Where Do We Go From Here?

Underlying the main idea stated in Leadership and Communication is one of the defining principles Conservatism (or the Republican Party for that matter) will need to grab a hold of if this country is going to survive the next two, four (or God forbid, eight) years of potentially unchecked liberalism: political courage. Or more plainly stated, leadership. The GOP is currently hopelessly lost in a sea of political correctness, and everyone knows it. McCain, while an honorable and good man, proved once and for all what everyone on our side already knew- Moderate Republicans do not win. The GOP knows the model for winning is not to pander to the middle, but to establish roots in conservatism and move the country to the right through effective communication, but has abandoned that model completely. It is as if they think that Reagan’s success was based completely on his personality, and not on his ideas.

McCain passed on opportunity after opportunity to nail Obama and the Democrats to the wall on the issue of the economy. Instead, he allowed them to dictate the pace and topic of conversation for the entire last month of the campaign, and he rightly lost because of it. He allowed them to convince America that our economic crisis is somehow tied to Bush and his calls for deregulation, when the very people overseeing the regulating committees were Democrats. The seeds for this problem were planted, watered, fertilized, and lovingly tended to by Democrats. That’s not political posturing, it’s reality. Who was the number two money taker from Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac? Obama. In two years, no less. Who has run Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac for it’s entire existence? Democrats, largely Clinton cronies at that. Who passed the Community Reinvestment Act, the bill that led to the sub prime mortgage crisis? Who later decided that bill wasn’t enough, and put the original bill on steroids? Carter, and then Clinton, both Democrats. Was McCain just not aware of all of these facts? Or was he too convinced his path to victory was through his precious moderates? That’s one’s pretty obvious.

If the Republican party wants to survive, maybe even move ahead in the future, someone is going to need to step up and call a spade a spade. And I’m not talking about just articulating Democrat’s failures, though it is occasionally necessary. I’m talking about being a leader, who communicates ideas to the people, and tells them about history, what works and what doesn’t. Lord knows our school system isn’t doing that. Obama certainly isn’t. He wouldn’t know history if he was clubbed in the knees with it by one of his union member thugs. I’m talking about a leader who remembers that Capitalism is what made our country a super power in the first place, and Socialism is what will promptly return us to the stone age. I’m talking about defending our rights to personal liberty, reminding Americans of how important and precious those rights are, and forgetting about whether or not that gets you on MTV. Anyone want to take that job?