November Will Only Stop the Bleeding
By Wes Keene | April 8, 2010 | In Category: Elections
It’s a given that during Obama’s first term he will lose Congressional seats in the mid-term elections. That’s simply history you can’t reasonably argue against. What remains to be seen is just how big of a grab the GOP can make. Conservatives are certainly still not madly in love with the GOP. Looking at polling data, while the country is decidedly against ObamaCare, and while the GOP does outpace the Democrats in every generic ballot poll, it isn’t by much.
Michael Steele certainly hasn’t done anything to help the situation. With at least one Republican chair calling for him to step down, it seems that his days could be limited. Perhaps it will help Republicans if Steele is gone, but is the rest of their house in order? Perhaps not. The health care debate might have confused some who thought the GOP had returned to traditional conservatism. While the GOP did manage to stay completely on message for about a year in regard to the toxic health care bill, after it passed they seem to be falling apart again with a mixed message of “repeal”, and “replace”. Why would you bother to say you’re going to replace a bill which is universally hated in your base? A more logical approach would be to maintain the hard line “repeal” message. Conservatives are looking for signs of weakness, and this “replace” funny business fits the bill.
The Tea Party is seen as something of a force to contend with in the May primaries, and in November. While championing conservative causes and candidates they have rightfully been brutal on liberal Democrats. What the GOP needs to remember is that the Tea Party is independent. They have a self-assigned primary obligation to serve conservative, traditional values. That means on occasion they have come out swinging against various “moderate” Republicans. Many conservatives see that as a good thing, since they feel they are weeding out the “weak” Republicans in favor of “true” conservative candidates. It could cut into Republicans votes in November.
This is a bitter sweet movement for conservatives. For years they’ve simply been taught that Republicans are the slight lesser of two evils. For the most part the GOP has been reliably against personal entitlement programs, and it’s worth repeating that they were solidly against health care reform (at least until it passed). To their credit, they have, at times tried very hard to stay true to conservatives. On the other hand, they have a legacy of Medicare Part D, endless war funding, Wall Street bailouts (which amount to a Washington takeover of finance), and near complicity on auto bailouts.
Conservatives have been awakenedand have realized that while Bush was hands down better than the current administration, he did spend, as one conservative put it “like Paris Hilton on a binder”. That seems like a fitting assessment. He blew through the savings the previous Republican Congress had managed to accumulate, almost instantly. There is a lot of apprehension about simply putting in another John McCain, Lindsey Graham, or even George Bush. These are all like-able people in the GOP camp, but most conservatives know they are not conservative and represent the same Washington mentality that landed us where we are.
November will indeed be a great month for the GOP no matter what. Conservatives, however, know that one election will solve very little. That’s especially true if attempts to install more conservative candidates wind up putting Democrats in for another term this country simply cannot afford.
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