Almost a month removed from the election, I think it’s important to emphasize the lesson we should be learning from Obama’s victory and how McCain ran his campaign.  The lesson is this: we live in a conservative America, and the 2008 election did not change that.  Instead, it highlighted that conservative values continue to resonate.

McCain Failed To Rally Conservatives

McCain lost because he failed to rally the conservative base.  I will never forget the scene at a McCain campaign rally in October in the wake of the debate over the $700 billion bailout.  Various supporters expressed their underlying frustration that McCain was not fighting hard enough. 

“We have the good Reverend Wright.  We have [the Reverend Michael] Pfleger.  We have all of these shady characters that have surrounded him,” shouted one supporter.  “We have corruption here in Wisconsin and voting across the nation.  I am begging you, sir.  I am begging you.  Take it to him.”

Another McCain supporter who refused to surrender the microphone yelled, “I’m mad!  I’m really mad!”  When the crowd’s vigorous roar of approval died down, the man begged McCain and Governor Sarah Palin: “It’s time that you two represent the rest of us.”

Such raw words of emotion never sounded so powerful.  Yet McCain failed to listen to those pleas.  He and his campaign failed to realize that those cries for help carried great historical weight.

We Live In A Conservative America 

Republican presidential candidates who won elections the past three decades did so by articulating and advancing conservative principles and using those principles to inspire conservative voters to get out and vote.  This “reaching across the aisle” stuff that McCain preached throughout his campaign has never worked . . . and obviously did not work for him. 

In the past 30 years, Republican presidential candidates who acted like conservatives (e.g., Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush . . . to a certain extent) won elections, sometimes by pretty large margins.  Those who did not act like conservatives (e.g., Gerald Ford, Bob Dole, George H.W. Bush) lost.

Those elections illustrate the dirtiest little secret in American politics: the majority of this country is conservative.  A recent Battleground Poll (one of the most respected public opinion polls) showed that 60% of Americans consider themselves conservative. 

One of the poll’s questions asks, “When thinking about politics and government, do you consider yourself to be . . . Very conservative . . . Somewhat conservative . . . MODERATE . . . Somewhat liberal . . . Very liberal . . . UNSURE/REFUSED.”

In August 2008, Americans answered as follows:

• 20% of Americans considered themselves very conservative;
• 40% considered themselves somewhat conservative;
• 2% of Americans considered themselves moderate;
• 27% considered themselves somewhat liberal;
• 9% considered themselves very liberal; and
• 3% filed in behind the “unsure/refused” category. 

Thus, according to this poll, 60% of Americans consider themselves conservative.

Moreover, as Bruce Walker from American Thinker points out, the last 13 Battleground Poll results show a similar majority for the “conservative” categories:

• 59% in June 2002;
• 59% in September 2003;
• 61% in April 2004;
• 59% in June 2004;
• 60% in September 2004;
• 61% in October 2005;
• 59% in March 2006;
• 61% in October 2006;
• 59% in January 2007;
• 63% in July 2007;
• 58% in December 2007;
• 63% in May 2008;
• and our most recent 60% in August 2008.

Walker points out that the results for the liberal categories have never been higher than 38% (in June 2004).

Elections Prove That America Is Conservative 

The consistency of these results proves that they are no anomaly, and the proof is in the pudding with our elections.  Republican presidential candidates who adhere to conservative principles consistently win a majority of the popular vote.  President Bush won 50.73% of the popular vote in 2004.  His father won 53.37% in 1988.  Reagan won 58.77% and a 49-state landslide in 1984. 

By contrast, the last liberal candidate (before Obama) to break the 50% barrier was Jimmy Carter in 1976 with a whopping 50.08%.  Not even Bill Clinton could get a majority of the country to vote for him (43.01% in 1992, 49.23% in 1996).

Liberals Win When Republican Candidates Are Weak 

Liberal candidates assumed the Presidency simply because their Republican opponents did not cater to and rally their base: Ford was a moderate Republican; Dole had a moderate voting record, particularly on taxes; and Bush I raised taxes during his only term.

Does any of this sound familiar?  A weak, moderate Republican candidate losing to a liberal?

The Blueprint: Rally Conservative America

McCain never followed the blueprint Reagan laid out–that, if you secure all of the conservative votes (about 60% of Americans) and ignore every liberal and “moderate” or “independent” voter (less than 40% of Americans), you will easily win in November.  He followed the paths taken by Dole and Bush I . . . and he lost. 

The 2008 election was, indeed, an important election.  Not simply because America elected the first black President, but because it illustrated a lesson the Republican Party needs to apply in 2010 and 2012. 

To win national elections, Republican candidates must secure conservative votes FIRST and pay less attention to so-called “moderates” and “independents.”  To secure those conservative votes, candidates must abandon platforms about “bipartisan” records and “reaching across the aisle” to work with liberals.  Conservatives don’t want to hear that.  Our candidates have to emphasize conservative values and articulate how and why they will advance conservative principles. 

These principles include promises to cut taxes, reduce government, and appoint originalist judges to the Supreme Court while targeting anti-conservative proposals (raising capital gains taxes, nationalizing health care, growing government, etc.).  By rallying conservative America, only then will Republicans regain congressional seats in 2010 and, hopefully, the White House in 2012. 

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