NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER: Let's Get Going
Regnery, Alfred S.
UMMELED IN THE FALL ELECTIONS and now in the minority in Congress, Republicans--especially Republican leaders--still haven't figured out why they lost or what they need to do to win once...
...by Alfred S. Regnery N O T EF R O MT H EP U B L I S H E R 6 T H E A M E R I C A N S P E C T A T O R A P R I L 2 0 0 7 Let'sGetGoing P...
...Alfred S. Regnery, publisher of The American Spectator, is writing a book on the conservative movement...
...Republicans need to remember, as Ronald Reagan reminded us, what the issues are that trouble people and make it clear where they stand on those issues...
...Over half of all voters, including many whohavebeenthedecisivefactorinwinningelections for Republicans, believe that Democrats, not Republicans, are better at curtailing wasteful spending, at balancing the budget, keeping taxes low, and maintaining a prosperous economy...
...Republicans need to recall how they won elections in the past, how they worked togetherforcommongoals,andhowtheyappealedto the swing voters in the middle of the spectrum who are the ones who decide elections...
...Sixty percent of all voters, in exit polls on Election Day 2006, said that they preferred fewer government services and lower taxes to more government services and higher taxes...
...Is it a third party we need...
...UMMELED IN THE FALL ELECTIONS and now in the minority in Congress, Republicans--especially Republican leaders--still haven't figured out why they lost or what they need to do to win once again...
...They also need to listentotheirbase--thepeoplewhobelieveinlimitedgovernment, lower taxes, and less regulation from Washington...
...It is conservatives who are the bulkofRepublicanworkers,donors,andactivists,and it is they who need to call the shots rather than the consultants and apparatchiks who run the Republican Party...
...ThisisnotthefirsttimetheGOPhasbeenintrouble...
...They, and not the Republicanleadership,aretheoneswhoneedconservatives' support...
...It could take years to get back what Ronald Reagan left us in 1988, but the time to start is now...
...asked Reagan...
...After Nixon resigned, over 30 years ago, Democrats had huge majorities in both houses of Congress, the Republican Party was broke, and worse, it had no principles...
...So what's to be done...
...Yet many of those voters--certainly people who once voted enthusiastically for Ronald Reagan--voted for Democrats...
...But as he always seemed to do, Ronald Reagan thought differently...
...Or is it a new and revitalized second party, raising a banner of no pale pastels, but bold colors which make it unmistakably clear where westandonalltheissuestroublingthepeople...
...The Reagan Revolution will survive only underarevitalizedandboldpartythatisdedicatedto economic growth and smaller government...
...Insteadofcuttingspending,toomanyRepublicans continue to try to figure out clever ways to spend more of our money for their own aggrandizement...
...Bold colors are no more evident among the Republican leadership these days than are clear statements about where it stands on the issues "troubling thepeople...
...Inthelate1980s,astheDemocraticPartyveered further and further left and then, in 1994, moved solidly into the minority, centrist Democrats got together under the banner of the Democratic Leadership Council and pushed the party back toward the center...
...Instead of trying to solve illegal immigration, theyducktheissue.Insteadofbeinghonestandforthright, they hire million-dollar consultants to "brand" themandtodeceivethevotersintothinkingtheystand forsomething...
...It was not a short-term undertaking, but it eventually worked...
...TherearemanysolidlyconservativeRepublicans in Congress--Mike Pence, Jeff Flake, and John Shadegg in the House, Tom Coburn and Jim DeMint in the Senate, to name just a few...
...Calls for a third party were loud and frequent and had the attention of plenty of dispirited Republicans...
Vol. 40 • April 2007 • No. 3
