More Good Observations from Hugh Hewitt's Site

Dean Barnett, aka "Soxblog," who now does a fair bit of pinch-hitting for Hugh Hewitt when Hugh is up to his eyeballs, is making observations similar to ours today. Here's a worthy snippet:

Most importantly, we didn’t lose because our countrymen suddenly misplaced the virtues that make America great. It is a distinctly liberal trait to blame “the people” when they don’t vote as one would dictate. I’ll brook none of that from our side. The fact is, we thought our country would be better off with a Republican congress. We made a case to the American people. They didn’t buy it because they thought it was a weak case.

And you know what? They were right. In the closing weeks of the campaign season, I felt like I was a lawyer who had a bad client while writing this blog. That client was the Republican Party which had broken its Contract with America from 1994 and had become unmoored from its conservative principles. As its advocate, I couldn’t make a more compelling case for Republicans staying in power than the fact that the
Democrats would be worse. I believed in that case, but when that’s all the party gave its advocates to work with, you can honestly conclude that Republicans got this drubbing the old fashioned way – we earned it.

Indeed, we couldn't agree more. As we indicated, the Dems were up to their usual dirty tricks with the usual suspects in the usual places, but this can't remotely account for the magnitude of the bashing the Repubs took last nite. The fact is, they got cute with their responsibilities, exacerbating this with just the right dash of hubris. And they paid for it.

Republicans, as I've stated many times before, need the patience of Job and the holiness of St. Francis of Assissi. They need to be logical, scandal free, and perfect in every way, or the press and the Dems will slaughter them every time, as neither the press nor the Dems operate under a discernable moral code unless it is that of a snooty high school clique. Republicans need to stick to their morals, disentangle Big Government from our wallets, and keep the bad guys abroad where they belong. When they start inventing more entitlements like the current prescription drug plan, and dispensing Bridges to Nowhere like they were going out of style, their supporters will give them the heave-ho.

Republicans have to operate under different rules from Dems. They can't simply count on the same votes year after year. If they piss off their constituency, that constituency will either stay home or vote for somebody else. Republican voters and independent voters who can be swayed by Republicans demand performance. If they don't get it from a Republican candidate, that candidate gets the boot. There's a price to be paid for not delivering.

Democrats on the other hand labor under no such handicap. Democrats habitually vote for Democrats. They seem constitutionally unable to change, which is why so many Jews continue to vote for the party of anti-Semitism, and why so many blacks continue to vote for a party that never gives them anything good for their support, except for occasionally tossing them a well-chewed bone. Nor will Michaganders who have been destroyed by their Democratic politicians' outright hostility to business. they all just keep pulling the same futile lever. After all, grandfather would roll over in his grave if they voted for a Republican. On the whole, Democrats in secure districts have a pretty easy cruise.

And it's tough to break the lock that Dems have on their traditional constituencies. As we have apparently seen in Maryland, a brilliant and gracious black Republican candidate, Michael Steele, who had a far greater command of the issues and was a far better representative of the black middle class than any the Dems could have put up, went down to defeat because fellow blacks could simply not find it within themselves to break with their tradition of voting Democratic. Their reward will be the usual tokenism with nothing major sent their way. They will continue to vote Democrat and continue to be taken for granted. It seems that they cannot learn they have a bad, counterproductive habit that they don't seem to be able or willing to break. Steele's loss is theirs.

As Dean Barnett so accurately states, Repubs need to earn their voters back. Time to start today. Looks like Dennis Hastert has already taken the hint. It's a good start.