July 20, 2010

Conservatives and Republican Victory

By Bruce Walker

Republican victory at the polls is only the start of the fight for conservatives.

The Republican Party has a real chance, because of the unusually good composition of the 2012 and 2014 Senate elections, to acquire something that Republicans have never had before: a filibuster-proof Senate. It is probable that Republicans will actually gain House seats in the 2012 elections because Republican state government gains in 2010 may, for the first time in a very long time, mean that the redistricting process before the 2012 election will actually favor Republicans, increasing their House numbers by twenty seats or more. If a conservative Republican wins the White House in 2012, the Republicans will be able -- for the first time ever -- to actually enact their agenda over the united opposition of every Democrat.

Does Republican victory mean conservative victory? Of course not! That is why it is so important for conservatives to vote in primary elections, attend party caucus meetings, and otherwise push the Republican Party, every day and in every way, toward limited government, traditional Judeo-Christian moral values, states' rights, lower taxes, and other conservative positions. That is why I strongly favored the independent conservative Doug Hoffman last year, even though that might cost Republicans a seat in upstate New York.

But it is a big mistake to view Republicans and Democrats as ideological clones. Consider this startling fact: In every congressional delegation of every state of the union, every single Republican member of that state delegation is more conservative than every single Democrat member of that state delegation. The two keys to a real revolution are fairly straightforward: (1) select conservative candidates and conservative leaders in the Republican Party, and next (2), ensure that Republicans have the muscle to enact, in a brief period, long-lasting and revolutionary changes.

Conservatives are doing an outstanding job in gaining strong control of the Republican Party. Not a single Republican House member supported the stimulus package or ObamaCare. The primary season so far has been an almost unbroken string of more conservative Republicans pushing out less conservative Republicans. Rubio pushed Crist out of the Republican Party. Toomey did the same to Specter. Perry defeated Hutchison in Texas. Utah's veteran Senator Bennett was denied re-nomination. Although conservatives have not jelled around a presidential nominee yet, that is because until the dust of 2010 settles, no one can know who the strongest candidates will be.

Will Republicans win the muscle to pass laws over the objection of the entire Democratic Party? Only if every conservative grasps that this is the first chance that conservatives have had since the New Deal to roll back secular nanny-statism -- and that it may be the last chance, too. ObamaCare, for example, will be repealed only if Republicans do not need a single Democrat vote in Congress. If ObamaCare is not repealed soon, then it will become one of those indestructible "entitlement" programs which gobble up huge chunks of the economy.

Conservatives should also enact, in a narrow window of real power, reforms that dramatically consign control over education back to families and which encourage the rapid growth of small business, which is not only the economic dynamo of American enterprise, but also the only counterweight to the corporate fascism Obama is trying to force on America. There are several critical reforms which, if passed in a single session of Congress (assuming the GOP has the numbers), would permanently move our republic back on the course of ordered liberty, modest governance, and moral society. It would be extraordinarily simple to prevent Democrats from repealing these reforms: While Republicans have never had this carte blanche power, Democrats have held it for only a few brief years, separated by several decades.

I know some conservatives do not trust the Republican Party. I too think too many Republican elected officials are in this for the game and not the principles. But we have no power to change the warped structure of federal power without using elected officials. We do not, and should not want to, live in a democracy. If conservatives control the Republican caucuses in Congress -- if House and Senate Republican leaders are true conservatives -- then conservatives can get their agenda passed. (Witness how relatively inept Democrat leaders, because they controlled the White House and the leadership positions, passed very unpopular legislation.)

I care little for the private motives of particular elected officials, which are secrets known only to God, than I care for what they actually do. And if Republicans gain this temporary superpower, then a million watchful, knowing conservative eyes will examine what these politicians actually do. If we can, for one brief Congress, enact a true conservative agenda, we will have won, very likely, forever. Worth the risk, I would say.

Bruce Walker is the author of two books: Sinisterism: Secular Religion of the Lie and The Swastika against the Cross: The Nazi War on Christianity.