Snow White and the Republican Dwarfs

By the way,  has anyone heard from the once great Republican Party, the party of new ideas and reform, the party of the Contract with America, the party of Ronald Reagan and Newt Gingrich?  Or, for that matter, the party of Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt?  The party of low taxes, limited government, strong defense, and traditional values?  The party of American strength and vigor, of a surging, dynamic, and innovative economy, of new technology and American know how, the party of American exceptionalism?  I have not heard a word.  It is as if they have disappeared, hiding, perhaps, afraid to speak or assert themselves, confused, swallowed up, as it were, into a news blackhole, never to be seen.  

Yes, I know the nation is riveted by the Democratic race between Clinton and Obama and the words and sentiments of Reverend Jeremiah Wright, not to mention, Michelle Obama, who may from time to time, along with her husband, trip over her mouth.  And that McCain is the presumptive Republican nominee, and for the time being out of the limelight.  But, still, I ask, where is the Republican Party and what do they think?  What is their vision for the country?  I really do not know.

Where for example is the minority leader of the House or the Senate or the Whips.  Where are our prominent, august Senators and scrappy Congressmen or other spokesmen and exemplars to speak to the party faithful and lead us to the next green pasture or river where we may rest, drink and nourish ourselves.  Where is the new Promised Land?  Where are we headed?  What are our dreams, ambitions, visions for the nation and the world?  Has that job been relegated to conservative talk radio, the Rushes and the Sean Hannities of the world?  Has the Republican "leadership," such as it is, gone AWOL? 

What does the GOP think, for example, of health care reform, the economy, immigration, energy independence, inflation, the sinking dollar, the deficit and debt?  Fiscal discipline anyone?  Balanced Budgets?  The Military? Iraq? Iran? North Korea?  Russia and China? the Middle East?  What about the global warming debate (hoax)?  Or flex fuel or ANWAR, going nuclear, off shore drilling, coal gasification, or marriage and the family, gay marriage, and education reform?  Do the Republicans have any positions on these matters?  If so, what are they?  What do they propose to do?  And where are our GOP spokesmen?  Our leaders?

I understand the problem.  It is the same problem with the country.  Its called, in a word, Bush.  Two terms of Bushian incompetence coupled with six years of a goofball Republican Congress and an utter demeaning of the Republican brand.  Of massive government expansion, new entitlements, looming deficits, of greater energy dependence, an astoundingly miserable effort in Iraq, extravagant spending, ruinous immigration policies, and the failures, of, basically, liberal democratic governance in Republican clothing (not to mention mangled sentences). 

So, no wonder rank and file Republicans and leadership in House and Senate and elsewhere don't know what to do.  They are as confused as the rest of us, the proverbial men and women in the street.  Rudderless, leaderless, utterly ignorant of what it means to be Republican and what our positions ought to be.

I have to wonder what William F. Buckley (or Ronald Reagan) would think of this crew.  I'm sure not much.  Buckley (and Reagan) was not prone to despondency, but he could not be happy with this GOP, this aimless, gutless, floundering, collection of confused moral midgets, these intellectual Lilliputians, not the man whose brilliance, wit, and charm assembled the labor force and intellectual firepower against triumphant big government liberalism that ultimately became the modern conservative movement and gave us the Reagan landslides.  Great men, great struggles, great accomplishments.  No, no one who remembers those battles and achievements can be happy with the hapless Republicans after eight years of George Bush and his wandering, befuddled, deer in the headlights band of Republicans dwarfs.

I am also finding it difficult not just to get behind these Republicans and McCain but to donate money to them.  I recieve the endless streams of campaign mail requesting contributions from any number of Republican sources and wind up tossing them.  Why contribute to the Republican dwarfs who have managed to squander the Presidency and Congressional majorities they inherited, not to mention the intellectual and electoral legacies bequeathed them by Buckley, Reagan, and then Gingrich, and countless other lesser knowns who fought the good fight and brought their movement, their party, and their country to victory and success.

I have written at length already in this blog and other articles about the damage Bush has done to his party and country and will not repeat those points in detail other than to list some of the main ones: he failed to galvanize the country after 9/11 when the country was 90% behind him (a strategic blunder of epic proportions); failed to rebuild the military after the drastic underfunding of the Clinton years while taking his country to war (another strategic blunder); reckless even criminal mismanagement in Iraq; reckless and irresponsible spending; reckless and irresponsible immigration proposals (amnesty and guest worker); failure to secure the border; massive government expansion with No Child Left Behind and particularly the Medicare Prescription Program, a new unfunded entitlement (neither of which, by the way, brought him any credit or favor with liberals or the media); failure to privatize social security when he had the chance; no energy policy and no energy independence; no nuclear, drilling, exploration, refining; no marriage amendment; no effort to strengthen marriage and family; mixed signals about affirmative action; confusion and embarrassment on global warming, although not nearly so embarrassing as McCain is proving to be; and so on. 

The GOP needs desperately a vibrant new "idea" man and it should start at the top of the ticket with McCain's veep choice (McCain unfortunately is not that man himself).  I don't know if McCain fully understands how important this choice is in terms of solidifying the conservative base.  The obvious choice here, hands down, is Mitt Romney.  He is simply the sharpest guy on the block.  Presidential demeanor, attractive, quick, effective, excellent debator, full of bright, exciting ideas, proven executive skills, knowledgeable of and successful in the private sector, youthful, energetic, dynamic, a perfect riposte to Obama - and conservative. 

He talks of lowering taxes, building up our military, and embracing traditional values, in particular, he understands fully the damage done by the breakdown in the American family, and the great importance of rebuilding our marriage and family culture.  If McCain picks some moderate McCain clone, say Governor Charles Crist from Florida, he may as well pack it in with conservatives.

The GOP needs bright idea men who will light the way, based on the principles of conservatism: limited government, lower taxes, strong defense, and traditional values, the same principles that guided William Buckley, Reagan, and Gingrich.  They must embrace freedom and the free market.  They must be the party of new ideas and reforms to challenge the tired, warmed over big government liberalism that will be coming at them in the form of Obama or Hillary.

Two crucial steps:

First:

Repudiate unequivocally George Bush, his two disastrous terms, and so called big government conservatism, which, by the way, is also known as liberalism. 

The first well known Republican to begin rejecting Bush liberalism in outspoken fashion will be the leader of the movement.  I don't think Republicans understand how loathed Bush is not by Democrats but by Republicans who voted for him twice and feel utterly betrayed by him.  Many of these voters, by the way, are voting Democrat this year. 

Second: A new conservative contract with America based on conservative, free market, limited government principles. 

Can the Republican dwarfs pull it off and be the latest incarnations of the giants of yesteryear?  Prompt and decisive action is needed - soon.  Reject Bush and his goofball Republican Congress unabashedly.  Run against the Bush years.  Develop a new contract with America based on sound conservative principles.  Or else prepare for a long dark winter lasting decades.