Why Palin = Failin

Aside from the 20/20 hindsight and Monday Morning Quarterbacking about electoral strategy and where the Republicans went wrong in the election, it is time to take a deeper look at what the pick of Sarah Palin meant to the conservative movement in general.

Republicans have traditionally held themselves out as the party of small responsible government, and for years this message was resonant with voters. Fiscally in the last several years the train went off the track somewhere and Republicans became no better than Democrats in the trainwreck that is spending. However, socially there had historically been a stark distinction between Republicans and Democrats. Democrats were typically the party of handouts and big government and Republicans advocated the opposite. To a certain extent this is still the case fiscally, at least in the wings of the fiscal right, however socially it is not the same. Republicans became the party of "Big Brother". They began to legislate against things that a majority of people in this country feel should not be legislated. Some of this was in response to 9/11 and most Americans have no issues with those principles, but some other areas of social legislation have caused new voters to enter the system in response to what has taken place. Republicans and especially conservative Republicans did not start talking to those voters. Those voters and voters in the middle whom traditionally lean right left the fold of the party that could be easily viewed as out of touch.

We live in a time when voters want more say in their lives in the areas that are important, at home and at work and within the family unit. The conservatives need to get out of the way on issues that they view to be principles of morality. Current stances on; Abortion, Gay Marriage, regulation of TV and Radio and regulation of the written word will not work, particularly as more of the country is becoming accepting of these things. Conservatives continue to rely on the moral message on these issues and they are alienating voters that would otherwise agree with them on the issues that should be the most important; National Security, Economy, Education etc... Is it really worth losing elections over the moral issues when they could be winning on the issues that the country thinks are most important?

So what does Sarah Palin have to do with this? The answer is simple. McCain was a candidate that could talk to the middle about the issues that are important and offer a stark and intelligent contrast to what Obama was proposing. It would have been a classic showdown of traditional conservative values against traditional liberal values. Small Government v. Big Government. National Security for the future v. National Security with naivete. Managed Health Care v. Social Health Care. McCain could have still lost the election, but it would have been fun to watch. The pick of Palin indicated that the far right, most of whom are religious, were pushing the election to be about the moral things that have poisoned the Republican Platform for the last 16 years. McCain got unduely painted into a corner from which he could no longer fight with his message to the middle because the contrast of Palin from the right was too much to overcome.

Real conservatives, conservatives that believe that government should not legislate with a moral brush, should be engaging in a movement to remove the far right influence from the Republican Party. It is time to drop their positions on abortion, homosexuality and other areas and focus on the areas that are important to the future. If the far right will not get on board then they should be extricated from the party. There is too much at stake going forward to hold on to the sacred cows of the past.