A GOP defeat might be the best way to increase conservative gains in the long run
Over at the American Conservative, James Antle has a column up on the November elections and why we are better off if the GOP loses. Here is a snippet:
Nevertheless, conservative gains have often followed Republican electoral setbacks. Ronald Reagan would not have been elected in 1980 if Gerald Ford had won a full term in 1976. Republicans probably wouldn’t have captured Congress if George H.W. Bush had won re-election in 1992.
And where would the conservative movement be if the GOP had gone with a viable Rockefeller Republican in 1964 rather than suffering a landslide defeat with Barry Goldwater? That movement is today weighed down by big-government conservatism and George W. Bush’s foreign policy. A Republican loss would be the best way to repudiate both crippling trends.
It is easy to imagine how a resurgent Democratic Party might make things worse. But how can rewarding the current Republican majority make things any better?
I could see this argument for the Senate, as it is no great conservative asset anyway. Even with the judges issue, it might be a plus because it might get conservatives thinking on whether they want to continue treatingt the Court as the ultimate arbiter of the Constitution once they lose their control over picking the philospher king.
A Democratic House would be more dangerous as the House is the only thing keeping McCain-Kennedy amnesty from being law. In addition, could you imainge the spending? There is no evidence Bush would move to stop it. Indeed, he;d probably bid it up.
I’m pulling for a Dem. House and for the Republicans to hold the Senate. Based entirely on the Judge issue.
It’s so hard to gain back lost ground. It takes massive amounts of time, energy and resources. I think it foolish to wish ill on the party most likely to advance your personal platform.
We pay dearly for the little victories Dems have accumulated over the years. Just look at the destruction left in the wake of one Jimmy Carter.
No I’ll put mucho lipstick on a Republican pig before I’ll pull the lever for a Dem. I’ve done it. Once. I voted for a Pro-gun, Pro-life Democratic Gubernatorial candidate over a corrupt RINO, George Ryan, who is now serving time.
Glenn Poshard?
Without Watergate/massive congressional losses and then Carter over Ford, we wouldn’t have had Reagan in ‘80.
Perhaps now misguided conservatives will come home on the question of the filibuster, that they were oh so eager to toss overboard so recently.
Let us hope all the foolish anti-filibuster rhetoric, that flowed so easily from the mouths of our “leaders” in and out of Congress, will not soon be quoted against us, should the Democrats — if they regain the Senate — decide the time is right to grease the skids.
It is sad but true, that our hope lies not in the misbegotten GOP, but in the Democrats themselves being uncertain that abolishing the filibuster is all that good an idea — so they may well leave it alone. Deo gratias.
JimBob got crystal ball? Ford would probably have faired little better than Carter. In 1980, this country was driven by Reagan’s resolve to rebuild our national standing. No other politician offered that hope, DorR.
Your counterfactual does not hold up in even a cursory review of the times. The Soviet Bear and the economy were the dominant issue of the early ’80s. Reagan was free and clear of the pack in his approach to these issues.
I think Bush would find his veto pen with a dem house or dem house/senate. Here’s to hoping for a GOP defeat. Conservatives failure these last years has been putting too much into the GOP…
Without ‘92, we don’t have ‘94. I’m not saying I want to see the Dems win both Houses. But the GOP needs to find itself.
The GOP has left me, there is no conservative party. The Neo-Cons who came from the left captured the party. The only way to get rid of them is by a massive defeat. Then the Republican Party can again become the conservative party. When the Democrats assume control of either house the Bush regime will be investigated,and the Neo-Cons in the end discredited. Only then can they be purged from the party. Bring it on.