Editor's Note: Mark Sanford, a Republican, is governor of South Carolina.
This is a disclaimer so you're not tempted to believe a word he says.
Some on the left will say our electoral losses are a repudiation of our principles of lower taxes, smaller government and individual liberty. But Tuesday was not in fact a rejection of those principles -- it was a rejection of Republicans' failure to live up to those principles.
Well, that's funny, because the Republicans spent 2 years painting Barack Obama as a tax and spend ultra liberal in the media. They spared no expense to convince people that Obama would raise taxes, increase the size of government and take away peoples' guns. Meanwhile, they ran John McCain as an anti-tax crusader who would freeze all government programs, eliminate Medicare and Social Security and allow toddlers to buy automatic assault rifles previously restricted to law enforcement and the military. Despite all this, the American people voted for Barack. I don't think they were confused on who was the liberal and who was the ultra-conservative candidate.
Republicans have campaigned on the conservative themes of lower taxes, less government and more freedom -- they just haven't governed that way. America didn't turn away from conservatism, they turned away from many who faked it.
That's odd since they elected the candidate who was almost universally labeled by the media as the "most liberal Presidential candidate in history". It seems the American people wanted a liberal.
Mark keeps mentioning "freedom" and "individual liberty". I guess that only matters if you're not gay or a woman and you don't want to smoke pot to alleviate a medical condition.
I really hope the Republicans keep running as unabashed conservatives. Contrary to what Mark says, the American people are quite aware of the conservative identity of the GOP. Whether they like it or not, Americans quite enjoy their Social Security, their social programs and their rights to sleep with whoever they want. The American people saw John McCain running to the right of George W. Bush and they wanted nothing to do with it.
|