How To Win Again

As a young conservative I find myself very concerned about the way the country is going- in fact, I’ve been so since the middle of 2006. Obviously I didn’t expect the blowout in 2008, nor the economic circumstances we find ourselves in, but the concerns were building. Now, the Republican Party finds itself in dire straits after the departure of Arlen Specter.

Since November, and peaking yesterday and today, many liberals and Democrats have declared the Republican Party dead — and one could find reasons to agree with them. I, however, have great hope for Republicans. As Ed Feulner, The Heritage Foundation’s president, said when I was an intern at Heritage, “…there are no permanent victories in Washington.” Below is what I see as at least part of the path back to power for the Republican Party.

1) We need a leader-- not necessarily a hard right-wing conservative, but a qualified, successful leader who is at least moderately conservative in the traditional fashion of small government, low-spending, low-tax, strong national defense conservatives (two examples are Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani). Few Republicans agree completely with either man, but Romney is amazingly successful in politics and business, and Giuliani did a good job as associate attorney general, as mayor and in business.

This part will happen eventually- I just hope sooner rather than later.

2) We need to stay away from gay marriage. If asked, we should be honest about our opinions, but most of the moderates and independents that we must attract disagree with us on this issue, and many young people (including myself) who are against it believe it's the 50th or 100th important issue facing the country. Why should we concentrate on a losing issue that's not going to solve the greatest problems facing the nation, especially when it's nearly impossible to say, "I'm against gay marriage, but still think a gay person is no less of a valuable person than I am." It's how most conservatives feel, but it's incredibly difficult to get that across effectively to a public that is increasingly in favor of, or neutral towards, gay marriage.

3) We need to change our rhetoric. In particular, we need to do so in three areas: illegal immigration, race relations, and the role of government.

Regarding immigration, we need to get the Hispanic vote, and we won't do it by talking like former Congressman Tom Tancredo (whom I supported for president during the last primary). Many or most illegal immigrants are here to work, not take our welfare, health care, etc. We need to stop talking about a wall on the border — it’s alienating, and not as effective as economic prevention such as diminishing or eliminating the illegal immigration welfare program in America. We need to streamline the legal immigration process while still making certain that immigrants speak English and will be productive members of society. We also need to stop the drug cartels, gangs, and other criminals that want to cross the border by policing with more troops that are allowed to shoot. We need to show Hispanics, who tend to be socially conservative, how our view on immigration is better for them — after all, illegal immigrants badly affect the legal immigrant Hispanic population’s public image, as well as take their jobs and endanger their families.

Regarding race relations, we need to show how affirmative action is bad for everyone, particularly minorities -- talking about how bad it is for whites is an old, tired argument that just won’t win minority votes. We need to use statistics like Stuart Taylor did in the February 28th edition of National Journal, which stated (among other things) that “more than half of entering black law students never pass the bar and never become lawyers” because affirmative action puts unqualified candidates into classrooms. We need to show how this helps maintain negative race relations, as whites will feel they are being ignored for a less-qualified candidate (see the current term Supreme Court case regarding firefighter standards in New Haven, CT), and blacks will feel whites are trying to keep them down (see Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, etc.). We also need to make sure we push for voucher systems like the one in D.C. to show minorities we ARE the better party for them, on issues from schools to families to employment.

Lastly, we need to stop saying "small government." Though the current economic crisis was caused largely by government intervention — Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, low interest rates, government housing programs, high government spending, mark-to-market accounting regulations, Democratic refusals to reign in Freddie and Fannie, etc.— the general population feels like Republicans caused it. Whatever we conservatives may think actually happened, we have to think about how the populace views us. We need to change the rhetoric to "effective government" and show how we can use government more effectively than liberals and Democrats. The time for privatization of Social Security, for instance, is definitely not now, despite how great a concept it is.

4) We need to bring back some of the intellectuals who believe the Republican Party is void of such thinking. Republicans have always been charged as being anti-elite, but we have scared away some of the very kinds of people who formed the core party ideals that created the last 40 years of Republican successes. With due respect to the strengths of former President Bush, Senator McCain, and Governor Palin, they are not going to bring the intellectuals back. We need to bring back to the forefront the William Buckleys, Ed Feulners, etc. of the world, as well as encourage young people like Heritage researchers Rachel Sheffield and Thomas Qualtere to take up the intellectual conservative standard.

5) Opportunities arise periodically, and we must take advantage of them. For example, right now is a great opportunity for conservatives to help with race relations, the education system, and showing the weaknesses of unions. The D.C. School Voucher debate has conservatives defending empirical data showing education for poor minorities improving against the powerful teacher unions and Democrats in Congress. This is a great opportunity (and the CATO Institute and The Heritage Foundation are taking full advantage) for us to show how we have better ideas for fixing our terrible education system through vouchers, getting rid of tenure and teachers unions, and specifically for improving the education of poor minorities, who will thereby put themselves on the path to greater employment, family, and other opportunities.

Conservatism is not dead — like liberals did after 2004, we need to find effective leaders, an effective local, state and national strategy, and take advantage of the opportunities the natural sway of politics, economics, and societal circumstances will offer us.