Incoming

 

by Lance Thompson

This week, Washington’s political balance of power will shift when the Republicans establish a decisive majority in the House of Representatives, and erase the filibuster-proof Democrat majority in the Senate. Conservatives hope this means a major course change for the ship of state, but we are waiting to be convinced. In that regard, let me offer some unsolicited advice for the Republicans in Congress.

TREAT US LIKE ADULTS. We understand the critical state of our economy and the precarious grip we all have on individual liberty thanks to two years of Democrats running wild. Do no try to conceal or minimize the stakes. We understand that the previous Democrat Congress has spent more money than the last fifty combined. We understand that they have amassed debt that will take generations to repay. We understand that they have taken over key parts of the private sector–industrial, financial and labor. We understand that they have embarked on a massive and unprecedented expansion of government power and scope. But this does not relieve you of the responsibility to articulate these threats, repeatedly, persuasively, and consistently. This crisis is the reason you are now in the majority, and it must be the basis upon which you legislate in the next two years. We know it will involve sacrifice and hardship. Give it to us straight. We can take it.

HAVE THE COURAGE OF YOUR CONVICTIONS. Many of the freshmen Republicans will be driven by campaign pledges and the enthusiastic response of voters to those pledges. The new majority was achieved by candidates who promised to cut spending, reduce the size of government, repeal Obamacare, free the private sector from crippling taxes and regulation, and restore the preeminence of the Constitution. But their zeal will be diluted with advice from veteran legislators who will tell them that they must go along to get along, who preach the false gospel of bipartisanship, and who were complicit in the the expansion of government that began during the second Bush administration. If you ran and prevailed on conservative principles, then govern on conservative principles. You were sent to Washington to change the status quo, not preserve it. Do as you promised, and you will serve your constituents as well as the nation.

DON’T COMPROMISE WITH THE PRESIDENT. Though Republicans have control over one house of Congress, the President still holds the veto pen. But don’t let the big White House and the fancy seal intimidate you. This President is weak. The year-end flurry of activity that he touts as a triumph of bipartisanship was actually the last gasp of a disastrous Democrat majority. And the President was making deals with Republicans who were still the minority party in the last Congress. He will have drastically less influence with the new Congress. President Obama is not a fighter. He won on the stimulus package, on health care, and several other examples of government over-reach, but always because he held the upper hand. He has no experience in a fair fight. Let him threaten vetos, rage at the electorate, and beg for compromise. But when he had all the cards, he never compromised. Call his bluff and stand on principle–the President will fold.

RESPOND TO YOUR CONSTITUENTS. A major cause of the Democrat exodus from Capitol Hill was that they refused to listen to constituents. In town halls, on talk radio, in letters and e-mails and rallies across the country, we told our representatives that we didn’t want Obamacare, didn’t want more deficit spending, didn’t want bail-outs and takeovers. They didn’t listen. They triumphantly passed legislation on partisan lines, and told themselves that we would take it and like it. We did neither. But that restive electorate is still paying attention, maybe more so now than even a year ago. We will be watching the negotiations, the deals, the debate and the results. We know bold action is necessary, and we will demand to see it. Talk to us, listen to us, keep us informed, and include us in the process. For two years, the government has made decisions that curb our freedoms, bury us in debt, and abuse our Constitution, almost all carried out behind closed doors or in defiance of our laws. Throw open the process to public scrutiny, and invite the American people to voice their opinion. They are informed, focused and anxious to participate in government. They will be heard, as they proved in November.

We have two years to alter the calamitous course set by President Obama, Senator Reid and Speaker Pelosi. It will require hard work in Washington, and diligence on the part of voters. Our nation has weathered great crises in the past. We are equal to the challenge. We trust our leaders are up to it as well.

Nothing in Moderation

by Lance Thompson

In the wake of the presidential election, some Republicans are recommending that the party should soften its views, back away from hard-line conservatism, and blur the differences between us and the Democrats. These people are called moderates, and the prescription they offer is deadly.

The Democrats did not win with a moderate candidate. Barack Obama was the nation’s most liberal Senator until he became the nation’s most liberal president. John McCain, on the other hand, was a moderate Republican, with a record of reaching across the aisle and favoring Democrat views on issues such as immigration, global warming, and tax cuts. This moderate candidate was clobbered by his immoderate opponent.

In response to the election, moderates will say that we must follow the trend, that Republicans should embrace the issues the Democrats won on. They encourage us to abandon conservative principles, evolve with the times, and adopt positions more in line with the Democrats, who scored many victories.

But we can never out-Democrat the Democrats. The closer the GOP gets to Democratic principles, the less reason there is for Republicans to exist. Why would a Democrat vote for a watered-down version of his own party? We will not only fail to woo Democrats with a slightly less-liberal version of their own platform, we will also alienate the ideological conservative core of our own party.

If liberals are right, and most of the nation subscribes to their principles of peace at any cost, of punishing success with high taxes and redistribution of income, of turning America into a nanny state where all people are dependent on the government for their needs, of opening our borders and legitimizing illegal aliens, of crippling industry as a sacrifice to the false faith of global warming, then conservatives are wrong and should retire from politics.

But if conservatives are right that freedom must be defended at all costs, that success is the well-earned reward of individual initiative, that government should be small and unobtrusive, that our borders must be secure and that immigrants must follow our laws, that global warming is a chimera whose remedies will cripple our economy, then why should we moderate our views at all?

If conservatives are right, what value is there in diluting our just cause? Would you trust a business partner who is moderately honest? Would you place your life in the hands of a moderately skillful surgeon? Would you be happy in a marriage to a moderately faithful spouse? Then what value is there in a moderately conservative candidate? To whatever extent he departs from conservative principles, he is to the same extent departing from the proper course.

Moderate Republicans have already diluted tough immigration laws, voted for the financial bailout bill, and blamed the failure of the incompetent McCain campaign on Sarah Palin--the most promising new conservative in a quarter of a century. How much more damage can they do to conservative principles if their views shape the future of the GOP?

Moderate candidates do not prevail. Voters don’t rally to the banners of moderate candidates. Moderate candidates are compromised in their principles by definition.

Moderate voters are equally uninspiring. These are the ones who aren’t interested in the campaign during the primaries, don’t focus on the issues until the last few weeks or even days of the campaign, and haven’t made up their minds until the last minute. Moderate voters don’t knock on doors, work the phone, send out e-mails and plant yard signs. Moderate voters do not contribute to campaigns or financially support candidates. Moderate voters are the casual observers at the fringe of the fight, with little invested in either outcome.

The reclamation of the GOP will not be accomplished by moderate candidates or constituents. The beacon for Republicans is not straddling a fence or sitting in the middle of the road. Our destination is defined by strong, unyielding conservative principles. There is no need to qualify our creed with labels such as "compassionate conservatism" or "new conservatism."

Much effort will be required to rebuild the Republican Party. That effort will only be rewarded if we start with a solid foundation. We must not build the future of our party on the shifting sands of moderation, but rather on the solid bedrock of conservative principle.

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