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November 20, 2008

Exclusive: Our Duty: Representing a Center-Right Nation

Colonel David F. Bedey (US Army, ret.)

There is no denying that President-elect Barack Obama is a gifted politician: charismatic, disciplined, and ambitious. He ran a nearly flawless juggernaut of a campaign that broke fund-raising records while hoisting John McCain with his own campaign-finance-reform petard. And his skillful exploitation of the Internet marks him as an avatar of the Information Age. Barack Obama has rewritten the rules of the political game. Republican tacticians will need to come to grips with that fact.

But organizational prowess is only one part of the Obama phenomenon. For although the trajectory of his long-running conquest of the presidency traversed America’s radical fringe – taking him from the pews of a hateful racist preacher, into the living room of an unreformed domestic terrorist, and then onward to the Left-most side of the U.S. Senate – he nonetheless was able to mesmerize a substantial number of moderates (and even a few conservatives), persuading them that a vague promise of utopia trumped inconvenient facts about his past. Not since Ronald Reagan has such an inspirational orator stepped onto the political stage; to hear him is to want to believe him.

Beyond Obama’s considerable talent, several other factors aligned to strengthen his hand. His opponent ran an anemic a and sometimes maddeningly incoherent – campaign. The mainstream media – such as The Barack Times and the Obama Network (Oops! I mean The New York Times and NBC) – shamelessly shilled for him. Success in the battle for Iraq diminished attention paid to the candidate’s lack of savvy in matters of national security. And predictably, the party now controlling the White House received the blame for the collapse of the financial market.

So all in all, it is remarkable that Obama did not score a landslide victory on November 4th. Yes, a 53-46 victory is decisive, but hardly the mandate trumpeted by his sycophantic propagandists, like The New Republic’s Jonathan Chait.

The reason that Barack Obama failed to blow out John McCain is that America remains a Center-Right nation. How else can one explain the voters’ repudiation of gay marriage in California? Or voters in Nebraska – joining those in California, Washington, and Michigan – outlawing the discriminatory practice of racial preferences? Furthermore, a recent Rasmussen poll revealed that a solid plurality of Americans join “Joe the Plumber” in believing that “free-market capitalism is the highway to the American Dream.”

It is too early for conservatives to be disheartened. For though the way ahead over the next few years will be hard, the majority of our fellow citizens share our view of America and reject the ideology of the Left when it is plainly put forward. We believe that the Constitution embodies a unique set of timeless principles that guide a free people; it is not an outdated parchment that must be interpreted and reinterpreted by activist judges. We believe that only limited government – not the paternalistic rule of the elites – can preserve our freedom. We believe in equality before the law and reject divisive and discriminatory policies like racial preferences in college admissions. We believe that our Judeo-Christian heritage and social institutions like marriage are not museum pieces but rather ought to be defended and celebrated. We believe that free markets create wealth and maintain our national vitality while socialism is bound to redistribute an ever shrinking pie – to the detriment of all. We are not embarrassed to assert America’s exceptionalism and do not shamefacedly clamor for “world citizenship.”

It is the duty of conservatives to represent the traditional values that most Americans share. And – like it or not – the only viable standard bearer for the conservative movement is the Republican Party.

But for too long Republicans – especially those in Washington – have spent more time scheming to stay in power than exerting principled leadership. Expedient pragmatism replaced commitment to conservative ideals. And as a result moderates who had earlier been drawn to the Party became disillusioned. Unmoored, some floated away hoping for relief from politics as usual. he Congressional losses that the GOP suffered in 2006 and in 2008 and the loss of the presidency followed.

Before the GOP can regain the trust of the American people, it must return to its conservative roots and unapologetically embrace the traditional values it used to hold dear.

President-elect Barack Obama is clearly a man of the Left, but during the past campaign tacked to the Right in ordered to woo moderates to the polls. How he will try to govern remains an open question. However, his base – radical Leftists of every stripe, including many in Congress – will expect him to transform this country into a libertine socialist paradise. Only a loyal opposition comprised of a Republican Party guided by sound conservative principles can hope to first blunt, then turn back, the Left’s audacious attempt to redefine America.

Family Security Matters Contributing Editor Colonel David Bedey (US Army, ret.) served more than 30 years on active duty with the Army before retiring in July 2008. A veteran of the Persian Gulf War, he served in combat engineer units around the world and spent the last 12 years of his military career on the senior faculty at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He now lives in Montana where he writes on cultural issues.

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