Time for a rebirth of the Reagan Revolution

Time for a rebirth of the Reagan Revolution
Posted: November 10, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern

Richard Viguerie wisely writes in his new book "Conservatives Betrayed": "When conservatives are unhappy, bad things happen to the Republican Party."

George W. Bush, like his father before him, has now been repudiated by the voters.

What is being billed as a "vote of no confidence" should properly be seen for what it is – a complete failure of Bush to advance Ronald Reagan's dream of a Republican Party founded on principles of moral values, limited government and adherence to the Constitution.

Unlike his father, George W. Bush will now have two years of a lame duck presidency to ride out, dogged by constant legislative investigations and fighting the prospect of impeachment.

What I am concerned about is that the Bush administration will continue to move to the political left, further capitulating to the Democrats in Congress. Truly, it was stunning to hear President Bush in his press conference the day after the '06 Bloodbath that now with a Democratic Congress in place he could finally get his comprehensive immigration reform passed.

Mr. President, conservatives do not want a guest-worker program, regardless how you package the deal. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., would be well advised not to ruin his presidential prospects with conservatives by championing yet another immigration bill with far leftists such as Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.

The tragedy of Bush's second term is that his true liberal, globalist tendencies have become all too apparent. In the aftermath of the election debacle, conservatives are debating whether a Reagan Revolution can be replanted in a centrist Republican Party gone adrift under President Bush's mismanagement in the first two years of his second term.

In 2004, Bush was re-elected by a moral conservative majority that rejected John Kerry as unfit for command. In the second term, Bush had a chance to establish himself as one of America's best presidents, had he just governed as the conservative voters presumed he would.

But beginning with the nomination of Harriet Miers, the president proceeded to insult and ignore his conservative base.

For conservatives, the miscalculations in Bush's second term are too many to mention:

* Let's start with the decision to allow Condi Rice to be secretary of state, agreeing to follow her advice to let the EU-3 and the IAEA negotiate with Iran. What did Bush achieve? Two years later, Iran is defying the international community, enriching uranium on the way to a nuclear weapons program. Even worse, six additional Muslim nations in the Middle East have decided to go nuclear themselves. Meanwhile, North Korea successfully tests missiles and detonates a nuclear device. Israel is meanwhile surrounded by Iran, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Hamas in the Gaza – all enemies sworn to the destruction of the Jewish state. Now, with the nomination of Robert Gates to replace Donald Rumsfeld as secretary of defense we have moving in place a Council on Foreign Relations luminary who is on record with wanting to employ a strategy of "constructive engagement," direct talks with the Ahmadinejad regime in Iran.

* When confronted by national security concerns over the decision to allow Dubai Ports to manage U.S. ports, President Bush threatened to use his first veto to block any legislation that would bar the deal because of security concerns. Conservatives wondered how Bush could seriously argue we are in a war against terrorism when even the 9/11 commission had documented that Dubai assisted the Sept. 11 terrorists with their international money management.

* Instead of securing the borders, Bush continues to push for "comprehensive immigration reform," despite the strong argument by conservatives that a guest-worker program will amount to an amnesty under another name. Again, how can President Bush seriously argue we are waging a war against terrorism when Hezbollah agents who bribed their way into the U.S. across our border with Mexico are now in federal prison? Most likely, now we will never see any fence built on what will remain largely wide-open borders. Meanwhile, dealing drugs in the U.S. and receiving remittances from illegal aliens working here have become Mexico's two biggest businesses.

Unfortunately, the list goes on. Under Bush, federal spending has grown unchecked. Entitlement programs, including prescription drugs, have been championed by a Bush White House to a degree that even Bill Clinton never dared imagine.

But truly, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush are probably much closer to one another politically than conservatives ever thought, just as Clinton and George H.W. Bush have become fast friends touring the ex-president circuit together.

Meanwhile, our trade deficit with China continues to grow wildly out of control, as the Bush administration prepares to open up Mexican ports on the Pacific to take in the post-Panamex container ships loaded each with 12,500 containers of slave goods or near-slave goods made in China. In the final two years of the Bush administration, maybe we will even begin to import cars manufactured in China, abandoning Detroit as just too expensive.

Ken Mehlman, head of the Republican National Committee, says homosexuals and lesbians are welcome in the Republican Party, as long as they are not predators. Maybe Mr. Mehlman would like to explain that position to Dr. Dobson and Rev. Falwell.

I wonder if Ken Mehlman approves of the decision by the New York City Board of Health allowing people born in the city to change the sex recorded on their birth certificates. If anybody can change their legal sexual identity by whim, why bother passing laws that marriage is an institution between one man and one woman? The LGBT lobby is undoubtedly celebrating today the Democratic Party takeover of Congress.

But even Karl Rove, the genius "architect" of the 2004 presidential election, is pandering for votes. Rove traveled to California to address the annual conference of La Raza, trying to beat out Democrats in welcoming illegal immigrants to the Republican Party. In the rush to pick up marginal LGBT and illegal immigrant voters, the Republican Party has turn its back on core conservative values.

The Gingrich "Contract with America" is now officially dead. In the final analysis, the legacy of 1994 is a Congress disgraced by Republicans who used their electoral success to pursue graft and sex scandals, ending up pitifully by an episode of writing sexually explicit e-mails to underage pages.

Melhman has no choice now but to admit that his famous "ground game" is pathetically insufficient when the Republican Party itself abandons the principle of governing as conservatives.

As a first step, Ken Mehlman should now resign as head of the RNC. Next, Karl Rove should do the same, unless he can figure out a way to appeal to minorities with genuine pro-life, pro-family, pro-American Republican messages.

President Bush's only real chance for success in the next two years is to rekindle a rebirth of the Reagan Revolution within the Republican Party. Otherwise, the Democrats will have a chance to carry their momentum right through the '08 presidential election.

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