Like many bloggers, on November 4, 2008 I was feverishly watching election results come in and manically trying to live-blog something of importance from what information I had available to me. It was a good night, regardless of what side of the ideological street on which you happened to be set up. It was good because watching election results roll in on a contest as heralded as the presidential election is a thrilling experience, especially when you’ve been paying obsessive attention to it for months on end. This particular night was important not just in terms of Obama’s historicity, but also because it marked the end to what had been the longest and in some people’s eyes the most grueling presidential election in some time. We were all ready for a bit of a rest.
I was in touch with a number of good friend throughout the night, sharing impressions and predictions, and at one point following Obama’s official acceptance speech we all wound up on Skype to record our thoughts on the night for posterity. There were nine of us in total and we each took turns offering our insights and proposing questions to one another. The most interesting question I received was what I thought of Obama’s victory as the closest thing to a conservative on the call.
My answer was relatively simple. I said that I felt that Obama represented probably the best possible world for both conservatives and Republicans. Undoubtedly Republicans and conservatives would have rather seen McCain win, I noted, but given the damage that Bush-Cheney had inflicted to the conservative/Republican brand, that just wasn’t in the cards and of all the Democratic potentials Obama offered an administration that was likely to be the most hospitable to conservatives and Republicans as they prepared for their time in the wilderness to figure out just where they went wrong and what to do about it.
Listening to Mitch McConnell on ABC’s This Week last Sunday, it struck me how poorly conservatives and Republicans are using this moment.
Throughout the campaign, Obama made his respectful disagreement with conservative ideology a cornerstone of his rhetoric. In almost every speech, there was a reference for the need to reach across the isle and a recognition that good ideas are not always the sole property of particular ideologies. Drawing vehement criticism from the Clinton’s and some segments of the Democratic base, Obama even went so far as to offer complimentary words to conservative Citizen Kane: Ronald Reagan. And bearing largely true to his words, the opening chords of the Obama administration’s time in office were dressed in discussion of the need and desire for bipartisanship.
Unlike some Democrats, Barak Obama doesn’t seem interested in destroying Republicans and the conservative movement in the slightest. Obama might not agree with 95% of what conservatives and Republicans suggest, propose, or offer, but his deeply felt historical understanding of the American project lends a recognition of the important role that conservatives and Republicans play in cultivating a successful and healthy country. Therein lies the key to the opportunity that conservatives and Republicans seem so committed to ignoring.
As has been noted by many pundits, demographics are not siding with Republicans or conservatives. The procession of American popular opinion is a steady war of attrition with the future of conservatism and Republicanism in their current forms. So this time out of power is in many ways vital for conservatives and Republicans, it allows a time for careful consideration, at times painful reflection, but ultimately an ability to retool and rework the ethos that they seek to present. In all, though no political party or movement relishes the process of losing power, such milestones are inevitable and must be seen as opportunities to strengthen the narrative that one has to offer.
And by my lights, under no president in recent memory did conservatives and Republicans have a better ability to engage in this phoenix project. While it is certain that the ruminations of such a project are under way in certain segments of the conservative camp fire (David Frum’s New Majority comes to mind), the mindset presented by Republicans on the Hill and many conservatives in the streets is: double-down or die.
McConnell and others simply cannot effectively refute the charge of being the “party of no” because their cupboards are bereft of any ideas that haven’t already come under the damning critique of public opinion. All they can do is point to George W. Bush and say, “We’re not him,” which might be true, but it isn’t enough. And it won’t be enough until such a time as conservatives and Republicans have en masse come face-to-face with the challenge that lies at their feet: to articulate a conservatism of the twenty-first century.
Alas, you can lead an elephant to water…
(Cross posted at The League of Ordinary Gentlemen)