GOP has forgotten its conservative ways

by BD Pisani - 2008 nov 16

A very great man expressed his thoughts after failing to secure the Republican nomination for president in 1976. The man? Ronald Wilson Reagan.

Now that the election dust has settled a bit, now that the Republican Party is licking its wounds and wondering what caused the wheels to fall off the cart, it is an opportune time to remind everyone why Ronald Reagan was such a great President.

We still learn from Reagan

President Reagan was instilled with deeply-held principles, from which he never wavered; He possessed a love of and gratitude for the greatest nation in the history of civilization; He was blessed with the ability to articulate his vision for America so every citizen could relate and understand; and he never once compromised his beliefs to become president.

But what of Reagan's thoughts prior to his presidency, after he knew he wouldn't be the presidential candidate in 1976? Read the following excerpt taken from his speech delivered at the Conservative Political Action Conference of 1975:

"Our people look for a cause to believe in. Is it a third party we need, or is it a new and revitalized second party, raising a banner of no pale pastels, but bold colors which make it unmistakably clear where we stand on all of the issues troubling the people?

A political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency, or simply to swell its numbers.

I do not believe I have proposed anything that is contrary to what has been considered Republican principle. It is at the same time the very basis of conservatism. It is time to reassert that principle and raise it to full view. And if there are those who cannot subscribe to these principles, then let them go their way."

Well. These words, spoken by a man who enlightened me and tens of millions like me, are as meaningful and powerful today as they were when uttered in 1975.

Back then, Republicans who missed or chose not to heed the warning woven within his eloquence gave us Carter. Today, a newer version of that same old Republican club again chose to ignore President Reagan's prescience and gave us Obama.

Conservatives will no longer carry GOP water

The Republican Party had better get it through its collective, country-clubbing, elitist, we-can-be-sensitive-too head that the days of conservatives supporting what has become nothing more than a distorted, fun-house mirror image of the Democrat Party are over.

The GOP can continue to disdainfully trash America's spiritual, rural, Southern, and conservative voting bloc, but only if it enjoys losing. Mind you, this is the same group of rocket scientists who still can't figure out why Republican voter turnout actually decreased in 2008 from the turnout in 2004.

Blame Governor Sarah Palin for being a drag on the McCain campaign? Sure she was ... she dragged voters like me to my voting precinct -- without her on the ticket I wouldn't have bothered. Political suicide for the GOP to actually stand for principles, limit spending, and curtail government growth? How did that work for you this time around? Got plenty of GOP behinds in those plush Senate and House chairs, do you? Hmm?

Secret to winning is no secret

First, re-read those three pesky little paragraphs highlighted above -- learn them and love them. Next, purge your party of all the David Brookes, William Kristols, and the rest of their ilk -- or at least muzzle them so they can never again do harm. Third, do not hold primaries in states that allow Democrat Party voters to vote in Republican primary elections. And finally, find candidates who have the vision and backbone to focus and develop a platform based upon these few but seminal principles:

If the Republican Party doesn't learn how to be conservative again, they will be nothing more than a badly-copied version of the Democrat Party ...

... with the exception, of course, that they will be losers.