A Tale of Two Cities on a Hill: The Republican Party at a Cross Roads

It’s good to know where we’ve been and what we’ve done.

It reminds us of the things that brought us to the place we are today, and in some measure, foretells our tomorrows.

Republicans would do well to think about where we’ve been…and what we’ve done as we ponder the way forward.

And that’s why I’m here: to talk about the future of conservatism. But to do that, we must look back a bit. As I said, I’m not much of a photographer in the artistic sense, but I do know how to keep things in focus.

A lot of people want to write the obituary for the Grand Old Party in 2008 but I believe the reports of our demise are “greatly exaggerated”.

I believe that conservatism will continue to define American politics in the new century as much as it did in the last.

But when I look back at Election Day 2006, I am convinced that we are in the most perilous and yet the most promising time in the history of our party.

It is a perilous time because we have wandered into the wilderness.

It is a promising time, because every great political movement in our history has come out of the wilderness.

The late William F. Buckley, Jr. often admonished that “despair is a mortal sin” and I do not invite it, but the facts are not encouraging.

The Republican Party lost control of Congress in 2006. And in the three special elections in Republican districts this year, Democrats have won every time. And every national poll shows our president and our party at historic lows. We are in the wilderness.

But there is a way out. The author Mark Helprin wrote, “the way out of the wilderness is the truth; recognizing it, stating it, defending it, living by it”. Here’s the truth as I see it.

I believe the Republicans in Washington did not just lose our Majority; I believe we lost our way.

After 1994, we were a Majority committed to a balanced federal budget, entitlement reform and advancing the principles of a limited federal government.

In recent years, our Majority voted to expand the federal government’s role in education by nearly 100 percent, created the largest new entitlement in forty years, and pursued spending policies that created record deficits and national debt.

This was not in the Contract with America.

Now, our opponents will say that the American people rejected our Republican vision.

But I say the American people did not quit on the Contract with America -- we did.

We walked away from the limited government principles that minted the Republican Congress. And the American people walked away from us.

To start our way back, to find our way out of this wilderness, we have to admit that Republicans are in trouble for a reason.

And it has nothing to do with Democrat spin or their vague campaign generalities about hope and change and liberal utopia. It’s about Republicans forgetting what they believe and why they believe it. It’s about Republicans acting like Democrats.

At this Silver Elephant, it saddens me to say that our sterling symbol is tarnished, certainly not by the good conservatives in this room and across the nation. You are the heart and soul of this party.

It has been tarnished by those who abandoned principle for power and cost this party both.

In the name of "governing" and "compassion", our party in Washington has become what we replaced.

The time has come to say at last...the era of Big Government Republicanism is over!

And the good news is, while Republicans may be losing ground, our conservative agenda is still winning!

Well, we've got a challenging landscape, no doubt about it, Chris. But I think the fall elections are fundamentally different than a series of specials.
We actually, if you'll recall, won all the special elections in 2006 and then got our clock cleaned pretty good at the end of the year. So I think once we're in a presidential year, the dynamic changes and we'll be in a lot stronger position.

Just a few weeks ago, in Louisiana and Mississippi, Democrats who articulated platforms of pro-life, pro-gun and anti-taxes beat their Republican opponents -- in solidly Republican districts. And in 2006, in district after district, many of the seats we lost went to those who articulated a conservative message.

This wasn’t coincidence. Democrats handpicked their candidates for those races precisely because they knew the power of the conservative message.

We will only defeat the Democrat agenda by presenting a positive, conservative message in vivid contrast to the thinly veiled liberalism of the new Democratic majority.

What’s on our party’s dresser?

These days, it’s hard to tell beneath the clutter. The Republican dresser has become a catchall, a landing place for the accumulated stuff of the day’s work and activities: Piles of change, money clips and receipts, mementos of the day’s spending. The meaningful reminders of the homeowners are barely visible, dusty and overcome by the clutter of expediency and politics. They’re there, but you have to look hard to see them.

But you know what they are.... they’re what brought you here tonight...

I believe the cherished ideals on top of our dresser are life and liberty and limited government.

And I believe the future of our movement demand that we put them back front and center...

And make no mistake about it; I believe the future of conservatism begins with a commitment to the unalienable right to life. Without the right to life there is no right to liberty or property. Our party must be willing to stand for the unborn and commit to appointing justices to the Supreme Court who will consign Roe v. Wade to the ash heap of history.

And I believe the future of conservatism demands that we stand for the font of life: traditional marriage. Marriage was ordained by God and instituted in law. It is the glue of the American family and the safest harbor to raise children and it must be defended.

And I believe the future of conservatism demands that we stand with those who defend our liberty at home regardless of what the polls or the pundits tell us to do. Whether the national media will ever admit it, freedom is winning in Iraq. We must take the fight over Iraq to the opposition and tell the American people the truth. Thanks to our Commander in Chief and tens of thousands of our men and women in uniform, the surge is working, Al Qaeda is on the run, and Operation Iraqi Freedom is a widening American success.

And I believe the future of conservatism demands that we defend our liberties at home by opposing censorship, whether it takes the form of the so-called Fairness Doctrine or takes the form of Campaign Finance Reform. Our freedom to speak and listen to who we want when we want is a blood-bought American right. We must not permit the Democrats to bring back the so-called Fairness Doctrine.

And the future of our movement demands that we defend our economic liberty and stand for the free market, whether in the freedom of Americans to engage in international trade or the freedom of parents to choose whatever public or private school their children will attend. Conservatives know government has no place standing in the way of commerce or standing in the school house door barring exit to poor children from our most dangerous and failing schools.

And the future of our movement demands that we stand for economic liberty and fight for energy independence. We must confront the environmental Left and give the American people more access to American oil! The American people need to know that one party wants America to tax our way to lower oil prices and one party wants America to drill our way to lower oil prices

And lastly, I believe that we must return our party to the principled practice of limited government. We must again be the party of a balanced federal budget that lives within its means by instituting spending discipline and pro-growth tax relief. We must embrace entitlement reform built on Lincoln’s adage that government not do for a man ‘what he can and should do for himself’.

And our candidates must be willing to expose the Democrats’ plan to pass the largest tax increase in American history, explode government spending and over-regulate our economy in the name of climate change.

Life, Liberty and Limited Government-these are the cherished ideals atop the dresser of our party and this movement.

And these are the ideals to which we must return.

It’s time to clear the dresser.

Its time to get back to standing for the things that matter most to our party and our nation.

Well, first of all, Chris, every spending fight we've had this Congress with the Democrats has been because they wanted to spend more, not less. So I think we're on the right side of the spending battle.

WALLACE: But you voted with them to spend more this time in the farm bill.

COLE: Well, if you'll let me finish my answer, on the farm bill, it actually came back spending less money than the farm bill that all of us had voted against a few weeks earlier, and without the tax increase provisions in it.

The president holding tough, frankly, made it a much better bill than it would have been. But at the end of the day, we thought getting something done — at least those of my colleagues who voted with me thought getting something done for farm country was extraordinarily important.

And this bill actually costs less, had put income limitations for the first time and, frankly, had no tax increases in it, which the earlier bills did. So we thought it was a marked improvement…

The question always is are you going to do better by cutting the deal now or going forward.

For years, the late William F. Buckley, Jr. carried a keychain that was inscribed with the words, “don’t just do something, stand there.

Buckley knew-when we stand on conservative values, Americans stand with our party.

As Ronald Reagan told CPAC in 1975, "A political party cannot be all things to all men. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs, which must not be compromised to political expediency, or to simply swell its numbers.”

Buckley was right.

Reagan was right.

The way back to a Republican Majority is to the Right.”

Make no mistake about it, these are perilous days for the Grand Old Party, but as I said at the outset, I also believe they are days of promise and opportunity. And I still have hope.

But my hope is not built on the promises of politicians or parties.

During this campaign season, the American people keep hearing that if they only “believe” -- if they only have “hope” -- then they will get “change they can believe in”.

But most Americans know better than that.

The change America needs is one which leans upon the tried and true principles of our founding -- and the hope which America has is built upon the One who blessed its birth.

Benjamin Franklin shared a basic understanding of our founding fathers when he said, “The longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth: 'that God governs in the affairs of men.' And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?”

And I would ask my countrymen, ‘is it probable that a nation or a political party be renewed without His aid?”

So I say, to move forward, we must acknowledge, as did our founders; that political movements may "grow tired and weary" and they may “stumble and fall”.

But, as has ever been true for every generation of Americans, "they that wait upon the Lord will renew their strength”. “They will mount up on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary”

Men and women of this movement let us seize upon this moment in history.

Let us renew our commitment to life, liberty and limited government.

Let us embrace the champion that history has chosen for us

And let us ever depend on Him who set this miracle of democracy on these wilderness shores.

And if we do that I believe that today’s clouds of peril for our party will break and the dawn of a new day -- a day of promise and opportunity will light our way.

Because every time our people have humbly taken the cause of life, liberty and limited government to the throne of grace, throughout American history-Freedom always wins.