2010 advice

Clark Judge offers up ten tips in the Wall Street Journal for the GOP if they want to take back Congress this fall. While all the points are good, these three particularly resonated with me:

7) Fight for spending cuts now. The congressional GOP's nearly united front against the stimulus bill and complete unity against the health-care overhaul were good initial steps. More is needed. The GOP should resist increases in domestic spending on every parliamentary front. Great gestures matter. As part of this resistance, Republicans should renounce earmarks. They shouldn't wait for Democrats to go along. The House and Senate GOP caucuses should walk away from earmarks, leaving Democrats alone to defend this symbol of D.C.'s degeneracy.

6) For the midterm election, unite around a clear agenda of repeal. The party should give its candidates a list of programs and spending that will be up for cancellation the hour a Republican Congress is sworn in. At the top of the list should be the Troubled Asset Relief Program, unspent stimulus funds, and the health-care overhaul.

5) Add in an agenda of market-freeing reforms in health care, energy, environmental and education policy. Scholarly centers such as the Hoover Institution, the Pacific Research Institute, and the Manhattan Institute have developed market-freeing solutions to health inflation, energy dependence, real and immediate environmental challenges, and education quality. Reform for congressional Democrats means more spending and more mandates. After the health-care debate the nation has rejected that 1930s-style model. The new model's time has come.

Also note the issues Clark doesn't mention: terrorism or pretty much any social issue. Republicans need to go beyond criticism of the Democratic agenda and begin articulating an alternative vision based on limited government and the free market if voters are to believe they are anything more than just mere opportunists.

Update: Rep. Tom Price, chairman of the Republican Study Committee, on how the GOP can get its mojo back.