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How
Conservatives Win and Lose
Conservatives
are right to push an anti-tax agenda for Virginia.
But it's a mistake to appear negative and
vindictive.
Grover
Norquist, the head of Americans for Tax Reform, came
to Richmond
recently to hold a press conference to announce a
campaign against 34 members of the General Assembly
who voted to increase state taxes this year.
He brought along a Least Wanted poster
displaying a picture of each of the targeted
Virginia
legislators who, he said, would be hunted down until
each either retires or is defeated.
The
press conference stirred up controversy, even among
conservatives. It
also prompted a quick response from a spokesman for
Virginia Attorney General
Jerry Kilgore, who called on Norquist to stay out of the fight in
Virginia
and questioned the timing of the press conference
about 2005 campaigns during the 2004 presidential
campaign.
Numerous
conservative leaders in Virginia
privately expressed the same concerns.
They continue to be upset about the pro-tax
votes of legislators who had campaigned as tax
opponents, but they are uncomfortable with
Norquist’s timing and tone.
To
win future political battles, conservatives can’t
afford this division.
At the same time, Kilgore has no prospect of
winning the gubernatorial contest next year if he
isn’t perceived as a dependable conservative.
Ask Mark Earley.
Judging
from the formal resolutions adopted by the state
central committee and most of the local committees
of the Republican Party of Virginia opposing the
2004 tax increase, conservatives continue to control
the state GOP. Kilgore
can’t take them for granted, as his spokesman’s
comments about supporting all GOP incumbents led
many of them to assume he does.
History
should teach Virginia Republicans to avoid
unnecessary internal conflicts.
It should teach conservatives not to allow
themselves to be seen as harsh and vindictive.
A
fight over taxes is not one of those unnecessary
conflicts. It
is inevitable and potentially good for the GOP.
No party has the energy to win or to govern
if its agenda amounts to the lowest common
denominator of policy positions.
The divide within the GOP over tax policy is
so wide that it can’t be bridged.
For
conservatives to win, they must not only be
energized, but also wise.
Simply attacking and threatening isn’t a
winning formula.
At
its best, politics is more than a battle between
grubby interests. It’s
about more than ambitious politicians and attack
ads. It’s
how voters can choose the direction they want their
government to take and not simply a process of
deciding who holds power or who gets what.
Ronald
Reagan was a successful leader precisely because he
understood that the first assignment of a leader is
to lay out where he wants to go, not to disparage
his opponents. He
consistently offered voters a positive vision for
America
’s future that overshadowed anything negative he
said about his opponents.
Conservative
leaders often forget that lesson.
They fail to appreciate the fact that the
task of persuasion is a never-ending challenge.
Perhaps, these leaders are so convinced of
the correctitude of their position that they assume
others naturally agree with them.
That’s a dangerous assumption.
Conservatives
must never forget the public relations disaster of
November, 1995, when then Speaker Newt Gingrich and
the new GOP majority in the U.S. House of
Representatives shut down the federal government.
Public opinion turned sharply against
Gingrich and the GOP primarily because they appeared
harsh, arrogant and unyielding.
The
key for conservatives is to be principled and
constant, but never harsh and arrogant.
Norquist was with Gingrich in 1995.
He, more than anyone, should understand that
lesson.
--
October 4,
2004
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