Wake-up call or Changing of the guard!

The recent elections causes one to pause and reflect as to what direction the culture of this great nation is headed in. On the one hand traditionalists have a vision of what the country should be, and yet, on the other hand secular progressives have their vision of what we should be. In many ways, this contest is reflected in the political struggles between the Democrats and Republicans.

With much of the celebration going on in the Democratic Party, I find it interesting that little is being said in the main media about a major contributing factor to the victories. Simply put, conservative’s dissatisfaction with the current crop of Republicans. Many of the Republicans, including the President ran on very conservative issues, and yet in many cases backed away from them. Not to mention the many internal squabbles that weakened, slowed, and finally derailed them. With all of the complaints that ‘it was the Democrats that forgot the people after spending time in Washington’, it appears that many Republicans did the very thing they accused Democrats of doing. To many conservatives, this is the unpardonable sin, and had to be dealt with.

There are a couple of notable exceptions that need to be mentioned. The war on Terror and tax cuts. It is true that no attack has been launched against us since 911, and it is probably true that we are safer, regardless what we feel. It would be hard to feel safe after being exposed to daily anti-American and anti-military newscasts. It also appears that the tax cuts have kept the economy humming in the midst of some very trying times for our nation. Be that as it may, as evidenced by this election, a Republican is not necessarily a conservative and conservatives have little loyalty or patience for Republicans that do not adhere to conservative principles. With that in mind, the conservative base appears to have punished the Republican Party for not being conservative enough.

Here is another bit of interesting information; it appears that some of the new faces on the Democratic ticket ran as conservatives. It may be a telling point when Republicans are punished for failing to be conservative enough and Democrats are rewarded for promising to be more conservative.

Of course the leadership in the legislative branch has changed and this has the potential to lead to some major agenda changes, however, I would not necessarily count the chickens before they hatch.

The Democratic Party has to determine how and why they won so that it can be duplicated, if possible. If the Republican Party is honest, it already knows why it lost. It needs simply to return to its previous successes to find where it lost its way. This will require humility.

This reminds me somewhat of an intense football game. When a lead is squandered, can the mistakes be overcome or has momentum shifted in favor of the other team so completely that recovery is impossible. Over the next few weeks and months we will know whether this latest election’ s results were a wake-up call for the Republicans or a changing of the guard to the Democrats.