Failings of the Republicans
This is how I would rank the problems of the Republicans and why they lost last night:
1. They have been in power as a unified government too long. This has inevitbly led to the notion of wanting to stay in power solely for the sake of staying in power, as opposed to staying in power to reduce spending and limit government. There seems to be a tipping point where governments and parties come to power on change and reform only to eventually get sucked into the same system that hobbled the previous government or party.
2. Iraq. Here the Republicans have simply not confronted the President on the need for some type of change whether it is military strategy, investigations into the various charges of torture and abuse, or demanding the resignation of Rumsfeld. It is no surprise that most people are upset with the situation in Iraq and "staying the course" is not an adequate response.
3. Excessive spending and growth of government. A significant base of the Republican party are people who want lower taxes, smaller government, and less spending. On two of the three points those voters have been completely ignored. There was no incentive for that type of voter to vote Republican, especially considering the following chart from the Economist showing the spending increases that have happened under Bush:
4. Illegal immigration became was a huge red herring. Republicans really thought that being hardcore on shutting down the borders only without making other necessary changes in our immigration system would bring out the votes, but in the 2 prominent competitive races where Republicans advocated a strict anti-immigration stance vs. a more comprehensive approach, the Republicans both lost, Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ) and Randy Graf who was attempting to replace Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-AZ). I have said this for a while now and that is that the anti-immigration Tancredo (R-CO) types are a loud obnoxious minority in the Republican party that are given way too much credibility.
In the end, the Republicans deserved to loose, hopefully it shakes things up and makes them realize that advocating limited government is what brought them to power in the first place and the ensuing gridlock will simply prevent the government from doing anything, which is probably the best possible outcome.
1. They have been in power as a unified government too long. This has inevitbly led to the notion of wanting to stay in power solely for the sake of staying in power, as opposed to staying in power to reduce spending and limit government. There seems to be a tipping point where governments and parties come to power on change and reform only to eventually get sucked into the same system that hobbled the previous government or party.
2. Iraq. Here the Republicans have simply not confronted the President on the need for some type of change whether it is military strategy, investigations into the various charges of torture and abuse, or demanding the resignation of Rumsfeld. It is no surprise that most people are upset with the situation in Iraq and "staying the course" is not an adequate response.
3. Excessive spending and growth of government. A significant base of the Republican party are people who want lower taxes, smaller government, and less spending. On two of the three points those voters have been completely ignored. There was no incentive for that type of voter to vote Republican, especially considering the following chart from the Economist showing the spending increases that have happened under Bush:
4. Illegal immigration became was a huge red herring. Republicans really thought that being hardcore on shutting down the borders only without making other necessary changes in our immigration system would bring out the votes, but in the 2 prominent competitive races where Republicans advocated a strict anti-immigration stance vs. a more comprehensive approach, the Republicans both lost, Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ) and Randy Graf who was attempting to replace Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-AZ). I have said this for a while now and that is that the anti-immigration Tancredo (R-CO) types are a loud obnoxious minority in the Republican party that are given way too much credibility.
In the end, the Republicans deserved to loose, hopefully it shakes things up and makes them realize that advocating limited government is what brought them to power in the first place and the ensuing gridlock will simply prevent the government from doing anything, which is probably the best possible outcome.
posted by Tip Tucker | 2:03 PM
1 Comments:
You're exactly right--Republicans lost because they abandoned their principles--this might feel like a blow to limited government right now, but it might end up helping Republicans remember why the people voted for them in the first place.
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