January 19, 2009

Lets get our Conservative Majority Back
By Doug Kellett

Gnashing of teeth and moaning about the most recent election isn’t going to change any thing. If we want a true conservative majority, we conservatives have to begin to work toward that end. That means recapturing the enthusiasm that we saw with the republican majority in 1994.

Why have we lost Congress and the White House in recent elections? Some seem confused about the answer when it is as clear as it can be. Republicans who claimed to be conservative left their first estate and became apostates.

Our President, while protecting the country since 911, got away from core conservative principles with domestic policies. Republican congressional leaders stopped pushing for a conservative agenda not complete and the faces of the party were more moderate than conservative.

We lost the faith of the American people on the core tenants of our beliefs. The American people sided with democrats on issues like taxes, economic policy, and reforming government. Even an issue that we can usually take for granted like national defense took a beating because of the controversy surrounding the invasion of Iraq.

When republicans took the majority in Congress in 1994 it was because the voters knew that if the party was put in charge, here is what would be accomplished. Once that agenda was largely put into action, it was as if there were no new ideas. It isn’t like that agenda, itself, was completed.

I don’t know about you but I’m not looking in my next generation of candidates for “mavericks” or “moderates.” A maverick who boasts in campaign ads about all the times they opposed a conservative agenda is not someone who is going to get my vote. Neither is a moderate who does nothing but try to get along with Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and the democratic majority.

I’m looking for the bold generation of conservatives who in the line of President Ronald Reagan stand for something and not afraid to say it.

We need candidates who will not compromise our belief in lowering taxes and reforming the tax code, limiting government, strong national defense while not being afraid to say moral issues are important. Many of our founding fathers believed that the United States would cease to exist if America ceased to be a religious and moral people. Why should we be afraid to say that because of a fear of offending someone?

As President Reagan often repeated, comprising principle just to get an agreement is not acceptable. Had we followed democratic proposals of the last 25 years, the Soviet Union would still remain, American would have uni-laterally disarmed, government entitlement programs would have ballooned and who knows where the tax burden would be. In other words, America would not be a pretty picture.

So, lets dust ourselves off and as Frank Sinatra once put it in the song “That’s Life:” “…Lets get back in the race.”