.3 percentage points to 28.7 percent, while Democratic turnout increased by 2.6 points from 28.7 percent in 2004 to 31.3 percent in 2008...

No one would deny that McCain is good on national security issues, but he is still from the liberal wing of the Republican party when all is said and done. And he did just about as well as Bob Dole did. He did not clearly articulate a conservative message especially on economics, a subject where he is particularly weak. He did not bother to explain how much of our current economic slowdown can be tied to liberal spending and social engineering policy. And he did not explain how the problems, such as they are, could be improved through free markets. He voted for the bailout that most Americans opposed. And he kept Sarah Palin under wraps for weeks before letting her out and even then he did not send her to new media outlets where she would have had the greatest effect. Instead he tried to rely on old media, that hates conservatives, with predictable results.

Victor Davis Hanson writes at The Corner:

Down-to-earth, Fargo-talking Palin was a missed opportunity because almost immediately for some reason she was served up to the DC press in gottcha interviews and caricatured as a hockey-mom bimbo by NY-DC grandees of her own party. Eisenhower and Reagan worked because they were able to show the people that they came from, and were one with, them, and convince the people that they did better even when the rich were better off as well. The critical argument that the liberal party is now anti-populist and mostly one of the largely affluent who want government to enact a boutique, utopian social agenda, and the poor who want redistribution and guaranteed government 24/7 attention, was never seriously made.

If we want to win again, we will need real conservative leadership in place. Americans will not vote for Democrat lite when the real thing is available. The Republican party needs to understand that you don't win elections by abandoning conservative principles for years and then ask for the support of the base. And they had better start to work on communicating the conservative message loud and clear to younger and upcoming voters too, because we are at a serious disadvantage already in this regard. We need to show voters, including minority voters, that it is in their best interest to vote for lower taxes and more limited government rather than dependency on the nanny state. Freedom and capitalism always bring a higher standard of living and greater progress if they are allowed to work. But we have to constantly educate the public and remember that we are working against the entrenched leftist establishment when it comes to ideas and culture. If Americans can hear a consistent message and see that we mean it, then we will have a chance to get back, but not before.

I am going to be writing more on this subject at length and I will look at a number of different topics that bear on how we got to this point, what we need to do and why. We need to look at both long term strategery as well as more short term goals and tactics.

I am also going to start writing more often with younger people in mind as I said above. Those people in my own age group often have a better understanding of the ideas of liberty simply because when we were younger the schools had not yet become leftist indoctrination centers and we therefore had the benefit of hearing conservative ideas in the classroom. And we have also had more time to read and internalize the great books and writers who have provided to us the legacy of ideas that are the foundation of our movement. Going forward I will make it a point to regularly spend time with the basic ideas and the philosophical framework that many younger people have not been given by the government monopoly school system. And of course as conservatives it is always good to look to our philosophical foundations for inspiration and guidance.

We will need to rebuild the party of course, but we also have a lot of work in the culture ahead of us too. We need to understand this as a long term project because too many people don't really understand the ideas of liberty. We need to provide an alternative vision for those young people who may not have encountered the ideas of liberty. We can't assume that they just automatically know and understand them. Our ideas need to be put forth over and over again. Many of these people can probably be brought around if we can show them the practical difference between the ideas of liberty and those of left wing statism, but it will take time to undo the damage. Now is the time to start working.