Republicans can win by being more conservative and less stupid

Raul Labrador made headlines last week when he raised the specter of House Speaker John Boehner losing his gavel.

Was the two-term Idaho Republican threatening to run against Boehner? Labrador received one vote for speaker last year, cast by liberty movement leading light Justin Amash.

Lost in all the Washington palace intrigue was a truly important observation. Labrador asked about his party’s budget kabuki theater, “The problem is: If we’re not going to fight for them, why are we even going through the ruse of seeming to fight for something?”

Then Labrador answered his own question, telling CQ/Roll Call Republicans “love to lose.”

Republicans, the party of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan’s 49-state landslides, love to lose? The party that repeatedly nominates the presidential candidate that is most familiar and perceived to be most electable?

But Labrador has a point. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Republicans stake out a bold position on some controversial issue. They pledge to stand and fight—“no pale pastels,” as they used to say in the Reagan era—no matter the consequences.

Maybe they shut down the government. Maybe they impeach the president. Most often, they just promise to stop some costly federal boondoggle in its tracks before the taxpayers are forced to foot the bill.

This goes on for a little while, as the media tells everyone the Republicans are mean. Then, like clockwork, the following pattern unfolds. The Republicans anger and inflame the Democrats by daring to behave as if they have constituents too. Then they alienate the conflict-averse independents, who just want everyone to get along.

Then, finally, they cave, demoralizing the conservatives who are their remaining supporters.

George W. Bush used to brag about being a “uniter, not a divider.” Republicans often unite America in the same way Bush did—by uniting America against the Republican Party.

The bad politics would be excusable if it achieved good policy. Instead, as Tony Soprano’s mother used to say, “It’s all a big nothing.”

Yet even this pattern of confrontation followed by capitulation is preferable to the Gandhian passive resistance practiced by Republicans when they thought of themselves as Washington’s permanent minority party. Well, that’s only half-right. These Republicans were passive, but didn’t offer much resistance.

These Republicans weren’t just losers. They didn’t even play the game, unless the game is defined as dining from someone like Tip O’Neill’s table scraps.

Both these tendencies are still at work in the Republican Party today. One that is addicted to futile battles, imaging every political dispute to be like the scene in Braveheart where William Wallace is hanged, drawn and quartered, refusing to beg for mercy as he is being tortured to death. The other that says civility trumps principle, speak politely and give the D.C. establishment whatever it wants.

And both these tendencies can be admirable. Sometimes lost causes are the ones most worth fighting for. Other times, discretion is the better part of valor.

Too often, however, we end up with Republicans who for one reason or another luxuriate in their own marginalization. As Bob Seger sang in “Beautiful Loser,” “He’s always willing to be second-best/A perfect lodger, a perfect guest.”

Even Charlie Sheen can tell you what’s better than losing. It’s called winning.

Several Republican primaries this year will re-fight last fall’s anti-Obamacare strategy. Should the GOP listen to talk radio—or the New York Times editorial page, etc.? All while Obamacare is collapsing all around us?

Imagine if congressional Republicans neither asked their voters to wait patiently for the next election nor promised things they couldn’t deliver. What if Republicans did something that achieved the same practical near-term result as defunding but used a word and tactic that polled better—and not just as a last-ditch effort after the polls went south, but as Plan A.

They could have still been the party that tried to protect the American people from Obamacare, without any budget distractions. Best yet, as evidenced by the fact the Obama administration still keeps delaying the least convenient parts of Obamacare, it’s still a live issue today.

Whether it’s the farm bill, the Ryan-Murray budget plan or the reported debt ceiling deal that would increase spending and trade away past cuts, grassroots conservatives are as fed up with what the party bosses are offering as the most fervent liberal.

Most of all, the millions of Americans who vote Republican are tired of losing even when they win.

With apologies to Janis Joplin, freedom’s not another word for nothing left to lose.