"Stay Home, Republicans (Please)"

I’ve heard enough recent news reports to get the general prediction for the upcoming election. According to Democrats, United States voters are fed up with the war in Iraq, the war against terrorism, Mark Foley, President Bush, Republicans in general, and losing our right to privacy via domestic surveillance. They and the talking heads make strong assertions that the Republican/conservative base is disillusioned and will probably sit this election out, thus ensuring the already inevitable conquest of Congress by the Democratic Party.

Per standard operating procedure, the Democrats are covering up their lack of an original message with the typical reactionary blurbs: The country needs a new direction; The American voters want change; We need a fresh start; add your own similar, vapid claim here.

Their lack of a stated plan doesn’t concern me. That merely bores me. What concerns me is the unstated goals that are real nonetheless. Should the Democrats gain control of both Houses of Congress and, eventually, the Presidency, they will implement many changes to which I would strenuously object.

Many if not all of Bush’s tax cuts will be repealed. More pro-abortion policies will be implemented. More judicial seats will be filled with activists. More social engineering legislation will be passed. Our troops, if allowed to remain at all, will be given peacekeeping duties only in Afghanistan and Iraq and may even be forced to relinquish their weapons. Domestic and foreign intelligence operations will be severely scaled back. The United States will take a subservient role to the United Nations. Border security will be weakened. Voting restrictions will be lowered. The Fairness Doctrine will be implemented. Terrorism will be treated as a criminal offense again, and pursuit and prosecution of terrorists will drag to a halt.

Most of this is a pipe dream unlikely to be realized due to the tendency of the dominant party to fragment into bickering factions. I can only hope this is the case should the Democrats actually win. A greater hope is that the mainstream media is merely passing off the Democratic dreams as predictions with a factual basis, and that conservatives will sweep this election cycle.

Regardless of how accurate any of these stated hopes or dreams may prove to be, conservatives must show up and vote even if it means holding your nose while pulling the levers. Our options are very limited. If we vote, we stand a very real chance of facing disappointments in those we elect. If we don’t vote, our disappointment is assured and our country, this country in which we have invested our hopes and lives, will face assault from without and within by the very people entrusted to protect it.