In the 1920’s, exiled Russians fantasized about how they could have continued in power if only the ruling class had had the wisdom to listen their prophetic ideas. “I was ignored,” said an aging former general, duke, or parliamentarian.
This was useless sniping by powerless old men who had failed to prevent their nation from falling into wicked hands.
Fortunately, the conservative Christians do not face so dire a situation. The electoral defeat this week could have been reversed by less than ten percent of the voting public. They did not deliver power over to revolutionaries, but to men who will give them a chance to recover in 2010 and 2012.
In one respect, however, there is a temptation to refight the old battles and to posture and pretend that if only one’s own advice had been heeded, all would have been well. The foolish failures who now are leaking (anonymously) rumors about Palin are best ignored. They are Tsarist generals secure that if the Emperor had listened to them, all would have been well.
This is not only general nonsense, but impotent nonsense.
Nobody regains cultural and political influence simply through better tactics.
The traditional conservative must look ahead. Here are four general tips for the future:
First, let the politically dead bury the dead. We should honor both McCain and Bush quietly and then move on to educating the public in our ideas.
Let’s graciously thank John McCain for his service. In all probability, nobody could have done better than John McCain did. He was taking on a cultural phenomena in a Democratic year. He made a race of it, but faced one too many burdens when the market collapsed. John McCain has been a good Republican, but his time is now fading into the past.
There is no particular reason for most of us who are not political professionals to endlessly rehash the election of 2008.
I still like George Bush, many of you still like George Bush, but for now, the country has repudiated George Bush.
In a republic, the voting public’s judgment should only be questioned on moral or fundamental philosophical issues. Bush should not be thrown under the bus . . . space already crowded with friends of President-Elect Obama, but he is going to have to walk home or sit very quietly on the drive home where he should be dropped off to await the kinder view of history.
He failed in the short term by failing to keep the public with him (part of the President’s job) and this failure cost traditionalists dearly.
There is no reason to keep defending what is for now indefensible . . . though it is equally shameful (and ungentlemanly) for most of us to expose men who did the best they could to public ridicule for short term benefit.
As a kid, I knew useless Republicans who could not stop defending Herbert Hoover. There was, actually, a decent defense to be made. Hoover got blamed for things he did not cause and excused for bad things he actually did, but such discussions had no pragmatic and (as conducted) little intellectual value.
No more apologetics for the Bush or McCain years. They are over.
There is nothing wrong with getting our history right in order to develop future solutions, but public campaigns to rehabilitate Bush right now would be as useless as public campaigns were to salvage the reputation (!) of Joseph McCarthy.
Second, it is time to start running candidates in races in every state of the Union. Losing California mattered (Reagan owned it) and the state party should be rebuilt.
We cannot win state wide office running the same old white men. The Republican Party in states like California has to do what it takes to get a few of those Prop 8 voters from the Hispanic and African-American communities to become party leaders.
First, we have to begin to compete in areas where we do not even run serious candidates. We have to spend the money and move candidates up the line. Might I suggest my own Congressional district?
Let’s remove the weak Sanchez sister with a well funded moderate candidate.
Just as Democrats rebuilt in the South by accepting some “Blue Dogs” (conservative Democrats), we also will need to accept some less-than ideologically perfect Republicans. No need to compromise on our moral stands.
If Rhode Island can elect a pro-life governor, so can California, but it needs to be the right kind of candidate.
If the Republican Party brand cannot win Hispanic votes in California, then we need a new party that can!
Third, we are losing the battle for ideas, but we don’t have to do so. We saved marriage by appealing to the man and woman on the street, but that is only a short term strategy. We are not, however, laying the ground work of ideas to win the battle for the minds of the establishment. Traditional conservatives must think long term and invest in new leaders who are idea generators.
This is not “either/or.” We don’t need to abandon areas (like talk radio) where we are successful, but need more content driven “middlebrow” stuff.
Traditional conservatives cannot afford leaders who cannot articulate and defend their world view (marriage and abortion especially) at a high intellectual level when needed at this moment.
I am from West Virginia and I have no desire to abandon the folks from my home state, but we also need to raise up a generation of articulate leaders (yes, an elite) who can serve the folks by defending their values as they should be defended. Good traditional conservative educators can also gently educate the movement in areas where stupid ideas have taken root.
This must begin by having religious conservatives represented by thinkers and young people and not by most of the “old guard.” The “old guard” have mostly shown they cannot win this new fight by failing to adopt new arguments and new technologies. We need intellectually curious reader-leaders.
If you don’t read, then you cannot lead at this moment in conservative history.
The millions spent on Proposition Eight were well spent, but let me challenge conservatives reading this post to raise long term money and begin to endow chairs at schools like my own to study and develop arguments on family issues.
We have the people, but lack the funding to let those people write and educate full time. Let’s have ten activist scholars defending family and life full time in California by this time next year. Let’s have a program in every urban school talking up state constitutional marriage and life supported by state of the art new media presentations and on-line communities.
This can be done. It is not flashy, but we must not win the “Gettysburg” of the pro-family movement only to let our opponents eventually win the war by continuing to define the terms of the debate.
Fourth, we must not fall into the trap of simply opposing President-elect Obama. The left was successful despite their Bush Derangement Syndrome. Charity demands we work with President Obama when we can . . . and try to help him when we can.
This does not mean becoming mushy or moderate, but does entail holding our opposition for clearly defined big issues. Picking the “wrong” White House chief of staff does not rise to that level! No compromise on life, family, or liberty. We must fight for the Constitution, but we should avoid personalizing the opposition.
Respect given to the man and the head of state does not equal support for his actions as head of government. That is a smart way to fight in a new media age (it wears well) and has the added benefit (!) of being the right thing to do as Americans (and in my case as a Christian).
Where do these tips leave Sarah Palin?
My family loves Sarah Palin.
We want her to be the future leader we need, but she has been Quayled in the eyes of voters we need.
If we cannot persuade friends and allies like Rod Dreher he got her wrong, then she will never win over enough people to be president. He is a good test of her ability to change the tone and reach out to the bigger community needed to win.
It is an effort worth making. Few national Republicans have her natural gifts and skills. The party needs people like her, but only if she demonstrates she can be as intellectually commanding as she is charismatic. Americans love a come back story and when Palin shows she knows . . . the folks will love it!
How?
She needs to articulate her own vision for the party over the next few years . . . and it needs to be meaty. She can bring it down to the level of the rest of us (call me John the Teacher), but must start with an overarching philosophical vision.
She is smart and can do this, but if she does not, then she cannot lead a nation that increasingly expects leaders to at least appear “smart.”
I would suggest getting some “world view” advisors from outside the normal Washington circles. The think tanks have run out of gas . . . and there are too few religious conservatives (of her sort) in them to help.
Get people who can suggest books to read, who are her people, and who share her general ideas, but will challenge her to go “further up and further in.” They should be people who will serve behind the scenes and feel no need for glory or money. She needs to build a team, her own brain trust, like Reagan had, of loyalists . . . but loyalists who will help cultivate her considerable intellect.