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Conservatives contemplate Obama presidency Wednesday, Jun 18, 2008 By David J. Sanders The conversation began like this: "Before President Reagan, there was President Carter." Such were the musings following the state GOP fundraiser Friday night. An impromptu gathering of Republican Party types, GOP state lawmakers, and a handful of conviction-driven conservatives pondered the election of Ronald Reagan and what it might tell us about 2008. Would Reagan, the conservative, have become president if Ford, the moderate, had defeated Carter, a man whose incompetence helped pave the way for the Gipper? They asked themselves whether, in the long run, if a hostile President Obama or an off-the-reservation President McCain poses the greatest threat to the country and, by extension, conservatism. Many conservatives, including some of those around our table, felt strongly that McCain would be willing to cave on domestic policy in order to get his way on foreign policy. This possible reality was accentuated by the grim truth that, in all likelihood, a President McCain would face off against a very liberal Democratic Congress. Were McCain the type of president whose first instinct would be to draw clear ideological lines instead of blurring them by "reaching across the partisan aisle," this wouldn't necessarily be all bad. But McCain already believes in policies virtually guaranteed to put leg-irons on an already shackled economy. He is eager to extend the regulatory arm of the federal government by pushing new policies on corporate governance and for a so-called "cap and trade" system aimed at curbing the nation's carbon output. Both policies would pit conservative Republicans against their president. Sure, he claims he would appoint strict constructionists to the U.S. Supreme Court, but his reluctance in 2005 to allow Senate Republicans to draw the line in the sand to force Democrats to vote on conservative judges doesn't inspire confidence. And in those days Republicans, numerically, were in a much stronger position. Our group (including the party types) agreed that a McCain presidency could easily result in four years of damaging polices for the country and cause conservatives (either willingly or unwillingly) to abandon the Republican Party, creating huge openings for Democratic gains in both 2010 and 2012. Facing those prospects, would a President Obama really be as bad as some think? Obama believes his own rhetoric. He would no doubt persuade himself that his election is a mandate to pursue a complete government takeover of the nation's healthcare system, the largest tax increase in history, economically destructive environmental policies, and liberal social policies aimed at remaking cultural norms. But, from the outset, Obama would face opposition from a significant number of moderate Democratic members of Congress unwilling to embrace his leftist agenda out of fear for their own re-election. They would be joined by Republicans who, bolstered by the belief that the U.S. shouldn't become a European-style socialist republic, will be ready to do whatever it takes to stop bad policies from becoming law. Some in the group reasoned that Obama would get a few, at most three, appointments to the Supreme Court, but those appointments would most likely result in liberals replacing liberals. Thus there isn't a huge risk that the Roberts Court would become more ideologically liberal. And wouldn't voters, who are supposedly ready for "change" this year in time, develop buyer's remorse as Obama tries to push the country down a leftward path? It's conceivable that the electorate would desire a more conservative course in future elections. The party types among us were afraid that a President Obama couldn't be stopped if elected. But if they really believed that Obama is running for Carter's second term, as McCain argues, wouldn't voters wise-up as they did after Carter's first? ------- David Sanders writes twice weekly for the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock and is a host of the Arkansas Education Television Network's "Unconventional Wisdom." His e-mail address is DavidJSanders@aol.com. |
