Posted by
ClearCommentary.com on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 5:32:18 PM
In every political cycle, special elections are the electoral canary in the cage, and in the case of the congressional seat in Mississippi, it doesn't bode well for Republicans. The seat was as safe as Fort Knox gold, with voters in the last presidential election supporting President Bush by twenty-five percentage points. But yesterday, voters went for a conservative Democrat over a standard Republican by a disturbing 54%-46% margin. And this came on the heels of two similar Republican losses in races in Illinois and Louisiana.
What's going on here? If you listen to Rush Limbaugh, a man for whom we have the utmost respect, it's because the Republican Party has lost its conservative bearings and is effectively ignoring its base. That's certainly true, but there's another variable, one that's more discomfiting because it's something over which we have so little control.
To wit, the 2006 mid-term elections began a trend, one unthinkable just half a dozen years ago, and that is an incremental moderating of America's historically conservative instincts. Indeed, polls show that those calling themselves conservative has changed from 37 percent just four years ago to 31 percent, and the downward trend continues apace.
Concurrently, the nonjudgmental, mushy middle is increasing, due, in part to the anemic voices of real conservatives, which have been muted in the past few years. That may be due to their wholly misguided attempts to act like liberals on key domestic legislative initiatives--i.e., the prescription drug benefit, environmental issues, and a smattering of social and judicial concerns--but there is also the less detectable phenomenon of elected officials falling sheep-like into line with electoral expectations.
As we've argued, in our culture, which is effectively unmoored from traditional values and where, thanks to our liberal elite establishment, judging others is proscribed, making the case for conservatism is a decidedly uphill climb. Indeed, the civic trend seems to be one in which government has the solutions, and where redistribution of wealth is justified by artfully crafted entreaties to class warfare disguised as 'fairness.'
For those who cherish the freedoms that naturally accrue from lower government intrusion--read low taxes and regulations--it's a daunting time to be alive. Making the argument that the vast majority of our nation's history stands in stark contrast to the massive federal bureaucracy which metastasizes with every passing year, and which is stifling our freedoms and shifting wealth to government, is made more challenging by our public school system, academia, the media, and entertainment, which constantly barrages us with messages that we're helpless without a robust government.
That, of course, leads to an emasculated citizenry, one conditioned to expect relief from every real or perceived ill, and where a solid income is a kind of birthright, not the result of hard work, talent, sacrifice, and risk.
As disquieting as it is, the truth is that the nation is moving towards the blurry middle, and although conservatives can and must continue to make the case for the virtues of smaller government, low taxes and regulation, they must also realize they're swimming upstream in a culture at odds with much, perhaps most of its agenda.