The Fifth Option?

The question has been raised. Where do the Conservatives go now that it appears that John McCain is going to be the Republican nominee?

It should be becoming more and more obvious to everyone that John McCain is not a Conservative. If he were truly a Conservative he wouldn’t have to spend more time and money trying to convince the world that he is Conservative. The primaries continue to show that he is not a Conservative. The votes from Conservatives are being distributed between Romney and Huckabee. Everything else goes to McCain. This led to a jump in the lead for delegates for John McCain on Super Tuesday. It will be a minor miracle for Romney or Huckabee to come back and defeat McCain now. So where do the Conservatives go?

There are options. 1. Hold your nose and vote for McCain. 2. Vote for the Democrat, whichever one that turns out to be. 3. Don’t vote at all. 4. Vote for your state and local officials and issues, but leave the Presidential portion blank.

Under option 1, I think McCain can win if the Conservatives just vote their party despite their distaste for McCain. Under option 2, the argument is to give the Democrat your vote and watch them become a one term President. Then we can get our guy in after that term. But what if the Democrat doesn’t hurt the country in the first four years? Then you have another term of the same liberal. Under option 3, by not voting at all, you’ve handed the Presidency to the liberals. Option 4 is one that I sort of like. I believe that if you leave a spot blank on the ballot it is more of a statement than not voting at all. The bad part of that is that we still have the liberal Democrat.

I believe there is a fifth option. It means involvement by people and I worry that not enough will take the iniative to do what it takes, however small that involvement. Make the important part of your vote the Representatives and Senators. Not just on the national level, but on the local level as well. Demand this summer that your Representatives and Senators, both state and federal, be Conservative. To do this, we must become very active and very vocal. Inform your local Republican and Democrat parties that if they want your vote, they are going to have to prove they are Conservative. That means, lower taxes, less regulation, less interference from all levels of government. I'm afraid that the local and state affiliates for the Republican party will have to be swayed to our way of thinking. So we must keep in touch with them on a regular basis.

In 1994, we had leaders that led the Conservative movement. They were in Government or in the public eye. Newt Gingrich. Tom DeLay, J.C.Watts, Steve Largent. Remember the Contract with America? They proposed it, promised it and then followed through with what they promised once they were elected. Due to them, Clinton was stopped from many troubling things he tried to do and still got welfare reform through as well as a balanced budget and a few other good things. It wasn't perfect, but it was better.

Who are the leaders today? I don’t see any leaders for Conservatism out there today. We depended on the leaders in government in 94. Now it’s time we took the lead by not just encouraging Conservatives to run, but by INSISTING that those running be Conservative.

Get in touch with your party’s local group and tell them you demand Conservatives. Get in touch with the State Party and tell them you demand Conservatives. They get no time from us unless they put forth Conservatives. Get in touch with your State Representative and State Senator and your Representative and Senator for the Federal Government and tell them you demand that they be Conservative or you’ll vote against them. You won’t donate your hard earned money unless the party puts Conservatives on the ballot.

We can’t sit on our hands and wait for a leader to show up. We have to demand that the Conservatives show up and stand up for Conservative values before they can put a sign in our yard or get a $10 bill from us as a donation.

If we then get Conservatives on the ballots, when a President McCain proposes another amnesty plan, and you know he will, our Representatives will be able to tell him “not on my watch”. That President McCain will then have to negotiate with Conservatives. The people must also be involved when bad legislation comes up. E-mail’s, faxes, phone calls. They work. We proved it last year in the immigration debate.

We can then render McCain’s liberal tendencies impotent. All tax bills start in the House. All bills start in the House or the Senate. By having Conservative representatives in the House and Senate, the Conservatives must finally begin to show a backbone which is the one thing that hasn’t been shown even when Conservatives had the majority.

So the Fifth Option puts the work on us. We can negate McCain’s liberalism by loading up the House and Senate with Conservatives. The real question then is, will we? Are we willing to do what it takes to offset McCain’s liberal tendencies? After all, a President can do nothing to hurt us if we’re in the House and Senate.

Brett