Michael Medved: Determined to be Moderate

A week ago, election day trounced the Moderates around the nation. Conservatives who had little to cheer about, took pleasure in seeing what Conservative gains were made, and again, there were a few. Gay marriage was defeated again in California, and in other states. 

So as we conservatives stand defeated, we do so in the knowledge that we're right, and we're going to win eventually. Then of course, the enlightened among us begin to explain, why we're not. The crying shame is that they are absolutely demonstrably wrong. Michael Medved's article today is a perfect example. 

Mr. Medved demands that people show him where a Conservative won in a statewide race, or in a national race. I can't, because there weren't any running. That's the problem Mr. Medved. 

In this article, we see that for the last thirteen years, a vast majority, sixty percent, consider themselves to be Conservative. Sixty percent of the population agrees with us that Conservative values are the best way to go, and we're afraid to do it.

Why did McCain lose? Mis-steps to be sure. However the biggest reason was issues. For the most part, there wasn't a dimes worth of difference between McCain and Obama. Let's take a couple issues shall we? 

The War on Terror. Obama wanted to withdraw the troops from Iraq, and shut down Club Gitmo. McCain wanted to leave troops in Iraq, despite the early noises from Iraq, that they would like to know when the troops are going to leave. McCain also wanted to close Gitmo. 

Energy/Environment. Obama wanted to institute a Cap and Trade policy, so did McCain. The only difference here, was McCain was in favor of Nuclear Energy. Now, with the Democrats set to gain seats in both houses, did anyone really believe that McCain would get Nuclear Energy through a Democratic Congress? 

We can do this with every single issue on the table. From the economy, more bailouts was the answer from both, more Government interference was the answer from both. To Welfare, no changes thanks, things working just fine. 

We didn't have a Conservative on the ticket who was going to tell people the truth. We had two populists running for office, and thus the more charismatic was probably going to win. Here's the thing though, Populists are pander machines. They'll pander to their base. For McCain, that was the Independent and Moderate vote. That's who he was for twenty years. 

So the idea that we didn't reach the Independents from Mr. Medved is laughable. What we failed to do was campaign with Conservative issues, because Conservatives weren't welcome until the last two months of the campaign. 

The first thing we need to do is stop apologizing for being Conservative. Despite what the Liberal elites and the Moderates would tell us, we aren't wrong. We're not racist, hate filled, nuts. We represent the majority of Americans.

For some Reason, Mr. Medved thinks that if only we were just a little more likable, more Moderate, we could have won. That's another of those laughable conclusions. Congressman Shays lost. He's about as moderate and even liberal as you can get. Yet he lost. The problem isn't that he wasn't moderate or independent enough, it's that there isn't a dimes worth of difference between him and the Democrats. 

Mr. Medved, if your prescription for our party takes hold, where we become more socialist in a doomed effort to out liberal the Democrats, I quit. If the Republicans won't take a look at this election, and consider the historic victories that Conservativism has had, and most importantly learn from it, then it's hopeless. 

Then each election is a referendum on Socialist issues, the only question being do we jog towards Socialism with the Republicans, or do we run towards them with the Democrats? If both parties offer nothing but different levels of generosity in Government Giveaway programs, then we as a nation of free thinking people, are doomed. 

Mr. Medved, do you know how Bush won those people in 2000, and 2004? He campaigned as a more conservative individual than Gore, or Kerry. The fact that he didn't govern that way, well that's another story. A story of the lack of a true belief and an ability to articulate Conservative ideals. The answer isn't to run towards the center Mr. Medved. It's to step to the right, and this time tell our elected officials, and our candidates, that we're not going to slide towards the left, we're going to run as Conservatives, and we're going to Govern as Conservatives.

Your suggestion that we should continue moving towards the left is not only unwise politically, making us the Political Party known not as the GOP but as the ME TOO. When the Democratic Candidate states he has a plan for the Government to pay the people for a toothache, we can scream "Me too." That is all the Republican Party will be, and if it does move that way, it deserves to be on the outside of Washington looking in wishing it had the power. 

If indeed that is the case, we Conservatives should consider remaking the Democratic Party. Taking it over as it were. Think about this friends. All the Conservatives voting for a Conservative Democrat candidate, along the lines of Zell Miller, for some office in the next election. If the Republican Party is determined to go farther left than the Democratic Party (which seems about impossible) then we have to consider taking the Democratic Party over, and dragging them to the right. Bringing back the era of Conservative Democrats. 

It will take us twenty years, and be a long hard fight to drag the Democrats from the clutches of the Kos Kids and the Huff Nuts, but we would probably find less resistance there than we do with the entrenched moderates like Michael Medved.