What we are up against

Quin Hillyer tries to shock those amongst our movement who think this electoral disaster is a wake up call that bring back a true conservative movement.  For those who think we can easily regroup and take back Congress in 2010 and then the Presidency in 2012 after Obam, Pelosi, and Reid take their party to far to the left, just like we did after Clinton took office,  Hillyer offers these thoughts:

These New Alinskyites who are taking over the White House, combined with the most leftist congressional leadership in memory, will not let us play by the same rules under which conservatives recovered from those earlier debacles. They will try to drastically tilt the playing field, seed our side of the field with land mines and, in short, rig the process to make it next to impossible for the political right, or Republicans, to recover. And they are likely to succeed in at least some of these designs.

Some of the things Hillyer predicts: efforts to steal Senate elections (it may already be happening in Minnesota) to get a fillibuster proof majority; short of that, abolishing the fillibuster rule; more legislation to “liberalize” voting laws to make it easier for voter fraud combined with a DOJ crackdown on anyone who tries to call out voter fraud, card check provisions to increase union membership (and coffers), efforts to allow the trial bar to sue their enemies into submission, IRS audits on all conservatives, and of course the Fairness Doctrine to squelch conservative free speech on talk radio.

The erosions of conservative rights will be incremental. Each one will have its own justification. Each one will be supported by the establishment media. Each one will be timed so as to allow the general public to become accustomed to it, to accept it as unremarkable, or even to come to regard it as a public good for the sake of keeping conservative “troublemakers” from fomenting disorder.

And the Obamessiah, still speaking frequently to stadia full of admirers, will provide a tone of reasoned moderation, combined with further appeals to hope, in order to justify it all.

These are the sorts of things Alinskyites do. These are the sorts of tactics used by ACORN, at whose conferences Obama himself regularly taught seminars on “power.” These are the sorts of policies favored by the academic left, Obama’s old milieu — the policies that favor speech codes and stolen campus newspapers and the firing of faculty for “offensive” remarks.

While I believe it is wise to warn conservatives about what they may be up against, these fears may be overstated.  Clinton had majorities his first two years but couldn’t do all these things.  There was no Fox News back then.  There was Rush Limbaugh but no other talk radio to speak of.  And there was no blogosphere.

Obama probably has the media more on his side than Clinton did but is he really that inspiring?  Some of the Messiah shine faded at the end of the primaries.  Had McCain run a smart campaign, he would have continued Hillary’s tactics and the shine would have been complete gone.  Nevertheless, McCain actually did pull ahead briefly and it wasn’t until the financial panic struck that Obama regained his momentum.  Obama didn’t regain his Messiah image so much as McCain imploded, bearing the brunt of the blame as the standard bearer of the president’s party. Obama simply appeared more credible than McCain who lost his focus for several weeks.

Obama will have a honeymoon, probably a longer one than some presidents, thanks to people like Chris Matthews, but his days of mesmerizing the populace are hopefully gone.  He will have to do press conferences and speak sans teleprompter.

Meanwhile, Congress under Pelosi and Reid have favorability ratings lower than President Bush.  I suppose that will change some once the Hope and Change Tour makes its way to the White House.  But I’m not convinced they can pull it all off.  Neither has any appeal and amongst the leadership in Congress there are few who could be a public face of the party.  Here are some of the candidates for face of the party:

Henry Waxman

Barney Frank

Charley Rangel

Dick Durbin

Robert Byrd

Harry Reid

Nancy Pelosi

Dennis Kucinich

Chuck Schumer

Barack Obama is a very appealing person who can speak in generalities like no other politician.  On the other hand, I don’t believe his ideas are as appealing.  I don’t think he can carry these ideas all by himself. The American people do not want to become Sweeden.  In troubled times, people do find some comfort in the government providing more for people but I’m confident that if conservatives can get the facts to people, they will choose more conservative option.

Quin Hillyer does a service by succinctly summarizing what the opposition has in store for us.  But I think we can stop many of these plans before they become law.