Stay Home Or Not?
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Elections
That is the question…in the conservative mag world.
First, National Review’s John Derbyshire says conservatives should send the GOP a message…
The only thing we can usefully do then is to assert our existence as a voting bloc in the one way that’s available to us: by not voting. That lays down a warning to any future GOP administration that might be tempted to go as badly wrong on important conservative issues as this one has.This nation survived Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton; it will survive Nancy Pelosi and Charlie Rangel. Ten, fifteen, twenty years from now, when our kids are voters, some GOP administration and Congress might be tempted to violate core conservative principles as egregiously as this one has. But they will hear key voices, the voices of party elders and wise commentators, warning: “Remember the Great Congressional Massacre of ‘06! Let’s not risk that happening again!” And Congress and the admin. will then turn the wheel to the right.
On the other side is Fred Barnes, who warns conservatives in The Weekly Standard that the GOP will learn nothing by allowing Dems to take power…
If you suspect there are forces eager to suppress Republican turnout, you are right. Rarely has the press echoed Democratic themes as relentlessly as it has in the closing weeks of the 2006 campaign. And the main theme is that Republicans are about to be blown away. The question now is whether this message will persuade Republican voters to stay home on Election Day. It shouldn’t, so long as Republicans–and especially conservative Republicans–act like adults, not like petulant children angry over one thing or another that didn’t go their way.Yes, the Republican performance in the last two years has been disappointing. The Iraq war isn’t going well. President Bush and the Republican Congress have spent too much of the taxpayer’s money. They got nowhere on overhauling Social Security and only part of the way–beefed-up border security–on immigration reform. The list goes on. Still, the reasons given for staying home on Election Day are pathetically disconnected from the realities of politics and political power.
I don’t know…does Derbyshire sound like a petulant child or somebody who’s genuinely fed up?
I will say, though, that Barnes seems desparate to get some of that “independent” love when he says things like this…
And, for the foreseeable future, the Republican party is the only vehicle through which conservatives and moderates can accomplish their goals.
Moderates? Seriously? Moderates don’t want the deficit to keep climbing. Moderates want to have a perscription drug plan where the government uses our leverage to negotiate for significantly discounted prices for seniors. And while moderates may not be so hot on increasing the minimum wage as a matter of economic principle, we still acknowledge that those who make the lowest can’t survive on what they’re being paid right now.
Oh, and moderates want leaders who can change and adapt, instead of sticking steadfastly to policies and tactics that are failing.
Or maybe that’s just me…
This entry was posted on Sunday, October 22nd, 2006 and is filed under Elections. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
October 23rd, 2006 at 11:17 am
As a moderate (more like small “l” libertartian, I’ll agree that I don’t want to see the deficit continue to climb. However, I don’t want that stopped through tax increases. Which party is it that will enact spending cuts? It’s been so long, I can’t remember.
Let the free market take care of perscripton drugs. WalMart seems to be on to something. Private industry is always more efficient than government.
October 23rd, 2006 at 4:46 pm
Fundamentalists…PLEASE listen and stay home!!!
October 25th, 2006 at 12:07 pm
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October 25th, 2006 at 3:26 pm
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