"Time for Us to Go"

After the primaries last week, I said I was not going to support the Republican candidates for US House and Senate, Martha Rainville and Rich Tarrant. As I have written about that decision and read comments that have been left here, I have continued to think about and talk about it.

I am left with one little nagging doubt. Do I really want to play a role in allowing the Democrats to seize control of Congress? After all, I agree with the Democrats less than I agree with the GOP.

Then I read this commentary written by Richard Viguerie, from the Washington Monthly feature, “Time for Us to Go,” a collection of commentary by conservatives on why the GOP should lose in ‘06.

With their record over the past few years, the Big Government Republicans in Washington do not merit the support of conservatives. They have busted the federal budget for generations to come with the prescription-drug benefit and the creation and expansion of other programs. They have brought forth a limitless flow of pork for the sole, immoral purpose of holding onto office. They have expanded government regulation into every aspect of our lives and refused to deal seriously with mounting domestic problems such as illegal immigration. They have spent more time seeking the favors of K Street lobbyists than listening to the conservatives who brought them to power. And they have sunk us into the very sort of nation-building war that candidate George W. Bush promised to avoid, while ignoring rising threats such as communist China and the oil-rich “new Castro,” Hugo Chavez.

Okay, this is nothing new. While much more specific and condemining, this is exactly what I have been saying.

He continues,

But a Republican loss of one or both houses of Congress would turn power over to the likes of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. Dare we risk such an outcome?

This is the very question that I have struggled with. His answer:

The answer is, we must take that chance. If Big Government Republicans behave so irresponsibly and betray the people who elected them, while we blindly, slavishly continue backing them, we establish that there is no price to pay for violating conservative principles. If we give in, we are forgetting the lesson that mothers teach their daughters: Why buy a cow when the milk is free?

(Do mothers even teach that to their daughters these days?)

He goes on to say,

Sometimes a loss for the Republican Party is a gain for conservatives. Often, a little taste of liberal Democrats in power is enough to remind the voters what they don’t like about liberal Democrats and to focus the minds of Republicans on the principles that really matter. That’s why the conservative movement has grown fastest during those periods when things seemed darkest, such as during the Carter administration and the first two years of the Clinton White House.

I have been saying that same thing for months, privately. Sometimes you have to lose the battle in order to win the war. In order for conservatism to make a comeback in any meaningful way, the Big Government GOP needs to be sent a strong message. The only way to send that message is for them to lose the majority, as painful as that will be.

As Viguerie concludes,

If Democrats win in November, it will seem like a dark time. But the darkest time comes before the dawn.

(Hat tip: Crunchy Con)