I know that the 2008 elections have not even occured but for conservatives we should be concentrating on 2012.
Why? The Republican party has done massive damage to its reputation among conservatives and there is little it can do to fix it in the short term. There is no way that the current Senators spending and lack of guts with dealing with the Democrats can be offset in 5 months. What they can do is start laying the groundwork for securing their base by 2012.
If I was to be asked, and I will not but hey I can hope, I would demand the following.
1. End earmarks. It is impossible to hammer the Democrats on reckless earmarks when our own members do it as well. Earmarks effect fund raising, not votes. A Senator or Congressman who gets 10 Million for a Bus station may be able to squeeze some juice out of construction companies in return but it will not give him a single vote among conservatives.
2. Consistant Energy policy. The policy HAS to be a party platform. Agreed to by all. It has to address more than just the cost of oil. A consistant policy will work for both the short, and long term well being of the US of A and it HAS to be logical. Most importantly, no energy policy should be supported that is not grounded in scientific fact. Ethanol hurts fuel economy. That is a fact. People can argue about the impact on food prices till they are blue in the face but they can NOT be allowed to push for something that is bad for us.
3. No more compromise candidates. There is perhaps nothing more destructive to a party base than when national party members influence state party race selections. Picking people from podunk counties to stand in State wide elections is one of the surest ways to political defeat. Picking members who can pull tens or hundreds of thousands of votes from their home territory is the only sensible approach to state wide elections. Had the Wisconsin GOP done what was right, we would not have 2 Democratic Senotors right now. We would also not have a Democratic Governor. For the greatest example of this look at how the National GOP referred to Russ Darrow in the Senate race. He was referred to as “A car dealer”. Referring to Russ Darrow as a car dealer is like calling Bill Gates a “computer guy”. Just plain dumb.
In 2012 the Democrats will be defending 24 of 33 Senate seats. That is the point in time that a strategic offensive would be most effective. That is the point in time when a national party should be able to look back at 4 proven years of policies that they can pont to with pride. It will be politaclly ineffective for an attack ad to highlight spending or policy issues from prior to 2008 since the Republican candidates will have a full presidential term of good, solid, bedrock prinicpled votes to put before the public.
If only the national party could look ahead.
