Peggy Noonan has written an excellent piece at the Wall Street Journal discussing what’s happening with the Republican party. In a nutshell, she’s saying they’ve lost their backbone, their principles, and they’re disintegrating. This is evidenced by recent losses in special Congressional elections in formerly staunch Republican areas. Seats that had been considered ‘locked up’ have been lost. The Democrats that were elected ran on conservative platforms, and the Republican leadership still doesn’t seem to get it.
From Wall Street Journal:
The Democrats aren’t the ones falling apart, the Republicans are. The Democrats can see daylight ahead. For all their fractious fighting, they’re finally resolving their central drama. Hillary Clinton will leave, and Barack Obama will deliver a stirring acceptance speech. Then hand-to-hand in the general, where they see their guy triumphing. You see it when you talk to them: They’re busy being born.
The Republicans? Busy dying. The brightest of them see no immediate light. They’re frozen, not like a deer in the headlights but a deer in the darkness, his ears stiff at the sound. Crunch. Twig. Hunting party.
The headline Wednesday on Drudge, from Politico, said, “Republicans Stunned by Loss in Mississippi.” It was about the eight-point drubbing the Democrat gave the Republican in the special House election. My first thought was: You have to be stupid to be stunned by that. Second thought: Most party leaders in Washington are stupid – detached, played out, stuck in the wisdom they learned when they were coming up, in ‘78 or ‘82 or ‘94. Whatever they learned then, they think pertains now.
…
What happens to the Republicans in 2008 will likely be dictated by what didn’t happen in 2005, and ‘06, and ‘07. The moment when the party could have broken, on principle, with the administration – over the thinking behind and the carrying out of the war, over immigration, spending and the size of government – has passed. What two years ago would have been honorable and wise will now look craven. They’re stuck.
Mr. Bush has squandered the hard-built paternity of 40 years. But so has the party, and so have its leaders. If they had pushed away for serious reasons, they could have separated the party’s fortunes from the president’s. This would have left a painfully broken party, but they wouldn’t be left with a ruined “brand,” as they all say, speaking the language of marketing. And they speak that language because they are marketers, not thinkers. Not serious about policy. Not serious about ideas. And not serious about leadership, only followership.
This is and will be the great challenge for John McCain: The Democratic argument, now being market tested by Obama Inc., that a McCain victory will yield nothing more or less than George Bush’s third term.
That is going to be powerful, and it is going to get out the vote. And not for Republicans.
Michelle Malkin has another post about the National Republican Congressional Committee’s blog, and how out of touch they are with the core conservatives who used to be the party base. The comments on the NRCC’s blog site should be enough for them to wake up, but they probably won’t and they’ll lose more seats in the fall.
In a nutshell, conservatives are tired of the Republicans trying to cater to the liberals or big business cronies instead of standing up for conservative principles based in individual liberty, smaller government (limit the nanny state), personal responsibility, national security, defending our borders and sovereignty, and doing what’s right for America…not just what’s ‘nice’ or feels good. The Republicans have even taken up the same lame ‘change’ mantra of the Democrats. Funny thing is, the Republican’s new slogan of ‘The Change You Deserve’ is actually the slogan of an anti-depression medication. Rather fitting, I guess.
Back in 2006, I had written my own opinions about why the Republicans lost control of Congress, and how they didn’t do anything to earn our votes. Apparently, that hasn’t changed and they still don’t get it.
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