Bush Can Save the Republican Party
18 November 2006But will he?
President Bush has some choices to make over the next two years and his decisions will affect the Republican Party for years to come. There are calls from both sides of the aisle for bipartisanship but who defines bipartisanship? Typically, when liberals use the term they mean, accede to their demands and call it bipartisan. Real bipartisanship, of course, means compromise, with both sides giving some of what they want in order to get something else they want. It is also known as deal making or, in some quarters, selling out. Personally, I’ve never been a big fan of bipartisanship.
What President Bush needs to do is what he should have been doing all along. That is, casting a conservative vision for the American people and asking them to get on board with it. That’s what Ronald Reagan did and it was, for the most part, wonderfully successful.
Some time back I wrote a post called a Critical Lack of Decisive Leadership. In that post I argued that what we need is a leader who actually leads. A leader who has a vision. A leader who takes the time, as long as it takes and as often as it takes, to cast that vision for the people. If the vision is a good one the people will respond. That’s what Reagan did and it’s what Bush has been reticent to do.
Reagan had numerous legislative victories in 1981 and 1982 despite Democrat majorities in both Houses of Congress. He did it by casting his vision to the American people. President Bush began an attempt do something like that in the last weeks before the election but he was too late. Starting in January President Bush could the same thing. But not just any vision will do. A vision that include amnesty for illegal aliens and raising the minimum wage will not do it. Such a vision is a Democrat vision and it will only lead to great Democrat victories in ’08. Unless President Bush adopts a conservative vision and casts that vision effectively and often, the Republican Party has little hope for recapturing majorities in either House of Congress or of retaining the White House.
Republicans must return to their conservative roots if they are to return to power and unless President Bush is on board with that return, it has little hope of success. I hope the President is paying attention. I hope he is learning the right lessons. I fear he is not.
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