The Defeatist's Mythology >>

Since the recent election of 08, and the Liberal sweep of Congress, anger has mounted in my mind over the baseless charges over why the GOP lost, and what we should become to accommodate the challenges of the new century. To me, it is critical to isolate the reasons we lost, and not be guided by falsehoods, such as conservatism itself being outmoded. People have said that to no avail since the 1930s.

…I will pick Rush over Powell, any day of the week…

I can’t help but wander back to that sit-down Colin Powell had with Fareed Zakaria, essentially stating that we needed to start agreeing with affirmative action, nearly a half century after the Civil Rights Act, as to not be seen as racist. This, he postulated, was the Republicans’ only chance for survival. Furthermore, he mocked concerns about Barack Obama’s littered, corrupt, and oddly-affiliated past that all Americans have the right to investigate. Nope. Even if Obama were the closest simulacrum of the Manchurian Candidate to run for the highest office in the land…we have no right to even question Obama’s affiliations with Dorn, Rezko, Wright, Rashid Khalidi, and Bill Ayers. It’s racist. We must assume that if a person gets this far in politics, media adoration, and popular phenomena, that he must necessarily be a nice guy to have achieved it. Good qualifiers, Colin. I wonder if you promoted anyone in the ranks based on their smile, or assuming that their current station is sufficient evidence of what they can be. Then there is the flailing notion that Republicans have moved too far to the Right, which ignores that McCain was the NY Time’s favorite Republican once upon a time, and that Barack Obama voted to the left of Senator Bernie Sanders. Unbelievable! In this campaign we were closer to the middle than Obama was ideologically; he merely skirted this with collectivist branding. Powell himself said he judged the campaigns, not the careers. We don’t need pastels, we need BIG, BOLD, COLORS… twice laminated so they do not fade with time!

Others, mainly in the Libertarian crowd, seem to be hawking the GOP to transform it into a cadre of Libertarians. Their pallid argument is that social issued no longer matter to Americans. This is a misguided and hackneyed banter of web chatter and rumor based on no factual or demographic evidence whatsoever.  

Fact: The vast majority of Americans oppose gay marriage. The recent tinsel town hate fest on Carrie Prejean underscores this fact. If we switched on this stance as that proven loser in the McCain campaign suggested, we could risk moving to the left of civil-unioneers like Barack Obama, Al Gore, and the Clintons, giving evangelicals less a reason to stick with us. Let’s side with a shrill minority! Furthermore, it was the architectural genius of Karl Rove to place gay marriage on the 2004 ballot, enough to swing the majority of Americans back to Bush. You mean to tell me it holds no power to side with the majority of America?

Fact: A slight majority of Americans now describe themselves as Pro-Life, according to a shocking new Gallup Poll. And oddly, much of this comes from the younger crowds we were talking about writing off! And with the Notre Dame debacle and because of some courageous Catholics, we are now seeing the contrasts appear!

Why then on earth would you join this “Libertarian Revolution” and take the minority side on both of these social issues, hence alienating the heart of the Republican Party for a tiny sliver of middleground hybrids? Anyone? And given the revolutionary zeal of many of these Libertarians online, what is to stop them, after we abandon the aforementioned stances, from voting for Bob Barr anyway? They do have a contrarian bent, which is admirable. But as I have noted, that bent sometimes seems to embrace dissent for the sake of dissent, not policy. In short, we would be razing our own fortresses and retreating for the Libertarian carrot that is not even vouchsafed by endorsement. Though I respect its nuance, the Libertarian brand is hazy pastel to explain to most people, and as I said before, we need big, bold, colors!

And for the record…I am not a Libertarian. I am a Republican.

In the infrastructural aspect, the McCain Campaign handlers arrogantly dismissed the power of twitter, youtube, facebook, and the IT revolution. Barack Obama’s henchmen have a data warehouse of every supporter, donor, and volunteer labeled, categorized, and easily referenced. Now all these tools were and still are available to Republicans, we just have to start choosing to actually used them, if we hope to connect with voters under 30.

Hurricane Katrina being blamed squarely on Bush (despite Mayor Ray Nagin and Gov. Blanco), the pre-surge Iraqi occupation, the housing meltdown that our party inherited from Bawney Fwank and ACORN, and Republicans engaged in liberal style spending…these are the things that trashed our good name, not social issues. There is a horrorhouse of appropriate critiques of Republican Party, but it paramount that we as a party have an accurate notion of why it is we lost. Some notions are pure myth, and they need to be banished. As for Colin Powell, in his big-government, affirmative action, gun-control, and pro-choice belief structure…I doubt he even gives a flippant damn what happens to the Republican Party.  Rush never switched sides and spat on our core beliefs in public view. You did, so I’m with Rush.

A cyanide pill, a revolver, a hemp noose, a hose from the exhaust pipe fed through the car window… gotta love those old suicidal tendencies! So much for a liberal’s advice on renewal of a party they hate. >>