Some Rough Thoughts on the Election

As I look over the wreckage of election '08, I cannot say that I am totally surprised. Rather disappointed? Yes. Angry? Yes. Frustrated by the self-centeredness of millions of my fellow citizens at having elected a socialist for president? Yes. But surprised? No. Nevertheless, hope for our Party's long term future blends with the requisite melancholy of defeat.

Not long before he passed away, William F. Buckley Jr. remarked on how Republicans, having grown "slothful", needed to undergo a "re-pristinification". In other words, the Republican Party needed to cleanse itself from the accretions that are all too often concomitant with political complacency. Would I have preferred to have won the election? You bet. But this loss, if we are shrewd enough to learn from it, can serve as a means of purgation in order to return to the principles forged and advanced so successfuly by Reagan in the last century. Catholics know from theology that purgation is a painful yet necessary experience on the path to perfection and, no doubt, the purgation we are about to undergo as a Party in exile will cause some strain.

For whatever reason, John McCain and George W. Bush, while honorable men and infinitely better qualified than Mr. Obama to guide the nation forward, chose not to lead as conservative visionaries. Again to quote Buckley, in reference to President Bush: "He's conservative but not a conservative." McCain, to an even greater degree, ran as a "maverick", which is to say, a scattershot and unreliable conservative. The effect this had on the base was fatal. He tried to shave off some conservative essentials (as in his loathsome spearheading of "comprehensive immigration reform" last year) in the hope of picking up support from Latinos, independents and moderates. Well, we can see from the exit polls how errant that strategy was; all the aforementioned groups broke for Obama by significant margins. By all means, go after these targets, but do so as a conservative, relying on the powers of reason and persuasion.

A final observation: Sarah Palin was not an albatross on the McCain campaign. This is a myth advanced by liberals and conservative-lite Republicans who were embarrassed by Palin's down-to-earth, folksy appeal. The excitement she brought to the campaign was remarkable. At times was she a little rough around the edges in the face of a hostile and smug media? Sure. At times she was a little unprepared but that is not the same as being unqualified. In a few years, she'll be even better suited to run nationally. Here's to Palin-Jindal in 2012!