By Philip Klein on 11.6.08 @ 4:14PM
A report from Thursday's gathering of conservative leaders in the
Virginia countryside on the future of the movement.
About two-dozen conservative leaders met today at the Stanley,
Virginia home of Media Research Center President Brent Bozell in
the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains to discuss conservatism's
future in the wake of Tuesday's election results.
TAS Publisher Al Regnery and editor in chief R. Emmett
Tyrrell were on hand, along with leaders from policy groups and
grassroots organizations representing each pillar of the
conservative coalition, from Christian conservatives to
libertarians, and everybody in between.
"As the afternoon went on, it didn't take long for attendees to
become resolute in their resistance to moderates and to the
opinion that the conservative movement will become the opposition
to Obama," Tyrrell said.
One attendee said, "We're no longer going to support Republicans
who want to 'improve' a bad bill. We're going to oppose all bad
bills."
Morton Blackwell of the Leadership Institute, Grover Norquist of
Americans for Tax Reform, Tony Perkins of the Family Research
Council, Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society, pollster
Kellyanne Conway, and direct mail guru Richard Viguerie were
among those present.
The meeting began at 11 this morning and adjourned at around 4
p.m.
There's a strong feeling, Tyrrell said, that social
conservatives, free market conservatives, and national security
conservatives will all be able to work together.
He also said that "there's a sense that the Republicans on
Capitol Hill are freer of wobbly-kneed Republicans than they were
before the election."
Regnery said, "The consensus was that this was not a mandate for
Democrats, that this country is still center-right. The
overriding fear was that the Republican Party does not represent
conservatives," and there was a desire to get behind genuinely
conservative candidates.
Much of the discussion focused on taxes, spending, judges, values
issues and how libertarians and social conservatives could work
together.
Looking back at the campaign, they felt that John McCain wasn't
really a conservative, and that Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber
were the two best things that happened because of the way they
connected with people.
Although polls show that "conservative" is a more popular word
than "Republican," it turns out that "Democrat" is a more popular
description than "liberal," and the sentiment was that tougher
language needed to be used to define Barack Obama and other
Democrats as liberals.
Regnery thought it was significant that "two days after the
election, conservative leaders took the day off in order to start
the process of putting together an agenda for where we go in a
couple of years."
In the coming months, there will be follow-up gatherings in
different locations to chart the path forward.
