The American voters have cast their ballots, and the decision has been made. Barack Obama is our new President Elect.
First of all, let me be gracious in defeat. I would like to congratulate Senator Obama for attaining the highest office in our nation. Senator Obama ran a superb campaign, and the final vote tallies show just how excellent of a campaign it was. While I definitely did not support his candidacy, I will support him as my President.
Secondly, I want to say, while I will support him as my President, I will be watching him closely over the next four years. While I believe that he should be given the chance to shape policy in the direction which he believes is best for the nation, that policy must stay within the bounds of our Constitution, and I will not tolerate any divergence to the same. I have been an outspoken opponent of what I believe to be Obama’s vision for this nation, but I hope I have been wrong. I have also been very unforgiving about Obama’s past associations, and very suspicious of his economic and political beliefs. I have been very vocal in my suspicion that he is both a Marxist, and a reparationist. There is a chance I have been wrong. There is a chance that he is just another politician, and he may even turn out to be a good President. This is one of those few times that I hope I was wrong in the past. I doubt it, but I am hopeful. Either way, I will be watching.
Thirdly, I have to say, I am proud to be from one the few Red States left in our country. Wyoming voted overwhelmingly Republican, and we sent two great Republican Senators, Mike Enzi and John Barrasso, back to Washington, and picked Cynthia Lummis, a long serving Republican Stateswoman, to replace Barbara Cubin as our sole voice in the House of Representatives. We are one of the few strongholds of conservatism left in the nation, and I wouldn’t think about living anywhere else.
Finally, I have to answer comments that I have heard that the Republican Party is broken, and that we have to remake ourselves in order to come back to the good graces of the voting public. Balderdash. The Republican Party does not have to remake itself, or become more like the Democratic Party, or have a ‘bigger tent’ or become more tolerant, or any of that foolishness. The Republican Party needs to do seven things in order to retake its place as the leaders of our nation.
- We need to self police and purge our Party of the corruption that seeped into the ranks during our years of power. From the halls of Congress, to the living rooms where local Party officials meet, the people who have used political power to advance personal prosperity, illegally and unethically, need to be stripped from their positions of leadership, and censured or prosecuted as the situations dictate. Sarah Palin set a standard for us in how she hit hard against entrenched corruption in Alaska, and we would do well to heed her example.
- We need to go back to the basics of what makes our Party great. We need to embrace the foundations of our party’s history, such as constitutional constructionism, federalism, individual responsibility, and conservative fiscal policy. We need cast off this idea that it is our job to include all points of view in our Party, and instead set a steadfast standard that others can look up to and join with as they see and understand the superiority of the Conservative Republican Platform.
- We need to learn from the success of the Democratic Party and use their methods to teach conservative values from the bottom up. We need to become ‘community organizers’ in our own right, and work hard to make sure that our values are taught in our preschools, in our grade schools, our middle schools, our high schools, and ultimately in our colleges and our universities. We need to create our own educational programs to counter the liberal programs that have become entrenched in the liberal controlled education systems. We need to promote and support conservative community programs and charities, and take advantage of any chance to promote conservative social efforts wherever we see them.
- We have to find strong, honest, charismatic, conservative leaders to take control of the current Republican Caucus in Congress. We cannot afford to have congressional leaders who cannot relate to the national constituency. The chosen leaders have to be able to articulate our congressional objectives, and communicate their importance to the American people. A Democratic majority can stonewall a Republican minority, but they cannot stand against a resolute American public that demands results. When the inevitable political infighting begins in the now too powerful Democratic Party, a calm, steadfast Republican minority can show America what leadership should look like.
- We have to recruit, promote, and support good conservative leaders at all levels of local and statewide government. The first, and most important, place we can do this is on school boards nationwide. If we can shift the political balance of our education system, we can begin to take the control of our classrooms out of the hands of the far left.
- We have to recruit, promote, support good conservative candidates to challenge the Democrats for control of Congress in 2010. The Democrats have two years ahead where they will have control of the White House and both houses of Congress, and we can take advantage of those two years to recruit candidates and build successful campaigns. The political infighting of the Democratic Party is inevitable, and a unified Republican Party can take advantage of that to make huge gains in congressional seats.
- We have to find a great, young, ambitious, charismatic, conservative leader, who has a bulletproof past, who has a grand vision for our nation, to lead our party to victory in the 2012 Presidential race. I know this is asking a lot, but our Party needs a young Ronald Reagan — male, female, black, white, latino — it doesn’t make a difference. If we put forth anything less, then we will be trying again in 2016.
That’s it. My seven steps to reclaim conservative values in America. Of course there are a million details buried in those seven steps, including specific platforms, plans, and policies. Will it happen? I don’t know. If the Republican Party can find the right leadership, then I think it can happen. If they want me to come do it for them in Washington, they can always give me a call. Otherwise, I’ll be here in Wyoming working on it at the local level.
Until then….
Very well written. Change the State to Texas and it would sound as if you had read my mind. You expressed many things I have been struggling to find the right words for since Tuesday.
Thank you.
I would happily move to either of your 2 fine states
Wisdom:
While it is commendable that you can be gracious, “let me be perfectly clear”, I will not support B. Hussein Obama until that shopping list of unanswered questions about he and his past, how he amassed the amount of money he did with those little “$100 here, $100 there” donations from the rank and file are answered to reasonable means. This guy is a Marxist and he is expected to govern as a Marxist (well, as about as far left a liberal as could be had) until the legislation proves otherwise.
Don’t forget, Obama cannot do anything of himself, Congress has to put his proposals into practice.
That’s very nice that you intend to keep him under your microscope, but exactly what satisfaction do you feel you will obtain when his minions become entrenched and you have a bone of contention with everything he proposes? I doubt if he will have a sit-down in the Oval Office to reach a compromise.
1: I agree.
2: I agree
3: I don’t agree, the Democratic Party has nothing to offer towards Republican ideas. They stole our playbook. Need to retrieve it.
4: Unfortunately, that will take time, Those ‘charismatic leaders’ have to come through the individual states, and senatorial elections only come up so often. and right now, few true conservative republicans are coming through the ranks. The more we dilute the old conservatism, the more we play right into the hands of the Democrats.
5: This depends on the individual. They still have to come up through the ranks.
6: Same here, it looks like 4, 5, and 6 are parts of the same.
7: I tend to agree, but again we don’t need to go that far.
Check out Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Michele Malkin, etc, they list just why we lost this election and the bottom line is this: We lost because we allowed the media to select our candidate for us and then seconded the nomination. McCain is about as far from being a conservative, in my opinion, as Lindsey Graham (and he ain’t no conservative). As bad as our selection was, we nearly pulled that election off with whom I feel was simply not going to get the necessary conservative votes to go along with his own base, thus Sara Palin could not make up for all those who had a disdain for McCain. McCain is a honorable man and no one deserved this election more than he, but he was not a winning presidential persona with all that ‘across the aisle’ stuff. People don’t want non-partisanship, they want their ideas about government championed and McCain simply did not speak for enough of them by far. I only voted for him because of Sara Palin, period, his more liberal stands on immigration and other conservative issues simply are not my cup of tea, however, any Republican is better than a damn liberal Democrat. If we simply had had a true conservative in his place, likely Obama would be returning to his do-nothing Senate seat.
And lastly, maybe we can add number 8: Get those damn RINO’s out of the Republican party! This will be a start to wake up to.
Sarah Palin would be my choice for 2012.
I feel like Steve Rowland, I would never give my respect to someone who doesn’t merit my respect, should he be POTUS or not. Respect is not a right; it is something you have to merit. Obama merits none. Hanging around with terrorists, Marxists, communists, socialists, anti-Semites and American’s hater doesn’t get my respect, sorry Wisdom.
I agree with you on changing the leftist education indoctrination that kids gets in schools and colleges… but, Good luck! After 4 years of propaganda with the democrat trifecta in the White House, it will be a lost case.
I think USA is done and toasted. Too bad, but Americans had to stop that bum before he got to White House. This is the point of no return. Sorry to tell you this, but this is the reality. You will find out soon enough. By that time, his organization will be so big, nobody will be able to compete with is gigantic demoniac machine.
The presser today, I will, I plan, I intend I I me me me — I guess Obama didn’t learn much while teaching Constitutional law. Things like we are not a power sharing dictatorship, like Kenya or a junta like Indonesia.
This proud Texan rejects Obamunism.
I see no reason to offer Obama any more support than Bush got after the 2004 election. Obama is a liar, he proved so during thew campaign. Texans hate liars.
Wisdom;
Being Indy, I may not agree with every word of your presentation, but I’m not going to cut brass tacks. It is your party after all. I was willing to go with you all with Palin on board and I’ld do it again come 2012 if she gives it another go.
The problem with our legislature is it’s rife with career politicians, the corrupt, unscrupulous, and lawyers (who tend to fall into all those other categories. I disagree slightly with Steve on point 4. Some of our greatest politicians were just regular folk with good common sense that stood up and said, “Dammit, those people have gone and pissed me off long enough. I’ve got something to say about it.” That’s what put Reagan in the Governor’s seat in California and the presidency, and it’s the same thing Palin brought to the table. You don’t have to come up through the ranks. You just need to have some wisdom, fair-to-middlin’ intelligence, know basic right from wrong, and enough smarts to know when someone’s blowing smoke up your fanny. That’s why people think Joe the Plumber could do just dandy in a Congressional seat. Hell, I wouldn’t mind givin’ it a shot myself once I don’t have to worry about going cross-country all the time jumpin’ from one family crisis to another. I still have some good years left in me, even with a weak ticker.
How often have we seen politicians on a ballot run unopposed because nobody had the cohones to throw their hat into the ring? How many have seen that single name on a ballot and voted for them, as much as you despised them, because they were the only person running and you didn’t want to waste a vote? You do know you didn’t have to vote for them don’t you? You could have left that blank and moved on. If they don’t get any votes, they can’t win can they? You ever voted for someone else because they were the only person running against someone you hated and you certainly didn’t want them sitting in that chair again? Me too. That’s my point. There was an election 2 years ago where people hated one of the guys so badly they voted in a dead guy and his wife took the job on his behalf.
#5? Absolutely light a fire under the school boards. If you want to change the schools and get rid of the socialists, don’t vote for teachers for school board positions. Teachers are members of the teacher’s union and like all unions it’s mostly more about politics than their damned jobs. Do you have any idea how many of those teachers went to college and were taught there to be socialist indoctrination specialists? And by all means, attend the PTA and open board meetings and voice your opinion. They don’t meet that all that often. To tell the truth, you don’t even have to have a kid in the school. You’re a taxpayer and you are paying for it the same as everyone else. So you have a right to voice your opinion on what the schools are shoving out their doors and onto your community streets.
I couldn’t agree more. The election is over. We need to regroup and redouble our efforts. Conservatives are in for a rough two years, but we have to stay united in our vigilance to advance a conservative agenda. If we give up now we will lose what little precious ground we have gained.
America wants balance and I wholeheartedly believe that in two years there will be a big turnover in the house and senate. Two years of liberal rule will be enough for Americans and they will restore balance to the system.
The conservative organizations that have been tried and true to the cause are going to be key to keeping congress in check. We have to get behind them and add voices to those insisting on small government and lower taxes. . I go to the US Chamber site often and I found this video and the message is right on. . .
http://www.friendsoftheuschamber.com/takeaction/index.cfm?ID=246
No way will you ever get back in Congress, Senate or presidency. The Obama’ vicious machine is too big to beat. Money comes from all terrorist’s countries… money wins elections. Plus all the illegal immigrants, the dead, the Mickey Mouse characters who will be voting and the MSM praising Obama, you will loose. There is no way you can make a comeback, it is OVER. You had to stop the bum before, now it is too late. Sorry to tell you this but this is reality. Your country is toasted for ever, unfortunately!
It will take a civil war to get rid of the democrat’s trifecta in the White House. That is your only chance.
http://sec.online.wsj.com/article/SB122610558004810243.html?mod=article-outset-box
“Dead” in the sense you won’t see it again for another generation.
Wisdom – you were right on track. Interesting how the naysayers love to flock around truth!
Cross posted ” Wisdom’s Seven Pont Plan for the GOP” at http://arkansasgopwing.blogspot.com/2008/11/wisdoms-seven-pont-plan-for-gop.html
Excellent ideas. Problem facing Conservatives is that in many cases we can’t work with the local and state level Republican party organizations because they are controlled by Rockefeller Liberal Republicans. And Liberal lite lost the election this month.