By, JohnCaile, The Bully Pulpit for Regular Folks
Too many Republican establishment types just don't get it - Obama didn't win as much as Republicans LOST. And they lost by abandoning their conservative principles and becoming little more than Democrat Lite. When voters see little difference between the partys, the candidate offering the most "free" goodies will always win - and he did.
Yet too many of the party "leadership" have continued to blame their troubles on George Bush, "the war," the economy - anything but themselves.
Wrong. YOU blew it.
You blew it by ignoring bribe-taking legislators like Duke Cunningham and Ted Stevens - until their perfidy became a public spectacle.
You blew it by tolerating moral morons like Mark Foley - until his sexual stupidity became a front page scandal.
You blew it by spending like drunken Democrats - instead of saying NO to spending increases, and then demanding spending DECREASES.
You blew it by going along with Ted Kennedy's massive education expansion - instead of fighting for REAL education reform.
You blew it by agreeing to make the Bush Tax Cuts only temporary - setting the stage for Democrats to in essence, raise taxes by simply letting them expire, and leaving YOU holding the bag.
You blew it by going along with the disastrous Ethanol subsidy - instead of fighting it as the "welfare for agribusiness" fraud that it is.
You blew it by going along with the "global warming" scam - instead of exposing the anti-American and anti-free enterprise movement that it is.
You blew it by being weak on illegal immigration, trying to buy votes by pandering to the Mexican-American lobby - rather than standing up for America's LEGAL immigrants.
Wrong. YOU blew it.
You blew it by ignoring bribe-taking legislators like Duke Cunningham and Ted Stevens - until their perfidy became a public spectacle.
You blew it by tolerating moral morons like Mark Foley - until his sexual stupidity became a front page scandal.
You blew it by spending like drunken Democrats - instead of saying NO to spending increases, and then demanding spending DECREASES.
You blew it by going along with Ted Kennedy's massive education expansion - instead of fighting for REAL education reform.
You blew it by agreeing to make the Bush Tax Cuts only temporary - setting the stage for Democrats to in essence, raise taxes by simply letting them expire, and leaving YOU holding the bag.
You blew it by going along with the disastrous Ethanol subsidy - instead of fighting it as the "welfare for agribusiness" fraud that it is.
You blew it by going along with the "global warming" scam - instead of exposing the anti-American and anti-free enterprise movement that it is.
You blew it by being weak on illegal immigration, trying to buy votes by pandering to the Mexican-American lobby - rather than standing up for America's LEGAL immigrants.
And you REALY blew it when you ignored one of your strongest supporters: America's 90 million gun owners. You let the most anti-gun Presidential candidate in history run an entire compaign without so much as a single challenge to his abysmal record on guns, not even during the debates.
So, when gun owners, including a lot of Reagan Democrats, heard nothing different from you, they concluded that Obama must not be such a threat to their guns after all, and they simply went for the "free stuff" guy.
But most of all, you blew it because you forgot this fundamental reality:
POLITICS IS WAR.
War for the hearts and minds of the electorate, to be sure, but war none the less. And in war, victory goes to those who play to win - not to those who "try not to lose."
George S. Patton was once asked what his strategy for victory was. He replied "Simple. Attack. Attack. Attack."
Politics is no different. When you go on offense, you force your enemy to react to you, rather than waiting for your opponent to set the terms of the battle. And you must stay on offense until your enemy is defeated.
But today's Republicans don't even remember what victory looks like - you refer to negotiating a tax increase that is "only" half the size of your opponent's as a "victory." No, it wasn't - it was still an increase. A victory is getting your opponents to agree to a tax DECREASE.
And I'm sure it won't be long before some gutless Republicans try to blame McCain's loss on Sarah Palin. But that would be a huge mistake, and an even greater misreading of the battlefield.
Because Sarah is the only real Republican warrior in the game today. Sarah is a fighter. She plays to win, and she really, really hates to lose. I have no doubt that if General Patton were here today, he would likely have far more respect for Sarah Palin than he would for any of the so-called Republican leadership - them he would want to slap.
My great-grandfather was John F. McGuire, a powerful force in Chicago politics in the early Twentieth Century. When a political hack once opined to him that he was "too combative" (sound familiar?) because, after all "politics is the art of compromise" the tough-as-nails Irishman snorted back "B--- S---! Politics is the art of making the OTHER son-of-a-b---- compromise!"
Until the Republican Party develops the same understanding of what it takes to win, they will continue their downward slide, at best into a permanent minority, and at worst, into oblivion.
My great-grandfather was John F. McGuire, a powerful force in Chicago politics in the early Twentieth Century. When a political hack once opined to him that he was "too combative" (sound familiar?) because, after all "politics is the art of compromise" the tough-as-nails Irishman snorted back "B--- S---! Politics is the art of making the OTHER son-of-a-b---- compromise!"
Until the Republican Party develops the same understanding of what it takes to win, they will continue their downward slide, at best into a permanent minority, and at worst, into oblivion.
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