Watching the Republican Party Commit Suicide

When Republican candidates run on conservative principles, they win; when they run as liberals, or when they act like liberals, they lose. Many of the new Democrats who defeated Republicans in 2006 ran as conservatives. In the face of this evidence, why, then, do so many Republicans abandon conservatism and become RINO’s as soon as they get to Washington, and why are so many Republicans running for Congress this fall as liberals? This is the question of the hour facing conservatives today as they consider the prospect of a party (Democratic), that controls a Congress with only an 18% approval rating, but is anticipating an overwhelming victory next fall.

If The GOP Wants To Govern Like Democrats, Why Have a Separate Party?
By Patrick J. Casey May 16, 2008 American Thinker (Excerpt)

“Republicans are and should be panicked over the fact that conservative Democrat Travis Childers just defeated Republican Greg Davis by a margin of 54%-46% in the race for a vacant Mississippi congressional seat. That seat is in a conservative district that had given President Bush a 25-point margin of victory over John Kerry in 2004 - it never should have flipped Democrat. This is the third double-digit loss in a row for Republican candidates in conservative districts across the United States.

Childers' victory came one week after Rep. Don Cazayoux won a House seat in the Baton Rouge, La., area that had been in Republican hands for three decades. Over the winter, Rep. Bill Foster won an election in Illinois to succeed former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who had been in Congress more than 20 years.

What we're watching is the culmination of the decade-plus deterioration of the conservative Republican brand. Put simply, no one, including base conservatives, trusts the Republicans to govern effectively while following anything even faintly resembling a conservative platform.

That's unfortunate, since the only time that the Republicans really took the country by storm was in 1994, when they all ran on a set of firm, well established conservative values and issues. When the GOP strayed from that, falling back on the Democratic Party tradition of retaining power through excessive pork barrel spending and questionable ethical practices, they first lost seats - then lost their majorities. To regain what they have thrown away they must return to those conservative principles. If successful, they then must reject the compromising allure of power and promise to govern in the future as conservatives, not as the Democratic Party Lite.”

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You call this a political party?

By David Harsanyi 05/15/2008 Denver Post

Republicans are bracing for a political annihilation of epic proportions after losing a special election this week in a solidly conservative district in Mississippi — yes, Mississippi.

We can call this "a harbinger."

And Republicans not only deserve the flogging, they should be praying for more. We can call this "creative destruction."

When Democrats claim that Republican presidential candidate John McCain would mean a third term of the Bush presidency, they're not kidding. The GOP offers no coherent policy, no leadership, no imagination, no principles and, most important, it offers no choice.

The Democrat-run Congress now carries an approval rating of 18 percent — the lowest in history, according to Gallup. You may believe such mass discontent is fertile ground for a strong opposition party to emerge. You'd be wrong.

A betrayal of fiscal conservatism and limited government by George Bush has fractured the Republican Party, and mending it won't be easy. Certainly, co-opting liberal ideas and repackaging them for moderates has failed to elect a single Republican. You may wonder, then: Why does it remain the GOP game plan?

Exhibit One: Republican presidential hopeful McCain unveiled his plan to nationalize energy with a cap-and-trade system (among other nuggets). McCain, in a speech that could have easily have been delivered by Al Gore, bemoaned the "profit" motive and claimed his solutions were "market"-driven.

If you believe McCain's new, massive energy bureaucracy is essential, there is already a party out there that will undertake the task with gusto.

Exhibit Two: In a misguided effort of legacy-building (good luck with that), the Bush administration designated polar bears as a threatened species. Seems innocuous enough. Everyone loves polar bears; they're such cuddly creatures, after all.

The administration ignored the steady increase in the polar bear population and for the first time in history, a species was listed based not on evidence but on the prospective threat relayed to us by computer models used by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

This decision may relegate huge tracts of land unusable for the extraction of energy at the worst possible time. Additionally, anyone who has the audacity to emit carbon into the atmosphere is now partially responsible for threatening the polar bear.

Wait until the lawyers get hold of this one.

If you believe polar bears need protection from theories, there is already a party for you.

Exhibit Three (the most egregious of all): The massive, $300 billion boondoggle farm bill was approved this week with a veto- proof margin. It features $25 billion in annual charity for farmers — a majority headed to commercial farms with an average income of $200,000 and a net worth of almost $2 million. A massive entitlement that drives up costs? What's not to like? (McCain opposes the bill.)

Bush has signed nearly every budget-busting spending proposal in existence — and constructed a few himself.

A veto here would be some small redemption. Allow Congress to override it and explain to the American people why, when food prices are rising precipitously, government is giving away billions in tax dollars.

Republicans, sadly, have offered little else. If they believe victory can be found in convincing voters that Barack Obama (or Hillary Clinton) is a traitor or that Iraq is worth 100 years, they will lose.

It's about time members of the GOP stopped being enablers. And a decisive defeat in November would be the perfect start.