Some Unsolicited Advice to the Republicans

It's over. Barak Obama will be the 44^th President of the United States. As a conservative and a believer in personal responsibility and personal freedom, to put it lightly, I am a little apprehensive about what the next four years might bring. But the electorate has spoken and they have chosen to move the country to the left. Accept that. Try to understand what has happened and move on. There's a new sheriff in town, and you all need to get used to that fact. As the party leaders huddle up and try to decide where they should go next, here is some unsolicited advice.

First and foremost, Obama will be the President. Don't play the "Clinton Game" with him. By that I mean that while you may not like his politics, he is the President. Treat him with the respect that the office deserves. Don't be like the Democrats, take the high road. In 1994 the Republicans won control of the Congress because they had ideas and plans for how to carry out those ideas. The contract with America was inspiring, for the first time in memory we could look to a Congress that said it was going to accomplish something and then actually accomplished what it said it would do. But then somehow, after that was done you all seemed to just quit. You settled comfortably into the trappings of power and decided that getting Bill Clinton was more important than doing business that actually helped the people. Instead of evolving new ideas to further the cause of individual freedom, you wasted your time and ours in worthless efforts to undermine the President. You had the power, you frittered it away, and you received your comeuppance in 2006. You had an opportunity to truly transform this country and you blew it, now we will all pay the price for your failure.

Second, throw the dead wood to the curb. Your leadership has failed you and largely because of them you have failed us. Sweep them out. The party needs to tap the wellspring of young, ambitious people who know that conservatism is the right way but have been largely ignored by the party. Look across the aisle at the "Blue Dog" Democrats. How many of them would be with you instead of against you had you just paid them the attention they deserved?

Face the reality that there are some people in the world who are simply not going to like you, no matter what you do. You spent the better part of eight years being Democrat "Lite" and they still hate you and call you stupid, plus you managed to disappoint the people who put you in the office in the first place.

Reform the Grand Old Party on the principals that made this country great. That people can come here, put forth individual effort, and succeed. The current platform looks like the Democrats wrote it. It's full of a lot of things that are important to only a few people. While I agree that statehood for Puerto Rico is valid and the District of Colombia is a mess, none of that is very important to a guy in Florida about to get regulated and taxed out of his business. Trash the platform of failure and replace it with one that goes something like this:

We believe that smaller government is better government. Government that grows too large grows intrusive and infringes on the personal freedom of the people.

We believe that the Constitution is inviolate and must be strictly interpreted to protect the rights of the people.

We believe that the sole purpose of taxation is to fund the government. Any other use of taxation is a danger to the freedom of every American.

We believe that all people are free individuals and are created equal. It is the job of government to protect the individual rights of every American equally without respect to race, creed, color, or national origin.

We believe that the foreign policy of the United States must be conducted first and foremost to protect the sovereignty of the United States.

You don't need a whole lot more than that. Deal in bold sweeping ideas and let the Democrats bore people with the agonizing detail of everything they plan to do, then complain that the average American isn't bright enough to understand them.

Educate the public in what it is you actually believe in. Take your cause to the airwaves, to college campuses, to the town hall meetings. Your leadership giving speeches to top shareholders of corporations just reinforces the idea that you are the party of a bunch of fat cat CEOs. Find an inspiring and revolutionary issue that you can rally people around and motivate people to get behind it. Assemble your best speakers. Hit the road. Challenge the other side to debate in public. Make them defend their ideas as you have had to defend yours. If you are right and you truly believe that you are right, then you will carry the day.

Over the years, and more so in the past eight than ever before, Congress has surrendered a tremendous amount of its legislative responsibilities to the Executive branch. We have gone from being governed by our elected officials to being regulated by faceless, unelected bureaucrats. Recapture that power and return it to Congress where it belongs. Champion the transfer of more power from the Federal Government and return it to the states where our constitution tells us it rightly should be.

Strive to protect the rights of the states and work to push more authority and decision making to the lowest level of government possible. The people of the states, cities and small towns know what is best for them and their inhabitants. Give them the authority to make their own decisions about how their schools should be staffed and what they should teach. Give them the authority to decide how their land should best be used and protected. Give them the power to decide how their taxes should be collected and spent.

In short let the Democrats be the party of more government, you need to become the party of freedom, and make sure that everyone sees the stark difference between what you believe and what the opposition believes.