The Road Map

Alright, indulge me for a moment as I get on this megaphone and lay a framework for what happens next. 

1. Accept It – we lost. we lost bad. Just because we saved Mitch McConnell and may have saved Stevens’ seat (temporarily) as well as Chambliss’ and Coleman’s, we lost. The map has changed. For two cycles we had Michael Moore’s erroneous designation of Jesusland and they had the coasts (consequentially where I live). The map has been redrawn and the rules are now changed. Several things have become apparent from this election that we need to come to grips with.

2. Abortion is approached incorrectly – Conservatism lost in Colorado and South Dakota. An amendment to ban abortion lost by 10% in South Dakota If it is going to pass anywhere, it is going to pass in South Dakota. That is a referendum on our agenda. I am not saying that we are wrong about abortion and the value for human life, but the approach is wrong. I believe that issues of choice and life are the wrong way to couch the issue because the other side will not listen when the catch word is released. Abortion should be couched in a two tier Robert George/ Peter SInger right/left analysis. First, are you willing to acknowledge that a fetus is a human? Second, are you willing to extinguish a life for the economic welfare of society? That is the question. Let’s remove women’s rights and religion from it and take it for what it is, a Constitutional right that some are willing to take away from the least of us. Twenty-three pairs of chromosomes is twenty-three pairs of chromosomes no matter which way you toss them. This leads us into 

3. The Rural Vote – the failure of the abortion amendment in San Francisco as well as the turn in the states (especially ethanol voting Iowa) tells us that the “redneck” (as Murtha would couch it) vote does not belong to us. We have taken the redneck vote for granted as much as the Democrats have used the African-American people.  I am not calling the Republican party the party of greed or saying that we have not done enough for the middle class. I am saying that we can’t win the middle class vote unless we explain to them that we are catering to them.  What is the best way to do so? Connect with them. The secret to the Republican Revolution of 2004 was that the new congress was the middle class vote. Pollster Frank Luntz gave each Republican running for the positions a football. At the rallies, the candidates would throw the football at someone in the audience who, when they had possession, would be able to air their thoughts and grievances. Those are our Joe the Plumbers. If we listen, we can help them. Next, we have the non-rural blue collars

3. The Union Vote – I have posted about this before and have gotten crap for this and will likely get more in the future, but our best bet for victory is to abandon Wal-Mart or find a fine balance. First, before I get into this, Wal-Mart is the best friend of the middle class there is. If you live in a rural area, Wal-Mart keeps your gas low and their prices low by providing everything in one place. Wal-Mart can allow a middle or lower class individual to live like an upper middle class individual. Wal-Mart is the biggest Republican donor. The problem is that the union leaders are anti Wal-Mart. We have the perfect opportunity right now to take the union vote. President Elect [ ] and the Liberal Congress are ready to institute card check. This will impair union members individual freedoms to vote the way they want to, especially in one state…

4. Target Nevada 2010 – After Kerry lost 2004, the nutroots, which I guess we are now, had a game plan to undermine the Bush administration. They targeted important Congressional seats, taking the House and the Senate and torpedoing our presumptive 2008 candidate, George Allen. To get back in power, we need to target Nevada hard starting tomorrow. Someone there needs to step up. My colleague, Reagan21, says to look to Jon Porter and Dean Heller as potential candidates to take Reid down. If you are in Nevada and are pissed, get up and start mobilizing.  But…

5. Other Senate seats – Because of our success in 2002, 2010 is going to be the biggest Senate race we have in the coming decade. We are defending 18 senate seats and they are defending 14 senate seats. Odds are in their favor. It is very likely that McCain’s seat in Arizona will be an open seat as well as Arlen Specter’s in Pennsylvania. The Democrats have numerous seats which they have NO chance of losing including Russ Feingold, Pat Leahy, Chuck Schumer, Evan Bayh, Daniel Inouye, and Barbara Boxer. If you are in Arkansas, target Blanche Lincoln. Libertarians in Colorado, what has Ken Salazar done to reduce government size? Jesse Jackson Jr. will be the Messiah’s replacement and will be in a position of weakness as an appointment. Jack Ryan, would you care to come back to the party and help? We can  take Byron Dorgan out in North Dakota if we organize early. I think that the Patty Murray Washington seat is competitive in light of the Oregon Senatorial race. We stand to lose unless we start acting up and taking care of business form day 1. Obama won, not because he was competent, but because he had an excellent ground game. We need to take that ground game and use it to our advantage, which Ieads us to…

6. The New Republicans Same As The Old –  Obama won by tapping into discontent and supposedly tapping into new voters. I say supposedly because at this point, the vote total is less than it was in 2004. Regardless, if we are losing the rural vote and are unlikely to gain the ignorant college vote, we need to find new voters. Besides the union vote, listed above, who shares values with us, there is another group out there that expands every year that we need to tap into. We need to tap into new Americans. The proudest Americans are those that have fled the oppression of their country to arrive here in the land of opportunity. As soon as they become citizens, we need to explain to them what our ideology is and register them as Republican. These individuals will go back to their communities, likely already socially conservative and become voices for the cause of small government. Although, there reaches a point…

7. Tipping Point – Not Malcolm Gladwell, but the point of no return. My friend and I had dinner tonight and we discussed this point. Under an Obamastration, we may cross the point where the individual making the medium income in America is getting more from the government than he puts in. That will push the tax burden to the one half of the people and that is something that there is no coming back from. There is no way to spread the responsibility for running the country back to all people after you put the burden on the shoulders of the few. If this point happens, look to see a massive realignment of state interests and renewed interest in federalism. We will want our state laws to govern more than the national government unless…

8. Foreign Policy – Joe Biden pretty much said it is inevitable that there will be an attack on the US or on US interests in an Obamastration. Just today, Israel launched missiles into the Gaza, and they responded in kind. Russia moved missiles to the EU border. Russia has been selling tanks to Venezuela. China always looms. Iran’s elections changed nothing. An international crisis is brewing. While FDR was preceded by Coolidge and Hoover who weren’t known for their internationalist tendencies, PE BHO is preceded by W. and Clinton who had a pervasive influence all over the world. He can’t just duck his head in the sand and hide from the harsh reality of what is going on. If he does…

9. Republican Leadership – Contrary to popular belief we have strong leadership in both houses. Blunt and Cantor are running hard and strong as voices of opposition in the House. Pence was one of the strongest proponents of energy reform and Boehner is there. Today we had wonderful essays about conservatism from Reps. Flake and McCotter, neither of whom I was aware of till today. I would also love to see Jeri Thompson (video linked) run for congress in 2010. In the Senate, we are weakened but there is still strength. We will have Mitch McConnell ready to filibuster any judges or the Fairness Doctrine. John Cornyn can take a leadership position. Whoever will replace Ted Stevens needs to be a reformer. Lastly, let’s face facts…

10. Rush is Right – Rush Limbaugh is the leader of the Republican party, not the conservative wing, but THE Republican party. None of us bloggers who are in our 20’s would be around if it was not for Rush. Half our elected congress-folk would not be in office. He taught us civics growing up, he explained federalism and he has not become marginalized. Others, I’m looking at you Ross Douthat, have questioned Rush’s logic during the end-days of the election, but he was completely right. McCain did not bring any Democrats over besides the Hillary people who would have gone to Romney or Huckabee. They voted the way they did because of the way they were treated, not because of a special alignment with McCain. We failed with the conservatism and we need to win it back. Last night, Obama said that America has never been a nation of individuals. This collectivist malarkey is what Rush has been preaching against for the past 20 years. Trust him and trust us to guide you through troubled times. Join a campaign tomorrow. If not, find someone without a drug record you can believe in.  Mobilize my people!

Time for New Leadership

It is time for new leadership. McConnell, Blunt and even Boehner have led us to two straight losing cycles in Congress. They are not doing a good job. 

TBV endorses Eric Cantor (R-VA), the fundraising machine from south of DC to take the lead in the House which we understand he already plans to do.

Eric Cantor

For the Senate, we hope to have John Cornyn (R-TX) as minority leader. He is a strong and forceful voice for conservatism and can lead us out of the wilderness.

John Cornyn

Lastly, we recommend Michael Steele (Mr. “Drill Baby Drill”) for RNC Chair. He is a presence and can articulate conservatism of the Newt kind. There is a case to be made for Fred Thompson, who would make a great minority party chair, but his hey day is behind him. We need an energy guy and Michael Steele is that guy.

Michael Steele

Freddoso Interviews Cantor

David Freddoso interviews Eric Cantor at National Review:

Barney Frank, Barack Obama, and other Democrats have suggested that this problem resulted from a philosophy of deregulation. Is that explanation fair, or what’s really at the heart of this?

A basic explanation of how we are where we are is the devalued state of the real estate market. We’ve had monetary policies that have allowed free credit to flow. We’ve had oversight regulators that have not done an adequate job in certain instances. But let’s see where we first started going off course. That was during the Carter administration, when Congress began this process of pushing lending institutions into extending credit to uncreditworthy borrowers. 

This is the Community Reinvestment Act that you’re talking about?

Yes. And in fact, as the regulations developed, banks would be punished if they couldn’t demonstrate a certain number of loans on their books that were extended to those who were not worthy of that type of credit. It started a very bad trend. And then we had Fannie and Freddie, who continued this cycle and really ramped up that kind of lending in an exponential way with a very ineffective oversight regime, a fault of both Congress and the administration.

If there were one or two changes you could make to get more Republicans on board, what would you do in order to have the bill pass in an improved version?

First of all, an insurance program that would apply to certain classes of assets would help reduce the amount of money flowing out of the Treasury. Also, I think if you put in language about the mark-to-market rule — repealing that instead of just asking for a study about it. There’s not unanimity, but there’s a growing consensus about the impact of the implementation of that rule by the regulators as well as the accounting firms. 

I also think that folks are very concerned about the short-selling situation at the FEC. We absolutely have to reinstate the uptick rule, and from what I’m told there’s runaway naked short-selling (the short-selling of stocks one does not actually possess) that tends to imperil the market. We need much stricter enforcement on the naked short-selling.

Boehner: Bailout is a “Crap Sandwich”

Patrick O’Connor of Politico reports:

In a closed-door session with House Republicans, Minority Leader John A. Boehner just called the financial rescue deal a “crap sandwich” – then said he’ll vote for it when it comes to the floor Monday.

House Republicans are the key to the bill’s passage – Speaker Nancy Pelosi said earlier today that it’s a “bipartisan” bill and will need “bipartisanship” to pass – and it now appears that a substantial number of them will put cast their votes in favor of it.

According to a source in the room, the plan has so far won endorsements from Minority Whip Roy Blunt, who negotiated it on behalf of the House Republicans; Eric Cantor, the chief deputy whip; and Paul Ryan, a hard-core conservative from Wisconsin who may hold more sway with conservatives on this issue than any other member of the House.

But like Boehner, Ryan wasn’t exactly happy about how things have unfolded. Referring to the situation facing the country – and not the bill itself – Ryan said, “This sucks.”

I am not sure if Boehner is referencing the classic South Park episode regarding the 2004 election where Stan was forced to choose between a “Turd Sandwich” or a “GIant Douche.” Personally, I supported the turd sandwich.  It’s a bad position that the House conservatives are in, but at least they put up a fight though the fight seemingly was for naught.

It’s good to see Eric Cantor involved in this to such a high degree.  He is the future of the Republican party as far as the House goes and he needs to make himself a national name.  The guy could be the next Newt.