Midterm Soul-Searching Should Start With a Return to First Principles

The genius of the American system is its dynamism and responsiveness to voters. Like all fellow conservatives, I of course hoped that the country would vote to keep Congress in the hands of conservatives – but the American people made it very clear that they were not happy with the status quo. The American people are demanding more opportunity, and we must heed those demands.

Unfortunately, there is no reason to believe that a Democrat majority will be able to deliver on their promises to lower costs and improve standards of living. In fact, they will almost certainly make those problems worse by implementing the far-Left policies favored by the incoming class of DSA-aligned Democrats. They will increase the tax burden on hardworking Americans; strangle domestic energy and drive up gas prices permanently; push us closer to the edge of the fiscal cliff; attack our constitutional order; and return to the open-borders chaos of the Biden years.

As with any electoral defeat, it is critical to learn the right lessons, and not console ourselves with comforting fictions. The best place to start is by returning to first principles.

Restoring our majority will depend upon persuading voters that common sense, conservative values deliver the best outcomes for all Americans. However, a sizable portion of our movement has become fixated on Big Government projects that bear little resemblance to actual conservatism; or have abandoned the Constitution for the sake of convenience or cheap demagoguery; or want to relinquish our position as world leader in favor of short-sighted isolationism.

Without core pillars undergirding a consensus view of conservatism, the term loses all meaning. President Reagan understood this well, which is why his “three-legged stool” model – uniting fiscal conservatives, social conservatives, and foreign policy hawks – proved so successful.

Conservatives cannot claim to be the best stewards of the economy while ignoring America’s unprecedented deficit. We cannot deliver a prosperity agenda and drive down costs while inadvertently punishing businesses and consumers through protectionism. And we must have a clear and consistent foreign policy strategy that restores deterrence, nurtures critical alliances like NATO and Israel, and bolsters our position as leader of the Free World. We cannot hope to triumph over the forces arrayed against Western Civilization if we turn our backs on the very values that make this country great.

Elections come and go, but I’m bullish on America’s prospects – provided we don’t talk ourselves out of the American idea. Whether on the extreme Right or the socialist Left, political figures who attack the entire premise of the American idea pose a far greater threat to this country than anything Xi Jinping can throw our way. Abandoning the foundational principles that have kept this country safe, free, and prosperous is the surest path to moral and political wilderness.

In the Virginia Declaration of Rights (a forerunner of the Declaration of Independence), George Mason wisely observed: “That no free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue, and by frequent recurrence to fundamental principles.” No political lesson can be learned without returning to those core values that make America possible; values that are absolutely inseparable from American conservatism itself. As we navigate the choppy political waters ahead, this will be our surest compass.