Democrat liberalism helps Conservative comeback

NY Times:

Less than a year after an election that nearly wiped them out politically, conservatives are showing signs of life.

They are still searching for new leaders and new ideas. Their victories have been more about taking advantage of President Obama’s missteps than advancing an agenda that can recapture large numbers of voters.

But they have shown in recent weeks that they can have at least some influence as the voice of the opposition — and in the process energize what remains of their movement. The more upbeat mood was evident in Washington on Friday at a jubilant and crowded Values Voter Summit that brought together some of the most passionate social conservatives.

They cheered as speakers recalled the turnout for the protest against Mr. Obama last Saturday in Washington, the August public forums that put Democrats on the defensive on health care, the successful campaign to force the White House to fire its green-jobs czar, and the push in Congress to cut financing for a community organization group, Acorn, that has long been a target of the right.

“While some are prepared to write the obituary on our values and our movement, I believe we are on the brink of a great American awakening,” Representative Mike Pence, Republican of Indiana, said at the summit, raising cheers from the crowd in the room. “I believe we are on the brink of a great American awakening. I can see it. I can feel it wherever I go.”

Whatever problems the conservative movement has encountered — a string of electoral defeats, evidence that its membership is getting smaller and older, the demands of coming up with a new ideological agenda to meet changing times — these recent victories have given new hope to this formerly dispirited base of the Republican Party that it can still command public attention and influence policy in Washington. And this is no small matter for Republicans going into next year’s midterm Congressional elections, in a year when Mr. Obama will not be on top of the ballot.

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“What holds the conservative movement now is how appalled everyone is at what liberals are trying to do,” said Maggie Gallagher, the president of the National Organization for Marriage, which is fighting efforts to advance same-sex marriage. “I think the conservative movement is far more energized than it was six months ago.”

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I never really doubted that the political consequences of the Democrats liberal agenda would swing voters back toward the conservative position. Democrats have won through hiding their liberalism and when they started governing with huge gigantic increases in spending and then tried to impose their control freak agenda on health care the awakening began. They compounded the problem by insulting those who were raising questions about their agenda.

Two of the most interesting turning points have been when Sarah Palin smoked the Democrats with her "death panel" argument and Joe Wilson had his "You lie" outburst. On both occasions the Democrats reacted by claiming they were outrageously wrong, then began amending their bills to cover the points the two were making. That tells you, that the Democrats understood the strength of the arguments, despite their poo-poo response.