Thanks to fellow MBA blogger Baltimore Reporter, here is an article outlining steps for the GOP to take to regain power in 2008. And I agree wholeheartedly, this is a war that was taken to the Republicans and it’s time to fight back!
I keep hearing the mantra, “conservatives didn’t lose, Republicans did.” Well, if this is true, time is a-wastin’! We only have 722 days until November 4, 2008. That’s not a lot of time to win a war and find a good conservative Republican presidential candidate in the vein of Ronaldus Maximus.
But there’s another topic I wanted to add my two cents about as political talk winds down for a short while.
Something that was sort of lost in all the hubbub about the 2006 election was a discussion about the good young candidates who made their first political runs on both sides of the political aisle. (For the sake of argument, I consider “young” as being under 40 like the Young Republicans dictate.) While most weren’t successful, this becomes the “farm team” for later campaigns.
Among the Democrats locally were Sheree Sample-Hughes (who won a County Council seat in District 1), Gary Tucker (he lost in the County Council at-large primary), and Patrick Armstrong (who lost to Page Elmore in the general election for the District 38A seat.) From the GOP we had even more youngsters, starting with Clerk of the Courts candidate James Gillespie (a hardworking officeseeker who deserved better in the general election), Bill McDermott (at 20 the youngest to ever run for the General Assembly; he lost in the District 38B primary), Bryan Brushmiller (who made a good election showing in District 4, a heavily Democrat area), and John Herweh (who lost in the primary for County Council at-large.) And we can’t forget Delegate Jeannie Haddaway, who won election to a full term in the General Assembly after her appointment 3 years ago.
When I think about politics I know that we have our issues with the world today, particularly what’s been called the “Long War”, better known as the “War on Terror.” But I also like to concentrate on what’s going to be around ten years, two decades, even a half-century down the road.
I’m a person who has a political outlook that’s conservative with a little bit of libertarianism thrown in to make things interesting, and just enough of an ’80’s punk “Question Authority” attitude to where I don’t fit into the typical GOP mold and dislike the “politics as usual” games. But I’m also realistic enough to know that my generation (I identify more with the Gen X’ers than the Boomers, as I was born smack dab between the two eras) has pretty much become settled in its ways to a point where neither conservatism or liberalism has a large advantage. The great memories of those of us born in the mid-to-late ’60’s of coming of age in the Reagan era are negated by the 1970’s version of Gen X’ers remembering the good times of the Clinton era.
So I look to the future and hope that those men and women of what I call the Milennial Generation (the oldest of whom are just turning 30 now) rebel against the excesses in government that both parties have perpetuated over the course of their youth and become a modern-day “Greatest Generation”. With the Long War as a constant threat, theirs will likely be a generation of sacrifice much like the fathers and grandfathers of the Boomers had to endure (World Wars 1 and 2 plus the Great Depression.) This stands in stark comparison to the relative ease that Boomers and Gen X’ers have grown up with.
This is why I’m encouraged by the influx of youth into the political process, particularly on the Republican side. Politics can be a nasty game at times. But the ideal of public service puts a much better spin on what’s essentially the same task, being elected to office and held in the public trust by your peers. A country led by our most level-headed and rational youth of today will again be a good place for coming generations to grow up in.
Unfortunately in Baltimore City we have no real farm team for Republicans.