Conservatives have, since November, been almost continually meeting, talking and regrouping. Republican House members met again last weekend on Maryland’s Eastern Shore and emerged from their retreat claiming that they’ve figured out what voters were trying to tell them in November, have “gotten the message” and are ready to do battle with Nancy Pelosi’s liberals as champions of fiscal responsibility and ethics in government.
Meanwhile, conservatives meeting at National Review’s annual “Conservative Summit” at the Mayflower continued analyzing where the Republicans in whom they had put so much faith went wrong and to decide what they might do to set things right. Their speakers, like those meeting behind closed doors in Maryland, groused about lost opportunities and the weakness of GOP leadership from Congress and the White House, but saw opportunity just around the corner.
Iraq was the elephant in the room with which no one in either meeting really got their hands around. The president participated in the House retreat and, according to news accounts, defended his policies that essentially shut down any real criticism while most of those attending the NR summit voiced continued support for the mission if not for the Bush/McCain surge.
To be fair, winning, changing directionor deciding to confront our enemies elsewhere is a decision that lies with a commander in chief who has made it clear that while he welcomes support for his policies, he will not be influenced by critics friendly or unfriendly. As a result, the focus was on other issues at the NR summit: Issues as important to the long-term success of conservatives and perhaps Republicans because they go to the very nature of the conservative movement in this country.
The historic core of the movement has revolved around the relationship of the citizen to the state with conservatives of most, if not all, stripes arguing that a small government that is minimally involved in running the economy and the way people live their lives is superior to a larger government that wants to do more and more “for the people.”
In power, however, conservative politicians have tried to retain the rhetoric of small government while governing in a way barely distinguishable from their Democratic opponents. The conservative malaise that exists today is reflected in the very names of the panels at the NR summit as well as in the debates that took place in Maryland. One of the NR panels, for example, was on the topic of “Is Small Government a Big Joke.”
Republican leaders have certainly acted as if it is and that has upset grassroots conservatives who assumed they had meant what they said when they ran for office.
The question of the continuing Republican/conservative alliance may well hinge on the answer to that question. Many of those attending the GOP retreat seemed to be speaking out of both sides of their mouths as they returned to the Capitol. On the one hand, they talked about “going back to basics,” but at the same time argued that they hadn’t made all that many mistakes as most conservatives stuck with them last fall.
Indeed, they listened to pollsters argue that the problem Republicans face is not on their right, but on their left as the center moves toward Democrats. This is true, but because they, like the conservatives who deserted in fewer numbers because of a fear of what Democratic liberals might do once elected, no longer believe Republicans stand for much of anything.
The meetings and the arguments will continue. Five thousand activists will flock to Washington for the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in early March and will continue to debate the state of the movement and the need to “get back to basics.” We can argue among ourselves about tactics and peripheral issue, but if conservatives abandon the core belief in limited government on which their movement has been built, they’ll be in the wilderness for a long time.
I attended a briefing on a massive exit poll run by MIT on behalf of perhaps a hundred colleges and universities to give political scientists the data they need to endlessly seek to find out just what happened this year. The preliminary results, we were told, make it clear that the electorate remains conservative favoring, for example, fewer government services and lower taxes over more services and higher taxes, but was upset with the GOP’s management of the government and inability to live up to its promises or ideals.
Interestingly, that poll and others reveal that even a majority of Democrats are willing to accept fewer services in exchange for lower taxes because they get it. Perhaps those numbers explain why all the earmarks didn’t guarantee a GOP victory.
David Keene is chairman of the American Conservative Union.
