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We have been here before and we can learn from how we recovered after the Goldwater defeat of 1964, the Watergate election of 1974, the Jimmy Carter election in 1976, and the Bill Clinton election of 1992 that gave Democrats the White House and Congress. The establishment left explained that the GOP and conservatism were finished and that we “must” move to the left. We passed on this helpful advice and created the Reagan Republican Party based not on the man but on the principles of limited government, lower taxes, less government spending and regulation, and a strong national defense. Back in 1964, 1974, and 1976 we had a theory that such a movement could be successful politically and in governing. Today we know that a Reaganite campaign can win. We have won four presidential campaigns with this tested approach: 1980, 1984, 1988, and 2000. In two of those cases the candidate who ran as a Reagan Republican did not always so govern.

Now we must do triage. The Republican minorities in the House and Senate cannot stop every bad piece of legislation. But those bills that would change the correlation of forces, such as abolishing secret ballots for unionization, the Fairness Doctrine that would outlaw conservative talk radio, or changes that facilitate increased voter fraud such as national same-day registration, must be filibustered and stopped. If we demand that all bad bills be filibustered, our senators will eventually tire or break and be overrun. There must be a selective line in the sand against permanent damage to our team.

The second group of bills are bad ideas that do damage that can be repaired. Overspending. Tax hikes. The important point is to oppose those bills and vote against them--not try to improve them so that an 80-percent really bad bill passes with Republican fingerprints all over it. We have two recent models. In 1990 President Bush and too many Republican congressmen and senators went to Andrews Air Force base and agreed on a tax hike to fund increased spending. We lost the presidency two years later. In 1993 Republicans refused to provide a single vote for the Clinton tax hike and Republicans captured the House and Senate the following year.

Lastly, there are nonpartisan ideas such as transparency in government that can safely be supported and highlighted, so we are not seen as always obstructionist.

Grover G. Norquist is president of Americans for Tax Reform and the author of Leave Us Alone: Getting the Government’s Hands Off Our Money, Our Guns, Our Lives (William Morrow).

Mark Sanford

Though I have many thoughts on the election, I will limit mine to what the Bible talks about in taking the log out of one’s own eye before worrying about the splinter in the eye of another. The “other” in this case is represented by Democratic wins and the election of Barack Obama. It was a historic night, and the election of the first black president is a great commentary on opportunity and where we have come as a country. I wish him well.

Going back to the log in our party’s eye, the election was not a repudiation of conservative ideals. It was a repudiation of a party that had come to stand for surprisingly little. In some ways Ted Stevens personifies what went wrong, as he did not stand for conservative principals, and accordingly the party’s problems were far broader than even the presidential race.

Republicans have campaigned on the conservative themes of lower taxes, less government, and more freedom--they just haven’t governed that way. Words not matching deeds can be a deadly formula in the world of politics.

So during our “time in the wilderness” it’s my hope that we go back to the basics of conservatism. In the business world, a political party is a lot like a brand. The thing that unites Caterpillar or John Deere customers is the way in which those products consistently walk the walk in delivering on what they advertise. We need to get back to the knitting of what I believe made this country and party great--a common sense conservative approach. Though they have engineering expertise, when Cat or Deere run into problems they don’t suggest making airplanes and cars as part of the solution.

Accountability will be important too. Rank-and-file Republicans indeed know what they’re about, but I’m often struck by the conflicting actions of office-holders. Chick-fil-A does not say to its franchisees, “However you want to cook the sandwiches is cool with me.” They are precise in what they expect, and it’s my hope going forward that more conservatives in all corners of America will be equally precise and exacting in making sure their views are reflected by the party that supposedly represents them.

The time before us will prove to be a great opportunity in righting the party--if we take it.

Mark Sanford is the governor of South Carolina.

Richard Viguerie

So much for “compassionate conservatism”--or, as it’s more accurately known, Big-Government Republicanism.