There are a myriad of factors that go into why Republicans are at risk of losing both the United States Senate and the House of Representatives. I will leave it to the likes of Charlie Cook, Michael Barone, and Bob Novak to go into all of that.

I will just chime in my ten cents, because it goes to just one facet – lack of enthusiasm from conservatives because, at some point, the Republican charge of the Hill to reduce the size and scope of the federal government was replaced with something evil – growth in government at the hands of Republicans. The President and the leadership of both the Senate and House get to take the blame.

At some point, it no longer became the size of government that was "the problem" – rather, it was who was in charge. For a long time now, many conservatives (myself included) have been dismayed at watching "Rome burn" with Republican hands on the torches.

I don’t have enough finger-energy as I pen this on my Blackberry to write about the repeated disappointments, though to use just a few recent examples – we can look at the inability of a Republican Congress to pass the Republican Study Committee alternate budget with the framework for VERY MODEST across-the-board spending cuts, or the failure to amend out the most aggregious pieces of earmarked pork out of legislation. Of course there is this cult-like adoration, respect and fear of the "appropriators" as the Republican Congress has glorified spending rather than create a process to systematically reduce it. I could go on…

The War on Terror, while important (very much so), has been used grotesquely to shift the debate away from real and substantive decontruction of a federal bureaucracy that has ballooned so as to no longer be recognizable to our Founding Fathers. What about the War for Liberty – which we are losing?

Most conservatives that I know around the country (and I keep in touch with a great many) have stepped up in some way to try and save the GOP majorities… But not because they approve of the work-product of majority (it’s hard so get super-charged about all of the minor-victories achieved when it is behind the back drop of an ever-growing federal government). Conservates are scared of what Nancy Pelosi and her ilk will do with the reigns of power – making a troubling situation into a disaster.

If Republicans keep the Senate and the House, then hopefully they will have taken a lesson from staving off defeat – and returnrn to the drive if ’94, and clearly show that the Donkey means growing the government, and the Elephant stands for shrinking it. If not, we will be creating the perfect storm to lose the entire federal government, Presidency and all, to the Democrats in 2008.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 7th, 2006 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.