Time To Take Reagan's Advice

Conservatives bounced back strong after the elections of Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, and can do likewise in 2010. The Gallup Poll just reported that self-identified conservatives outnumber self-identified liberals in all 50 states, and the trend is up. Barack Obama is aiding our task of reinvigorating conservatives.

A speech Ronald Reagan gave in 1975 contains a message worth repeating: "I am impatient with those Republicans who after the last election rushed into print saying, 'We must broaden the base of our Party' -- when what they meant was to fuzz up and blur even more the differences between ourselves and our opponents. . . . Our people look for a cause to believe in . . . raising a banner of no pale pastels, but bold colors which make it unmistakably clear where we stand on all of the issues troubling the people. . . . Let us explore ways to ward off socialism. . . . A political party . . . must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency."

Conservatives' banner of bold colors must include:

  1. Restore fiscal responsibility. Conservatives must call a halt to reckless borrowing and spending.
  2. Stand tall for American sovereignty. This means rejecting all United Nations treaties including the UN Law of the Sea Treaty, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the UN Treaty on Women. They all invade our sovereignty by creating committees of hostile foreign bureaucrats to monitor our compliance. Standing for American sovereignty also means repudiating all devious ways of erasing our borders by deceitful code words such as "economic integration," "labor mobility," "North American Union," or "Free Trade Area of the Americas."
  3. Make foreign and military policies serve the national security of the United States. George Washington's advice to be "at all times ready for war" means, at long last, deploying an anti-missile defense that can protect our people from attack by rogue nations.
  4. Recapture the three important voting blocs that abandoned conservative candidates in 2008: Reagan Democrats, 70% of unmarried women, and young people. Conservatives must stand for maintaining middle-class jobs that support a family.

Conservatives must stand up for marriage as the basic institution of society and must not allow marriage to be undermined by taxpayer-financed incentives in the multi-billion- dollar welfare, child-support, and domestic-violence agencies that promote divorce, fatherless children, and the matriarchy sought by the feminists. Mothers should look to husbands for financial support, not depend on Big Brother Government to be the provider. The liberals will always be the party of bigger taxpayer handouts.

Conservatives must recapture hearts and minds of young people by making sure public schools teach respect for patriotism, the Constitution, moral standards, and Western civilization instead of multiculturalism (all cultures are equal), diversity (all behaviors are OK), and "social justice" (the false notion that students are victims of an unjust, oppressive and racist America.

The experience of other states supports the Court’s decision. Massachusetts effectively uses English immersion instead of bilingual education. The Boston Globe reported that immigrant students (who came to the U.S. only a few years earlier barely knowing English) were class valedictorians in 17 of the 42 high schools in Boston. One of these immigrant kids, a boy from Haiti, not only led his school but won a four-year scholarship to MIT.

If conservatives deal with these challenges, they can be the Comeback Kids in 2010.