Mar 08 2008
Time To Assess Our Failed Conservatism
Want to know why conservatism is on the rocks? I claim it is the purity wars where some claim superiority over all others, and emphasize their ‘true conservatism’ by calling their so-called allies names like ‘traitor’ and ‘RINO’. This all stems form the inability to lose one’s case with honor and maturity in a democracy. For example, this kind of crap is not going to unite the conservative coalition, nor is it a way to demonstrate stability and respect for allies who should be aligned to protect this nation and oppose the insanity of liberalism and the progressives:
The failure of the Bush presidency is the dominant fact of American politics today. It has driven every facet of Democratic political strategy since early 2006, when Democrats settled on the campaign themes that brought them their takeover of the House and Senate in November 2006. Nothing–not even the success of the American troop surge in Iraq–has altered or will alter the centrality of George W. Bush and his failed presidency to Democratic planning in the remainder of 2008.
Bush has not failed if you look at his results. From tax cuts to protecting the unborn embryo from being a lab experiment Bush has progressed conservatism quite far. The failure has been those on the right who are too impatient and too obsessed with one subject to admit the country is much better off after Bush than it would have been under Gore or Kerry.
Dems always will oppose Bush so what does it mater if they oppose him now? When did the GOP bow to the opinions of the left? It was those in the conservative coalition who stabbed Bush in the back (and now don’t have the self confidence to admit maybe they over reacted) that keeps Bush from being seen as the success he is. If the historic GOP voters rallied around Bush and said “good job, given all the challenges and forces aligned against you here and abroad” Bush’s ratings would be back above 50%. Won’t happen – it means admitting the hyperbole of the past was misguided, and few folks have the wisdom to admit error.
The failure of the conservative movement is not Bush – it is those who decided they would split the coalition because Bush could not wave a magic wand in a time of war and national threat and (a) stop all abortions or (b) deport all illegals or (c) stop the GOP Congress from over spending. And it is one whopper of a failure since it has led to the real chance Clinton or Obama are being seriously considered to run this country into the ground.
If you start with Bush as a failure you have lost me – I don’t care if it comes from liberals obsessed with surrendering to al-Qaeda instead of standing by our President or from Conservatives in Exile obsessed with diverting our security forces to track down nannies and gardeners. If Bush is a failure because he did not bow down to someone’s demands then that someone is just going to go into another fit of frustration as the nation ignores their personal views under the next President. Reality will never conform to their wishes which means they will always be in a fit of anger – which makes that person too dodgy to ally with or to worry about. Which makes them the failure – not Bush who did change reality and make this country and world a better place.
Addendum: Just wanted to add one last point. If anyone thinks admitting the Dems were right and that Bush was failure will help McCain or any conservative win is seriously misguided. It is admitting Dems are right that gets Dems elected. Duh.
It’s Bush and Congressional Republican (basically all the elected Republicans) fault.
You can’t keep slapping your ideological base in the face and then cry about it when they retreat.
If Conservativism “failed” it’s because Republican Party failed Conservatives.
Otherwise, the Republicans would still be in power… America would be thrilled with them. That’s your claim right? That the ideology doesn’t matter?
Bush is piss poor leader and communicator with the public during a time of war. and the republicans in Congress were engaged in incumbancy protection.
And because of that we know have the diaster of a Democrat Congress.
AJ, in my opinion, it became less about a political agenda and more about a social agenda and that is a bad thing. Pushing a social agenda from Washington DC does nothing but fracture our society and alienate those who do not share that social agenda.
I heard Hannity on the radio again yesterday saying he was a conservative FIRST and a Republican second. Well, then he should form a Conservative party. I don’t believe that social cultural issues such as abortion, gay marriage, school choice, and medical care, to cite a few examples, should be decided or even discussed at the federal level. Those are clearly issues for discussion and decision at the state level.
Our country is so varied, the culture in California is nothing like the culture in Kansas and the culture in Oregon is unlike Oklahoma, that to mandate social issues from Washington is never going to work. Either you need so many compromises that it doesn’t meet ANYONE’s needs, or you end up shoving one group’s culture down another group’s throat.
This makes people afraid of each other. Republicans begin to fear a Democrat in office not because of their political differences but because of their cultural differences and that they may attempt to use the court to mandate cultural changes from Washington onto their community. The same with liberal communities fearing a more conservative leader.
We need to stop forcing our neighbors to live by our standards. That is tyrannical and against our tradition of tolerance.
I am for REPUBLICAN values such as:
1. Individual responsibility and not shared responsibility
2. Capitalism and not Socialism
3. Charity provided by private groups from monies donated freely, not charity mandated by government from monies taken from the people at the point of a gun.
4. A strong national defense.
5. Free and open trade. When countries depend on each other as suppliers and customers, looking out for each other’s security becomes natural.
I would like to see an increase in the social security retirement age to what it was in the late 1930’s … the average life expectancy. I would also like to see people manage a portion of their own social security contributions and not be forced to turn it all over to Congress for the annual spending spree that currently takes place with it.
Immigration should be settled in a way that allows migrant labor to legally cross back and forth. I know someone who works in a migrant outreach center. She has confirmed my speculation that the current crackdown would only result in MORE illegals here over the winter because they can not go home and come back in the spring. So we are ending up with more people “wintering over”. People also can’t go home when family members die or become sick.
You don’t need to give them citizenship but they should be able to get a work visa that allows them to legally move back and forth across the border. The direction in which we are currently moving is retarded.
AJ,this is exactly right.”Bush has not failed if you look at his results”.He’s been kicking the Dems asses for years.Who could”ve done better?Hannity?Laura Ingraham?….NOT.I’m a Bush supporter all the way.This country did well to have him in these times.
11″ of snow here in Louisville.Awesome!Go cardinals!
Vince,
the polls show you how wrong you are. McCain is the nominee. All the ‘true conservative’ picks died off.
It is us moderates and independents (or apostates to the right) who decide elections, not the far right as can be seen in the GOP primary.
The ‘true conservatives’ left Bush in 2006 and the only thing that happened is they lost their power base in Congress. It is only through congressional districts that ‘pure’ conservatives can get elected’. Once deemed ‘acceptable’ they go on to state wide office.
Reagan would never pass the true conservative test today, and he did not back then either. He was loathed by the far right for not doing enough on pro-life, spending, immigration, etc. Same crap they now blame Bush for.
The GOP is strong enough to win national elections without the far right. The only question for the far right is (a) do you want a seat at the table and (b) if so come with respect and maturity and tolerance with others who do not align 100% with you. Learn to live with 80% alignment, and learn to lose with honor when.
Otherwise there is no value in an alliance – now is there?
“Reagan would never pass the true conservative test today, and he did not back then either.”
Amen, AJ. The far right HATED Reagan when he was first running for office. Heck, even the center right didn’t much care for him. George HW Bush called his economic strategy “voodoo economics”.
It chaps my buns to hear Hannity talk about what a “staunch conservative” Regan was. Reagan was disliked by “staunch conservatives” of the time because Regan would compromise. Something Hannity himself has promised never to do. Reagan spoke out more than once about the “all or nothing” conservative Republicans on the far right and how THEY were the problem that had caused the Republicans to be unpopular and Reagan reached out to Democrats and brought many over by speaking about issues we all agreed on, not by concentrating on issues that divide us.
A “Reagan Republican” would be reaching out to Democrats and Independents. Would be finding a way that the immigrants already here could stay if they wanted and travel back and forth if they don’t want to stay. You know, stuff like Reagan did.
Conservatism isn’t on the rocks anymore than physics or mathematics is. The idealogy is not only sound but proven and has been for over 230 years now. The GOP has chosen to reject it again and will pay the price for it. What’s curious to me, however, is why, AJ, you continue to obsess over this? Your obsession on this subject appears to be somewhat of whistling past the graveyard. Is there some personal reason you feel the need to make conservatives responsible for their own rejection?
Gentlemen, I think you are ALL mistaken.
Bush has neither been a great failure nor a great success. He has enjoyed fair military success, but has presided over a massive expansion of spending…and make no mistake, some of it was his idea.
Purity war? Beg pardon, but there’s plenty of blame on both sides. It was not the Right that chose to call their opponents “hypochondriacs”.
But it is the notion that McCain is not a conservative that is the most absurd. I’ll be the first to say that I think him dead wrong on campaign finance, and mostly wrong on immigration. On the other hand, CAPT McCain is a far better war leader than anyone else in this race – or Bush. We can rely on him hitting with overwhelming force…and we will need such resolve, I fear.
Mike M,
I am an independent the term ‘hypochondriac’ was accurate regarding the issue of long term illegals paying a fine and back taxes as punishment for the digressions.
What is NOT accurate is calling people who disagree with you a traitor, quisling or even a RINO. If they are registered republicans then they are republicans and due the respect of being fellow republicans.
McCain is not a conservative, he is what you get when conservatives go over board and piss everyone else off.
Reagan wasn’t the “Great Compromiser” he was the “Great Communicator.” He could build a coalition by always doing what he believed to be the right thing instead of compromising his beliefs and doing some wrongs in order to “compromise.” He won people over, he didn’t pander to them.
If some of you are still dealing with “issues” regarding your conversions from liberal ideologies, don’t justify that conversion by changing who the man was and what he stood for.
What you can’t accept is that Reagan communicated his ideology so clearly and with such vigor that he converted your previously held ideology to his. He was able to get people to understand what he was doing and why. Some Presidents are better at it than others, and he was one of the best.
Did he ever compromise? Every President does. Did he make mistakes? Every President does. But his core principles of less Federal government, handing power back to the states where it belongs, fiscal responsibility, strong national defense, etc. are and always will be conservative.
And AJ, If the moderates and independents have so much power then they should form their own party and prove that they are the ones who decide elections…a difficult task when the constituancy has such a wide range of beliefs…much wider than the existing parties.
Whippet1, yes he WAS the great compromiser
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/960104/posts
“…got seventy-five or eighty percent of what you were asking for, I say, you take it and fight for the rest later…”
Some compromiser…more like brilliant manipulation!
Vince,
the polls show you how wrong you are
AJ: I couldn’t care less what any poll says.
At one time the highest grossing movie of all time was Independence Day. That is a poll of sorts. Does that mean that film is the epitome of quality?
Vince, me thinketh AJ’s axe grinding is dulling his formerly razor sharp thought process. Or at least on this subject, anyway.
Just bustin your chops a little, AJ. 😉
75, but the “conservatives” won’t back down 1 inch. And people like Hannity talk like that is some kind of a virtue or something. It isn’t. It is self-destructive. When one’s demand is “all or nothing” chances are you are going to get nothing … like they did on immigration … and the fence.
Crosspatch,
Right, conservatives do not back down to Democrats or any other leftist.
More people voted for George Bush in 2004 than have ever voted for any President. He is the same man now that he was then.
The self styled conservatives decided to turn on him when the war got difficult.
I can remember after 9/11 Bush did not really want to have a commission, people had a fit, he not only had to have a 9/11 Commission, he was expected to follow all of its recommendations. Well that takes money folks. After the fact people cried and moaned about the expansion of government, but at the time they not only supported it, they demanded it.
The purity people are ignoring the fact that George Bush gave them something Republicans have rarely ever had, majority control of both Congress and the White House. They deserve at least some of the credit for screwing that up.
They screwed up by going stupid over issues like immigration and Dubai ports and Miers and all sorts of areas where they claim Bush was not conservative enough.
Well you know what? People are not going to the Right. They do not want the Right. Thanks to people like Hannity and Malkin and Tancredo and Coulter more and more Americans are going left. They can blame that on Bush, but it was not until the Purity purges really took off that the Republicans began to lose elections and support. And in the process many of them abandoned Bush.
With friends like them Republicans do not need enemies.
75:
The same thing could be said for small petulant children pitching tantrums.
People vote for people who can get things done. If your great claim to fame is eating your own, then that is not much reason to support you or want you in the party. See what I mean?
I mean really, is it the belief of conservatives that if Bush had just abandoned Iraq, cut old ladies off of Medicare, refused to help Katrina victims, and bombed Iran and forced the mass deportation of 11 million Mexicans… that voila! there would not be any problems today?
In truth Bush’s problems have had a lot to do with events, and that would have been the same for anyone.
Unless we are to believe Obama in which case we can have cheap gas, cheap food, free health care and peace on earth if only we believe…
is that what you want?
More people voted for George Bush in 2004 than have ever voted for any President. He is the same man now that he was then
Well it’s a good thing his 2nd term election isn’t now because I guarantee you, he would not be getting reelected.
And 2nd Term Bush is not the same man of 1st term Bush. If you weren’t such a kiss-ass sycophant you would know this.
Except that conservatives don’t throw tantrums,
don’t argue for what they want but for what it is right,
don’t reject years and years of success behind the ideology,
and get discarded by their family for the effort.
Other than that….brilliant anlysis, Terrye.
Nice try.
Fortunately for you, you will have a president now who can get things done. They won’t be good things but you’ll certainly have them done.