by Rod D. Martin
October 30, 2006

In case you were wondering whether we’re right that America now has a conservative majority, today’s CNN poll is especially telling.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A quarter century after the Reagan revolution and a dozen years after Republicans vaulted into control of Congress, a new CNN poll finds most Americans still agree with the bedrock conservative premise that, as the Gipper put it, “government is not the answer to our problems — government is the problem.”

The poll released Friday also showed that an overwhelming majority of Americans perceive, correctly, that the size and cost of government have gone up in the past four years, when Republicans have had a grip on the House of Representatives, the Senate and the White House.

CNN says “still”, but of course the truth is that this has been a steady progression over time, not merely in numbers but intensity. It is this which accounts for the current needless troubles Republican candidates are having: their base — which happens to be the majority of all Americans — sees them as the problem, not the solution.

Next Tuesday we’ll see how well they remember that Democrats are an even bigger problem. But Republicans have to get their act together. Without real, demonstrable shrinkage of government, they are going to look like losers and hypocrites — even when they aren’t — in perpetuity. They simply must get their house in order.

And beyond that, the rest of us can take hope: the conservative message has gotten through. All that’s left to do is make it law.

 

UPDATE:  So post-election, has anything changed?  Just one:  it is now crystal clear that Americans no longer trust either party to deliver what they want.  And that’s the true disaster for Republicans in 2006:  they have sold America on conservatism, but their leadership forgot to believe in it themselves.

Time for a house-cleaning.  Oh wait:  the voters just gave us one.