The dust is settling on the 2022 election.  The "red wave" did not materialize, and the GOP is selecting its leaders for the next cycle.  The conservative base is disappointed with the outcomes of the last few election cycles and are feeling it in higher commodity prices, mortgages, and credit card interest rates, and the ever-rising tide of progressivism.  The usual suspects (Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, and Ronna McDaniel) are seeking to once again secure their sinecures.

These are times that try conservatives' souls, and it is time to make major changes, starting with GOP leadership.  On May 7, 1940, British M.P. Leo Amery delivered a magnificent speech to House of Commons following the failure of the U.K.'s Norway campaign in WWII.  There are many lessons that the conservative movement can adapt as a path to success.  As Amery said: "We cannot go on as we are.  There must be change."  Adapting Leo Amery's words:

First and foremost, it must be a change in the system and structure of the GOP machine.  This is war, not peace.  The essence of peacetime democratic government is discussion, conference and agreement.  The main aim is agreement, the widest possible measure of agreement.  To secure that it is necessary to compromise, to postpone, to rediscuss.  Under those conditions, there are no far-reaching plans for sudden action.  The recent efforts of Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) on gun control and Senator Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) on illegal alien amnesty and a path to citizenship illustrate how out of touch GOP elected officials are with the base.

As long as the present methods prevail, all our work and all our resources are not going to see us through.  Above all, so long as they prevail, time is not going to be on our side, because these are methods that, inevitably and inherently, waste time and weaken decisions.

Somehow or other, we must get into the GOP candidates who can match our enemies in fighting spirit, in daring, in resolution, and in thirst for victory.  We must get candidates of a spirit that are likely to go as far as they will go, or we will be beaten still.  Lee Zeldin is a prototype of that candidate.

It may not be easy to find these candidates.  They can be found only by trial and by ruthlessly discarding all who fail and have their failing discovered.  We are fighting today for our life, for our liberty, for our all; we cannot go on being led as we are.  The words of Oliver Cromwell must be delivered to the current GOP leadership, as they are no longer fit to conduct the affairs of the party and conservative movement:

You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing.  Depart, I say, and let us have done with you.  In the name of God, go.

Image: Public Domain.