Where Does the GOP Go From Here?

Let's all be honest about something here; the GOP is in shambles with very few bright spots. Let's also be very honest that we've put ourselves in this position.

The last eight years prior to January have put us where we are since that time. By giving lip-service to our core principles and then doing the exact opposite of them we've allowed our party to become one not of ideas but of expediency. Arlen Specter was more the typical Republican not the left-leaning fringe faction.

We allowed George W. Bush to spend and our elected legislators happily jumped aboard the pork barrel express sending earmarks to their districts for projects not needed and in some cases not even wanted. We became Robert Byrd--fiscally of course, not with the hoods and kleagle stuff in our past. We allowed lobbyists to dictate our course instead of core values and an underlying belief in what the Constitution means. We allowed Bush to create education legislation (and immigration) with Ted Kennedy and create the largest entitlement program in a generation in prescription drugs for seniors program. Fortunately we stopped his insanity on amnesty but that was one of the few and far between victories conservatives have to hold up.

So where does the party go now? Here's my take on the future of the party and how we can regain those votes lost and those people who felt betrayed:

Fiscal sanity:

We have to become what we once were; fiscal hawks. That means no earmarks of any kind from anyone. It will be tough, earmarks are how the Senators and Congressmen say to the locals that they care and are bringing jobs to the region. They build tangible things that they can stand in front of for a photo-op. Any legislator that proposes an earmark should be called out by the party establishment and be made to suffer for it. In turn, we should hold up every single earmark by the Dems and ridicule it incessantly.

Taxes:

Not one single yes vote on any bill that raises taxes. Let the Dems own the high tax issue. We did on the stimulus in the House and all but the most liberal held out in the Senate. If we stand firm and united, we actually may gain some trust of the public back. We've looked like morons screaming about spending while we were as bad in that regard under Bush over the last half-decade. We need to regain the moral high ground and can't do so if we vote to raise taxes. Taxes will surely have to be raised on everyone and Obama knows it. He may wine and dine some soft Republicans and invite them over to watch football on a Sunday but they simply need to go to the White House, have a beer, look Obama right in the eye and say no.

Gay Marriage:

It's a loser issue. We support the ideal of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". It doesn't say "except for homosexuals". We look like zealots who are beholden to the Christian cause and that is not who we are. We are a Judeo-Christian culture and the Founders of our nation were influenced by the church but they specifically struck down the creation of a national church or religion. Face it folks; you're born gay. Think to yourself, why would anyone choose to be gay? Why would anyone opt to live life as an outcast? Homosexuals have as much choice over being being gay as I did on being white and Tiger Woods did on being Cablinasian. we can continue to pursue our current course on this and it will be like a fifty-ton anchor around our collective necks. The American population is inundated with homosexuality whether it be movies or TV and people are not as judgemental toward homosexuality as they once were. We lost this particular cultural battle and it's time to let it go.


Abortion:

It's tic-tac-toe at this point; no one can win. If you are not set in your ways on this issue, you never will be. None of the arguments will sway anyone. We should still be vigilant on partial-term and late-term abortion but if we allow this to be a major pillar, we risk being in the wilderness for some time. Don't get me wrong, we need to remain anti-abortion and make it an issue come election time but we're not going to have another conservative on the Supreme Court anytime soon and we stand no chance of overturning anything until that happens. Once we regain power, it's back in play.

National Defense:

We will get hit again and it will be devastating. Obama has neutered our intelligence operations by releasing the "torture" docs and may well have lopped the legs off our agents in the field. The days of getting actionable intel are over in the short term and until we win back the trust of the CIA and other intel agencies, we will be in a precarious position. We've allowed the Dems to take the offensive in the battle on water boarding even though we gained intel that directly saved American lives. Dick Cheney is out their brawling and the rest of the GOP is wishing he'd go away. How about having Cheney's back and say loud and proud that no, we don't torture and we didn't in this case. We have to make the average citizen see that we did what was required and it was effective.

Military:

Obama has pledged more troops because he had to. He boxed himself in when he railed about losing Afghanistan because we focused on Iraq. We have to push Obama hard on this and once the body bags start increasing, we can't dive to the gutter and use their sacrifices for political gain. It unseemly, disgusting and exactly what the the Dems did to us. I'll never forgive them for that and won't ever forgive the GOP if we play that game as well. Reid said we've lost in Iraq, Murtha falsely accused Marines of murder. They were both wrong and we should hand those particular albatrosses around their necks come 2010. We have to continue to push Obama to give our fighting men and women exactly what they need to win.

The Middle East:

The Obama administration is all over the map on the region. The not fringe anymore left hates Israel and everything the nation stands for. We can't let Obama cave to them or we will have problems we never even dreamed of . An emboldened Syria will retake Lebanon while Islamo-fascist's will rise in Egypt and start a full-scale civil war. We have to be vigilant on supporting the Israeli's.

Iran:

Iran cannot have nuclear weapons. A nuclear Iran means a constant battle to keep the Straits of Hormuz open and the oil flowing. Add to that the confidence that will allow them to step-up operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan and we will have a nightmare scenario.

In conclusion, we as a party must return to our core values: low taxes, reduced spending, strong national defense, protection of the 1st and 2nd Amendments and the spirit of hard work breeding success, not government handouts. We must allow the evangelicals to have a say but not the only say. We have to purge the soft fiscal conservatives and the hard-core social cons and elect fiscal conservatives who will stand up and say no to any new spending. We need to have House and Senate leaders with the guts and leadership abilities to keep the caucus in line. It's the only way we will ever come out of the wilderness.

Update: Via Glenn Reynolds, the public has veered right on guns and abortion. The guns numbers I expected, the abortion ones I did not.