David

Karki

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November 5, 2008

What Went Wrong for Conservatives, and Can It Ever Be Right Again?

There will be no “Dewey Defeats Truman” moment in the wee hours of this morning. Sen. Barack Obama is the next president of the United States. God help us all. To the extent that there is any conservative movement left in this country – and that is a debatable proposition right now – it faces a watershed moment if it's to survive, much less thrive, ever again. 

The right needs to learn from the history that has just been made, so as not to repeat it. Running mealy-mouthed liberal Republican senators who embody P.J. O'Rourke's classic line – “We're just like the Democrats, only not quite as much” – is a recipe for losing. Sen. John McCain was Bob Dole, Part Two in that regard. No coherent message of any kind, certainly no conservatism therein, and entirely too many years in the Senate, which affected both what he said and how he said it.

It's past time to stop giving the nomination to the old liberal senator simply because “it's his turn.” And procedurally, it's even more past time to close all primary contests so that crossover liberal voters and a biased liberal media can forcibly crown the left-most and weakest candidate for the express purpose of getting him (or her) defeated in the general election.

That leads right to the next point: The complete selling out of the media for Obama. I'm certain that very few voters knew anything significant about Obama, other than he's black and sounded smooth. This was by design, as his substantial baggage was buried by the mainstream media to the maximum extent possible, knowing that it was highly unlikely a liberal senator like McCain was going to have the guts to unearth it and stick with it.

Unless and until the GOP can find a candidate who speaks and communicates well enough, and has the determination to cut through this left-wing propaganda machine barely masquerading as “news,” they will have no chance. I don't know that there is anyone on the horizon who fits this description. Even Sarah Palin and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal don't strike me offhand as being ones willing to take on this battle and see it through to the bitter end.

This election result is largely due to President Bush being utterly unwilling and largely unable to fight this rhetorical battle. His giving in and refusing to use the bully pulpit to keep the Democrats and their media propagandists from setting a phony narrative, which McCain was equally unwilling and unable to change, much less defeat, made Republican defeat tonight a fait accompli.

As for what this hypothetical candidate should say, it has to be conservatism that can be briefly and convincingly explained. Between the media and liberal control of the educational establishment (both K-12 and colleges), much education is going to be needed. The days of tax cuts being all but self-explanatory are gone. Far too many people look at government as a mommy to take care of them, and truly don't want freedom if that means having to take responsibility for themselves. It's going to be a hard, long slog to undo all of that childish thinking.

Ronald Reagan was the master at exposing the silliness of liberalism with brevity and wit, but he's gone and it's about time we found a new person with his or her own way of doing what Reagan did. The electorate today, I think, would not be nearly as accepting of the Gipper, and our way of selling conservatism thus has to change with the times.

This brings me to my final point, and unfortunately, my bleakest. I've long believed that demographics is destiny. If it be true that the passing of the World War II generation and the numerical ascendancy of the Baby Boomers and their progeny is ushering in a new liberal era, combined with the liberal control of all potential propaganda outlets (mainstream media, K-12 public education, colleges/universities, Hollywood), then I'm not sure that any conservative could win. Certainly, any would by definition be fighting uphill from the outset.

That means that we conservatives have to make a conscious effort to sow conservatism – turning over our children, our families and our friends to the culture means letting them become liberal. As Reagan said, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”

Sadly, I'm afraid his words are going to come true starting this January 20.

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

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