Greg Anrig rounds up to the top 12 conservative insights of 2008. Unsurprisingly, they're all self-flagellation, along the lines of David Frum saying, "Sarah Palin symbolizes a party that has decided that we just don't care about making the government work anymore." But I'd be more interested in seeing the forward-looking insights: What conservatives should do, rather than what they shouldn't do. But maybe there's no need for it. The RNC, after all, has started up a think tank "aimed at reviving the party's policy heft," which is sort of like Donald Trump promising to bring back the modesty and emotional empathy that has always been so crucial to his success. But This is the sort of thing that parties do after defeats. There was a lot of it among Democrats in 2004. Lot of soul-searching and hollow statements about a policy platform suitable for the "information age." Yet in 2006 and 2008, Democrats won, and won big, without any discernibly new ideas. They did not jettison their health care programs or throw gays under the bus or means test the safety net. The environment changed. Iraq looked worse. The economy got worse. The GOP majority grew more entrenched and corrupt. The electorate turned to the alternative. What Republicans want to do here is exert more control over their own fate, and that makes sense, but the reality of the situation is that they're in bad shape until the public sours on Democrats or the set of policy problems changes and emphasizes dilemmas that Republicans are more comfortable with (i.e, crime or a heavy tax burden). For the moment, though, their affirmative agenda is close to irrelevant. Their power is in obstruction, and their hope is in Democrats exhausting or overextending themselves. It's not the sort of thing any party likes to hear, but for the moment, their path to restoration is in the hands of the Democrats.
