As a conservative/libertarian, I generally find that the Republican party’s positions are closer to my own than those of the Democrat party. If Republican are defined as being small government, strong defense, low taxes and traditional values, I would agree with them on the first 3 out of those 4. George Bush helped move the party pretty far from the principle of small government. And, supporting so-called “traditional values” conflicts the goal of having small government. It’s takes quite a bit of government resources to wage the drug war, police people’s sex lives and keep teh gays out of the local library books.
Since the Democrats seek and even more expansive government that takes over health care, requires public service from everyone, desires increased taxes to make things more “fair”, willfully obstructs business and economic growth through nanny-state rules and ill-advised environmental regulations, among other things, I just can’t support their agenda. In addition, suggesting that the party that brought us DOMA and DADT, is better on gay issues is simply not plausible.
Thus, I would very much like to see Republicans return to their core values (except one) and return to greater power in this country. To do so, the Republicans must do certain things:
- Organize better. The GOP used to be known as the party with the better organization on the ground. But, they failed to adapt to modern realities, especially the internet. Barack Obama mastered the use of vast email databases, online fund raising and interacting with blogs. McCain’s campaign showed some skill with the quickly produced YouTube video, but it wasn’t enough.
- Get a younger candidate and one who is more eloquent. Palin was actually pretty good on the stump. With more practice and preparation, she could do better in interviews. Bobby Jindal seems to have a pretty good media sense about him. I’m sure there are others.
- Get a damn message. McCain shifted message throughout the campaign and offered nothing that would stick. “Hope and change” was an empty and meaningless message, but timely and effective. The Republican vision (the pre-Bush Republican vision) can be explained. Reagan did it and largely stuck to it. People know that government workers aren’t smarter and shouldn’t be allowed to run their lives. People know that if they have to send more money to the government, they have less to spend. People understand that a weak military can’t defend the country or help our allies. People understand that myriad and byzantine rules are expensive and difficult for businesses to comply with. People still yearn to be free, including free from their own government telling them how to live their lives.
Barack Obama will be running again in four years. In the mean time, Republicans need to stick to their principles, be the loyal – not lunatic – opposition and be able to say four years from now that they have cleaned up their act while the Democrats are still taking and misspending their money and weakening this country. I’m only moderately hopeful.
