Red States Beware: You've Left an Enemy in the Rear
Red State Conservatives didn't win it all. The pockets of resistance in Alaska and California will be lessons or bellwethers. by Paul Benedict
(libertarian)
Monday, November 8, 2010
While the Palin pullout as the governor of Alaska proved, after all, to be a tactical retreat that even Hannibal would approve (see Palin at the battle at Cannae), the Tea Party, like the national conservative movement, must advance with caution. They have left an enemy in the rear. In Palin's case the enemy is represented by Murkowski. In the case of the National Conservative movement, the enemy is represented by California.
In both cases the enemy survives in the rear because of establishment conservative complicity. In Alaska it's plain. Murkowski ran left and promised old fashioned conservative pork. Even if she steals the election, she better not make good on her promises. Why? Everyone is watching. Big government pork might save Murkowski's seat for years to come. With it she might all but drive the Palins out of Alaska (certainly her new lifelong goal), but such big government bribes better not be forthcoming. For Murkowski to get her pork she would have to put the national conservative movement straight into the dumpster. (One can only hope that there it would be fodder for the more Mamma Grizzlies wandering off the reserve.)
Alaska is emblematic. The establishment habit of bringing home the bacon will not die as easily as we’d like to think. Be ready. Nevertheless, the lesson for Republicans is clear: K-Street is no longer your refuge. You can’t go home again.
In California, however, the complicity is a more complex web of failure. First, Conservatives underestimated the power of socialist populism in a down economy. Secondly, they were too conservative. That is, they were timid. They were afraid to take a chance on pushing back in an intense way against the rising tide of California's big government pseudo-intellectualism. Finally, under Schwarzenegger, cuts were made, but many were made improperly. This set the stage for an intense rejection of more of the same. Sadly, California, once again, may represent America's future. Nationwide, conservatives must heed the lessons of the brooding deepening of the California blues.
Meg Whitman is billionaire, and Carly, received millions in severance pay from Hewlett-Packard. Hence, the millions in personal money they spent (seventy-one million and five: just in the primaries) was almost chump change. Whitman especially seemed to simply "stand for office" in the old fashioned way. That is, she felt her success in business would translate immediately into a majority for governor. Surely, California would realize how well she could serve. Her disinterest in voting until she was forty showed in her early political stumping. Her plans for California lacked passion.
Governor Wilson's endorsement sealed Whitman's nomination. Palin sealed Fiorina's. As hard as it is to explain business investments and corporate board rooms to socialist Californians, one would have expected a more intense vetting process. Nevertheless, there is probably no candidate in California tougher than Fiorina. She's not bad on a sinking ship. Under Fiorina, Hewlett-Packard survived the dot.com collapse. She endured a double mastectomy and chemo therapy just before her run. She was hospitalized with an infection during the last week of the election, but she refused to quit. There is probably not a more innovative candidate, financially, than Whitman. California needed both. Neither deserved the garbage California gave back.
Nevertheless, lesson one: Conservatives dare not underestimate the populist power of socialism in a down economy: business people need to associate their socialist "vices" with Republican virtues.
Whitman might have SHOUTED: "Yes, I made money because everyone made money. Even you made money with EBay. The more people we make rich, the richer we all are. In education, we won't make money, we improve test scores. That's what will happen. The police don't make money, they stop crime. That's what will happen..."
Fiorina tried to explain that the national policies that make investing in U.S. jobs impossible would be her first target when she got to Washington, but she didn't go far enough. She might have SHOUTED: "Barbara Boxer blames me for sending jobs overseas. No! Barbara Boxer did it. She left no one any choice; not: (fill in the names of every cell phone manufacturer or computer chip manufacturer in the Silicon Valley). Boxer destroyed Silicon Valley and now she blames me? I watched her callousness first hand and that's why I'm running!"
There were even more problems with the advice they received on conducting the campaign.
Initially, Whitman was well up in the polls. Her campaign played defense. She never introduced herself to California. She has a good story to tell. She never even tried to tell it until the Brown mud-slinging had trashed her image. Then it was too little too late.
Whitman needed to run based on a critique of Schwarzenegger's policies. Some were solid but not enacted, but many were just plain wrong. Schwarzenegger went with across the board cuts. The result is that inexpensive lower level bureaucratic privates were cut while the expensive generals were left in place. Many of the common folk felt the scythe but few of the elite.
Before the election is the time to put one's business acumen to work. Fiorina would have done well to talk about safe, clean, energy independence for California.
Secondly, both could have blasted Brown for not standing up for Proposition 8 in court. That is how they could have connected Brown to the deafness of Obama, Pelosi, Boxer and Reed. A man who cannot stand up for the people of California, who puts his personal preferences over his oath of office cannot be trusted to keep his word on immigration reform, health care for the poor, or improving jobs in California. Brown's own words: "I'm independent enough to make tough decisions" should have been entered into evidence that he cannot be trusted to keep his word.
None of this happened because conservatives in California were too conservative. They were too timid to push back with intensity against the pseudo-intellectualism of the liberal California elite.
Lesson Two: Conservatives cannot just play it "safe" in rhetoric or practice.
Conservative candidates across the country escaped having to explain themselves by promising to keep taxes low, repeal health care, and cut spending. This is not enough. The United States is nearing the trouble California has. Conservatives must get this: California has gone Greek. Instead of French riots in the streets, they reelected Jerry Brown. They aren't stupid. They did it on purpose.
The national conservatives now have what Schwarzenegger once had: a mandate. Conservatives must cut whole departments. They must be bold.
Schwarzenegger used across the board cuts as a compromise with Democrats. That way no one could complain that their toes were being stepped on. Everything was fair. Even more importantly, top level department heads all stayed safely in place. Conservatives dare not follow this recipe for disaster.
They must off the generals. They must rid D.C. of the elite: the lawyers, the investment bankers, the PHD liberals that drive bureaucratic expansion. This will produce horrific howling. That's good. That's their job. Without the howling the conservatives will be fired.
California's loss is a very worrisome bellwether. Our experiences are ahead of the curve, not behind it. For instance, California's cuts into education have been truly significant. Folks in the rank and file of education all know it. Despite the mob mentality of the teacher union elites, many teachers are conservative. They voted for Schwarzenegger. This year, though, California's teachers and their families went Democratic.
Conservatives must remember monkeys can run the bureaucracy as well as liberals. Monkeys are also far less corrupt. Get the elites out of government. For every elite that gets the axe, five rank and file voters (and their families) are spared. The axe in government must start at the top. The rank and file government worker knows how to run his department far more efficiently than do his elite superiors.
Additionally, as the California government cuts have been Draconian for the little guy, we all heard Libertarian drum beat that our retirement pensions are too high. Truth? Government pensions for teachers were 100%+ funded until the Fed bubble blew cookies. The Fed zero- interest rate bailout is a transfer of funds from retirees to the banks' toxic asset programs.
Whitman all but promised to go after the benefits of the teachers but hardly uttered a word about drilling offshore as a windfall to state coffers. Nope, her advisors were too chicken for that... Elite establishment Republicans better fall on their swords before they push more of that elite banker pap about evil pensioners and fat-cat firemen.
Lesson Three: The working man is the backbone of, get this, the modern conservative movement. Therefore, there should be no across-the-board cuts in Washington. A take-over of the Federal Reserve Bank must precede any discussion of retirement plan "savings."
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