LIKE MANY conservatives, I was disappointed but not surprised by the outcome of last Tuesday’s election. I had held onto scraps of hope going into the night, but ended up watching state after state turn blue. The only positive outcome was that instead of waiting until 2:00 AM for the results as happened in 2004 (or a month, as in 2000), I was able to hit the hay relatively early, just after the concession and victory speeches. Around 9:00 PM, I started to wrestle with the question of how to appropriately react to the Obama victory as a conservative. The answer is that conservatives ought to support him where he needs to be supported, oppose him when necessary, and to treat him with the appropriate presidential respect.
Much of the conservative discourse has called for the party to get back to its roots, arguing that an uber-liberal government headed by Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi should force conservatives to react to the free-spending aspects of the George Bush era. The other option, conservative pundits argue, is for conservatives to compromise some values for the sake of convenience, and that this will ultimately hurt the party and the country
This might well be true, and there are certainly many areas where conservatives will have to take a stand. These might include military spending, where leading Democrats, such as Rep. Barney Frank, have insinuated that they will seek as much as a 25 percent cut in defense spending. It might include tax policies, where the expiration of the Bush tax cuts will automatically raise taxes without Obama or Congress even lifting a finger.
Most importantly for social conservatives, it will in all likelihood require opposition to judicial nominees. Obama will likely have the opportunity to replace at least two current Supreme Court justices in his first term, with the probability of that number rising to three or four increasing greatly if he were to win a second term. Even on lower levels, Democrats have been delaying confirmation votes for many of President Bush’s judicial appointments. Obama will then have the opportunity to replace most of these nominees. While a nasty tactic, if presented with an extremely dangerous nominee — one of Obama’s empathetic, non-constructionist judges — it is one that conservatives will have to consider, and to use appropriately. Democrats have overused it during the Bush administration; this does not mean the Republicans should not use it, but rather that they should be judicious in its application. Fortunately, the Republicans managed to hang on to enough seats to filibuster if absolutely necessary, and to force the Democrats to govern with at least some need to seek consensus.
Where should conservatives support the new Democratic government? They should do so especially in our interaction with foreign nations. If one of the concerns regarding Barack Obama’s candidacy was his inexperience in dealing with hostile foreign leaders, then one way conservatives can help is by not undermining his foreign policies at home. This will help present a united front to our enemies, and hopefully discourage them from testing the inexperience of the new administration. No matter who is the president, we remain one nation. Foreign policy matters are neither Democratic nor Republican, but impact all of us equally. The responsibility of the Democrats is to seek as much consensus as possible, and that of the Republicans is to support them as much as possible,
The final responsibility of conservatives is to treat Obama with more respect than the Left has given his predecessor. While there is nothing wrong with supporting one candidate or party, the left has given President Bush nothing less than unbridled scorn. They have treated him with disdain for his initial election, for his lack of public intellectuality, for his religious leanings, even more so than for his policies. This is wrong, and now conservatives get a chance to take the higher road, to lead by example in giving a little honor back to the political system.
Conservatives may not like having a Democratic president, a House of Representatives with an 80 seat Democratic majority, and a Senate with a 17 seat Democratic lead. But that is our reality. We must choose how we deal with it, and we ought to choose to behave with honor, carefully choosing our partisan battles. We ought to support Obama when necessary to present a united front and oppose him when critical values are at stake, but always we ought to treat him with the respect our chief executive deserves.
Robby Colby’s column appears Thursdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at r.colby@cavalierdaily.com.
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