This discussion is happening all over the conservative movement today.  What went wrong and how can we fix it?  The common consensus is that Republicans failed to hold to their values but just what are those values?  There seems to be a growing disconnect between what it means to be a conservative and a Republican.  THAT I believe is the root problem.  The general electorate considers the Republican party to be the conservative party.  We’re supposed to be the adults everyone looks to when the crap hits the fan.  Yet the result of looking to us, especially after 9/11, has shown much of the Republican leadership to be completely void of any conviction or principles.

Charles Johnson asks the thought provoking question, and one I’ve argued privately today with friends both liberal and conservative, Should the GOP Double Down on Social Conservatism?

If the GOP decides to go in the Bobby Jindal direction (fundamental Christianity, creationism, hard-line anti-abortionism, aggressively anti-gay rights), it will be committing political suicide. As much as anything else, this election was a referendum on the social conservative agenda, and the social conservatives did not win.

I believe Charles is both correct and incorrect at the same time.  The problem is that the only consistently conservative leg the Republicans have stood on over the last eight years is the social one.  They abandoned national security with the border and fiscal conservatism I’m not sure was ever a thought to some of them.

The reason I don’t dismiss social conservatism is that here in Florida the marriage amendment passed with 60% of the vote while Obama won by over 200,000 votes.  In this, Florida being one of the most accurate mirrors a single state can be of the country as a whole, demonstrates that people aren’t done with social conservatism by itself.  It still has a significant place in American life.

What Republicans need to do is be fearless proponents of all three facets of conservatism equally.  I feel the abandoning of fiscal conservatism however was the most damaging.  Most people will tolerate a social conservative side agenda, especially one driven by ballot initiatives not legislative initiatives, as long as the same folks are also true to their word on fiscal matters and the size of government.  They will even put up with a little bending on fiscal matters if its for the sake of national security.  They however will not tolerate you when you abandon both and only consistently push a social agenda.

So my advice to Republicans is go back to your roots.  Be principled proponents of small government, fiscal responsibility, national security, and social conservatism.  People want a balanced national budget.  The debt hitting 10 trillion scares the crap out of them and it should shame Republicans that it happened on their watch.  People want a secure border.  Physical wall, technological wall, they don’t care too much as long as there’s real security on our points of entry.  At the same time they absolutely want to share the American dream with every soul that wants to come here and make a new life.  Find a way to make both happen!

Most important though is trust.  Over the last eight years Republicans have squandered the public’s trust in them by not being who they said they were and who they were elected to be.  That will be the most difficult to regain.  It will be done by consistent stands on all conservative principles.