As frustrated as Americans are with the ineffective and insincere leadership of both major political parties, they are even more frustrated with and exhausted by the attitude and behavior of the “conservative” right. Frankly, I don’t blame them. We and we alone are responsible for our failures.
“Conservatives” had some tremendous victories in 2010 and 2014 helping to deliver the Republican Party both the House and the Senate. “Conservative” candidates ran against a broken and corrupt system in Washington D.C. that benefited Wall Street, K Street and the Federal Bureaucracy, while ignoring everyone else. These candidates ran against irresponsible regulation, reckless spending, higher taxes, and a ballooning debt. Even the moderates ran campaigns predicated on conservative values and constitutional principles. All of this is good. It’s better than good, it’s great.
However, over the last two years, conservatives have enjoyed fewer and fewer victories. Our demeanor has become angry, mean-spirited, obnoxious, and short-sighted. We constantly (and viciously) attack anyone in the Republican Party who isn’t 100% “conservative”. We have become idealists and purists, ignoring systemic obstacles to our agenda and, often times, demanding the impossible.
Conservatives are no longer able to build coalitions or consensus, as we did during the Reagan years or under the Speakership of Newt Gingrich, because we are viewed as being utterly unreasonable. Moderates resent us and Independent voters do not respect us. Our strategy of spitting in the faces of the majority while complaining that no one will work with us has, unsurprisingly, not been successful.
Our attitude and behavior directly affects the outcome of our efforts as activists, as candidates, and as legislators. Ted Cruz is one of the most intelligent and principled members of the Senate, and yet it has been Rand Paul and Mike Lee who have had the most legislative success. Why? Because Ted Cruz developed a reputation as someone unwilling to work with his colleagues and who would challenge his fellow Republicans for his own political gain.
I greatly admire and respect Ted Cruz, but his methods haven’t worked.
Senator Ted Cruz isn’t really the problem though. We are. How can conservatives have an impact in Congress if 75% of the country and 90% of Congress view us as unreasonable, obnoxious, and mean? Like it or not, this is how we come off to people and we need to take a long hard look in the mirror. If we want to be more effective in the future, we need to take responsibility for our failures in the past. We need to learn from our mistakes and do better.
That conservatives are responsible for killing the conservative movement is a blessing. If we’re the ones that messed it up, then we are entirely capable fixing it. There are five things we must do as conservatives, if we sincerely desire to move our agenda forward.
First, we need to treat every member of the Republican Party with respect. Name calling, bullying, and exaggerating the egregiousness of our representatives’ sins does not help our cause.
Second, we need to accept that Republicans with whom we agree 80% of the time are allies, not enemies.
Third, we need to focus on promoting a positive agenda instead of always focusing on the negative.
Fourth, we need to be laser-focused on process and policy. Process and policy are the mechanisms by which our principles become law. Understanding how to write, promote, and pass legislation is everything. Organizations like Heritage Action have understood this for years.
Lastly, we need to prioritize our agenda. We need to ask ourselves questions such as: What are the most pressing issues facing the country? Which reforms and bills are most likely to make it through the legislature? What are we willing to compromise on with Democrats to get their support for our agenda?
Otherwise, all of our principles and good ideas are simply academic. Legislation does not make it through the gauntlet on Capitol Hill without majority support. If we are not willing to do what is necessary to achieve majority support for our agenda, then it really doesn’t matter what that agenda was in the first place. Right?
Until “conservatives” earn the respect of the Republican Party, we will never have a seat at the table. While pointing fingers and flinging insults may serve to satisfy some emotional need within us, they undermine everything we want to achieve. Earning the respect of the party doesn’t mean selling out our principles. We can respectfully agree to disagree.
I take full responsibility for encouraging and participating in this kind of behavior in the past. I do not want to spend the next thirty years of my life complaining, pointing fingers and accomplishing nothing. We conservatives have the right vision for the Republican Party and for the country, but we’ve failed to sell that vision.
If a salesman tried to sell you a product mirroring the attitudes found among some conservatives today, would you buy it? We need to be better salesmen. I’ve hired hundreds of employees in my life and the single most important piece of advice I have for employers is to hire happy people. Conservatives need to be happy warriors if we’re to sell a government addicted to irresponsible spending and debt on a better way of governing.
54 comments
Conservatism is the essence, the soul, the spirit of liberty. When one comes to the point of not recognizing and understanding this extremely important fact, s/he is at risk at losing true freedom. If you think that liberty can survive without conservatism, you are wrong. Liberty will take its last breath.
Real or perceived, the loss of one’s personal freedom and the freedom of an entire nation is a tremendous threat. True fighters will fall on the sword to protect themselves and others from a threat. In so doing they don’t think about manners or what others think about them. Sometimes they just don’t think. Maybe that’s why diehard conservatives have gotten themselves in trouble? They are fierce protectors of liberty.
Fast forward a decade, or two, or three – a nation without conservative values, a nation that no longer understands what conservative notions are. Is it a free nation? Are its individuals able to exercise liberty? Isn’t it about time that we all take a step forward to rediscover conservatism, celebrate it, bask in its graces, and see the perpetual blessings that come from it, namely our freedoms?
I’m what you might call a conservative that watched the republicans elected, doing nothing about the problems they claimed to be able to fix?
we watch year after year our national debt climb–our borders remaining fluid–jobs still fleeing our country, taxes going up, the cost of living going up
a president dividing our country–demonizing the police force–importing thousands of people that hate us with little or no formal investigation as to their intentions
and I don’t like it–I don’t like what the democrats are doing–and what republicans are doing is almost as bad
but we are destroying the republican party?–WHAT DOES THE REPUBLICAN PARTY REALLY STAND FOR?–not me anymore–or did they really ever represent me?
under obama the RICH GOT RICHER–but nothing for the middle class or the poor—only the rich–only those working for the government got pay raises—even non-governmental union workers are suffering
saving accounts are a joke with nothing in return for the billions the banks make using our money because the feds gives them money for next to nothing-
the same banks that almost broke the backs of thousands of pension funds that invested in that baking garbage–people lost heir jobs–their homes and we are the problem?
call me all of the names you want–I’m not at all happy with the republican party of today–
what have they prevented the democrats from doing to the American people?
how have they made the American people feel safe in their own country?
how long have we been a war?
how long will we be supporting other countries at the American people’s expense?
how many illegals will we allow into our country,COSTING THE AMERICAN TAXPAYERS TO SUPPORT THEM?
yes I’m ranting & raving–because it’s the only thing I can do–I’m one of the 47% barely holding on–with no relief in sight
This article isn’t referring the Republican Party. I’m talking about the conservative movement within the Republican Party.
yea– I know—who do you think represents the conservative people best?
I bet you think Cruz while I want Trump because of people like Cruz
Cruz–all mouth with no results–Cuccinelli the same & I worked for him & was upset when he lost–but not so much now–after what they both are doing
so what does that make me?—I thought of myself as a Conservative my whole life–now I’m something else?–what am I–a fool with pipe dreams
Mike Lee does a good job reflecting conservative values and principles and working with leadership to get things done.
sorry–never heard of him—doesn’t seem to be making much of a impression on enough people–is he a senator?–a congressmen?–what public office does he hold?
Seriously? You have never heard of Mike Lee? It is he and Cruz who stand strong against for conservative causes in the Senate. I’d venture to say most conservatives know who Mike Lee is.
He’s a Senator.
Not particularly insightful in my opinion on what is transpiring right before our very eyes nor terribly accurate on how it unfolded with the ascension of Donald Trump out of the most diverse collection of fifteen fellow Republican presidential primary candidates seen in modern times either. I fail to see what is being destroyed here but rather what this particular nomination has simply surfaced and forced into active recognition among both non conservative and conservative segments of the national voting base.
Some estimate up to twenty percent (I have no idea of the true accuracy of this estimate) of the so called Republican elected officials and base reject the Trump nomination and would prefer to see any other candidate replace him as the nominee or will vote third party rejecting the 2016 Republican ticket altogether. For the realists out there among you what this solely translates into is a likely Clinton election win by what one Huffington post blogger recently referred to as Hillaries’ useful idiots and with George Neummayr, a contributing editor of the American Spectator (most certainly not a pro Trump publication), using the description as a sub byline in his recent article on this GOP presidential season entitled “Cannibalizing Their Own Candidate”.
Idiots, I don’t believe so, rather what has resulted from Trump’s arrival on the scene is a natural realignment of political forces both within the larger Republican Party and it’s conservative wing that perhaps was long overdue. What I mean by that specifically is we see a coming together of a segment of the traditional country club Republican “conservatives” that vote consistently for so called conservative stalwarts like McConnell, Ryan, Romney, McCain, Graham, et al with the soapbox preaching “preserve the integrity of the conservative movement” crowd that long ago betrayed it by focusing on their PACs and fund raising while failing to deliver a single voter base solution or roll back a single Obama administration program forced on the back of the suffering working and middle class voter.
One point this new alignment doesn’t want to face is the reality that Trump couldn’t do any more damage to the American economy and sociopolitical infrastructure than they have accomplished already by their joint self interests and grossly misplaced political priorities. The glue that binds them together is the ridiculous supposition that a Hillary presidency will stimulate down the road a return to Republican and/or conservative first principles and the arrival of a as yet unspecified elected salvation who will return us all to the righteous path. Read up on the cargo cults in interior New Guinea in WWII were airdrops from allied planes were seen as mana from heaven to the primitive natives and led them to discard their traditional beliefs for this millenarian movement whose bubble burst when the first C47 landed and no ancestral spirits popped out of the craft but instead an American pilot.
What we are more likely to see after another decade of progressivism under a Clinton administration is these former “conservatives” melding into what Neummayr calls a “me-too liberalism” by this so called Republican conservative collection which already exists today in actual reality but is fervently denied by most. “Yesterday’s Democratic positions will become today’s Republican ones on issue after issue, and anyone who complains about these “conservative” capitulations will be told to move on, as Paul Ryan once chastised critics of Romney’s PC stances”.
The one major flaw that this new grouping fails to recognize or acknowledge is that they are the ones that have moved on and the Republican voting base will not be in any mood to learn their lesson’s from their betters after years of Hillary’s boot having been placed firmly on their necks. If they actually believe this is a survivable event for them (forget about the country as this is about them) then viewing them as Hillary’s useful idiots is perhaps the kindest description available. The die appears to be cast, they are on they way, just wave goodbye, return to the nuts and bolts of party rebuilding, and expect another 3-4 years of rants until they fade into party obscurity.
Understand that I’m not saying that conservatives have done anything to harm the Republican party per se,in simply looking at the conservative movement within the party. We’ve become less and less effective and there are reasons why.
We’ve become less and less effective because of a failure of leadership in the Republican party and the constant betrayal of conservative principles by those who campaign as a conservative and legislate like Democrats once in office.
The writer makes a bit of sense – but is missing one fundamental point. The fact is that the party is fracturing apart not because of conservatives, but because of the Lindsay Graham, John McCain crowd. All Americans are pissed off and with good reason. They feel their elected leaders won’t listen to them anymore and want someone to listen to them. Which is why Trump resonates so well when he says “I AM YOUR VOICE”.
I voted for Cruz in the primary, but will be the 1st person to admit that Cruz is not a team player and sometimes you need to punt. But it’s hard to work with a group like McCain/Boehner/Graham when they insult you the moment you disagree with them (John Boehner calling Cruz Satan, McCain calling Rand Paul and Cruz “wacko birds”, etc etc).
I’ll grant you that calling anyone who disagrees with others on an issue or two a RINO or “Establishment” isn’t productive and is starting to get old. But the problem is not us, the problem is the more supposedly “moderate” crowd who are really more hateful than us Tea Party supporters could ever hope to be.
The people running the party certainly have their own sins to account for, but no matter how horrible they are, we can try to remain as effective as possible.
I thought we were trying–trying to get a change for the better–we tried the rest of them & decided we needed a change from them–WE DID NOT QUIT–but pissed off a lot of people that did–what a shame
We’re losing nearly every contest we’re in. Why do you think we keep losing?
Regarding the need for civility, can’t agree with you more. But the GOP ruling cabal really should be ashamed of themselves. I can’t overemphasize how rude so many of them have been rude to me personally and then will call me nasty. I’m talking about slurs and such. So yes we can do better. But at least we try to be civil. Same can not be said for the ruling class.
Example at a local GOP committee meeting. We do 2 resolutions. One is voted on unanimously. Other approved with one dissenting vote. The establishment people just went nuts and started screaming at my friend for voting against the resolution. And then started screaming and yelling at me for sitting next to her. And I voted for their resolution. They’re acting like infants. And getting worse.
I’m right there with you John. It’s terrible how nasty they can be.
Aren’t they just disgusting at times
My comment above should be at top of the comments because I have the most up arrows. I want to officially file a complaint with management. Do you happen to have a comment card?
Dear Mr. III;
Thank you for your visit to The Bull Elephant. We appreciate your patronage. We are very sorry your visit didn’t meet your expectations. However rest assured we will communicate your concerns about the lack of an official comment card to management at our next weekly meeting in January. Please feel free to visit again. We look forward to your contributions to The Bull Elephant.
S. Mezurak Deputy Assistant Shift Manager or something like that.
The author sounds like he’s suffering from “Battered Wife Syndrome”. It’s not the party’s fault, it our fault! How many more excuses is he going to make for the Republican party losing its way? They have made it abundantly clear they don’t want conservatives and are happy legislating like Democrats.
The Republican party is made up of individual people. The “party” can’t lose its way…PEOPLE lose their way.
Whatever dude – semantics…
I stand by my comment above.
Why is the “conservative right” always getting the blame for being the nasty people? Seems like we should turn our attention to the loony lefties that like taking crowbars to people for just wearing a t-shirt if you want to define “mean-spirited.”
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-bc-nj–man-beaten-trump-shirt-20160809-story.html
If we were dealing with sane people on the other side of the aisle, these steps might have an opportunity of working. I would direct your attention back to the years that Peloser and Dirty Harry had their iron grip on their respective chambers of Congress and their complete lack of working with the minority GOP. There was no middle ground with those people and their lack of compromise gave us the fiasco that is Obamacare, putting us on the road to the dimwits wet dream of universal big government supplied healthcare.
For once, I would like to see how the GOP handles the reins of government having full control of the House, Senate and the White House. No compromise, no working with the left, just passing an agenda that will make America great again. Of course, with the current GOP leadership in Congress, we might need the help of a crowbar to make that happen.
Well said, Steven. Excellent article.
The article and most comments are elitist BS.
The real answer is that Republicans have not accomplished anything in the last 4 years since we gave them control of both houses.
Like someone said: “All talk, no action”
Trump 2016!
I have to give you that, they have done nothing. They hold the purse strings and yet they won’t use them, ever. It’s disgusting and very discouraging.
Unfortunately, Steven, the main reason we’re not ‘winning’ isn’t because we’re ‘ugly’ and ‘mean spirited’, it’s because we won’t sell our souls to the devil. We won’t betray our nation and sell out to the highest bidder.
The traitors have gained a majority. They have infiltrated every branch of government, BOTH parties, and most of our courts. The Bible states that “Where the Spirit of The Lord is there is Liberty” because the Spirit of The Lord inculcates a righteous fear of God, a zealous love for truth, an unrelenting vigil against evil, and a dogged fearlessness to fight for the right.
With rare exception entire legislatures, state and national, are either being blackmailed or bought. Saudi and other Middle Eastern $$$$ flow like champagne. Globalist Cabals initiate the willing into their One World schemes, how else can you explain the complete capitulation to such obvious threats as Islam and destruction of our borders and Sovereignty!?
Very few will speak the truth, much less fight for it. The fact that these same wicked Globalists and Muslims are wetting their pants over Trump is all more the reason to support him.
The blame for the sickness of our nation and our culture lies squarely at the door of an impotent, limp wristed, cowardly ‘church’ failing to be faithful to the uncompromising Word of God. The robust, dynamic, UNAPOLOGETIC preaching/teaching/living Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only hope to recover our nation from the righteous judgement that we are facing.
There are a great many things harming this country and conservatives aren’t too blame for any of them. All in saying that conservatives have hurt are themselves.
again–what in your eyes is a conservative
belief in the constitution
belief in certain rights
belief in limited government
belief in self governments of the people, for the people
belief in a secure country from any foreign entities
free enterprise—fair trade with other countries
the right not to be dominated by the rich?
not by special interest groups that bully their way all of the time
law & order
what you are saying is that I live in a dream world that no longer exists
something I will never stop trying to get back again–what I call sanity
As a former Cruz supporter and now a Trump populist, I suggest that acceptance is a two way street. I have no problem with what amounts to the Reagan idea that 80% of something is darn good and we should accept Republicans who go in that direction.
Unfortunately, the establishment seems to think that grass root people like me are supposed to shut up and work for the party without complaint. This arrogant attitude has led to increasing friction, and less and less support for the principles of the Party. The libertarian, conservative and now Trumpian populist movement all have their roots in Party failures and abandonment of core principles.
Look at what has been happening. Republican officials of all kinds, officials who were more than happy to get the help of the grass roots, are now rejecting outright the Party nominee for president. Do they really think that their prior losing choices have been great? Or is it that it really hasn’t mattered as long as they could keep their personal power. The reality is that they have lost sight of party principles and value their personal positions than the future of America.
Frankly, it was both unusual and refreshing to hear Trump constantly refer to America for Americans. I wonder how many Americans even think that way after decades of “we are the world” socialist indoctrination.
There are a lot of things working against conservatives: liberals, populists, and corporatists are the big 3 I guess. But our success, or our current failure, depends upon the decisions we make, how we chose to behave and operate.
whoopee do–& the sky is blue when the sun is out
Totally backwards perspective on the problem.
The problem is that the Repub party has lost the respect of conservatives, not the other way around. The party has abandoned conservative principles in favor of being Democrat-lite.
Its not the job of conservatives to sell the Repub party on the idea of conservatism. The party is already supposed to be conservative, that’s their purpose. That’s like saying that its the responsibility of diners to sell IHOP on the concept of serving pancakes. When you go to IHOP you expect that they’ll be serving pancakes, its their purpose. If you show up and they’re serving sushi then you’re going to be angry.
And that’s what the Republican Party has become: An IHOP that serves nothing but sushi.
A good analogy, but I would add that the service is poor and the sushi isn’t very good. To top it off, the management is arrogant and utterly unwilling to even try a sushi pancake.
The problem with your line of reasoning is that it assumes that the party is supposed to be anything at all. The Republican Party is whatever Republicans make it. Trump populsm, Boehner Corporatism, Kristol neo-conservatism. Conservatives are a minority in the party now, so if you want your agenda taken seriously then you have to work for it. All in talking about is the way things are. I’m not saying it ought to have been this way.
Conservatives did not destroy the conservative movement. That is a false narrative just like blaming Ted Cruz for “not working and playing well with others.” The establishment doesn’t like Ted Cruz because he calls them out when they are lying right to our faces.
The failure of the conservative movement has not come about because we are angry. It has come about because we have proven to the establishment that when push comes to shove, we will sacrifice our principles for electoral success. They know that they really don’t have to support candidates that are truly conservative, and they don’t have to keep their promises to us, because when election day comes around they know conservatives will come crawling back because of scare tactics like, “you don’t want HILLARY to win, do you?!?!??”
Take a look at liberals. Do they look particularly cheerful to you? Are they “happy warriors”? Absolutely not. But they have great success in moving their agenda forward because they have message discipline, and they control the Democrat party with an iron first. No Democrat has a chance of even getting on the ballot unless they pledge undying allegiance to abortion on demand, pushing the global warming agenda, and forcing the LGBTQ agenda down America’s throat. Once elected, they work endlessly towards achieving their goals, but they don’t try to win everything in one battle like some on our side do. They know how to eat the elephant. One bite at a time. They move down the field an inch at a time, and then fight to the death to hold the ground they’ve taken.
Until we demand that our Republican elected officials actually vote like a conservative instead of just play one on TV during election season, we will never start taking our country back.
That won’t happen though – if that’s what we’re waiting for, it’s over.
Poly Sci 101 — candidates portray themselves as distinct from the center in order to be seen as unique during campaigns. Incentive? Get elected.
Elected representatives behave as centrists in order to achieve compromises that equate to some degree of success. Incentive? Get the job done and get reelected.
Even as I type, I await a comment about compromise to the degree of treason, etc. Yes, the 24hr news cycle has an impact on the behavior of elected officials. Yes, the spiraling costs of campaigning has an impact as well. I believe it drives officials to spend more time representing themselves as if in a campaign, so their increasingly small shares of time spent legislating appear in greater contrast to our election year expectations.
This is going to be a fun comment section. Asking the conservative block to acknowledge anyone else’s position may have some validity is pretty much futile, but thanks for trying.
Very thoughtful piece here. If the Republican Party is not to go the way of the Whig or Bull Moose Party, it needs to expand. Right now it is contracting or staying static. It needs to attract other demographics to stay viable. And Trump demonizes those very groups the party needs to attract.
This is kind of a strange comment. Trump is actually expanding the party if you look at his primary results. Unfortunately, the GOP establishment doesn’t like these new people because the new people want America to be for Americans and not some globalist dystopia. What impressed me in Trump’s economic speech was his ending about building up America across the board and reinvigorating its cities.
First, the Republican Party will need to be destroyed as they completely and absoulutely refuse to respond to the will of their people. The party is nothing more than a puppet for the donor class. The donor class who will not even support the party’s own nominee.
You make no mention of the party acknowledging the right of populists to even exist. And yet, the party cannot win statewide or national elections without the populists vote.
You fail to mention why Trump won the nomination. You failed to mention populists. You failed to mention Trump.
Trump won the nomination by tackling the problem of the exportation of American jobs to places like Communist China. Trump won the nomination by implementing a Reagan ideology. That ideology being tariffs on cheap, imported, junk goods that resulted from bad trade deals. Bad trade deals that were written in exchange for PAC and campaign cash. Trump won the nomination by tackling the problem of the importation of cheap, illegal, labor into this. You failed to mention any of this.
You mention your hero’s, Cruz, Lee, and Paul. But, by design, you failed to mention the Republican Party nominee, Donald Trump. The only candidate who took on corrupt Washington DC Republicans. The ones who sold this country out to Wall St. for a few dollars.
Trump won the nomination with solutions to America’s problems. The problems people care about.
The current terms of reference aren’t helping. The dichotomy between moderates and conservatives is artificial. It lends to the notion of the far right as the keepers of the keys (and issuers of the badges) of conservatism. It leads to the arrogant labeling of any who seek compromise as RINOs.
By welcoming any voter opposed to arbitrary change for the sake of relativism, we build that bigger tent of which you periodically speak.
Conservatism is supposed to have an “any of the above” philosophy, not “all of the above.” Yet somehow, a notion exists that one must be a constitutional, social, and fiscal conservative to be in a state of conservative grace.
You don’t have to be far right to be right.
Excellent article, and excellent post here. In Caroline we welcome any voter and there are no caveats. You don’t have to sign anything, join anything or pledge anything or even agree with us 80 per cent of the time. 51 per cent will do. In a blue county, we just sent a 28 and 24 year Democrats packing from our Board of Supervisors and have four strong, honest, super conservatives, including one dynamite Republican woman. We are starting to climb out of the liberal abyss in just about every policy decision for three decades, balance our budget and even work toward a bond rating. We could not have done it without moderately conservative, Independent and even some Democrats fed up with the county making payroll on a credit card. In Caroline we could not afford to pick and one another. Whats interesting to note and my most important point is that every time there was a glitch in this decades long war to replace our board and improve our governance, it ALWAYS came from outside Caroline and always from one fraction of the Republican Party or another who had no dog in our fight but wanted to control our local committee for some other purpose. Every time there was a Virginia power struggle between VCF or VCN or an overly aggressive statewide candidate, we felt the burn..Our core conservatives stuck together which included many Tea Party folks, a few Libertarians, and Republicans of every ilk, eyes on the prize but it speaks volumes we had to fight our own party and other conservatives who should have been attending to their own business at the same time.
.
That’s why I keep writing ‘conservative” in quotes, or try to. But I’ve got to talk about “us” and to ‘us’ using words people understand. If you have a term that better describes conservatives than conservative, truly, I’d like to hear it.
one word to describe a person that would be happy with a decent job–paying a living that they could raise a family on.–giving their children a good education in neighborhoods free of crime–that really doesn’t care what the rich do, so long as they have the ability to at least live comfortable—willing to work for what they get
.
it used to be called an American–both republican & democratic — with both parties fighting to make sure that they were the ones getting richer
we made things here–but the money was better overseas & the greedy rich wanted more & more & mo–to believe the rich cared,– until we got here where we are now
.
so yes indeed–what is a true conservative?–with one word–” fool ” to believe te garbage given to millions of people that voted the democrats out of the house & senate
—but have no fear–we will continue looking for a savior–that pipe dream, just out of our reach.
I truly don’t understand to whom you are referring as “us”, or as “conservatives”. The word “conservatives” has become meaningless because every flavor of Republican has called themselves conservative, including the feckless establishment. When you frame the issue as one for “conservatives”, I can’t be sure I agree with you or not, though I like most of what you wrote in this article.
I hit a huge discord with the label “conservative” because it has become conflated with the NeverTrump faction of the party, especially on TBE. It was a huge mistake to attack Trump on the basis of being insufficiently “conservative” because it has alienated so many other diehard conservatives who desperately want Republicans to win this election. My former heros such as Cruz and Levin, and other standard-bearers of traditional conservatism, are effectively giving aid and comfort to the Democrats by continuing that now. I am not so sure I want to be associated with that kind of conservatism anymore. I don’t want to be a part of a “conservative” movement that doesn’t intend to defeat the progressive statists who are degrading this country every day.
There will be plenty of time for political reforms after we hear from the electorate.
Okay Steve, how about this?
I suggest the term “conservative” should apply to everybody in the tent. “Far right” or “extreme right” would refer to the tiny minority of conservatives whose views on any one issue (Constitutional, social, religious, fiscal, etc.) render them substantially more conservative and distinct from the main body of conservative thinking. These are absolutists, who will die before compromising on legislation pertaining to their conservative view(s).
What’s the significance of this approach? It serves as a yardstick against which a moderate social conservative is not measured as any less conservative than one who holds moderately conservative fiscal, religious, And Constitutional views. Both are in the middle of the tent — conservatives. People who’ve just stepped in the tent? Conservatives.
Finally, nobody in the tent is a RINO.
If the word means everyone, then it means nothing. I think that is where we are already. The logical extension of that thinking is that there is no distinction between us and the other party either.
To me, Trump is a uniquely difficult person to fit, because his views appear to be driven less by a worldview than a likelihood of provoking audience reaction.
But for discussion’s sake, let’s say there’s a voter out there who holds liberal social views and conservative fiscal views (The Johnson/Weld platform). If that person feels strongly enough about the need to achieve the fiscal goals that he/she self-identifies as a conservative — great! We have anot her person in the tent, a basis for unity of action with that voter, however tenuous it may be.
For an elected official, I would hope for a candidate whose general worldview is representative of his/her constituents, and who generally votes to satisfy the constituents’ interests — great!
You’ve been reading the NYT again.
“If you board the wrong train, there is no use running along the corridor in the other direction” Bonhoeffer
Um… No. The things we need to do as conservatives are not 1) play nice and pretend that Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell are good “leaders” Like John Boehner and Eric Cantor before them. They are RINOs. They have abandoned their way. Since we can’t kick them out of the party we should simply admit to ourselves that the party doesn’t want us. So we shouldn’t give ourselves to it.
We should:
1) call spades a spade. When the make believe conservatives who make the claim that they are and then fund the liberal agenda we should call them on it. Loudly and publicly.
2) Stop giving the party your time. If the energy of the Constitutional Conservatives is shut off, the rule life’s blood of the republican party will finally die out.
3) Stop giving the party your treasure. No time, no treasure, the raisin can finally shrivel up.
4) Express a conservative message with positive stories. We must be better story tellers. The history lessons and message of liberty and conservatism WINS with the public ear. But we have to be consistent. We can’t claim we want to rely on responsibility of the individual, small governments, balanced budgets and individual liberty while at the same time making efforts to fund massive spending agendas and legislating social engineering. If you do that, you are no different from the liberal left. And that is precisely what the republicans are guilty of. They don’t mind authoritarian governance. They don’t mind massive spending. They don’t even care if the budget is balanced. They just want their turn. And that is why they fail.