What happened to the future of conservatism? Republicans killed it. Democrats were more than willing to assist. After years of blaming Barack Obama for everything from moral transgressions in his health care bill to handing a nuclear weapon to Iran, the right blew it again and we did it in the worst way imaginable. We set ourselves up to get stomped by another Clinton.
The 2016 election will seal the fate of conservatives for years to come.
We can’t have the White House, so we had better get used to ruling from congressional hell.
Future of conservatism is here?
Courtesy House Office of Photography
Future of conservatism?
The right has offered every excuse on the books for its failure to measure up. Media bias is the popular choice, but we haven’t helped ourselves. The religious right doesn’t agree with GOP centrists. Tea Party activists can’t get along with moderates. RINOs rub elbows with Democrats. The party elite forget that we rule through them. That’s what conservatism is all about.
This year is an unprecedented disaster. We should have been preparing to celebrate a November victory. Instead, the abysmal failure of warring conservative factions to agree on anything but a dislike for Trump bottomed out when presidential loser Mitt Romney stuck another knife in the back of Republican voters. The cowardice of party honchos to stand by our candidate when they had nothing better to offer will set the right back for years to come, if not forever.
The future of conservatism is doomed except for one tiny hope:
If we can’t reign in Oval Office heaven, conservatives can rule in congressional hell.
Give up on the White House forever
Republicans in the House don’t have a new strategy. They are content to hang on by reinventing the same agenda that put them in power in 2010, albeit with new labels slapped on the same old plans.
Last week’s GOP address was about repealing Obamacare. One line in Georgia Representative Tom Price’s speech foretold where this is headed:
But House Republicans are listening, and we know it’s not enough to simply acknowledge the failures and the fallout.
It’s up to us to offer an alternative. And that’s what we have done. We’re calling it a Better Way for Health Care. 1
That’s great, but it’s years too late. We already have a new health care law thanks in part to the appalling idea to run John McCain and Sarah Palin against rising star Obama. Like repeat votes to repeal the ACA, the party can come up with all the better ways to do things it wants. It is simply not capable of putting a leader in the White House who can spearhead the effort to make conservatism a viable option for the nation.
House agenda is a useless yawn
The Hyde Amendment and abortion are currently on tap in the House. So is investigating whether money was paid to Iran to secure Obama’s nuclear agreement.2 With a Clinton White House we’ll be disputing the same things next year, albeit with more blame cast on Hillary because of her involvement in our disastrous diplomatic forays into the Middle East. Rest assured abortion and the Iran agreement will still be with us years from now no matter how many symbolic votes are held, hearings scheduled, or bills proposed.
What was the biggest victory for conservatism this year? The Texas court decision that blocked DAPA. This was a judicial victory that bailed us out after the GOP’s failure to stop Obama’s executive order-making. The truism that the judiciary leans to the left doesn’t always hold true. The truism that the Republican Party is all but powerless, on the other hand, proves more valid with every election and every Democratic Party affront to conservative values.
Two choices for conservatism. Doing nothing is best.
There are two ways Republicans can advance conservatism. They can pass legislation. That isn’t working. The other option is to halt all progress by tying Congress up in knots and hog tying the White House. Our two GOP majorities can keep things from getting worse by making sure we do nothing.
That second approach is ruling in hell. Republicans are consigned to a partisan prison they helped build. The party went to extremes to torpedo any chance of winning the White House this year, so all we have to look forward to is what we started with: Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, and an assortment of conservative lawmakers with scattered loyalties and nowhere else to go.