MASTER THE DISASTER

“Looking to the past in an effort to keep our country from repeating the errors of history is termed by them as “taking the country back to McKinley.” Of course, I never found that was so bad — under McKinley we freed Cuba.”–Ronald Reagan, 1974

Around here, we supported Fred Thompson.

Fred understands the Constitution like we do, he looks and sounds presidential, and most importantly, he can explain his conservative philosophy in an elegant yet understandable manner. Never again should we nominate someone who is not a top-notch communicator.

Problem was, Fred didn’t really burn to be president.

On the other hand, John McCain did–but not enough to do what it takes to win. That’s the worst of both worlds–McCain wouldn’t win, yet prevented someone else from coming forward who might have. In fairness, it was going to be tough for anybody.

He lacked a coherent conservative philosophy, but had some conservative instincts mixed with pragmatism and a collection of personal crusades and compromise. For example, he didn’t stick it to Democrats for causing the mortgage meltdown, even though their policies drove it. Result: the same bad actors who caused it now have even more money and power.

Nor do most people want their president to have friends and associates with their pictures on the post office wall. But McCain would not make the character case.

Yet I don’t apologize for my full-throated support of John McCain, just as I would have expected others to support my candidate had he prevailed in the primaries. And especially given Obama’s dangerous policies. Nor, by the way, do I regret supporting that stinking, rotten bailout bill as a way to stop Democrat politicians from melting away everybody’s life savings into nothingness.

But now, conservatives are being taunted for “shrinking the tent”, as if what we really need at this moment is some kind of “Draft David Gergen!”-movement, when the fact is we just got through nominating the most liberal Republican since Gerald Ford.

So much so, that McCain had to choose a popular conservative governor to help him secure the voters he should have had to begin with. The Long Knives now aimed at Sarah Palin only prove her worthiness.

We shouldn’t shrink the tent–but we should acknowledge that clear conservative principle IS the tentpole that holds up the entire tent in the first place. AND NOMINATE OUR CANDIDATES ACCORDINGLY.

All elections are about getting your base out, hopefully expanding it, and then convincing the middle to support you as well. McCain didn’t turn out his entire base, nor did he win the battle for the center even though he’s a centrist, whereas Bush won both those fights narrowly.

But Reagan won both decisively. Why? Because he knew what he believed and why he believed it…and possesed the ability to make you believe it, too. Or, at least, to believe in his belief.

Although older, Reagan was still a man going places. Voters, even moderates, respond to that kind of leadership on a human level. As to age, Reagan was the exception that proves the rule; No More Septugenarian Candidates. The power of Reagan’s ideas kept him young. The most Reaganesque candidate in this race was the youngest, and had the best legs, too–Joe Biden be damned.

In this election, Obama was seen as the man going places. We know they mostly won’t be good places, but nonetheless that is the perception. At this point, let me associate myself with Bill Whittle’s must-read remarks:

On Tuesday, the Left — armed with the most attractive, eloquent, young, hip, and charismatic candidate I have seen with my adult eyes, a candidate shielded by a media so overtly that it can never be such a shield again, who appeared after eight years of a historically unpopular President, in the midst of two undefended wars and at the time of the worst financial crisis since the Depression and whose praises were sung by every movie, television, and musical icon without pause or challenge for 20 months . . . who ran against the oldest nominee in the country’s history, against a campaign rent with internal disarray and determined not to attack in the one area where attack could have succeeded, and who was out-spent no less than seven-to-one in a cycle where not a single debate question was unfavorable to his opponent — that historic victory, that perfect storm of opportunity . . .

Yielded a result of 53 percent.

It was 52.5, Bill–don’t push it. And some of those were actual voters!

Whittle says we’re gonna whip ‘em when we get our act together. He says we need to emulate Reagan and educate and inspire with a smile on our face and a song in our hearts. Whittle is exactly right; and if we can’t figure out a way to beat these clowns, then we deserve to lose. Even if they cheat, which they do.

In the 1970’s, Reagan was in a very similar situation to ours today. Democrats had convinced Americans to let them lose a war. In the wake of Watergate, they gained control of most of the government. In those days, you couldn’t sell Republican if you put a gold-plated bikini on it.

Yet by 1980, Reagan won office solidly, defeating History’s Greatest Monster and history’s great monsters. Such was his stature that he even secured a third term for his vice-president. Go look at his speeches from those Wilderness Years of the 1970’s.

And not as an exercise in nostalgia–screw nostalgia. But to relearn the ways of winning the hearts and minds of the American people, to move this country forward, both the ‘how’ and the ‘why’.

In fact, nostalgia and a dollar won’t even buy you a cup of coffee at Starbucks, a business that didn’t even exist when Reagan said this:

The widespread disaffection with things military is only a part of the philosophical division in our land today. I must say to you who have recently, or presently are still receiving an education, I am awed by your powers of resistance. I have some knowledge of the attempts that have been made in many classrooms and lecture halls to persuade you that there is little to admire in America. For the second time in this century, capitalism and the free enterprise are under assault. Privately owned business is blamed for spoiling the environment, exploiting the worker and seducing, if not outright raping, the customer. Those who make the charge have the solution, of course — government regulation and control. We may never get around to explaining how citizens who are so gullible that they can be suckered into buying cereal or soap that they don’t need and would not be good for them, can at the same time be astute enough to choose representatives in government to which they would entrust the running of their lives.

Can you imagine if only John McCain spoke that way…

Common sense is on our side. If it’s not quite as common as it used to be, then it’s our job to make it more common. And we have one advantage that all the foreign money in the world can’t buy and all the Media Propaganda can’t sway: We’re Right and They’re Wrong.

There is a slow-motion disaster headed our way quickly. What they’re selling is political crack–it makes you feel good before it robs you of everything.

And even if the Pants-on-Fire Media owned up to their complicity in foisting this disaster upon us–which they never will–that won’t help us much. It’s up to us now.

We’re gonna come back from this. Yes, there will be some tears on the way, but we’re gonna come back.

We’re not going to flee to France or New Zealand like some big-mouth lame-ass Hollywood star. We wouldn’t if we could. This is our country and we’re going to fight for it. If freedom goes down here, it’s gone from the world.

When our ancestors said things like “Live Free or Die!”, it wasn’t a multiple choice question. It was an honest statement of moral fact.

Oh, yeah–we’re comin’ back, alright. Tell everyone you know.

And it starts today.