I know we are still a long way from the 2008 election, but there is a noticeable dearth of conservative candidates for President.
In the 2000 cycle, there were several candidates that could make a credible case for conservative support. Steve Forbes, Gary Bauer, even George Bush, had solid conservative credentials, and could make a case for conservative support. Forbes and Bauer had no governmental record, but had solid backgrounds in the movement, Bush governed Texas as a conservative, and conservatives in Texas said great things about his time as Governor. While his record as President hasn’t been perfect (he did not reign in the free spending Republican Congress, and he has been horrible on illegal immigration), he has, by and large, governed as a conservative. Tax cuts, judges, solid on life and guns, all commend his conservative credentials. Now if he would only veto those Democrat spending bills, he might restore the public’s confidence in the Republican Party as the party of small government.
Now some may complain that I am not the perfect measure of a conservative that only supports conservatives (although I can make my case in each of my endorsements were best for the movement at the time they were made), no one can claim that any of the candidates currently mentioned as credible presidential hopefuls have any conservative credentials.
Yes–National Review and The Weekly Standard tried to pump up Mitt Romney, but can anyone say "Pay or Play" for health insurance. No matter how you cut it, whether it is imposed on the individual or on the employer, pay or play requires someone to pay increased taxes, and increases government control over the provision and financing of health care. That is not a conservative, small government solution, no matter how "pragmatic" a solution it might be.
And Giuliani and McCain have been the anti-conservatives, going out of their way to criticize the conservative activists in the party. McCain has been consistently in favor of big government solutions to the issues confronting Washington, and while Giuliani was a 9/11 star, most of the rest of his time as Mayor in New York City was punctuated by traditional Northeastern Republicanism, that is, hanging out with rich donors at the local country club lamenting the existence of those coarse and uncouth conservatives. Why those extremists believe that we ought to stand for something in politics–how naive.
From 1932 to 1980, Washington Republicans were the party of big business, and were relegated to their well deserved minority status through much of that time. When Republicans became the party of less taxes, small government, freedom and family (which, by the way, also made their policies solutions helpful to business growth), they achieved a majority. They lost the majority when they stopped being the party of small government and less taxes. By 2006, many of the people who voted Republican became disgusted as Congressional Republicans in the House and Senate increased government spending and refused to cut taxes. The rank and file activists were upset at these Congressional leaders (and at Bush for his pro-illegal immigration stances), and showed their disgust at these leaders by depriving them of their jobs.
If the party makes the same mistake in the upcoming Presidential election, and nominates a candidate whose "pragmatism" overrides his or her principles, the Party will completely squander the revolution of 1994. I believe that history favors conservatives. As liberals fail to procreate, and conservatives raise their children as conservatives, the vote will shift toward Republicans over the next 30 years, unless Republicans abandon conservatism. We are in the midst of a major political realignment on the national level (California will catch up sometime), and Republicans are in the perfect position to exploit these national trends. They only lost at the national level this last year because they betrayed their promise to the rank and file conservatives. If no conservative arises in the Presidential race, Republicans will once again squander a golden opportunity. Will any conservative seize the moment, and lead the Party to the land of milk and honey? Or will we, as Republicans, spend another 40 years wandering in the wilderness?