The Republican Resurgence: A Game Plan

[Morgan Orlins]

I wrote this in the aftermath of the bloodbath that was the general election of 2008. People are finally waking up, and we have the opportunity to inspire them with the TRUTH! The masses will never be inspired by the compromisers and the wishy washy RINOS in our party. DEFEND freedom and our freedom-based way of life and we will once again renew this country. Let us once again be the party of Reagan!

The Republican Party would be well-advised to heed the lessons of Bush v. Clinton in 1992, Dole v. Clinton in 1996, and now McCain v. Obama in 2008. When the electorate is faced with the choice between a liberal or moderate Democrat and a “moderate” Republican, they seem to prefer the real thing! They’ll pull the lever for the Democrat every time. The "independants" broke for Obama in a HUGE way on election night. They tend not to pay attention and will usually look for the candidate handing out the most goodies or the smoothest sounding of the two. Advantage Democrats and Barack Obama. The Republican Party threw it’s full weight behind John McCain late in the primaries, and did they EVER make a mistake!

I was never a fan of John McCain, but I gave him 14 hours or so of my time waving signs and doing other volunteer work because I understood the terrible danger of an untested socialist rookie like Barack Obama. Nine out of ten of the other volunteers I ran into told me something like this: “You know, I can’t stand John McCain, but…” All I could do was sigh, I understood that sentiment completely.

John McCain spent the first five and a half years working hard to infuriate conservatives from his position as head of the liberal Republicans (RINOS) in the Senate. He undermined the President’s judicial nominees by requiring approval from his hand picked bi-partisan group, attacked Bush’s tax cuts using left-wing populist rhetoric, fought against border security (even calling some of us “racist” for wanting to build a fence on the Mexican border), gutted the 1st Amendment with the McCain-Feingold bill, was never a friend of the 2nd Amendment until two years ago, fought to close down Guantanamo Bay while decrying the treatment of the terrorists there at the hands of our soldiers, and was a big proponent of the “Cap and Trade” system which was intended to limit global warming gases by over-taxing utilities and consumers. Drinking the global warming kool-aid is a PERFECT way to alienate smart conservative voters. John McCain would have been FAR more at home in the Democrat Party. He’s a liberal.

During the debates Barack Obama served up some huge lies, along with some hanging curveballs. While I found myself shouting out the obvious responses to Obama’s nonsense and drivel, McCain remained silent or even apologetically demured and changed the subject. A friend told me, “Morgan you’re expecting him to think the same way you do, as a Conservative.” The profundity of that statement struck me like a fist to the solar plexes. We had an imposter standing in there, pretending to be FOR tax cuts, FOR smaller government, FOR going all out to win the war on terror (remember Gitmo?), FOR conservative judicial nominees, etc.. It doesn’t surpise me at all that the answers didn’t come to him instantly, it wasn’t in his heart.

For conservatives there is a silver lining to this election night horror story. The Republicans In Name Only (RINO's) caused this electoral disaster with their big government overspending, and they will now take a back seat! Conservatism won last night everywhere it was tried on every ballot. CA and FL both had initiatives banning gay marriage that passed and MOST states had tax cutting initiatives on the ballot--which all passed--even in Massachusetts! Obama even lied like hell to people saying he was “going to cut your taxes, for 95% of the people.” He tacked towards the center on nearly every issue. Conservatism didn’t lose, but many faux Republicans certainly did pay the price for betraying conservative principles. This is a fantastic opportunity for the Republican Party to purge itself of liberalism and losing elections.

We MUST retake this party and GET RID of “compassionate conservatism” and other idiotic ideas! Conservatism is, by definition, COMPASSIONATE! We view it as compassionate when people no longer need a handout. We view it as compassionate when a formerly dependent person has the pride that goes with being a productive, tax paying member of society. We view it as compassionate and moral to give a tax cut to anyone who actually pays federal income taxes. We understand that the primary role of the Federal government is national defense, NOT income redistribution! We understand that the engine of American prosperity is the entrepreneur and the businessman, NOT the bureaucrat and his accompanying red tape.

Republicans, we have an opportunity to retake this party and return to our Reagan/Goldwater ideological roots. This is a party built on the brilliance of the Founders. We truly stand on the backs of giants: Men like George Washington, Edmund Burke, Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek, and women like Margaret Thatcher and Jean Kirkpatrick. The ideological foundation for victory is rather simple and brilliantly laid out. Will we follow this path to victory?

Or will we live through repeats of election night 2008? What say you?