Can conservatism recover?

"Let's face it: We Republicans are now, by any reasonable measurement, deep in the political wilderness," said U.S. Rep. Jeff Flake of Arizona in The Washington Post. But conservatives can bounce back if we admit the "folly" of the budget-busting Bush administration and return to the bedrock principles of "limited government" and expanded economic freedom. "America loves a chastened and repentant sinner."

Republicans have clearly lost their way, said USA Today in an editorial, and not just by "spending with abandon and gambling heavily on an ill-conceived war." The GOP was defeated in this election partly because so many of its candidates substituted "fear-mongering" for sound policy proposals on the campaign trail. "If they are to find their way back, Republicans need more ideas and fewer attacks."

Conservative ideas still resonate deeply with the American people, said former House majority leader Tom DeLay in The Washington Times. “We are still a center-right nation" where the majority still favors "conservative approaches to taxes, spending, regulation, foreign policy, and traditional values.” All the GOP needs now is “a new, 21st-century political coalition" to remind people of that fact and restore faith in "actual conservatives."

See, liberals, conservatives are down but far from out, said Thomas Frank in The Wall Street Journal. Democrats shouldn't fool themselves that the culture wars are over, and "that stupid bankers sank conservatism for good. This movement will be back, and the biggest fights are yet to come."

Conservative soul-searching

Conservatives will have to do some soul-searching after election day, said Peter Wehner, a former deputy assistant to President Bush, in The Washington Post. No matter who wins the White House, Democrats should increase their margins in the House and Senate. But if Republicans use the "wilderness years" ahead to "become champions of an ambitious conservative reform agenda, they will begin the road back to political dominance.

"That's "absurd," said David Sirota in Blog for our Future. The Republicans made this election "an ideological contest between Reagan conservatism and supposed wild-eyed liberalism/socialism," and a Democratic landslide would be "a huge repudiation of conservative ideology." The Right can't just erase what will be a huge progressive mandate by telling voters "nah nah nah can't hear you!"

Some conservatives believe that shoring up the base is the first step toward a comeback, said Sean J. Miller in National Review online. But Canada's conservatives moved to the center after a near-death experience 15 years ago, emphasizing economic issues over social ones. And Prime Minister Stephen Harper's conservatives "are now in the ascendency, having won back-to-back elections," so Republicans might want to look "look north."

Conservatism: Requiem for a revolution

The modern conservative movement is “sputtering” toward irrelevance, said Paul Waldman in The American Prospect. Barring the outbreak of a new war, the No. 1 issue in this election will be our imploding economy. With the government bailing out the free market from its own stupidity, and the public clamoring for oversight and regulation, the November election could produce “a dramatic repudiation of Republicans at all levels.” The Reagan era is over, said Timothy Noah in Slate.com. When Ronald Reagan revitalized conservatism in 1980, he did so with an appealing blend of muscular militarism, family values, and, especially, the message that “government was the common enemy.” But the catastrophic financial collapse has demolished the “fundamentalist belief in untrammeled capitalism.” Even if John McCain and Sarah Palin somehow manage to win this election, it’ll be as populist reformers, not traditional conservatives. Either way, conservatism “sure looks dead.”

Responsibility for that homicide lies squarely with George W. Bush, said The Economist. His “ruthless partisanship and iron commitment to presidential power” served him well enough at first; most Republicans swooned to his “huge tax cuts” and war on terror. But Bush’s “my way or the highway” approach ultimately fractured his own party. Fiscal conservatives were appalled by his reckless spending. Paleocons resented his invasion of Iraq. Nativists opposed him on immigration reform. The “most damning verdict” on Bush’s mismanagement came last week, when conservative House Republicans initially voted to reject his $700 billion financial bailout package. Their defiance signaled how little respect conservatives now have for their once-beloved leader. Far from “forging a lasting Republican majority,” Bush has left his party “in the worst state they have been in for decades.”

And yet, said John Harwood in The New York Times, Republicans may have reason to be optimistic. When a party is cast out, it often uses its time in the wilderness to “refocus its message and agenda” and stage a comeback. That’s what the Democrats who are now poised to take power have been doing since 2000, and what conservatives did after Barry Goldwater’s humiliating defeat in 1964. In January, Democrats may well assume ownership of the country’s numerous, intractable problems. What better time for conservatives to begin work on their “political renewal”?