If one were to take the triumphalism of self-declared moderates and liberals at face value, one would have to conclude that the 2008 election represented a serious defeat for conservative ideas. Some have even gone so far as to suggest jettisoning everyone from supports of James Dobson, to anyone remotely inspired by Milton Friedman or F.A. Hayek. The problem is naturally not with "moderate" and pragmatic Republicans like McCain, Pawlenty or the wolves in sheep's clothing that dominate ostensibly conservative media outlets.

Yet, consider the actual governance of the last eight years. What, precisely, was so "conservative" about it? Despite superficial defenses of traditional marriage and limiting some aspects of abortion and embryonic stem cell research policy, the last eight years were almost entirely a wash for social conservatives on social issues.

On matters of domestic spending, the Republicans expanded Medicare, treated American farmers to a taste of Europe through their farm subsidies package, turned earmarking into a never ending Christmas Day for lobbyists and tried to solve middle class financial problems by redistributing money upward to rich investors and bankers. It's not hard to see why accusations of Socialism against Obama ring hollow.

It's also particularly hard to see where the Republicans respected their limited government base on matters related to police powers, surveillance and the growth of the security bureaucracy. Was it in the passage of the USA PATRIOT Act, the creation of the Transportation Security Administration, Military Commissions Act, the brutal assault on the Writ of Habeus Corpus on American soil or the various wink-and-nod surveillance programs run by the intelligence community? It must be in there somewhere, since it's apparently common knowledge that conservatism reigned supreme these last eight years.

Then, there is the issue of Iraq. The Republicans must have been showing off their conservative bona fides when they dismissed senior military men for having the audacity to suggest that men like Paul Wolfowitz were not exactly qualified to plan an invasion of a foreign country, and that the troop levels being discussed were insufficient. That they allowed petulant malcontents like Muqtaba Al-Sadr to operate with impunity only adds insult to injury. One might say that on this issue, one of the biggest ones of the day, the Republicans truly managed to transcend ideology, even if through a combination of incompetence, arrogance and cronyism.

Going into the 2008 elections, the Republicans chose a man whose reputation among the base was that of someone who could be relied upon to not represent their values. Far from costing him the Presidency, Palin was the only reason that McCain didn't go down in flames with the Republican Party. There was a very good reason that Palin's name often ended up getting featured above McCain's--the RNC wanted its base to forget that she was merely the Vice Presidential candidate!

The Republican Party was routed in the 2008 election because it set itself up for a checkmate. First, it alienated its traditional base. Then, it demolished its credibility and alleged principles with undecided voters through a combination of failing to lead according to conservative principles, and corruption.  Finally, it ran a man who was guaranteed to discourage the base from coming out to vote and not be able to stand as an attractive alternative to his opponent and his ideas for independent voters. There is no single cause of the Republican defeat, and no single explanation can do the 2008 defeat of the Republican Party the justice it so richly deserves.

If the Republicans are going to make a comeback, they must repent of the last eight years. Repentance is not just saying sorry, but changing one's behavior. A good start would be to chase the neoconservatives and other pragmatists from the party in a way reminiscent of Jesus and the moneychangers. These are the people who sacrificed principle for short-term political gains, and cost their party dearly..

For the Republicans to keep the scraps of power they still possess, they will need to reorganize around men like Jeff Flake, Eric Cantor and Ron Paul. Only by putting  people with strong conservative and libertarian credentials in positions of authority within their party can the Republicans rebuild their base and expand outward.

What most voters really want is prosperity and peace, and conservatism and libertarianism, working together, are well-suited to deliver those things.  The tension and complementary energy between them provides the right balance to achieve principled policy without being blindly dogmatic. It's only by having a consistent vision that respects the liberty of the public, that promotes entrepreneurial activity, and that takes a hard-headed assessment of what the government can actually do to make the country safer, that the Republicans will ever win again.

In the next two years, the Republicans will reveal to the public whether or not they are sufficiently repentant to be given another chance. Pray that they do because 2012 is otherwise shaping up to be a historic race to the bottom if they don't.