Posted by
Patrick Henry on Saturday, October 25, 2008 2:21:26 PM
Whether Barack Obama wins the presidency or not, Democrats seem sure to increase
their congressional majorities in both houses. It will be a rough four years for
conservatives, any way you slice it. So, what can be done about it?
First, in spite of its failings of the last eight years -- and they have been many -- the
Republican party is what we have to work with. Barring the unforeseen rise of a third
major party, long overdue, no one else has the base or the resources to challenge the
Democratic machine and a president who hungers for unlimited power. So we have
to think about how to rehabilitate the GOP. It's been done before, and it can be done
again. Republicans have failed America not because the principles of conservatism
are flawed, but because Republicans in power have not adhered to them. To rejuvenate
the party, then, there must be a purge of the neo-liberal philosophy of the Bush years,
and a re-commitment to the Reagan Revolution. Voters can demand and force such
a re-thinking by their elected representatives, if necessary by replacing them.
Second, the new Republicanism must purloin some pages from the Democrats'
playbook. When Republicans swept into control, the Democrats did not simply
roll over. While they didn't win many votes, they did block a few and screamed to
high heaven every time the Republicans did something over the top. While they
sometimes resembled dogs howling at the moon, they did use their platform to
draw national attention to Republican positions they considered vulnerable during
future elections. Although limited, the strategy contributed to an overall degrading
of Republican popularity. The Democrats also used legal challenges and demanded
special prosecutors to investigate every suspicion of Republican wrongdoing, leading
to the demise of stalwart GOP leaders like Tom DeLay, Karl Rove, Dennis Hastert,
Newt Gingrich and the like. Does anyone believe that there are no bones hiding in
Nancy Pelosi's closet among the Prada shoes, or that there's not fire behind the
ACORN and Ayers smoke? When the election is over, there will be plenty of time
to find out, and possibly to fan the blaze into a conflagration that will bring down
some prominent Democrats just as they did some leading Republicans.
Third, new strategic leadership must be identified and elevated. The days of winning
office solely through negative campaigning are waning. A clear, concise conservative
message posing real solutions to real problems must be crafted, polished and packaged.
John McCain trails in the polls not because he isn't a good man, but because those
who have driven his campaign have made it negative, pedantic, reactionary amd boring.
Plans for a Republican administration were not carefully crafted and condensed into
defensible talking points that posed stark alternatives to Democratic socialism. Such
plans arrived late and in sketchy form as a reaction to the opponents' campaign. It is
difficult to stay on message when the campaign is unsure what the message is. Even
if the principles are sound, when the packaging is unattractive, the product won't sell.
Fourth, the Democrats have been very savvy about building their base. Some would
assert that they've even been crooked, in light of ACORN and like organizations, and
the Obama campaign's attempts to stifle criticisms by legal recourse. While crooked
is no good, savvy is very good. If the liberals can grow and support an ACORN,
then conservatives can build a similar organization to identify, educate and register
a host of new right and centrist voters, and there will be a boatload of potentials
out there. Think about all the businesses -- particuarly small or family-owned ones
that will be crushed by Obama "spread the wealth" socialism, the many who will be
downwardly mobile due to recession or depression spurred by Democratic tax hikes,
young hunters who will be afraid of losing their guns, workers who will feel
disenfranchised by congressional action that takes away their right to secret union
ballots, people enraged by high fuel costs and an administration that stalls on offshore
drilling, people whose basic sense of justice is violated by the Fairness Doctrine, a
Democratic legislative initiative designed to shut down conservative talk radio. Are
there as many as 1.3 million of these -- the number that ACORN claims to have
registered? Try ten times that many. But it will take organization and tons of hard
work to recruit and mobilize them.
The Dems and an Obama administration will also do things (e.g., the Fairness
Doctrine) that will be highly susceptible to constitutional legal challenge. The GOP
should gear up fund raising efforts immediately to pose legal hurdles to every
questionable Democratic initiative -- all the way to the Supreme Court, if necessary.
Special prosecutors should be demanded to investigate every Democratic indiscretion,
and should Democrats obstruct them -- which they will -- the obstructionists should
be publicly identified and pilloried in any sympathetic media outlet. Democratic
leadership in particular should be targeted. If the ACORN investigation turns up
evidence of purposeful election rigging or other related malfeasance, Republicans
should immediately push to cut off federal funding to ACORN. While they may
not succeeed, the Dems who cover ACORN's exposed backside can be forced to wear
their complicity in future elections. Democratic initiatives like the Community
Reinvestment Act and blockage of tighter reins on Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae
should be exposed -- including Barney Frank's homosexual affair with Herb Moses
while the latter was shaping policies at one of the now discredited mortgage giants.
There is almost no end to the Democrats' vulnerability on such issues.
There is one more crucial piece to the New Resistance movement. That will be
discussed in detail in the third part of "Joining the Resistance," coming soon.