Conservative Cabal

First, remain calm. I’m not the first and won’t be the last to remind us that this is not the end of the world. We survived Clinton and Carter (egad!), we’ll survive this.

The Republican Party has two tasks, one immediate and one more medium term. The first task, set out some red-lines. There have to be some things they stand for and they better have them identified and well understood before January 20th because the Dems are going to try to hit the ground running. The Republicans need to pick the issues they will not surrender on and start getting their message and their talking points down so they can withstand the media onslaught and not come across like a bunch of idiots.

Suggestions:

Border Security. The Dems hate it, most of the establishment Republicans do too, but it’s a winner with voters and the vast majority of Americans. It’s also simple and easy to articulate. If people are coming across, so are drugs, criminals and possibly terrorists and weapons. Secure the border.

Missile Defense. It’s a winner with voters and it’s a good thing, a necessary thing in a world where Obama is going to be tested by every idiot with a SCUD and a dream, read Iran, N. Korea and from the looks of the saber rattling today, Russia too. Missile defense is already working and Democratic attempts to scuttle it should be shot down like a tumbling piece of space junk. Again, easy to articulate and understand.

No Action on Climate Change. In the twenty years since Hansen started his hysterical screed for world domination the globe has warmed exactly 0 degrees. Not a whit of warmth despite the massive amounts of CO2 we have continued to dump into the atmosphere and the extra massive amounts added by China and India. Do not allow the Democrats and misguided Republicans to ram through expensive and idiotic regulations to control a problem that doesn’t exist. Again, it’s a simple argument; the planet hasn’t warmed. The evidence does not support the extremist’s conclusions. Paint them as extremists because the only “scientists” who support the Gore/Hansen understanding of climate change are exactly that.

Others might include stopping any federal action on gay marriage (although I don’t think that will be a problem), defending the Bush tax cuts, defending the 2nd Amendment…

The point is to have several clear, easy to understand positions that Republicans in Congress can fight for. Senators can filibuster but they are going to need a game plan, a strategy to do it effectively and to fight both the Democrats and the media, so they have to pick their battles. Maybe we can’t make them drill, but we can keep them from taxing CO2 (a huge goal of the greens that would be a huge nightmare for all Americans).

So that’s part one. For part two they are going to need a new “Contract with America”, a statement of principles and specific legislative actions they are going to take to advance those principles. They don’t need that before January09, but they will need it pretty well defined before January10 because it will be a necessary component of their campaign to take back the Congress. The American people simply don’t trust the Republicans to act like Republicans anymore, that’s why they lost. They have a lot of work ahead of them to re-establish that trust and only 24 short months in which to do it.

So, no time to sulk. Let’s get to work.