Sanford in 2012?
I needed a few days to flush my system clean.
Okay, maybe a little more than that.
John McCain lost this thing way before Tuesday. As such, I spent the better part of a month wondering how I’d feel on election night. Unsurprisingly, I felt proud, although to a greater extent than I thought was possible. As I have told many people, a man who would’ve had to sit at the back of the bus 50 years ago will now be appointing the person who oversees all the buses. This is monumental. This is greater than a milestone; this is a turning point in the history of our country. To all Americans, it is something that “should not escape us.”
The words in quotations were said by South Carolina’s own Mark Sanford of Obama’s significance given the history of our nation, and more specifically, the history of his state. It’s not the only thing we agree on.
While I plan on celebrating the president-elect’s historical achievement for the rest of my days, the loyal opposition has to get its house in order and go back to meat and potatoes. Many minds have offered many theories as to how the GOP can return itself to national prominence. Most of what I have heard, however, concerns a rightward shift on social policy. Because of this, I’m very concerned. Republicans have won elections because of “values” for the last eight years, and the run has officially reached its end. No, I’m not speaking of the “death of conservatism” or any such dramatic retrospective. Rather, I’m speaking of prioritization, a theme I will hit upon repeatedly in the coming years. What takes precedence: government spending or gay marriage; tax policy or flag burning; energy independence or, yes, abortion? It’s not like me to speak in such black-and-white terms, but I’m highlighting the real makeover that has to happen to the Republican Party — not so much a change in policy, but a change in what we talk about.
The elections for federal office my side have won in recent years have been won at the cost of utter division amognst us. We incensed half of the country when we subversively insinuated that those who were against the Iraq War were somehow “unpatriotic”. We tread dangerous ground when we dare reflect the views of one Rush Limbaugh, that the real religion of the godless left is liberalism. We have to stop actively campaigning against 49% of the country so the other 51% can rally behind us with great fervor. This is no longer the time for wedge issues; this is the time for “issues” period. Simply put, we have to start talking big.
We have to start formulating a long-term plan for our nation’s energy security. If we think global warming is a hoax, then we need to educate the country as to why we think as much. We need to corner big government and beat it like a rented mule, so our views on low taxes can actually become affordable. We need to talk health care and Social Security. We need to treat foreign policy as something that necessitates nuance, not knee-jerking. We can’t be afraid to talk shop on these things. Moreover, we have to put them at the forefront, because in order to recapture the votes we have lost, we have to start talking to the voters again. We cannot appeal to the morality that makes our blood boil and call it a strategy. We have to appeal to minds. We have to engage the opposition in what Limbaugh calls “the arena of ideas”.
And now, enter Mark Sanford. He can represent this effort better than anyone in the Republican Party. Here is a man who has displayed humility insofar as refusing his Congressional housing stipend when he served in the House. Here is a man who brought pigs to his office in Columbia to mock the free-wheelers in his state’s legislature. Here is a man who, time and time and time again, has stood firmly on principle. John McCain may think he is reform-minded, and perhaps he is, but as governor of a state whose budget was bloated when he took over, Sanford has had opportunities to shine that McCain never had. Not only is this man fearless, however. He is young and articulate — two things that, frankly, are sorely needed on the national stage given the party’s current reputation. He is very bright. He has a tremendous sense of history and perspective, often invoking the wisdom of the Founding Fathers in both his words and actions. And to be sure, he appears to be plenty acceptable to the socially conservative wing of the party. But unlike other candidates who may rise to the top in 2012, Sanford could be one that does not run on what he thinks about intelligent design and gay adoption. Call it callous, but he has bigger fish to fry. He has shown as much through his temperament and governance.
People rallied behind Barack Obama because he represented an “agent of change”. I would rally behind Mark Sanford because he has lived that change. In more ways than one, he’s right, he knows he is, and he’s not afraid to let everyone know about it. He’s utterly confident in the substance of the beliefs by which he governs. He thinks and he acts. For a party that has been successfully labeled a bunch of reactionary and dim-witted whack-jobs, that’s the sort of medicine we need to cure what ails us.
Thus, it is with much enthusiasm that I endorse Mark Sanford for the 2012 GOP nomination before he’s even announced he’s running. He may need to be convinced.
So I’m going to write him a letter.
