Conservatives: Prepare to be pushed further left by State GOP

I am amazed. I have come to expect the secular wing of the GOP to blame the Christian wing for every failure that comes along, but the lengths to which they are willing to ignore "discordant feedback from reality" to hear only the message that they want to hear has been taken to new and fantastical heights.

Asked in this John Lyon column about the poor GOP showing this year, Republican Party of Arkansas Director Clint Reed said this, "We must listen to the message that the voters sent us and provide real reform within our party. We must be an inclusive party that is not relegated to fractional or regional ideologues,".

"Inclusiveness" is, of course, a well-known code word for the faction of the GOP that favors abortion, amnesty for illegals, and a gay-friendly Republican party. It can be accurately translated to mean "shut up all you pro-lifers, border control nuts, and all you bible crazies who want to keep social conservatism as important issues".

Those are the "idealouges" Reed says they need to get away from. In rejecting an ideology, Reed comes to perfect agreement with former President Clinton, as we discussed in this article. Idealouges in this case are simply people with ideals. Where do people with real belief systems go when the leaders of both parties reject ideals? Where do we go when they both reject standards? When both are committed only to saying and doing whatever think will help them "win"?

The reason the GOP lost is as plain as day, and it wasn't because our state candidates were "too conservative". It is because a dismissively arrogant President Bush and a corrupt overspending GOP congress were like an anchor around their necks.

Indeed, the most conservative of the lot, Jim Holt, got the most votes, even though he got zero help, and I mean zero, from the state party. Meanwhile, the Democratic party realized that the Lt. Governor's race was the only one they could lose, so they dumped $250,000 into ads assuring people that Halter was a good guy- and until that point many had questions- and that Holt was a terrible guy. The Republican party lifted not one finger in response. That was when the polls showed movement for Halter. Because the money totals for the Lt. Governor's race were so much smaller than the Governor's race, a smaller infusion of cash would have had a proportionally bigger effect, but that help never came.

Instead of making the no-brainer decision (that the democrats made) of throwing weight into the closest state-wide race, the GOP focused entirely on the Governor's race, and did so by constantly emphasizing Asa Hutchinson's ties to the Bush administration. They called even more attention to the very anchor that was around the necks of all GOP candidates, even those that had disagreements with Bush. That was a strategic blunder of immense proportions. It only adds insult to injury to hear them say that, rather than their own strategic blunders, conservatives are to blame for the election results.