Conservatives and the 2008 elections

Here I sit in a town that is not my own reading a slew of drivel about what conservatives should take out of this past election. Since I live in New Jersey, I have heard all of these arguments before because alleged conservatives are an extinct species in NJ. But that isn't really the problem. New Jersey is exactly the model that national conservatives should shun when mapping a strategy forward. Why?

1. In New Jersey, unless a Republican (the closest thing we have to a conservative) agrees with abortion, there is a high degree of probability that the political machines will squash them out of the gate. And God forbid, they get the nomination. Google Brent Schundler to get the details on that. He lost through friendly fire before he ever competed. Abortion is an issue. Maybe to me it is important and to others less important. This needs to stop being a wedge issue among conservatives. And it needs to stop being a disqualifying issue among moderates when competing against conservatives in the party.

2. Many have argued that conservatives need to move to the middle because their beliefs don't match the electorate. This one is interesting. Barack Obama won with a solid margin. But defense of marriage won big in every election where it was on the ballot. This is not exactly a mandate against conservatism. It is as I have blogged before a great sign of voters breaking out of formerly lock-step mentality.

3. Conservative ideas don't work and need to be more liberal. How would you know in NJ or in the country? There has not been a conservative influence in our state in 40 years. And when Republicans got control of the federal government, they let down their core constituency by quickly learning to spend just like their Democrat friends. What does that prove? That Trenton and Washington corrupts and conservatives let us down.

4. Once voters believe it doesn't matter, you lose. For example, George W Bush reduced taxes by significant margins at every level. In return, states like New Jersey immediately sucked up the reduction with increases with no explanation. As a matter of fact, our corrupt governor (who became our corrupt gay governor to avoid prosecution) somehow managed to increase taxes, spending, borrowing and corruption without any media attention paid. And now NJ residents believe that "it doesn't matter who is in charge, taxes will go up".

The net for conservatives and Republicans is that we need to take a position that we stand for something. Anything. If Republicans like the former Chris Shays of CT win and we become warmed over Democrats, fine. At least the party will stand for SOMETHING. Right now, the brand is tarnished by the war, tarnished by a congress that would not hold true to its principals and catered to a pack of politicians that espoused conservative and Republican principles only when convenient but never in practice.

Time to stand up for something, anything, please....

---