Vote all Incumbants Out!

I am beginning a new movement for 2010 and beyond. Vote against every incumbent at every level in the government. If we really want to affect change in this country we have to take action now. Career politicians have had their chance and they have failed, it is time to make the move and vote them all out of office. Of course I have reasons for all of this.

The Founders never meant for "politician" to become a career. The initial idea was that people would serve for a term or two and return to their careers and homes, at that time service was the privilege and power was to be feared. The tables have turned, power is now the goal. Service means nothing to any of them anymore, if it did they would listen instead of trying to buy off voters with pork and earmarks. The original men who served this country did so reluctantly and with great respect to the new institutions that they were forming. John Adams was famously quoted on several occasions as being against service because he thought himself not up to the task mentally or financially. At that time the pay for the position was paltry, as it still is today for the most part, but the influence was nil. There were no special interest groups to perpetuate the career politician, eventually they had to return home to maintain financial solvency. This set of circumstances led to unwilling and selfless leaders. Unwilling to lead out of ego, unwilling to gain great power and selfless in that the country was always put first.

In voting out all incumbents we could also solve the Lobbyist problem and impose term limits on our own, without the dogfight of a Constitutional Amendment. In getting rid of all incumbents we get rid of all lobbyists. When the incumbents are gone lobbyists will have no long term relationships or influence, should that influence begin to reassert itself it will not matter because every two years in the House and six in the Senate we, as voters, will clean them all out again anyway. I would love to see lobbyists deal with that proposition, they would actually have to argue their stands based on the merits of the issues, talk about some real debate.

Obviously this is a pie in the sky notion, but it is one I am all for. Republicans have left me in the cold, and the Democrats have never come out of the cold. I believe that the country is ripe for this kind of movement, now all we need is a spearhead. My mantra will be find me a guy who does not want to be in the House or Senate, and I will show you the guy we, as voters, should want in there....

I did not leave my party, my party has left me

Lately I have been very angry about the way in which the Republicans are going about their business in Washington D.C. They have become the party of no. No ideas, no leadership, no ability to counter liberal ideals, no political courage, no political identity, the list could go on and on.

I have heard many times in the last several months about the reasons that the Republicans lost the election; Obama was a positive and vibrant figure that could not be beat, the party lost it's way fiscally, the party lost it's way socially, the party was not conservative enough etc... The one that seems to be taking hold is that the party was not conservative enough on issues of social consequence and that it needs to shift further right in order to win in upcoming elections. To this argument I respond by saying, ARE YOU CRAZY!!! There are two reasons I believe that this is absurd.

First, new voters came into the fold in 08 in alarming numbers. Obama introduced many new people into the electorate and they came out for him in large numbers because he spoke to the middle well enough to get them to vote for him on social concerns (I am discarding Foreign Policy here because polls show that of the voters that thought Foreign Policy was most important they split for McCain). These new voters are not liberal or conservative, I believe that they are centrists with a left lean on social issues. I have discussed this past election with many new voters and I was alarmed by the eclectic nature of their views. Many value the environment, but also National Security. Many believed that social issues were more important in this election cycle, but indicated that had they voted in 04 they would have voted more on Security and Foreign Policy issues. Many indicated that they felt like Obama talked more intelligently about their core concerns this time around, but that they felt like he was not well versed enough should Foreign Issues become a flashpoint in the near future. While this is not scientific, I use it to argue the larger point that the Republican Party did not lose because they were not right enough. It is abundantly clear to me that the Republicans lost because they forgot how to talk to the middle about social/economic issues. A move to the right will not work. A strategy to talk to the middle will work. I do not advocate sacrificing conservative ideals to do this. I advocate remembering that Ronald Reagan did this with unbelievable success without sacrifice of conservative ideals. The party needs to find to find that resonating message to the middle and begin talking to new voters, and they need to do it now.

Second, the Obama Presidency will clearly be one of governing from the left. After all the rhetoric about the middle, he has given many indicators in the first month that the middle is not somewhere he will dwell. Obama has stepped up the partisanship and moved the party to the left. I believe that this will leave a void in the middle and allow for the Republicans to pick up not only middle voters, but also many new voters who have no real political affiliation with either side.

The message needs to quickly change. The Republicans need to stop whining about not having a seat at the table and just sit down. They need to start talking about alternatives to the Obama plan and pushing them in the media whenever they can. Of course the alternatives will not pass, but they must begin positioning themselves for 2010 and beyond. The continuous whining and lack of leadership will only guarantee eight years of far left governance, something I do not want to see and something the country can't afford.

The party also needs to drop the flimsy, transparent political ploys. The united stand against the stimulus bill was refreshing, but it was too late. Where were these same Republicans during the first bail out on the Bush watch? They were nowhere. In rallying against the Obama stimulus, without providing a cogent alternative, they looked like they were playing a political game. Similar to being for something before being against it, ring any bells?

In short I am a conservative, and I am proud of it, but we can't win again until we talk to voters with a broad spectrum of views. I am advocating talking to the middle with plans that make sense and providing a conversation about alternatives, instead of a shouting match about not having a seat at the adult table.

Bailout or Failout

So it has been a couple of months since the bailout took flight and I think we can all agree what a resounding success it has been. Right? Right? Anyone? No takers? I am not surprised.

400 billion was put out there with the intent of righting the ship and the ship still lists dangerously close to going over. Banks have not loaned the money and the reasons for it have been many to date. I have heard that they are waiting for the bottom of the market. I have heard that because the Government did not give the banks guidelines for using the money that the banks are within their rights to manage it how they believe they should. I have even heard that the money is out on the sidelines because there is just no place for it to go right now.

Here is my spin. The money has not been loaned because there is no profit in lending it right now. Rates are not favorable for banks they are favorable to borrowers. The banks want to make money on the money that they loan so it seems to make sense to me that the banks will not loan the money while the rates are not favorable for them to do so. The prepostorous part of this is, IT IS NOT THEIR MONEY!!!! If the motive is profit, and I believe that at least part of it is, the government should take the money back. At the very least they should pass some laws with rules about what the banks need to do with the money.

This has been nothing more than a cash grab and it needs to end now, of course with the unprecedented amount of boondoggles in Washington DC these recent years I am not shocked about any of it.

The First 100 Days

We all hear about the first 100 days everytime there is new administration or Congressional election. The question always is what will the first 100 days look like? What will take place?

After the 2006 mid-terms the American people heard from Pelosi and Reid that the change, oh the change she was a comin, and it would be glorious. So what happened to the glory? Democrats frittered away their political capital against a weak President on the one issue that he was intractable on and that they had no chance of winning, Iraq. Reid and Pelosi severely miscalculated their potential for success on this one key issue and the result was not what they were hoping for and an expediture of political capital that they could not recover from. Instead of softening the weakened President with blows to other policy areas where they could have had success, they opted for the all or nothing Iraq strategy and lost. Pelosi and Reid are not going anywhere, and are in fact more prominent than before, they will take another pass at Iraq and they will want to do it quickly.

This means that Obama's first 100 days are going to be rife with risk and it will take a master politician to navigate the choppy waters of his mandate. Obama owes the left and they are going to come after him early and often to get what they want. Expect that Iraq, SCHIP and Health Care, taxation plans, spending plans and programs will spring forth from the Congress like Old Faithful. Obama's ability to placate the left with some victories without further damaging the economy will come to the forefront. If he can make his way through it will be impressive.

Ahhh but there is the darned economy. Obama has another group that he owes, new voters. They are going to want all the things that he promised them as well. Better financial times, more money in the pockets of the lower and middle class, Health Care etc... The way in which he handles the populace will be the very telling as well.

Obama is in a sticky spot at present. Bend to the left and risk the economy or bend to the new voters and risk the left. This will be an entertaining 100 days starting in January of 09 and I expect it will be fantastic to watch.

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.

Election 08: Repudiation or Change the Nation?

The election is over and President Elect Obama has begun his journey of hope and change that will surely carry this country into some interesting areas in the next four years. The question that has to be answered at this point is; was this election a repudiation of George W. Bush and his administration or was it a game changer for this country and the conservative movement?

A look at the election results will lead many to assume that this election was a game changer. It will lead many to assume that this is the beginning of the country becoming left center instead of right center. The numbers in raw form are favorable for this opinion. Obama won the election by the biggest margin that a Democrat has won by in over 40 years. On the face of it things would appear grim for the conservative movement and the Republican Party. Republicans were not ready to confront the introduction of new voters into the system. Republicans could not hold the voters in the middle that helped them gain power. Obama was able to introduce people who either did not care or were cynical about the process into the system with his message of hope and change. Republicans will need to figure out how to talk to these new voters quickly in order to prevent this from being a game changing election.

This election was also a clear repudiation of the Bush Administration. Bush's approval rating is historically low. The approval rating of Congress, largely controlled by Republicans for the better part of two decades, is historically low. Bush has been the most reclusive and schizophrenic President since Nixon. The Administration had no message and no ability to communicate success for the last two years, and I would argue that they lost their way for most of the second term. This failure led to an electorate that was angry and the revolt took place at the ballot box. Obama did not win on a substantive message, it is the first time in recent memory that a candidate was able to win with very little detail to his plan. The failing of the Bush Administration and the party was complete long before the election took place. The failing economy and the inability of the Administration to champion the success of the surge and the War on Terror led to the victory of the candidate that was saying what people wanted to hear. Clearly the failures of the party over the last eight years have led to this.

Could this election be a game changer? It most certainly could, but Obama has to work with two mandates going forward. One from new voters whom are going to want results based on their hopes for something new and different. The other from the far left and the people that pushed him to the top of the heap. Obama will not be able to buckle to the far left, he must keep them in line and protect his more important mandate, the one the new voters have given him. If Obama concedes to the far left agenda and vacates his message of something new he will have a difficult time holding this fragile coalition together. Look for Obama to temper his approch and take a considered look at his mandate for change. Obama will try to develop a mandate and hold on to the political capital that he has gained from the electorate, it is the most important political capital that there is.

Republicans going forward need to be vocal when the climate is right to be vocal. They need to counter Obama and give ideas that are sound and different from what he is proposing on the key issues that will be faced over the next four years. Health Care, the economy and the War on Terror are critical areas where the Republican can offer a contrasting viewpoint with a tempered hand. Criticism for the sake of criticism will not work. New voters want something different and the Republicans need to show where they are different from Obama on the substative points that people care about. A failure to provide a cogent and salient differing view on the issues of import will lead to this election being viewed as a game changer and Republicans don't want to get to that decision in the minds of the voters.

2010 will tell us if this was repudiation or game change. Only twice in the history of this country has the party in power in the White House not lost seats in a mid-term election, 1932 and 2002. 2010 will give us some answers, until then I will lean towards this election as repudiation with the potential for game change.

The President Elect and the Office of the President

The first press conference of the new era is in the books and I am extremely put off with the President Elect. Already? You may ask. Yes, already. I have never seen any President Elect announce with such aplomb and fanfare that he was in fact the President Elect. The podium with the sign proclaiming "The Office of the President Elect" was bit too much for me. The quasi realistic seal at the top of the sign also smacked of arrogance. The Office of the President deserves respect, George Bush currently holds that office, and whether you believe he deserves respect or not makes no difference. Some deference to the office should be shown. The equation is simple, until January 20th George Bush is President of the United States and Barack Obama is a Senator from Illinois.

If this is a sign of the arrogance that will come from this new administration then we are in trouble. It seems to me he should be more concerned with building his team and choosing his cabinet, than he should be with boldly letting everyone know that he is the President Elect. Call me old fashioned, but this just rubbed me the wrong way. I'm sure it won't be the last thing that rubs me wrong in the next four years...

So it begins.....

So the election is over, the Republicans went down to the inevitable defeat that I had been telling people about since August of 07. The question becomes what is next?

Over the next several days, weeks, months and maybe years I will monitor and discuss the developments of the Obama Administration. In addition I will take a critical look at the Republican party and the conservative movement and give my opinions about realignment.

Stay tuned.....It will be a fun ride.