The American Spectator

President Bush’s amnesty for illegal aliens appears dead thanks to vocal opposition back home. Americans let their elected representatives know that they would not stand for such foolishness, and Congress got the message.

Conservatives have to do that on every other issue. It is not enough for pundits to write columns and National Review to pen scathing editorials. Grass-roots conservatives who used to make up the GOP’s most loyal base have to speak up, now. They have to tell Republicans what they want, not just complain to each other about the jerks who promised to govern conservatively and then didn’t.

At the same time, they have to make clear to non-conservatives that they do not stand behind the GOP’s recent governance. If Democrats do retake Congress, or even make significant gains, they will proclaim it a victory against conservatism. It would be no such thing. It would be a victory against lying, corruption, incompetence, and a blatant disrespect for the intelligence of the American voter. Conservatives have to separate their own message of responsible, frugal governance from what the Republicans have implemented, and they have to do it now.

THE AVERAGE AMERICAN VOTER must understand that there is another alternative method of governing — one that he supported only a dozen years ago. It might be too late to salvage the Republican wreckage before November, but as long as the public knows that conservative ideas still represent a promising and viable alternative to the current mess that the Republicans have made in Washington, there is hope for 2008. If the public becomes convinced that conservatism is synonymous with the policies of the past five years, the conservative movement could sink along with the GOP’s majority. And that truly would spell bad news for everyone for years to come.

A common refrain on America’s college campuses is that no one really knows that communism doesn’t work because true communism has never been tried. Of course, communism’s true believers will never accept that pogroms, famine and massive state repression lie at the very foundation of the ideology. The question for America is whether it believes that huge budget deficits, clumsy foreign policy and political corruption form the foundation of conservatism.

Conservatives need to show America what those goateed professors with portraits of Trotsky on their walls cannot show: that their program for the country should not be condemned because in truth it has never been tried, and if America wants good, responsible, frugal governance, real conservatism is the only option.