Many people have asked me my opinion about the election and have sought my consolation. I have encouraged them to be of good cheer for several reasons. First of all, on this Thanksgiving we are reminded that we must always be grateful for our faith, our family, our liberty and our bounty.
As conservatives, we can take consolation that many Obama voters did not know about his radical proposals, nor necessarily agree with them even if they did. Public opinion polls, referenda, and the election victories of many conservatives suggest that the voters did not reject conservatism necessarily, even though they elected a radical liberal. A disturbingly high number of voters even mistakenly believed that the Republicans were the majority in the unpopular Congress.
Elections, like the one in 2008, often are decided by personality and chance. Obama's personal appeal and call for "change," and the voters' rejection of the Republican Party they associated with President George W. Bush, combined with the untimely slowdown of the economy that had been in prosperity for several years and is currently threatened by a bewildering financial crisis, overcame the experienced, maverick war hero, John McCain. However, the Democratic ticket did not win by a popular landslide. Indeed, a shift of just a few hundred thousand votes in some of the battleground states would have produced a victory for the McCain-Palin ticket.
The Republican Party was also victimized to some degree by its own success, having kept us free from terrorist attack for seven years, which allowed voters to focus on lesser matters.
It will be interesting to see the voters' reaction once Obama or the liberal Democratic congressional majority promote some of the unpopular items on their agenda. Already it appears that Obama may be backing away from some proposals in order to compromise and accomplish goals without sacrificing much of his popularity. In short, either Obama and the Democrats in Congress will govern as radicals, and suffer electoral defeat, or govern as center-leftists and still have a chance at electoral success.
Although the liberal Democrats will inflict some damage to the United States (especially the long-term damage from judicial appointments), our responsibility as the loyal opposition is to limit that damage by opposing what bad policies we can while promoting our conservative principles that we know are right and, in many cases, are also popular. We can compromise without giving up these principles for the good of the Republic, even if it benefits Obama and the Democrats politically, just as the Republican Congress saved Clinton from himself by limiting his damage. But this time, we should do a better job of claiming the credit for any successes.
We have been through a period of opposition before and have been able to accomplish much both in opposition, as well as afterwards once back in power. We shall do so again.
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2 comments:
Should our elected Republicans work with Obama; more, less, or the same as the Democrats worked with Bush?
Yes, Matthew, we should work together when we can, but oppose when we must, just as Democrats did with Bush. At times, Democrats joined with Republicans, for example on education, most of the anti-terrorist pieces of legislation, and even more recently for the budget, the economic stimulus and response to the fiscal crisis, even though the two parties disagreed sharply on many other issues.
We will be able to compromise at times, too, if Obama and the congressional Democrats are willing, without conceding any principles in other areas. Many bills or amendments are noncontroversial, and therefore we can still implement or modify policies even though we are in the minority. Thank you for your good question.
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