You are invited to read the latest commentary from the Free Enterprise Foundation. It will make you think!

Can the Republican Party Comeback?

“BE IT RESOLVED, That the Republican Party is the party of the open door. Ours is the party of liberty, the party of equality of opportunity for all and favoritism for none.” (Rules of the Republican Party)

While I am a lifelong conservative and have served as a political appointee in three Republican administrations, my first partisan involvement came in 1984 as National Chairman of Corporate Counsel for Reagan/Bush and Assistant General Counsel of the Republican National Convention. The party was depicted at that time in the media as exclusive and wealthy; the average guy need not apply. The popularity of Ronald Reagan’s message and my own personal experience proved that to be false. At the time, I was particularly struck by the Party’s Rule set out above. I discovered, to my surprise, that the vaunted Republican electoral machine was made up of millions of small donors and that the Democratic Party’s average gift was far in excess of that of the Republican rank and file. Our giving was smaller in individual amounts but far broader based than our opposition. We were the party of Main Street, not Wall Street.

In 2008 Republicans were soundly drubbed. Party leaders, the media, academics, and average voters are thinking about what that means. In the wake of the defeat, many prominent observers have expressed views that range from a recitation of the many ways the party has strayed from its avowed principles, to a lack of real leadership within its ranks. Republicans have great opportunities in both these areas. I am very encouraged by the youth and vigor of a number of our leaders from state government and Congress. It seems clear to me, as well, that public financing is dead, and the next cycle will see a fully armed and properly planned and deployed campaign that can go toe-to-toe with the cyber legions on the other side. No sucker punch then such as occurred in 2008 will deflect the message from getting through.

It is in the defining of that message that the party must come together. The voice that I agreed with most on election eve came from Nina Easton on Fox, when, in commenting on the future leader question, she responded that what was needed were not so much new leaders but big new ideas. That hits the nail on the head! However, not all the ideas will be “big or “new”.

Politics is born of positioning. For every program or position pursued, there will be opposition. It will seek to ally with the strongest most effective group in opposition to what is proposed. Many of the issues at the center of the next national election may very well come from the 200 Bush Presidential Orders that President Obama is reportedly set to reverse on day one of his presidency. They were adopted for good reasons, and those aggrieved with the new President’s reversal, will head straight to the Republican Party seeking relief. That will be true as well for most of the new president’s proposals as they arrive for attention on Capitol Hill.

The Republican Party needs friends, but there is a danger in becoming the first port of opposition. The public has indicated plainly it wants the current level of warfare in Congress to abate and is likely to turn-off and tune out if the Republican Party is viewed as opposing for the sake of opposition. The area of big ideas is where we can find the path to national victory.

Time will reveal the hot new issues. Much of what we believe, however, is timeless, and the party will vigorously and efficiently champion these issues. Republicans feel strongly about their values and come together to achieve victory on Election Day. To achieve victory, vigorous debate inside the party must end with the selection of the candidate. If we do not fully support our candidates, the core of the party is hurt. Fiscal prudence, at the core of what we require of government, is just too important to allow our country to retreat into the New, New Deal. We may not have the time to recover from the damage to our core values after four or eight years of Democratic Rule. The very air carries the scent of socialism. Taking back Congress in 2010 must be the first target.

At its very first convention in 1856, The Republican platform, in part provided: “Resolved: That the maintenance of the principles promulgated in the Declaration of Independence, and embodied in the Federal Constitution are essential to the preservation of our Republican institutions, and that the Federal Constitution, the rights of the States, and the union of the States, must and shall be preserved.” We haven’t changed. At our core, we are the party of fiscal prudence and guardians of our country’s founding documents. Our forefathers are alive in us and those sacred values for which they fought and which are enshrined in these documents are the focus of our political struggle. We must reclaim the trust we have lost by making it clear that if we are permitted national responsibility in the future, we will act in a manner consistent with our core values.

As a party, we must not allow the exigencies of the moment and political sophistry to permit us to support actions which compromise the trust the public has reposed in us as guardians of the Constitution and the public purse. I fear we have done just that in the past few years in mimicking Democrats in congressional spending and in our neglect of Constitutional requirements for preventing intrusion into the privacy of our citizens. You can’t tell me that with an intelligence court residing within the Justice Department Walls, we cannot figure out how to obtain the electronic information we need to protect our citizens with the judicial supervision our Constitution requires. Similarly, as to the other rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights, Republicans must stand foursquare for their full availability to all our citizens.

We are also the party of national security assuring that our families may sleep securely because our armed forces are mission-capable, supplied and on alert. That does not mean we are the party of global intrusion. Our interests are now worldwide, but we would be wise to remember George Washington’s advice to avoid entangling alliances and avoid sticking our nose in where it does not belong.

We are the party of robust commerce and small business, assuring that the opportunity to achieve the American dream shall be fully available to those who are willing to work for it; that it will not be stolen from them through confiscatory taxes and that our citizens may look forward to achieving their goals by consistent attention to those values of hard work and honest exchange that have paved the way to the undreamed of wealth that has been secured by the great majority of Americans. We will be generous to those who need a hand up, and we will insist upon quality schools for all to ensure that everyone gets the same chance to achieve success through their own efforts.

In achieving the current national goal of energy independence and quality healthcare, government does not have the answer; we will look to the genius of the free market and private enterprise to supply the technology and methodology to achieve these goals with only an assist where necessary to scale programs to meet national critical needs.

We will provide the American people a complete accounting of our efforts on their behalf with a fully integrated national budget including capital items and their replacement schedule going forward. The short life of each Congress has made it difficult to adopt proper capital budgeting. Provision of the information by OMB as part of the budget process, would be helpful to ensure our highways and byways are properly attended to going forward.

We will, in the tradition of Teddy Roosevelt, be wise stewards of the environment protecting the national heritage and the health and welfare of our citizens. We will live by time tested values of self reliance, honesty, personal generosity and respect for our neighbor and community and ask that our country do the same.

Copyright © 2008 by Robert E. Freer, Jr. All rights reserved

About the author: Robert E. Freer, Jr. is President of The Free Enterprise Foundation. He is a Visiting Professor, at The Citadel and elected in 2005 to be their first John S. Grinalds Leader in Residence. A regular contributor to the Mercury, He can be reached by E-mail at The Citadel . Copies of his earlier columns can be found The Free Enterprise Foundation.

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