In a radio interview on Dave Berns’ “State of Nevada” program on KNPR out of Las Vegas yesterday, I said it was actually a great day for conservatives. Not Republicans. Conservatives. To which my friend and political pundit Jon Ralston responded that I must be in denial and hung over from crying in my beer election night. But I was, and am, dead serious. Let me explain…
Without taking anything away from the impressive campaign that Barack Obama ran, the fact is voters didn’t reject conservatism on Tuesday. They rejected the rejection of conservatism. They rejected Republicans who claimed to be fiscal conservatives but governed as fiscal liberals.
President George W. Bush’s eight years of “compassionate conservatism” wasn’t conservative. It was big government Republicanism. John McCain was no conservative. Conservatives knew it. The ones who voted for him, like myself, did so only by holding their noses. As for Republicans in Congress, the leadership hasn’t pushed a conservative agenda since the 1994 Contract with America.
All this became bitterly clear, even to the most self-deluded GOP partisans, when Bush, McCain and the Republican Party leadership in Congress embraced that $700 billion (and counting) Wall Street bailout just a few short weeks ago.
Voters, particularly conservatives, fired a shot across the bow of the SS GOP in 2006 by knocking them out of the majority in both the House and the Senate. Republicans, naturally, didn’t learn a damned thing and kept doing the same ol’ things the same ol’ ways. So voters this week decided to give them a beating they’d never forget. And then some.
So while Democrats scored phenomenal ballot box victories Tuesday, that was a rejection of GOP governing and campaign incompetence, not an embrace of full-scale socialism – even though Barack Obama is, unquestionably, a socialist.
Remember, one of the most important aspects of the Obama campaign was the promise to CUT TAXES for 95 percent of the people. Folks, that’s a conservative agenda.
His campaign also spent a ton of time and money telling people that Barack Obama would not take away our guns. Folks, that’s a conservative agenda.
On the campaign trail and in debates, Obama said he’d pay for his new programs by cutting spending on old programs. Folks, that’s a conservative agenda.
I even heard that at one point Obama’s website had a section claiming he was pro-life. And he also came out, so to speak, as opposed to gay marriage. Folks, that’s a conservative agenda.
Now, I don’t for a minute believe Barack Obama really believes this stuff…but that’s what he campaigned on. And combined with GOP incompetence, he fooled plenty enough people to get elected. It was the political version of Three-card Monte. But once the rubes discover they’ve been conned, they’ll be open to electing Republicans again to the House and/or Senate in 2010, if…
IF.
If Republicans finally wake up and smell the coffee. As Newt likes to say, real change requires real change. Not tinkering around the edges. REAL CHANGE.
That means that if Mitch McConnell is going to remain as Minority Leader in the Senate, he needs to at least bring Tom Coburn and/or Jim DeMint into leadership positions. I’m sure a case is being made to promote John Ensign instead; however, you can’t overlook the fact that Ensign ran the National Republican Senatorial Committee this year and may end up losing even more seats than Elizabeth Dole lost two years ago when she ran the NRSC. How does the party of merit justify rewarding such a colossal failure?
Under the circumstances, Senate Republicans ought to task the Nevada senator with a single mission for the next two years…
Taking out Harry Reid in 2010.
Kinda like tasking Dorothy with taking out the Wicked Witch of the West. You do that, and you get your heart’s desire, Sen. Ensign.
Over in the House, Republicans took a severe beating in 2006. But their leadership hadn’t been in place for a full term, so House members re-elected them last year.
No excuses this time around. Boom, boom…out go the lights. Nothing short of a wholesale change of the entire House leadership team is acceptable, starting with Minority Leader John Boehner. Republicans simply can’t keep rewarding failure. At least former Democrat Minority Leader Dick Gephardt realized that after two losing two successive elections in the 1990s it was time to step aside and give someone else a shot.
If House Republicans won’t change leaders - including, if not especially, Boehner - donors should snap their wallets shut and grassroots activists should sit on their hands until they come to their senses. They should support only Republicans who vote for wholesale leadership change.
Meanwhile, over at the Republican National Committee there’s only one sensible course of action. When the RNC convenes for its Winter Meeting next January, they HAVE to elect Michael Steele as the party’s National Chairman.
Not because he’s black.
Because he’s the best, most qualified person for the job.
Being black, with a black hombre in the White House, is merely a bonus.
Steele is a former Maryland Republican Party chairman, so he knows how a party organization operates and will be able to relate to and work well with the other state chairmen.
He’s also a former lieutenant governor, so he knows how government works (or doesn’t work, as the case may be).
He’s also been a statewide candidate twice: won one and lost the other. So he knows both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. Oh, and he won as a Republican in the People’s Republic of Maryland…big time Democrat territory (61 percent for Obama).
Presently, he runs GOPAC - the GOP’s premier candidate recruitment and training organization.
Plus, he’s an unapologetic fiscal and social conservative who can articulate the conservative message effectively and isn’t afraid of the press.
Oh, and Vice President-elect Joe Biden said he was clean.
Yes, real change requires real change. And desperate times call for desperate measures. These are desperate times for Republicans…and the nation. Republicans, heal thyselves. Or be prepared for yet another thrashing in 2010.
Posted on November 6th, 2008 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: National
Chuck, you’re a madman!
“The election was a rejection of the rejection of conservatism”?
You should take a break from blogging, as you are losing your freaking mind.
You and every other clown on Fox news for trade Obama as “the biggest liberal in Congress”, and now after he wins you say people were just voting against McCain.
Now God knows the ditto heads and wing nuts to read your website religiously might believe that, but the 52% of America that voted FOR Obama, we’re certainly not voting against McCain. (Although some may have been voting against Palin, as she would be worse than me as President)
I like your post sometimes, but this is the most “wishful thinking” I’ve ever seen from your blog.
Visit me at
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If people really had wanted change, they would have thrown out every single House member and Senator and started from scratch. However, I would settle for seeing the pooh-bahs in the Republican leadership step aside.
Another wake up call for the RNC, NRP and CCRP is their commitment or lack of to the Latino vote.
They too voted Democrat but also conservative as shown on Proposition 8 in California and against gay marriage in Florida.
Chuck part of the lemons were so call Republicans that only self served themselves on this campaign. You see there are two type of people in politics, those who are true successful individuals in their personal and professional lives and only come to serve the party with the honest intention of serving the mission of our GOP and those who are looser and have empty careers, or lack of, therefore seek their glory in the party and at the expense of the success of our mission.
Let’s hope that when we make that lemonade we use organic ingredients…
Chuck,
Absolutely, dead-on analysis. When Republicans under Newt pledged the contract with America, they won by huge margins, when they didn’t live up to the contract, they were rejected in 2006 and unfortunately, not humiliated enough so 2008 had to be a harsh rejection as well.
Bush has handed Obama a hugely-bloated government and in just the last month, a huge OWNERSHIP of the US banking system. Don’t think that a leftist leader like Barak Obama isn’t going to leverage that power to advance his socialist causes.
We have an incredible dearth of conservative leadership nationally, and it translates locally. With no focused national agenda to rally to, even solid, non-controversial senators like Beers and Heck can’t get a fair hearing with the public.
The Republican Party needs to shed it’s identity crisis and stand up for its true ideals of limited government, lower taxes and regulation, personal and private property rights, and fiscal restraint. And not just in the campaigns, but also in governance! Where can we find leaders like that?
Unfortunately Tim, the identity crisis has manifested itself with the Republican elite, both in poltical office (what’s left of them) and in the media. Based on what I’ve seen so far, these people are still in denial (the cowardly “anonymous source” ostensibly from the McCain campaign who trashed Governor Palin after the election being a prime example). Memo to all of you McCain handlers: Sarah Palin did not blow the election for you. You and Senator McCain did that all by yourselves.
Chuck is right in saying Republicans do need to clean house if they want to survive. But at the same time, there has to be a galvanizing force, to bring together people with varying views. Reagan was successful because he was able to form a coalition of religious and libertarian-leaning conservatives, along with DC insiders like Bob Dole and conservative democrats. All of those things you listed for what should be at the top of a conservative agenda are spot on, but Republicans can’t say “only pragmatic libertarians need apply,” or they won’t be much different than the Libertarian party, which is really nothing more than a debating society.
As for making lemonade with “organic ingredients,” sorry, but I’ve gotta have my yellow dye #5.
[…] Two local opinions on the change of leadership may be suggesting the proper direction the Republican party must take. The first is this opinion in the Las Vegas Review-Journal about the need identify traditional limited government fiscal conservatives to replace the big government Republicans who have been running things the last few years. The second is from Chuck Muth’s blog where he suggests that fiscal conservative Michael Steel from Maryland be the new RNC chair. […]
I am in 100% agreement with this article.
As Republicans, we need non-performers step aside. It is union-mentality that keeps non-performers in position!
As for Michael Steele, I have been watching him for a year now and I am so impressed by his ideas. I was so pleased to hear that others are noticing him as well.
[…] The Muthster lays it out clean in his post “Turning the Bush-McCain Lemon Into Lemonade.” […]
Chuck - This balls on post is yet another example of why you are The Guy everyone should be listening to here in NV. I agree with every word, comma, and asterisk. Maybe the state and national GOP will get a freaking clue now and start paying guys like you what you are worth. Viva the Muthster!!
And I love the idea of Michael Steel for RNC chair. Or Newt.
Who do we put the pressure on to get Steele in the position? Please post a name and contact info so we can start.
Thanks!