{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.lee.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/op-eds?ContentRecord_id=c2ba0fdf-5d65-4196-9057-db94d8ba16af", "What's Next for Conservatives", "2013-11-12", "2013", "2013-11", "Republican", "House", "UT", "Mike Lee", "L000577", "www.lee.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "In the wake of the effort to defund Obamacare, conservatives around Washington and around the country are wondering, \u201cWhere do we go from here?\u201d In Washington, insiders say we must choose either to become simply an obstructionist, ideological rump, or moderate our views and submit to the establishment\u2019s leadership. These have always been Washington\u2019s acceptable versions of conservatism: marginalized or squishy. The challenge for conservatives today is to reject that false choice, and choose our own way forward: a way that is at once principled, positive, and confident. Anti-establishment conservatives and libertarians don\u2019t have to choose between being revolutionaries or reformers \u2013 history says we ought to be both. After all, it was Ronald Reagan who authored the famous \u201c11th Commandment\u201d (\u201cThou shalt not speak ill of another Republican.\u201d) and also primaried a sitting president of his own party. There is nothing inconsistent between support for competitive Republican primaries, and for a unifying, inclusive, positive, ideas-based politics. There is nothing that prevents us from fighting to the last breath to repeal Obamacare, for example, while simultaneously developing the policies we want to replace it with. Calvin Coolidge was right when he said it was more important to stop bad laws than pass good ones \u2013 but his own place in history was confirmed by what his administration did \u2013 cut taxes, reformed the budget, spurred tremendous economic growth \u2013 not what it didn\u2019t do. Indeed, putting the two together \u2013 having both the courage of our convictions as well as the policies of our convictions \u2013 is what real conservative leadership has always looked like. Reagan refused to accept the media\u2019s narrative about Republicans \u2013 that you have to either be a \u201cthoughtful,\u201d \u201cserious\u201d centrist, or a reckless, ignorant conservative. That\u2019s why he was successful, and the Left hated him for it. But Reagan\u2019s victory was not just about his sunny personality. In the years between Reagan\u2019s 1976 primary defeat and his 1980 victory, he and conservatives around the country went about the hard, heroic work of remaking the Republican Party, preparing it \u2013 politically and substantively \u2013 for new generation of conservative leadership. Grassroots conservatives in that era infused the G.O.P. with new energy that put the liberal Old Guard on notice, and took over state parties from the discredited Nixon/Ford establishment. Meanwhile, conservative and libertarian intellectuals and elected officials \u2013 people like Jack Kemp, James Buckley, Milton Friedman, Antonin Scalia, and Irving Kristol, and most of all, Reagan himself \u2013 developed a whole new reform agenda that modernized and redefined conservatism and the Republican Party. Peace through strength replaced d\u00e9tente. Supply-side economics replaced \u201cgreen eye-shade\u201d budgeting. Originalism replaced the \u201cliving constitution.\u201d Pro-life replaced pro-Roe v. Wade. The establishment of that time was not moderate \u2013 they were outright liberals. And conservatives defeated them, outright, by translating \u201canti-establishment\u201d into \u201cpro-reform.\u201d Today, as in Reagan\u2019s generation, conservatives must reapply our core conservative principles to fit the challenges of our time. We need to be aggressively pro-reform and show Americans we have alternatives \u2013 superior alternatives \u2013 to unaffordable and unfair big government. Specifically, and most especially, this new conservative agenda must speak to the challenges and aspirations of those Americans too often ignored by both parties: the poor and middle class families and communities that big government is leaving behind. As it did in the late 1970s, history is once again inviting conservatives to lead. After Reagan\u2019s loss in 1976, conservatives didn\u2019t simply start a \u201ccivil war\u201d \u2013 they started a civil debate. And once they chose to lead with their ideas, the establishment never had a chance. If conservatives want to build a new, principled Republican Party, we are first going to have to build a new, principled conservative agenda. We know we are going to have to reform the tax code, the budget, the welfare system, eliminate corporate welfare and cronyism, and much else: but how? Consultants and insiders say this isn\u2019t the time \u2013 for now we should just hammer away at the president. But Barack Obama is never going to be on another ballot. To enact the reforms all conservatives know we need, we need to win more than elections \u2013 we need to win a mandate. To gain the political and moral authority to do what we need to do, conservatives have to put our ideas before the people, and ask for their support. And, as constitutionalists, and small-\u201cr\u201d republicans, we shouldn\u2019t want it any other way. If we mean to save the Republican Party and rescue American exceptionalism, conservatives today have to do more than fight the good fight \u2013 we have to win the Great Debate. I can\u2019t speak for all conservatives, but all conservatives should know, that\u2019s where I\u2019m going from here.\r\nOriginally published in RedState: What's Next for Conservatives", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.lee.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/op-eds?ContentRecord_id=c2ba0fdf-5d65-4196-9057-db94d8ba16af"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.073275925591588, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}