May 12, 2006

Conservative Exhaustion: Peggy Noonan, John Podhoretz, and Why We Need to Get Back in the Game

This week's column by Peggy Noonan, with whom I agree on almost everything, succinctly makes the argument for Conservative revolt against Conservative candidates:

Congressional Republicans right now seem just like the liberal Republicans of the great Losing Era of Republican history, circa 1960-80. All the Republican congressmen in those days had good beliefs, and shared them at the Rotary luncheon back home. The government was getting too big and taxes were too high. Then they'd go back to Washington and vote for higher spending and higher taxes. But not as high as the Democrats, they'd point out. Their job was to stand athwart history and cry, "Please slow down just a little bit!"

Republicans on the ground back home got mad. Eventually they threw the old guys out and sent to Washington in 1980 a guy who meant it when he said he'd cut and contain.

...One gets the impression party leaders, deep in their hearts, believe the base is . . . base. Unsophisticated. Primitive. Obsessed with its little issues. They're trying to educate the base. But if history is a guide, the base is about to teach them a lesson instead.

There's a lot of discussion of this viewpoint among Conservatives. What explains this? Why are the Conservatives so ready to let their own candidates be defeated?

I think these are some of the reasons:

• The Conservatives have had so much success with the economy, and in preventing another terrorist attack on U.S. soil, that we need time to regroup to pick our next goals.
• Conservatives are temporarily exhausted by the fight against mainstream media propaganda.
  
• Under the constant drumbeat of MSM propaganda, Conservatives feel disappointed that everything in Iraq didn't go flawlessly. If MSM had been reporting GWB's achievements in Iraq -- damaging Al Qaeda, eliminating a government that supported terrorists, and bringing Democracy to the Mid-East -- we'd all be cheering and every Republican candidate would be likely to win election -- which of course is why MSM is so wildly anti-Republican.
  
• GWB has refused for far too long to trumpet his achievements publicly, and to speak to the public about his key initiatives. This is probably the most important of all -- Conservatives feel GWB has dropped contact with them.
  
• As Noonan argues, Conservatives have been out of touch with the Conservative base on important key issues of immigration and budget.
  

Do these reasons justify Conservatives in letting our own candidates lose our support?

John Podhoretz was on Hugh Hewitt yesterday, and made a powerful argument that this is "a hinge moment in history," and that letting Dems control the government would be devastating. Here are few quotes.

John Podhoretz: ...right now, what I'm seeing and what I'm hearing and what I'm witnessing is a Republican Party and a conservative movement that, as you are trying very hard in your own book to make clear to them, that is fracturing, that is falling into a temptation to purify, to attack itself, to heal and cleanse itself by potentially desiring loss in November, 2006, and pursuing loss in 2008 in pursuit of an ideological purity, that will leave this country in the hands of a party that will gut the Patriot Act, that will turn the foreign policy of the United States back over to the U.N., what will not pursue an aggressive war on terror outside our borders, that will not pursue sophisticated signal intelligence means of stopping terrorists within our borders, that will raise taxes by rescinding the Bush tax cuts, that will appoint liberal judges like Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer to the Supreme Court, that will appoint liberal judges at every appellate circuit, and every circuit level in the country, that will reregulate the economy, that will turn over agencies of the federal government into the hands of regulators, tort lawyers, and reformers who want to control American business, and control the economy who will pursue environmental measures that will harm our economy, and that will sort of put us on the track to the Kyoto Protocol. This is a very serious moment in time. A lot of Republicans and a lot of conservatives are saying things like I don't know what difference there is between the two parties. I mean, Republicans came to Washington, and they haven't eliminated agencies, and they haven't cut spending. And I agree with them. I'm disappointed with a lot of that work. But the truth is that there are huge differences between the parties, this is a hinge moment in history, our national security depends on it, our prosperity depends on it. And if we don't understand that they're ready to win, and we are ready to lose, and we need to change things up in order to win, we're going to reap the whirlwind.

He's right. Here's a list of the things he itemized in an easy-to-scan bullet list. Podhoretz states that if it controls the govenment, the Democrat party:

• Will gut the Patriot Act
• Will turn the foreign policy of the United States back over to the U.N.
• Will not pursue an aggressive war on terror outside our borders
• Will not pursue sophisticated signal intelligence means of stopping terrorists within our borders
• Will raise taxes by rescinding the Bush tax cuts
• Will appoint liberal judges like Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer to the Supreme Court
• Will appoint liberal judges at every appellate circuit and every circuit level in the country
• Will reregulate the economy
• Will turn over agencies of the federal government into the hands of regulators, tort lawyers, and reformers who want to control American business and control the economy

That is exactly what the Democrats say they will do, have historically done, and are sure to do if they get control of the government.

Podhoretz also speaks up for the astonishing achievements of GWB in powering the U.S. economy:

John Podhoretz: ...I think if you just take one very simple element, that people are for some reason forgetting about on the right, George Bush pushed through $1.5 trillion dollars in tax cuts. The main agenda item of the Democratic Party is to rescind those tax cuts. Now, George W. Bush came in, those tax cuts, the second transfer that went into effect in May, 2003, the economy surged to recover in June, 2003. We have had a roaring and astonishing economic recovery that shows no signs of abating, despite a huge inflationary spiral threat from gas prices that has yet not materialized. And of course, the incredible disruption of Hurricane Katrina. And yet, we hear from our Republican and conservative brethren that they don't like Bush, they don't like what he's done on immigration, they don't like how there's too much spending in Washington, and maybe we should lose just because that'll teach them.

I agree with Peggy Noonan on almost everything, but in this case, I think we Conservatives have to give ourselves a week off to rest up, and then get back in the game.

Update,  5-13-06: Welcome, Instapundit readers, and thanks, Glenn, for the link.  

Update, 5-15-06: Don't miss the follow-up post, How to Show GOP We Mean Business on Borders, Budget Without Turning Gov't Over to Dems.