Why the Republicans Lost

In case you're wondering why the Republicans lost yesterday, it's simple.

No, nobody cheated. (More than usual.) The Democrats didn't have more dead voters showing up for them than they normally do. The media provided the same 15 point bump they do for every election, so that's nothing new for the Republicans to overcome. There wasn't some "Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy" - well, any more than there has been since 1960.

No, it's much simpler than that. As Bill Whittle says, Republicans lost and Democrats won for the same reason - they distanced themselves from their base. The Republicans forgot how to be Republicans. They were spending like drunken Kennedys at a high price brothel. They were encroaching on the freedoms held so dear by Jefferson's ideological children. In essence, they were out-Democrating the Democrats, and since, for the last 12 years, they have successfully managed to keep the Dems from doing what they wanted, people have forgotten just HOW BAD the Dems will make it. Nobody made them shift to the left. They became bloated, fat, power-hungry, keep-my-seat-at-any-cost big-government spendaholics. Ned Lamont proved that this wasn't a referendum on Iraq - if the people were really against the war, Lieberman would be sending out resumes, and Lamont and Kos would be front-page news.

The Republicans lost because there were no Republicans for whom to vote. In the choice between a Democrat with a D next to his name, and a Democrat with an R next to his name, the conservatives just stayed home. Third parties this year had the highest voting numbers on record; the Republicans screwed the pooch since the ascention of Bush, the Democrats will do worse, the only sane choice is to hope that the Libertarians or the IAP will bail us out of this statist nightmare.

So, to my Republican friends, I offer this advice: Go re-learn how to be Republicans. To my Democrat friends: Go learn how to be conservatives. When Kennedy was alive, his policies mirrored almost exactly what the modern-day conservatives believe in most fervently. You're not being a bad Democrat by claiming the conservative crown; you're retaking the belief system that LBJ so callously corrupted, and relighting the flame of JFK's dream. It is, truly, what the American people want. The Democrats did not win because people want their policies. They won because the Republican base chose not to support their supposed candidates. It would pay to keep that in mind.

So, with that in mind, some lessons in being a true Republican. From the words of the Master:

Today we did what we had to do. They counted on America to be passive. They counted wrong

You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children's children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done.

History teaches that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.

The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or the next. It was the deep knowledge -- and pray to God we have not lost it -- that there is a profound moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest

Regimes planted by bayonets do not take root

America is too great for small dreams

Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U.S. was too strong

We are especially not going to tolerate these attacks from outlaw states run by the strangest collection of misfits, Looney Tunes and squalid criminals since the advent of the Third Reich

We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we may always be free

They say the world has become too complex for simple answers. They are wrong. There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right. Winston Churchill said that "the destiny of man is not measured by material computation. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we are spirits -- not animals." And he said, "There is something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty

The ultimate determinate in the struggle now going on for the world will not be bombs and rockets but a test of wills and ideas - a trial of spiritual resolve; the values we hold, the beliefs we cherish and the ideas to which we are dedicated

A leader, once convinced a particular course of action is the right one, must have the determination to stick with it and be undaunted when the going gets rough

I have seen the rise and fall of Nazi tyranny, the subsequent cold war and the nuclear nightmare that for fifty years haunted the dreams of children everywhere. During that time my generation defeated totalitarianism. As a result, your world is poised for better tomorrows. What will you do on your journey?

[N]o arsenal or no weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women

The Democrats say that the United States has had its days in the sun, that our nation has passed its zenith. They expect you to tell your children that the American people no longer have the will to cope with their problems, that the future will be one of sacrifice and few opportunities. My fellow citizens, I utterly reject that view.

I hope that when you're my age you'll be able to say, as I have been able to say: we lived in freedom, we lived lives that were a statement, not an apology

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free

Don't be afraid to see what you see.

Double, no triple, our troubles and we'd still be better off than any other people on earth. It is time that we recognized that ours was, in truth, a noble cause.

Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States.

Government always finds a need for whatever money it gets.

Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.

How do you tell a communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin.

I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the US Congress.

I've never been able to understand why a Republican contributor is a 'fat cat' and a Democratic contributor of the same amount of money is a 'public-spirited philanthropist'.

Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth!

Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July, but the democrats believe every day is April 15.

The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away.

The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help.

The problem is not that people are taxed too little, the problem is that government spends too much.

The taxpayer - that's someone who works for the federal government but doesn't have to take the civil service examination.

To paraphrase Winston Churchill, I did not take the oath I have just taken with the intention of presiding over the dissolution of the world's strongest economy.

To sit back hoping that someday, some way, someone will make things right is to go on feeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat you last - but eat you he will.

We must reject the idea that every time a law's broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.

We should measure welfare's success by how many people leave welfare, not by how many are added.

Welfare's purpose should be to eliminate, as far as possible, the need for its own existence.