A Message to Republicans - It's Time to Lead

After the election of President Obama in 2008, the outlook for the Republican Party was not good.  They had just lost the Presidential election.  And to make it worse, they lost seats in both the House and the Senate.  The Democrats had written them off.  The media had written them off.  The Republicans had written themselves off, thinking that they would be a permanent minority party.  All they wanted to do was get along and maintain the seats in Congress that they already had.

Of course, with this attitude, there would be no hope.  The conservatives of the Republican Party were already upset with the out-of-control government spending and lack of leadership that had taken place during the previous Republican majority in Congress.  Because of their disenchantment with the National Republican Party, they either did not show up to vote in the 2008 Presidential election, or they chose to vote for a 3rd party candidate.  The Republicans had lost their base.  The elected Republicans thought it more prudent to compromise on principle rather than take a stand on it.  They had basically compromised their way into a minority.  In other words, they failed to lead.

Then, the President handed them a gift, and that gift was Obamacare.  The President, along with a Democrat-controlled Congress, pushed through a universal health care plan that no one had read, was going to cost the U.S. a lot of money that it did not have, and it would eventually put control of health care into the hands of bureaucrats.  This was not a popular bill, no matter what the media or politicians tried to tell us.  While most people agree that there are aspects of our health care system that need to be addressed and fixed, they knew that a government run system was definitely not the way to go.

Anyway, this bill helped to propel the recrudescence of conservatism in the U.S.  This conservatism was seen most prominently through the Tea Party.  People were finally stepping and saying "We've had enough of this!"  People were tired of the government stepping into their lives.  They were tired of the government spending money they did not have.  They were tired of the arrogance of elected officials telling them what is best for them.  People came to realize once again that the government is "of the people, by the people, and for the people."  They realized that we do not have to accept the status quo.

So the people began to act, and rally, and have their voice heard.  They elected candidates in their primaries that carried the same values that they had.  They elected people that had the same vision for America's future.  They took on many of the incumbents, and they were successful in unseating many of them.  The people were finally getting a chance to see real representation in Washington.  The Republicans won a resounding victory in the House, and they made tremendous gains in the Senate.

Alas, it seems that the Republican leadership has started to fail us again.  I realize that the leaders in the Senate are limited in what they can do, since they are the minority party in that chamber.  However, the leaders in the House have no such excuse.  They have a majority, yet they fail to lead.  Why is that?  Do they not know how to lead?  Are they afraid of confrontation?  Are they afraid that they might upset some people?

Well, this has frustrated me for some time now, so I have several suggestions for the Republican leadership to win back the people that voted for them.  If they lose these people again, they may never get them back.

1. You won because of yor agenda.  Now implement that agenda.  The Republicans need to realize that people voted for them because of the agenda that they ran on.  We voted for them because of that agenda.  We expect them implement that agenda when they get into office.
2. Compromise is not something you should want, or expect.  The Democrat idea of compromise is for the Republicans to agree to do things the Democrat way.  They do not expect to meet in the middle.  They want it their way, or nothing at all.  That is how the Republicans should be.  They won the election in an overwhelming manner.  People wanted your agenda, which is why they voted for you.  They did not vote for you so that you could compromise away the agenda.
3. You cannot make everyone happy.  This should be obvious.  There are people that did not vote for Republicans, and they never will vote for one.  So why even try to appease them?  No matter what you do, they will be against it.  So, you need to do what the people put you there to do - implement the agenda.
4. Don't become moderates.  This is what hurt the Republican party from about 1998-2009.  After they took the nation by storm in 1994, they started to stray from their fiscally conservative ways.  They started spending like the Democrats.  They thought they were undefeatable.  And because of that, they lost power.  The Republicans nominated a moderate for President in 2008.  If not for the conservative VP candidate that he picked, the Republicans would have lost by an even greater margin in the election.  For some reason, the establishment Republicans think that the party needs to be more moderate in order to win elections.  However, why would a Democrat vote for a Republican trying to be like a Democrat?  The answer is that they will not do that.  They already have a real Democrat running for their party.
5. Conservatism will win when it is tried.  When Republicans try to be like moderates, they lose elections.  However, when they run as conservatives, they win.  There is not much more to say here.  People want elected Republicans to be conservative.  When they are not, people will not show up to vote them back into office.
6. Continue to listen to the people that voted you into office.  This is something that no politician has been able to do.  The Democrats don't listen to their constituents, either, but that is their problem.  You are an elected official, put there by the people.  You need to listen to them.  You are to be there doing business for the people.
7. The seat belongs to the people, not the elected official.  When Sen. Ted Kennedy passed away, the media wondered what would happen to Kennedy's seat on the Senate.  The man that eventually took Kennedy's place (now Sen. Scott Brown) answered that (it is not Sen. Kennedy's seat.  It is the people's seat.)  Too often, elected officials forget that they are there to serve the people.  The people are not there to serve them.
8. We want leaders.  A leader makes tough decisions.  They take responsibility.  They take a stand on difficult issues.  They risk losing popularity in order to do what is right, not politically expedient.  All too often today, our elected officials make their decisions based on what is politically popular, not what is right.  We want leaders who do what is right, not necessarily what is popular.  One only needs to look at the state of Wisconsin.  The Republican Governor and Legislature made the principled decision and stood tall in the midst of adversity in order to get difficult legislation passed.  The were leaders, and they refused to be beaten down.
9. Democrats want the power that you now have.  Don't give them an excuse to get it back.  The Democrats will stop at nothing to get power back.
10. Don't start to look at the next election.  One of my biggest pet peeves is people that start to run for office the day after the elections.  These people need to leard that we elected you to enact an agenda, to pass bills that benefit the people.  We did not elect you so that you could spend your time running for office again (and youa re getting paid by us to do that).  People will vote for you if you do the right things while in office.  Concentrate on doing what is right, and the elections will turn out fine.

Americans want strong leaders.  They want people who can make the tough decisions, not just the popular ones.  We do not like it when our leaders compromise on principle in order to get along with others.  You were elected into office in order implement an agenda and represent the people.  And we expect you to do just that.