By Dan Foley
Now that the election is over and President-elect Barack Obama is getting his team ready, we should all take a deep breath and do something other than politics for awhile. On the other hand, there are those of us who think about politics 24/7, 365 days a year, and to them I write this article.
Let me begin by congratulating President-elect Obama and by pointing out how, after his victory, Republicans have not threatened to leave the country. Nor have they called him names. I am sure they join me in congratulating him and in rolling up our shirtsleeves and standing ready to make America better.
I have to say, as a conservative Republican, that there is a lot for us to learn from the way this election ended. It seems this election was about Republicans running a more moderate Republican at the top of the ticket. The idea was that this would allow us to reach out to moderate Democrats and independents. But judging by the election returns — and by the comments of the “moderates” to whom we were trying to appeal — the idea didn’t exactly work.
Name for me one moderate columnist, pundit or personality who has come to the aid of this “new look” Republican Party? Not One! We have moved the party further to the left while the Democrats have gone further to the left, and what have we gotten out of this? Nothing! It just goes to show you that when Republicans try to be “like Democrats,” we lose every time.
I am not blaming John McCain. He is who he is. We have the folks in Congress to thank for the situation in which we find ourselves. And of course we cannot forget President Bush, who couldn’t try hard enough to outspend the liberals in D.C., and helped get us where we are today. All of this in conjunction with trying to be “Democrat-like” has put the Republican Party in a bad place. What can we do about it?
That is an easy one to answer. It is simple. Get back to being conservatives. Get back to actually standing for something rather than being like Democrats. Get back to what we, the people at home, actually believe in. And that is less government, less taxes and more personal responsibility. As Republicans, let’s get back to believing that government doesn’t have all the answers. We should also be reminded that standing up to the liberals when they are wrong is not only the right and just thing to do, but it is what we are expected to do. We need to stop giving in to bad ideas, all in the name of “bipartisanship.”
I have to give the Democrats a great deal of credit. They have done a great job of controlling the message. Republicans have just gone along to get along. Look where that approach got us.
Now is not the time to move leftward
I have been listening to the liberal media, as well as reading a few Democratic New Mexico bloggers. They all say the Republican Party needs to become more moderate. But I have to ask how much further left the party has to go before they will they consider it moderate? All this talk about people being in the “middle” is crap. People want leadership. Period! They want someone who will actually stand for something and who isn’t afraid to tell you what that is and why.
While I don’t agree with President-elect Obama’s policies, I credit him with telling us what he was for. And the people chose that. I don’t think they chose it just because they believe it; they chose it because it was a clear message they could understand and they chose to vote for a message that meant something to them.
Republicans need to get back to what it is we believe in. We need to stop being afraid to admit we’re conservatives, that we believe in cutting taxes, and that when someone attacks our country we’re going to swing back. We need to stand up for personal responsibility and fight for fair, clean elections — not only for office but also when it comes to forcing someone to have a union.
These are messages the people of this country want to hear. We can stop listening to those who hate us and want nothing more than to see this country become a one-party government. Once we do that, we will start focusing on what it is going to take to become the party we have been before and can be again.
Now is not the time to move leftward. We did that and it didn’t work. Now is the time to go back to basics and realize we need to fight for the very philosophy we believe made this country great. We can do all of this while working to make America better. We can do this without calling President-Elect Obama names. Maybe the far left will follow our lead about the name-calling. Maybe not. But if nothing else, we can begin to make America a better place.
Foley, a Republican, is the outgoing minority whip in the New Mexico House of Representatives.