The Republican party’s abandonment of traditional conservative principles – low taxes, smaller government, an originalist judiciary, strong defense, free trade and markets, no pork-barrel, borders that exist – is what brought it to its current status. Returning to those principles is its only hope of recovery, and even that is quite problematic. There’s abundant and well-founded skepticism that the Republican party will EVER faithfully embrace conservative principles, as it has repeatedly promised and subsequently failed to do precisely that. Republicans have the next two years to persuade its traditional base that it’s learned something from the 2006 & 2008 elections. If it fails again to represent the values that are shared by the majority of the population, a third party will emerge to fill that void. While the Republican party’s existing infrastructure could facilitate conservatism’s return to the national arena, its history of unreliability suggests it’s not worth the effort it would require to wrest control of it from the may-as-well-be-Democrat-milquetoasts that currently run it. The sense that there’s no conservative leadership, the boiling emotions at not being represented, a desire for clear direction, and the Left’s threat to America’s very fabric – all of that is what’s going to coalesce into a new conservative front. Those voices haven’t been represented, at all, in over a decade, and those voices resonate in a majority of Americans. The Republican party is no longer the most likely outlet for them. A new organization will emerge, and will do so within the next two years.
The media’s bias in support of the Left has been an enormous obstacle and disadvantage to the Right. The media’s fortunes, however, have been declining steadily for the past 25 years, and declining precipitously of late. Their readers/viewers have dropped by over one-half, their revenues have diminished to the point of being life-threatening, long-standing publications are struggling to survive, and disenchantment with them, if not sheer disbelief of them, continues to rise. These are not coincidences. This occurred simultaneously with conservatism and alternative media’s rise. The MSM shot the works in 2008, abandoning all pretense of objectivity. Nearly 80% of Americans believe the media are strongly biased toward Democrats. The internet is now viewed as the most reliable source of information. The MSM will not retain their remaining influence, even in the face of the Left’s efforts to muzzle alternative media. The technical and philosophical landscapes are very different from those that existed 25 years ago, when the MSM’s stranglehold on information was nearly complete. The case against a renewed Fairness Doctrine has never been stronger. And even if it’s pushed through by the Democrats, its effect will be a pale imitation of what it was before Reagan killed it. There are simply too many information outlets, too many alternative sources of news and opinion, and too much awareness of the MSM’s seemingly innate bias. They will never recapture their former dominance and will continue to decline. As this happens, the facts about our financial crisis will come out, and the Left’s culpability in it will become known. The real history and nature of the man who will occupy the White House in 2009 will also become known, despite the MSM’s sustained efforts to prevent that happening. As inevitably as night follows day, popular sentiment will turn against him.
It’s a near-certainty that BH0′s leadership will threaten the nation’s viability. Those who voted for him in the hope he would govern from the center will be badly disappointed. He will attempt to impose the Left’s ideas onto a populace that, while greatly dissatisfied with Republicans, remains elementally center-Right. The nation’s core values are inconsistent with those that have dominated BH0′s personal and political history. To the extent that he tries to alter things to favor his radical, anti-American beliefs, he will alienate the majority of the people. This will occur at the same time that economic reality will prevent him from fulfilling even one of the grandiose promises he made to the various extremist perspectives that brought him to power. There is nothing in U.S. politics so intolerant and vindictive as a betrayed Leftist interest group. Even now there are ominous rumblings among them about being double-crossed by cabinet selections and abandonment of the change that was central to BH0′s campaign. By the end of his term, BH0′s dog is likely to be his only friend.
It’s very probable that two years from now, and certainly four years from now, the nation willhave seen the essential hollowness of BH0′s ideas, and understand the true nature of his goals. It will be infinitely more receptive to ideas that do not fly in the face of logic or challenge long-held cultural values, ideas that already resonate in the majority of the American people. Traditional American conservatism will fill that bill.
