North Star Writers Group

By any conventional wisdom or historical measure, the Republican Party should be deeply concerned about this fall's elections. The sixth year of a presidency has been a time where the president’s party almost always lost seats in Congress. Furthermore, off-year elections that don't grab an apathetic public's attention are mostly about turning out the base. And thanks to illegal immigration and spending like Democrats, among other things, the GOP base has never been more discouraged and unmotivated. Whether it's staying home on election day or voting third-party, the threat of losing a substantial portion of the conservative base and Congress with it, is very real.

And yet I cannot help but be optimistic, or at least not be pessimistic. Why? Because every time it seems bleak beyond recovery, the Democrats demonstrate why they will yet again snatch defeat from the jaws of erstwhile victory. I'm not sure what happened to that formerly liberal but honorable party, but it seems a good portion of it has taken leave of its senses. And until they can get a handle on the wing of the party represented by MoveOn.org, Howard Dean and their perpetually angry brethren, I doubt they'll win again no matter how poorly the GOP performs.

To be honest, such a prospect doesn't sadden me in the least. But neither is it healthy for a constitutional republic to have one of its major parties so moribund, if for no other reason than it allows the other party to move away from its principles with no repercussions. To a large extent, having an equally strong opposition party (and the realistic threat of losing power to them) is what keeps a political party accountable to its principled base and thus strong and stable. Take that away and both parties are set adrift, rudderless. Such is the case now.

The fact that the Democrats seem to be so unserious about national security, and so eager to believe far worse about President Bush than the terrorists, in turn allows the GOP to move left at will. And if a conservative like me doesn't like it, just what am I supposed to do? Deny the GOP my vote and in so doing help elect Democrats? Perish the thought. But so long as putting Democrats back in power remains so utterly unthinkable, there is no mechanism to hold the GOP accountable for its eschewing of its own base. For the moment, all I can do is grin and bear it.

Thus it all comes down to which party fears having the other in power more. And this is what will bring the GOP victory in spite of itself. Conservatives fear Democrats having power far more than liberals do Republicans having power. After all, what has the GOP done with power for a liberal to hate? They've spent like mad, failed to protect the borders, kept the death tax and on and on. Even in defeat, the left will largely get its favorite policies enacted. Save for the occasional tax cut, conservative Supreme Court justice and the war on terror, they're getting everything they like. So why should they fear another GOP win? Conversely, as much as conservatives dislike all this, the prospect of Democrats regaining power is so unfathomable that they'll reluctantly accept the former as the price of ensuring that the latter doesn't happen.

So there you have it – a pyrrhic GOP victory driven solely by the Democrats' unhinged behavior. It may sound strange, but perhaps the best thing that could happen for the conservative cause is for the Democrats to get up off the mat.

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