The election’s upside for conservatives
November 9, 2006 | By Nathaniel Ward
Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO): “Our losses in the election will have a silver lining if we now rededicate ourselves to those principles that brought us into power.”
Liberals and their allies in the media have been quick to describe Tuesday’s election as a defeat for conservatives and a rejection of conservative policies on both domestic and international issues. They’re wrong.
“Tuesday’s election results, though undoubtedly humiliating to partisan Republicans, did nothing to repudiate the core principles of modern conservatism,” Heritage vice president Mike Franc writes in today’s Baltimore Sun. “In fact, most conservatives view the shift in power on Capitol Hill as a golden opportunity to reassert the timeless conservative principles that so many Republicans seem to have forgotten: limited government, low taxes, a judicial branch that strictly interprets the Constitution, and a strong national defense.”
In many ways, the election was a vindication of conservative ideas and a rejection of those who talked the talk but didn’t walk the walk. The electorate, upset by huge increases in government spending and a perception that many so-called conservatives sought only to remain in power, booted out those who betrayed their principles.
Franc advises conservatives on Capitol Hill not to be “afraid to stand firm for an agenda of limited government, low taxes and a strong national defense. The American people will be strongly behind you.”
Rep. Blunt: We must return to conservative principles
Republicans must rededicate themselves to conservative values, House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO) explained this afternoon at The Heritage Foundation.
“Our performance has fallen short of our own expectations,” he said in an address broadcast live on C-SPAN from Heritage’s Lehrman Auditorium. He noted that Republicans, instead of acting as reformers, have recently defended “business as usual” and have lost their “healthy skepticism” about the role of government.
“Our job is to insist on less and better government, demanding that the federal government do its job, and not everyone else’s, and do it as well as can possibly be done,” he said.
Rep. Blunt says there is a silver lining in the election results. Click here to find out why.
A turn to the left—or is it?
While many of the Democrats who won election on Tuesday are avowed leftists—House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi is one of the chamber’s most liberal members—a sizeable number of the freshman Democrats will be far more conservative. This is certainly good news for the conservative movement.
“The incoming class of freshman Democrats,” Heritage vice president Mike Franc wrote in The Baltimore Sun, “bears little ideological resemblance to the next House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and her incoming cast of old-left chairmen. Nowhere, they will realize, are those differences more apparent than with respect to questions relating to limited government.”
Click here for more on the new class of more conservative Democrats.
Conservative ideas on the ballot
Conservative policies fared relatively well on Tuesday’s ballot:
- Voters in Michigan voted to repeal racial preferences and similar affirmative action programs at the University of Michigan and in other state entities. In a statement, the university said it would continue its diversity agenda in any case.
- Laws to define marriage as between a man and a woman passed in Colorado, Idaho, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin. A similar measure in Arizona failed to win. Click here to visit The Heritage Foundation’s website on state efforts to protect traditional marriage.
- Arizona declared English the state’s official language and cut funding for publication of materials in other languages.
- California voters rejected four measures to impose harmful taxes on businesses, energy production and more.
Liberal policies did enjoy some success at the ballot box. Click here to find out which ones.
Changing of the guard in the Pentagon
President Bush announced yesterday that Donald Rumsfeld is stepping down as Secretary of Defense. The President nominated former CIA director Robert Gates to take the top Pentagon job.
In a new analysis of the consequences of the Pentagon shakeup, Heritage defense expert James Carafano notes that Rumsfeld’s “tenure saw several significant advances.” These included new missile defenses, a long-overdue military transformation and the deployment of forces to fight the war on terrorism.
Carafano outlines many issues that the new secretary will have to address.
In other news
- President Bush has again nominated John Bolton to serve as ambassador to the United Nations. He was appointed during a recess last year after a liberal filibuster.
- Seventeen years ago today marked the beginning of the end of the Evil Empire as East Germany’s Communist government opened the Berlin Wall.
- Some liberal pundits are already calling on the Democrats to take advantage of their new power to impose socialized medicine.
- Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) said European governments will be more involved in American foreign policy when the new leadership takes over. Let’s hope Congress remembers that American foreign policy should be directed from Washington and not be subjected to international vetoes.
- More than 200 members of the European Parliament called the American election “the beginning of the end of a six-year nightmare for the world.”
- The Supreme Court is discussing a challenge to the federal ban on partial-birth abortions. A decision is not expected for some months.
Coming up at Heritage
To attend these or any other Heritage Foundation events, RSVP at Heritage’s events website. Or you can watch these events live online at Heritage.org. All times are Eastern.
- On Monday, November 13 and Tuesday, November 14, The Heritage Foundation will host the fall President’s Club meeting here in Washington, DC. All members of the President’s Club and Young President’s Club are invited to attend. It’s not too late to RSVP! Contact Emily Sankot at (202) 608-6021 to reserve your place. Speakers include Larry Kudlow, Steve Forbes, Art Laffer, Rep. Dan Lungren (D-CA) and others.
- On Tuesday, November 14 at 12:30 PM, author and Islam expert Robert Spencer will discuss “The Truth about Mohammed.
Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation.
