Thinning the Herd: RINOs Lose Big
Abandonment of conservative principles root cause of Republican losses … Now what?
The Republican Party nationally, and in Pennsylvania, lies in tatters today. Having lost the White House to Barack Obama, suffered historic losses in Congressional elections, been almost shut-out in statewide races, and experienced further erosion in the state House , there is no doubt the GOP has hit rock bottom.
It is, most significantly, a loss for so-called moderate Republicanism. Party moderates have opined time and again that a more middle-of-the-road p residential candidate could win Pennsylvania. McCain was touted as that candidate. He lost by 11 percent – far worse than the George W. Bush losses in either 2000 (5 percent) or 2004 (3 percent).
This election provides conclusive proof of what happens to a party when it abandons its core values. John McCain was never the candidate of conservative Republicans. His apostasies ranged from trampling free speech rights with McCain-Feingold campaign restrictions, to opposing the Bush tax cuts, to supporting illegal immigration.
The turning point in this campaign was the vote on the $700 billion economic bail-out package , which was supported by both Obama and McCain. Loaded with pork, McCain violated his campaign pledge to “name the names†of the ho gs at the trough and instead loaded their plates. From that point on it was clear neither Obama nor McCain was going to bring about change of any kind.
Add in the last minute conviction of Alaska Senator Ted Stevens on corruption charges and American voters were reminded again why they rejected so many Republicans in 2006.
As John McCain himself said: “We came to change Washington, instead Washington changed us.â€
That is so true. The GOP at all levels has abandoned its core principles. From the string of corrupt Republicans headed off to jail, to big government spending like the Medicaid bill and the bailout, to state-level support for Governor Ed Rendell and his big spending ways, Republicans have sold out, melding with Democrats into one big incumbent party.
To make matters worse, the once-vaunted Republican organizational structure fell apart. John McCain wrapped up the GOP nomination by the end of February, yet the Obama campaign ran rings around McCain in building a grassroots organization that produced big time on Election Day. The McCain campaign totally frittered away any advantage it gained by locking up the nomination early.
Here in Pennsylvania the Republican Party is showing signs of serious trouble as well. Of the 12 statewide offices elected in the past three years, the GOP has won just three: two seats on the Commonwealth court and a ttorney g eneral. In that same time period , Republicans have lost in the p residential race, a U.S. Senate seat, the governorship, Lt. Governorship, two statewide row offices, two seats on the state Supreme Court, and one Commonwealth court seat.
State Republicans suffered a net loss of one Congressional seat on Tuesday; added to the three lost in 1986 that is a four seats turn-over in a two-year span. And, in the state House, the GOP has gone from a 13-seat majority to a 7-seat minority. Further evidence of the party’s foundations rotting out from under it came from voter registration statistics. There are now 1.2 million more Democrats than Republicans in Pennsylvania. That is an all-time high.
The fact of the matter is the GOP has become an unprincipled, undisciplined, ineffective shell of its former self. It has a party structure controlled by lobbyists and special interests, unable to excite even its own base. Worse, the structure is mired in the politics of the last century, unable or unwilling to take advantage of the modern techniques of organizing and communication.
The good news is this vindicates conservatism. When the Republican Party both talked and walked the conservative line—think Ronald Reagan—it enjoyed an unparalleled period of success and prosperity both nationally and within Pennsylvania. But, as moderation took hold , the GOP moved away from those principles with the resulting electoral carnage.
The time has now come to rebuild. This will require two things: new faces in party leadership, and a return to the core principles that have historically made the Republican Party great.
Until and unless those two things happen, the GOP is in for a long period of wandering in the electoral wilderness.
Lowman S. Henry, a former political director of the Republican State Committee of Pennsylvania, is currently Chairman & CEO of the Lincoln Institute, host of the weekly Lincoln Radio Journal, and a contributing scholar to the Center for Vision and Values at Grove City College. His e-mail address is lhenry@lincolninstitute.org .
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Stumble It!
November 7th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
RINO’s were compromisers. They claimed to begin as conservatives and then turned to compromise. If you accept your opponents arguments as valid, then your arguments are invalid. No logic just an emotional desire to appear as a compromiser. Why vote for the person who doesn’t believe his arguments are valid?
November 7th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
The GOP belongs in the doghouse. Conservatives do not want their party to try and be better liberals. McCain-Feingold. McCain-Kennedy. Amnesty. Bailing out Wall Street. Harriet Miers. On and on.
Many conservatives have worked for decades to get to the point in this election, e.g. changing the majority on the Supreme Court for one. George Bush, John McCain pissed 4 decades of effort away. The Supreme Court will turn far left for decades. Damn them both.
I have been very loyal to the GOP even though I’m a registered Independent (why the F*ck would I be a Democrat?), but the GOP has earned it’s place.
I will plan my future accordingly. The GOP had better kick out the moderates. They have a winning formula that is conservative and needs someone to properly sell that message. The moderates have got to go. No discussion.
November 9th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
Lowman did not mention feminism in this article, so I may have to say I disagree.
If Lowman had said that the Republicans have gone down the tubes because they stopped pandering to males and started pandering to feminists, I would fully agree.
Young people have told me that they voted against the Republicans because, to them as with me, religion no longer has a place in politics and it is a waste of time (especially now) to also make abortion or illegal immigration an issue ever again.
Most American businessmen want the right to sleep with their interns as well.
It was a huge mistake for anyone to feel that the Republicans could win the male vote by saying that a man should be fired, or even admonished, for sleeping with his secretary.
The desire to condemn male sexuality is feminist and the Republicans seemed to turn into rabid feminists during the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
Bush barely won in 2000 because of an older religious crowd that has since died.
Bush again barely won in 2004 because males like me supported the need to win the Iraq War.
But the Iraq War was supporting a party that had rotted from the inside out (at least in the eyes of younger males who grew up during the praiseworthy sexual revolution) because of its new support for anti-male feminism and hatred for male sexuality.
November 9th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
So while I agree with the prevailing MRM sentiment that the Republicans suddenly turned against males with a vengeance sometime after 9-11, after having generally voted against gender-feminist lawmaking attempts previously, there is an argument that says that the Republicans have ALWAYS been against males and, now that the Cold War and military phase of the WOT is over, males are waking up to the constant attacks by the party against their own sexual interests and voting against the party.
The future of the party will be in promoting individual rights. In this respect, neither Ron Paul nor Bob Barr were appropriate because NEITHER of these guys promoted men’s rights and Ron Paul went out of his way to condemn the sexual revolution.
November 10th, 2008 at 3:43 am
Not RINO’s…..Vichy Republicans