January 17, 2009

Yes, I want Obama to succeed

Obama's arrival as President is imminent. It's just a couple of days now. Conservatives have been asking whether we want him to succeed. Unlike liberals who don't care about the price of Republican failure, conservatives put country first, country ahead of party. So many conservatives will say, yes, they want Obama to succeed. But there are qualifications.


Conservatives don't want Obama to succeed in implementing an ultra-left agenda. We want him to succeed in keeping the economy afloat, keeping crime low, keeping the borders secure, keeping the country safe from terrorists, and keeping the country on an even keel. In the eyes of liberals, most of that would probably constitute a failure. They do want the economy on an even keel though, but particularly under a Democrat. If it were Bush, a strong economy would be a negative to them. Conservatives are smarter than that.

This guy, for example, who is not what you'd expect, but rather a reasonable, thinking conservative-minded citizen, wants Obama to succeed for America. But listen to how he defines that success. His version of success is what many conservatives would see as successful.


The difference is not just ideological. Conservatives define success as success for the country and liberals define success as what is successful for their agenda and their party. By that definition, they cannot possibly hope for the success of a conservative Republican president - or any Republican President. They would have pilloried McCain as much as they did Bush, despite their former praise for McCain when he was a Republican maverick. He was what was classified as a useful idiot from the Bolshevik perspective.

Rush Limbaugh was right about Democrats believing what's bad for America is good news for Democrats. At least under Bush. Now that Obama's in charge, they have to try to re-tie themselves to success. And if they succeed, Americans will be better off. But if they fail they could be setting themselves up for electoral disaster in the next few elections. It's a real possibility after having tied their success to American failure for so long. They got what they wanted, now, after having driven that failure, they get to try to fix it, with no Republicans to blame for any failure.

As Republicans, we'd like to see massive electoral defeat for the Democrats in the next elections. But not at the price of the country. A country conservatives will believe in no matter who is at the helm, because it's not about the person, it's about the principles, and the ideals behind the flag, behind the Constitution and behind America, that really matter.

Republicans really are in a win-win situation. If Obama succeeds, he will do so by following a center-right agenda. We know that liberal policies aren't successful historically. And if Obama fails, the country will be in bad shape, but it gives us the chance to prove that our ideas work better and electoral success in 2010 and to defeat Obama in 2012 will be very achievable. Furthermore, if Obama does drift right over his Presidency, he will inevitably be at odds with his party. That's another opportunity for a Republican fortunes revival. And rooting for chaos and failure in the Democratic party is not the same as rooting for chaos and failure in America. In fact, it's just the opposite.

3 comments:

  1. Very well said, right on target.

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  2. Republicans sadly have won; it's sad because America has badly lost by electing Obama as President, as the last few years have demonstrated.

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  3. A valid point that America has lost. However I tend to think that the country is too big to fail after a really bad four year term. It's not too big to fail, it is just more resilient than 4 years worth of damage can do.

    So a Republican victory is not sad. Not yet anyway. If the GOP act as debt deaf as they did under Bush, then I'd say that a GOP victory is also sad. But if they behave like Paul Ryan and really try to solve the deepening debt crisis, the nation can still return to greatness.

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