Republicans Need a Direction

the Wall Street Journal ^ | September 25, 2014 | Peggy Noonan

[nathanbedford]

In a year when Republicans are operating in such an enviable political environment, why aren't their U.S. Senate candidates holding big and impressive leads? Why does it look close? Why are party professionals getting worried?

[nathanbedford]

Peggy Noonan's excursion into the obvious is not redeemed this time by her rhetoric, rather, it is banal because she simply refuses to turn the page. The powers who presently control the Republican Party have no national message, no affirmative message because they have no conservative message. To paraphrase Bill Buckley they stand athwart history shouting, "me less."

There is no national message available to the Republican Party except a conservative message. Campaigns that rest upon opposition to Obamism are not visions for the country. Campaigns that offer alternatives to Obama can provide such a vision for the whole country, a vision upon which the election can be nationalized, a vision which produces a wave election. But those visions by the nature of things must be conservative visions. Peggy Noonan shrinks from accepting this reality.

The Republican establishment in charge of this election season instinctively recoil from conservative messages. First, these people are not conservatives, they are careerists. Second, as careerists they would adopt a conservative message if they thought it was a winning message but only so long as the track were clear and that means only so long as the media could not derail the train. The media is guaranteed to try and the establishment knows that.

Additionally, the conservative message can be and invariably is attacked as being indifferent even cruel in its insensitivity to people in need which in our modern culture is defined as people who are dependent which includes even upper-middle-class recipients of Social Security. In short, the Republican establishment is terrified of being seen as breakers of rice bowls so they recoil from the conservative message. They see the conservative message in its shortest perspective, causing pain, telling people to eat their spinach as the government takes away dessert.

In this season the conservative message is more urgent than ever. If conservatives were put on Earth to cut taxes they are now on Earth to stand athwart the onrush of history hurtling us toward the precipice and to shout: "for God's sake stop!" But more, their role today is to advocate top to bottom procedural reforms which will actually divert the country from its headlong rush to catastrophe. That means that the present tax systems which offer elected representatives such rich prizes to fat cat donors must be done away with for either a flat or a fair tax system. Corporate taxes should be radically reformed. That means that a robust Article V reform movement must overhaul the way politics are done in America reforming a runaway judiciary, restoring control of the Senate to the states, requiring fiscal sanity, and more. It means that a coherent foreign policy must be articulated by the chief executive and accepted by both houses of Congress which implies nothing less than defining the nature of Islam, or at least fringe parts, and calling it an enemy. It means establishing a policy toward Russia expansionism which will at least the real support of Europe and actually deter Russia. It means economic and military policy respecting China which puts trade relations with China on a fair basis and coordinates the rearmament and cooperation of the Asian nations which both ring China and are threatened by China.

The reforms of taxes not only deprive serving congressman of favors to sell, it even deprives them of their cozy relationships producing crony capitalism. The establishment Republican party in its own way is as guilty as Obama in fostering crony capitalism. This is the money tie to the Chamber of Commerce and it must be severed or at least altered to conform to the real interests of the nation. That means that the establishment must do what is constitutionally incapable of doing, abandoning fatcat money donors and turning to the base of the party. This is a plea for conservative populism which is anathema to the establishment which will do no more than make noises but will actually accept no meaningful reform. This is why, for example, we have the establishment operating a black ops campaign to impose amnesty on America in the teeth of overwhelming popular opposition. The establishment makes its choice against the people's interests time after time and as a consequence it is impossible to have a wave or a national election if The Players have sold out to the special interests.

Peggy, why don't you tell the truth?

[Joe Boucher]

Republicans need a NEW leadership group.
Boehner and Mitch are garbage RINO obammy kiss asses.

[ronnie raygun]

Send them all home, even if they win they will be reaching across the isle instead of dismantling the cesspool that has taken hold

[American in Israel]

You don’t need direction to throw an election, if your hope is for progressive misdirections.

[AdaGray]

The problem IS the party professionals. They can’t see the forest for the trees.

[eartick]

They have no message that is different because they are the SAME....

Sure, maybe knock off a few splinters here and there but all in all they are not different than the Democrats.

Most do not want to represent the people and do what is right for the country. They want to pad their pockets and get pay offs from the lobbyists.

[Alberta's Child]

The only way an opposition party (and by this I mean a political party in a minority position in a legislative body) to wrest control away from the ruling party is by presenting a strong, unified voice with specific ideas about how they’d govern better. A big problem the Republicans face is that they have too many Senators who have already been in a position to deal with many of the key issues at hand, and have never demonstrated that they are willing or able to deal with them. This is why they even have long-time incumbents at risk in a political cycle where the opposition party would normally be in a strong position.

[Shady]

True, but we have gone beyond that now with bureaucratized socialism, and s5rict enforcement thereof. Going to be difficult if not impossible to break this, I am afraid...

[Dr. Pritchett]

I agree they are mostly the same, but at least the lame pubbies wouldn’t put Kagan, Sotomayor, and Holder on the court. To me, that’s the lasting problem.

[Alberta's Child]

No offense, but if you think a Republican-controlled Senate would ever block an Obama Supreme Court appointee, you’re delusional.

[Timber Rattler]

Flashback:

GOP Fights to Rebrand the Party of No

RNC Completes 'Autopsy' on 2012 Loss, Calls for Inclusion Not Policy Change

The "Growth and Opportunity" Project

GOP’s Autopsy: Rebranding, Not Reengineering, Needed

And my perennial favorite in terms of utter disgust:

Next for GOP leaders: Stopping Sarah Palin

[x_plus_one]

Republicans are soul sucking losers. Elections are stolen from under their feet and all they want is more cash. The progressive left has perfected the manipulation of public opinion, they have cornered the market on voter turnout and they have no qualms about rigging ballot outcomes.

Voting twice, voting for newly registered fake voters, not counting ballots and rigging electronic voting machines require a mass group effort. You know the election rigging left is hard at work when no one talks about voter fraud, turnout and electronic ballot security. ELections are no longer reliable - they only serve to calm the masses before the next tax increase and the next regulatory purge is enacted.

[stormhill]

This is not the first time in recent memory that the “Vision Thing” is about to shipwreck Republican hopes. The problem is clearly systemic and not one that will be resolved internally. Only a frontal assault by outsiders like Lee, Cruz, Palin, etc. has any hope of reversing course...assuming it’s not too late already.

[Nextrush]

But of course George W. Bush tried to give us Harriet Miers until conservatives raised a stink.

Another pick who got through was John Roberts, who provided the deciding vote to sanctify Obamacare.

[Old Sarge]

Republicans vs. Democrats: Maybe A Dime's Worth Of Difference

~ Larry Elder, The Ten Things You Can't Say In America

[nathanbedford]

The proof of your reply is in the years the Republicans controlled under Bush both houses of Congress.

[nathanbedford]

The proof of your reply is in the years the Republicans controlled under Bush both houses of Congress.

[Loud Mime]

Republicans did not control the Senate. It takes sixty votes to do that.

See the story of Miguel Estrada to understand.

[Alberta's Child]

Republicans did not control the Senate. It takes sixty votes to do that.

Then you can't have it both ways. If a party needs 60 votes to control the Senate, then why is it so important for the GOP to come away from the 2014 elections with at least 51 seats?

[nathanbedford]

Is it fair to say that the Democrats control the Senate today?