RE: RE: Of dreams and fairy tales
My point was that the party will be what the majority of its active members want it to be. The problem is us conservatives aren't active like we should.
You don't have the numbers. Movement conservatives, those who mostly follow a conservative ideological line, only make up 17% to 20% of the electorate. If we assume Democrats and Republicans evenly split the electorate and that movement conservatives are overwhelmingly Republican (not true, but for the sake of argument...), they only make up 40% of the membership of the GOP. The only time the GOP wins is when movement conservatives form a coalition with either the libertarian Republicans or the country-clubbers. The libertarians are pretty much done with the GOP, I doubt they'll ever come back. I also doubt movement conservatives will team up with the country-clubbers again since that resulted in the rise of the neocons.
There is no doubt that conservatives can do things within the GOP on small, local levels. There is also no doubt that local pockets of the GOP still remain very conservative. Unfortunately, the national party in engaged in a swing to the left and there is nothing the few remaining conservative local organizations can do to stop it.
I guess my point is why not reform the alliance in the GOP...
Why? What is so special about the GOP that makes it the only home for conservatives and libertarians? Remember that the GOP has never remained true to Republican principles. Every single Republican President has run on libertarian principles and then behaved in opposition to those principles once they were elected, from Lincoln to Reagan.
...but I believe conservatism has a better chance in advancing in one of the major political parties.
The Republicans were once a third party. They are now engaged in behavior that will leave them in the same condition as their predecessor, the Whig Party. George Bush has pulled off one of the biggest bait-and-switch gambits in the history of American politics. The idea that and agenda can only be advanced inside a major political party is a myth. Partisanship is a fraud, designed to keep an oligarchy in power. No more, no less.
You don't have the numbers. Movement conservatives, those who mostly follow a conservative ideological line, only make up 17% to 20% of the electorate. If we assume Democrats and Republicans evenly split the electorate and that movement conservatives are overwhelmingly Republican (not true, but for the sake of argument...), they only make up 40% of the membership of the GOP. The only time the GOP wins is when movement conservatives form a coalition with either the libertarian Republicans or the country-clubbers. The libertarians are pretty much done with the GOP, I doubt they'll ever come back. I also doubt movement conservatives will team up with the country-clubbers again since that resulted in the rise of the neocons.
There is no doubt that conservatives can do things within the GOP on small, local levels. There is also no doubt that local pockets of the GOP still remain very conservative. Unfortunately, the national party in engaged in a swing to the left and there is nothing the few remaining conservative local organizations can do to stop it.
I guess my point is why not reform the alliance in the GOP...
Why? What is so special about the GOP that makes it the only home for conservatives and libertarians? Remember that the GOP has never remained true to Republican principles. Every single Republican President has run on libertarian principles and then behaved in opposition to those principles once they were elected, from Lincoln to Reagan.
...but I believe conservatism has a better chance in advancing in one of the major political parties.
The Republicans were once a third party. They are now engaged in behavior that will leave them in the same condition as their predecessor, the Whig Party. George Bush has pulled off one of the biggest bait-and-switch gambits in the history of American politics. The idea that and agenda can only be advanced inside a major political party is a myth. Partisanship is a fraud, designed to keep an oligarchy in power. No more, no less.
posted by Anonymous | 9:43 AM
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