Residual Forces

I’m getting tired of the blame for the 2006 elections and the liberal policies becoming law under Democratic Rule falling on conservatives. Yes, Republicans got their butt kicked in 2006. Sure maybe some conservatives stayed home, but I find it incredibly hard to believe they were the only ones. 

Turn out was down, WAY down. In Minnesota we had 57% which was the lowest since 1994. Those who did show up overwhelmingly chose Democrat candidates over Republicans by a 60/40 split for the most part. Republicans lost many seats to Democrats masquerading as conservatives. 

Now there are a bunch of the usual types who seem to take pleasure in blaming us conservatives for staying home and teaching Republicans a lesson, for the power Democrats have. But they need look no further than the mirror. Republican lost power because they abused it while they had it. 

I don’t believe that the 20 point margin was just conservatives, if it was it would bode well for conservatives and Republican party leaders laying out plans for retaking the gavels both nationally and here in Minnesota. 

The problem is that they didn’t learn anything. They took the 2006 election as a rebuke of conservatism, when it was really a rebuking of Republicans saying one thing and doing another. Republicans were thrown from power because, frankly, they acted like Democrats. Greed, corruption, and scandal tainted the party brand up and down the ballot, right or wrong, it did. 

Voters noticed.

As much as some RINOs & moderate Republicans would have you to believe, I don’t think it was conservatives who handed the Republicans the shocking losses at the ballot box. The swing voters who usually chose the Republicans showed up but chose Democrats because they couldn’t trust us anymore. They didn’t vote against Republicans because we were too conservative, but rather because we weren’t as conservative as we were supposed to or said we’d be at the last election. 

Let’s assume everyone who voted Democrat in 06 is a real Democrat and the margin was really conservatives who stayed home. That’s the angle some want to use to guilt us into blind party loyalty. That means there are 20% of conservative votes out there looking for a reason to show up and vote. (typical MN turnout is high 70’s to low 80%)

What has the Republican party done to get those missing conservative voters out to pull the lever? Shame them? Lecture them? Guilt them? Sorry, but it ain’t their job after election day to enact what they said they would. 

The message from the Minnesota Republican party has nothing to do with Republicans or conservatism and instead is all about mudslinging and gotcha opposition research. Sure Al Franken would be a dismal US Senator and I hope he loses, but can anyone at 525 Park St. tell me why Norm Coleman should be reelected? If you listen to his campaign, it is because he is willing to work across the isle to get things done. If you listen to the party it is because Angry Al doesn’t pay his taxes. What does that do for implementing conservative ideals?

Hello? McFly? Bueller?  

What about the conservative vote? Those people you think didn’t show up. Do you think this session of Congress and the State Legislature have taught conservatives to leave their principles at home and just shut up and show up? Wrong! If anything it has focused our core beliefs like a laser beam. Unlike those remianing in office and running the state and national party mechanisms, we found our true inner self, what makes us tick as conservatives, and found the resolve to stand for what we believe. 

So let’s just say that the low turn out was conservatives not voting in 2006. How has the Republican party and officials in charge of doing so, taken action to get their own base out? They haven’t. They are still fighting for the center voters, but with disastrous side affects. While running to stake claim of the middle of the road ideas, they left their principles and abandoned those who did get them there in the first place. 

Liberalism is not the key to getting out voters. 

Conservatism is the only alternative to what has become the debate over Government. Liberal nanny state, big government, interventionist, anti-freemarket, freedom squashing policies will be the down fall of our country. It is the opposite of what conservatism is. 

I can’t look back at the last one and a half years at what Republicans have done, or their message for the 2008 election and be proud. I’m sorry, but I can’t honestly say, yep, that’s why I am a Republican. Sure there are glimmers and bright spots, heck even some victories. But I am incredibly worried that Republicans learned nothing from the stinging defeats of 2006. 

Mechanically, ethically, morally, tactics-wise, and on the issues, I see nothing has changed from 2006 and may in fact be worse now. 

How would Republicans be different if they were in power? What is our message so voters show up and pull the lever for us? What is our vision for the future of the state and/or nation?  

Is it conservative anymore? Some Republicans are trying to redefine it into Democrat lite. (See: GOP Presidential candidate) Do you think that will bring out the voters for us, especially the conservative ones you claim stayed home? 

My contention all along is that conservatives didn’t “work” for Republicans as a whole. I think most of them voted, or at least comparable to the demographics. But they didn’t go out of their way to give more than 10 minutes to vote. They didn’t phone bank, ID neighbors, or help spread the message. That’s how elections are really won. The message. 

And why should they for a group that says one thing but does another. A group that claims to be for conservative principles, but aides liberal policies from becoming law. Who polls likely voters rather than listens to their own base?

If you look back at what happened in the Minnesota legislature in the last one and a half years, it is a conservative nightmare. It is nothing to be proud of, and it disturbs me incredibly that I’m being called a ‘gloomy gus’ by some very well connected people simply because I think the lipstick on this pig is a terrible shade of blue. 

Of course I am gloomy. Some Republicans are proud of aiding nanny state policies and the expansion of government. Heck, no one expected real cuts with the skeleton minorities Republicans had in both houses and a less than strict conservative Governor. But what would you have done differently? That was part of the contract for Minnesota, or what ever it was going to be called. Where did that go? 

I’m not alone. Jason Lewis was railing on this this evening as well. Are we supposed to be proud of taking liberal policy and cleaning it up? Is this what Republicans are for? Seriously, can you sit there and look at things and say, yeah, we kicked ass and owned them Democrats. 

Here’s how that translates to voters: Even Republicans agree with liberal polices, so why should I bother voting for them? Wait, was that the 2006 voter response, or the likely 2008 one? 

Try harder. That’s all I ask.