Posted by
Patrick "Sarge" Murray on Tuesday, February 12, 2008 2:19:40 PM
Judging by the lower turnout of Republican voters than Democrat voters in state-by-state primaries, it would seem that the GOP and its followers are still shell-shocked by the defeat the voters handed them in November of 2006. John Podhoretz undertakes the most methodical chronicling that I have read to date regarding the fall of Republican fortunes. His basic premise is two-pronged. One is, in order to understand the decline in party morale, we have to properly ascertain the root cause. In this case, after going through a litany of Republican perfidy to the conservative base regarding an explosion in earmarks and pork barreling after 1998, and the corruption scandals which all erupted simultaneously in ’06 (which only affected six out of the 229 House GOP members, and that is if you include Tom DeLay), he points out what really soured voters’ views of Republican leadership, that being the mismanagement of the war in Iraq.
So should there be reason for optimism, then? Perhaps, considering that the troop surge has led to increased success in the region, combined with the Iraqi public’s increasing distaste for terror attacks against them, thus pushing the Sunnis into the political process. Assuming this strong trend in good news from Iraq continues through November, Podhoretz contends that the Democrats will be in an uncomfortable position, thus implying reason for considerable optimism for us GOP voters. It is time for us to wake up from our funk, roll up our sleeves, and go to work.