Dan

Calabrese

Read Dan's bio and previous columns here

May 12, 2008

Disrespected Conservatives: Only Yourselves to Blame

My friend and colleague David Karki is about as devoted to the United States Constitution, along with its principles of limited government, as anyone I’ve ever known. And unlike the Ron Paul types who have tumbled from this perch headlong into international isolationism, Dave still recognizes and respects the blessing of American exceptionalism and our need to maintain a strong international presence – including in Iraq, where he steadfastly supports American victory.

Now that’s what I call a real conservative.

So why is David Karki OK with the prospect of Barack Obama becoming the 44^th president of the United States? It’s because American conservatives have become frustrated and grouchy, and some figure any result will be a disaster, so we might as well let the Democrats take the blame for it.

Our party is about to nominate a candidate who has, at various times in the past six years, opposed tax cuts, opposed Alaska oil drilling, called for the closure of Guantanamo Bay, railed against corporations and sponsored legislation to limit political speech.

In his column of Friday, May 9, Dave urged conservatives to abandon the Republican Party and John McCain, figuring a Democratic president would be no worse. He is far from the only conservative who feels this way.

Conservatives who believe this are wrong. I understand that movement conservatives see their own interests served by a disaster occurring on the Democrats’ watch. The problem with this is that you hurt the country in the process, and any movement whose interests don’t jibe with those of the country is not a movement to which I want to belong.

Karki defends his position by claiming there is little discernable difference between John McCain and his Democratic rivals. This is simply absurd. McCain is not as conservative as I would like the Republican nominee to be, but he favors extending the Bush tax cuts, victory in Iraq, consumer-empowering health care reforms and strict-constructionist judges. It is entirely possible, as Karki expects, that McCain will cave on some or all of these when faced with a Democratic majority in Congress. I’ll still take the guy who will try to do some of the right things, in spite of the odds, rather than the one who will quite likely succeed at doing the wrong things.

And if conservatives don’t like being denied the chance to support one of their own for president, they should consider what the conservative movement has done in recent years to earn that chance.

I believe they have failed to earn it. For all the correctness of conservative thinking, conservative leaders have not pushed, and grassroots leaders have not embraced, applications of conservative thinking to better the real lives of real Americans.

We controlled the White House and both houses of Congress for the first six years of this millennium, and hardly accomplished any of the agenda we had touted for the better part of 40 years. This is hard to admit, but it is true: An awful lot of those failed Republican congressmen were not moderates. They were conservatives who didn’t have the guts to govern according to their principles.

I have no doubt that conservative answers are the best answers to just about every political question. How can America defend its security? How can we maintain strong economic growth? How can we help those in poverty? How can we better prepare the workforce for the challenges of the future? How can we promote a more moral nation? How can we bring financial sanity to twisted economic sectors like health care?

On the merits, conservatives win every one of these arguments. And yet conservatives are frustrated that the Republican Party runs from these principles in order to win.

Conservatives are usually content to focus on the necessity of a strong military, the need for low taxes, opposition to abortion and the growing anti-American tendencies of those on the left. That’s fine as far as it goes, but with government’s tentacles in so many facets of our society, non-ideological people (i.e. almost everyone) have grown accustomed to associating societal solutions with government action.

If the conservative response is “solve your own problems” – and perhaps it should be – this still calls for the outlining of a positive conservative vision. This sort of vision has to illustrate how a lean, limited government helps foster a society in which people can take action to improve their own lives, and in which government does not take the lead, but has your back.

Simply embracing correct opinions does not give you the right to govern, or even to lead your party. Conservatives need to make the case, not just for what’s wrong with liberalism, but for why a government operating according to conservative principles means a better life for all Americans. And the next time they get the chance, unlike the last time, they have to actually govern in that fashion.

Conservatives, heal thyselves. Serve your nation, not your movement, like your hero did. Then watch as everyone runs toward you, instead of running away.

© 2008 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

This is Column # DC172.  Request permission to publish here.