Just in case you never read the post-election "autopsy" made by Senator Jim DeMint (Republican representing South Carolina), you can do so at his website. Good stuff. Relevant stuff. And, if the G.O.P. hopes to ever wrest control back from the left, absolutely indispensable stuff.Here's a portion of Senator DeMint's remarks:
They say that elephants never forget, but that's exactly what the Grand Old Party has done.
Between the 1950s and 1970s, Rockefeller and Nixon Republicans kept the party in a seemingly permanent minority with a "me-too" philosophy that allowed Democrats to balloon the size and scope of government.
But, when Ronald Reagan ran unashamed on conservative principles in 1980 and Republicans in Congress embraced bold conservative reforms in 1994, America responded with overwhelming approval.
Since then, many Republicans have run for office as conservatives but governed as scandal-plagued big-spending moderates. They stopped offering common-sense solutions and broke promises with Americans by overspending and wasteful earmarking to special interests.
In the name of bipartisanship, our leaders supported amnesty, big new entitlements, more federal control of education, and compromises on energy. And too often Republicans shied away from defending values of life, family and faith.
The final straw for many was a series of Wall Street bailouts that cost over a trillion dollars and looked more like knee-jerk socialism than confident conservative leadership.
No wonder Republicans have lost a dozen Senate seats and nearly 50 House seats in two years.
Democrats will likely mistake Republican failures as a mandate for their liberal policies. Obama promises to "spread the wealth" and repeal all restrictions on abortion.
Nancy Pelosi wants trillions in new federal spending. Barney Frank promises higher taxes and massive military funding cuts. Harry Reid will kill the secret ballot for union elections. Patrick Leahy yearns to pack federal courts with activist judges who are hostile to traditional values.
Americans know little about these far left plans because Democrats didn't run on their liberal agenda, they ran against George Bush.
Yet, a strong majority of Americans are conservative and support the principles of freedom our nation was founded on.
The bipartisan Battleground Poll has found every year since 2002 that 60 percent of Americans identify themselves as conservatives and only 30 percent call themselves liberals. That's why Obama and the Democrats talked so much about conservative themes of tax cuts, spending restraint, second amendment rights and energy independence.
Americans haven't changed, Republicans have...
