Picking Through the Pieces

For us to move forward from the ashes of Black Tuesday's defeat, we'll need to do some hard thinking on what led to the disaster.

I don't buy the "culture of corruption" theme as the prime motivator for voters. Both House Member William "cash in the freezer" Jefferson (D-LA) and Senator Bob "Bribes" Menendez (D-NJ) were returned to the legislature. Likewise, if the Iraq war was the prime motivator, how is it that Joe Lieberman, an ardent supporter of the war, was re-elected in Connecticut as an Independent?

The Mark Foley scandal didn't have electoral legs either. With Foley's name still on the ballot, Joe Negron (R-FL), who took his place, came within 1% of winning. Deborah Pryce (R-OH) and Tom Reynolds (R-OH) both members of the House GOP leadership and implicated in the scandal won re-election.

So what was the cause?

Two things. First, Democrats never gave up on the campaign of hate that they begun the day after the 2000 election. The tactic failed in 2002 and again in 2004. But they kept at it and perfected it to an art in 2006.

I posted Daniel Henninger's brilliant op-ed for the Wall Street Journal in February, 2006. It's highly recommended reading if you want to understand the cumulative effect of the Democrats campaign which relied on a willing news media to trumpet every GOP misstep and ignore similar or worse from the Democrats. It was written shortly after the hysteria of the Cheney shooting accident. Here's a short excerpt:

Calculated Outrage
Cheney as toast: Democrats burning down the house.
BY DANIEL HENNINGER
Opinion Journal
Friday, February 17, 2006

...Have you ever noticed how on a scale of one to 10, every untoward event in the life of the Bush presidency goes straight to a 10?

The Abu Ghraib photos? A 10 forever. Dick Cheney catching a hunting buddy with some birdshot? An instant 10. The Bush National Guard story? Total 10. How can it be that each downside event in this presidency greets the public at this one, screeching level of outrage and denunciation by the out-of-power party and a perpetually outraged media?
...
Here are some of the political and media bonfires that have been lit on the White House lawn, stoked and reignited the past five years: the "stolen" 2000 election, Halliburton, "Fahrenheit 9/11," Cheney lives in an "undisclosed location," Abu Ghraib, torture at Guantanamo, Bush lied about WMD, secret CIA prison sites, Valerie Plame, the neocons, Rumsfeld, Cheney's "secret" energy task force, Cindy Sheehan, Bush is destroying Social Security, Hurricane Katrina, Jack Abramoff, illegal wiretaps, Bill Frist's stock sales, what else?
...
If it all seems more than a little tiresome, if you wish it would all just go away, well, maybe that's the point--their point. Induce swing voters to seek respite from the Bush experience.
...
Absent any fresh or positive message for voters, why not try winning by turning politics under the Republicans into an experience of unrelenting discomfort? The substance of any given issue falls in importance.

Add the more recent example of George Allen's (R-VA) "macaca" remark which the Washington Post put on the front page eight times and ran over 100 other mentions while practically ignoring Jim Webb's (D-VA) kiddie porn fiction.

Republicans validated the Democrat tactic of hate/hysteria and disinformation by either putting up a tepid defense, or in the case of some GOP Senators, actually joining the Democrats in questioning programs like terrorist interrogations (thanks Senator Lindsey Graham (D-SC)).

But had Republicans stood solidly behind and advanced a positive, unabashedly conservative agenda, it's likely we would have been spared Tuesday's result. That's the second point. Our timid strategy, where we were cowed by media hysteria into either watering down or ignoring the conservative principles which took many Republicans to Washington in the first place (ahem, Senator Graham (D-SC)) ended up leaving voters without the clear choice on issues beyond the war and terrorism. And we allowed our strength on taxes and the economy to go unreported.

Dick Armey remembers a time when things were different. As House Majority Leader in the wake of the 1994 revolution which handed the House to the GOP, he reminds us:

End of the Revolution
Advice to Republicans: Don't go back and check on a dead skunk.
BY DICK ARMEY Opinion Journal
Thursday, November 9, 2006

...I've always wondered why Republicans insist on acting like Democrats in hopes of retaining political power, while Democrats act like us in order to win.

I've also wondered why Republicans let their fears and insecurities get in the way of important reforms. They missed the opportunity of a lifetime by failing to embrace retirement security based on personal ownership. Instead, from both parties we heard about "saving Social Security"--to the extent we heard anything at all. Republicans should be for reforms that free individuals and their families from failed government programs. We should not be for "saving" failed government programs.
...
In 2006, instead of heavy lifting on substantial reforms, House and Senate leaders attempted to rally their political base on wedge issues like illegal immigration and gay marriage. Instead of dealing with spending bills or retirement security, the Senate dedicated two full legislative days to a constitutional ban on gay marriage that no one expected to pass.
...
Moving forward, my advice to Republicans is simple: Don't go back and check on a dead skunk. The question Republicans now need to answer is: How do we once again convince the public that we are in fact the party many Democrats successfully pretended to be in this election? To do so, Republicans will need to shed their dominant insecurities that the public just won't understand a positive, national vision that is defined by economic opportunity, limited government and individual responsibility.
We need to remember Ronald Reagan's legacy and again stand for positive, big ideas that get power and money out of politics and government bureaucracy and back into the hands of individuals. We also need again to demonstrate an ability to be good stewards of the taxpayers' hard-earned money. If Republicans do these things, they will also restore the public's faith in our standards of personal conduct. Personal responsibility in public life follows naturally if your goal is good public policy.

Besides the obvious impact on the House and Senate, Tuesday's elections will no doubt redefine the Republican field going into early presidential primary states like Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. It will be up to grassroots activists in those battlegrounds to establish a constituency of expectations that anyone aspiring to be the next president of the United States must satisfy. To voters I say: Demand substance and you will get it. To Republican candidates for office I say: Offer good policy and you will create a winning constituency for lower taxes, less government and more freedom.

Before we get to the 2008 election, we need new leadership in both the House and Senate. Tell the "go along to get along" Republicans like Graham and McCain that they're no longer welcome.

I'll second the motion that Cajun Tiger made on the comment streams in our post-election wrapup and support a return to an active agenda on a national level with the leadership of Congressman Mike Pence, current Chairman of the Republican Study Committee (an inhouse think tank).

Earlier this year Pence pushed a 2006 Contract for America, a bold plan to nationalize the election on bedrock conservative issues. But timid House leaders were too afraid to run the election on a national platform. How'd that work out for us?