Posted on 11/23/2012 7:53:10 AM PST by possum john
In A New Direction for Conservatives (pt 1) I outlined the reasons why I believe it is time for Conservatives to abandon the Republican Party and establish a new political organization dedicated to advancing conservative policies. In that post I also described the principles I believe should guide this new political party, which I have named the Foundations Party.
In Part 2 I will stop short of describing a full party platform for the sake of brevity, but I will describe what I see as “Top 10” Agenda for the Foundations Party. Once again, I invite comments and discussion on the ideas I am presenting.
(Excerpt) Read more at jamespwillis.blogspot.com ...
Oops.
The same way the GOP should be trying to regain the traction it is steadily losing, by communicating a clear agenda and convincing people our agenda is right for the country.
If we fail to do that, the worst that can happen is that we lose just as many elections as we’re losing now - all of them.
The same place we're going to have to find them now. Face it, conservatives haven't won a Presidential election since 1984. We've got nowhere to go but up.
There is a way to start a successful new party. Convince Allen West, Bill Whittle, and Sarah Palin to get together to start one. These are the 3 leaders of the conservative movement.
I could say to count me out but at this point, I do not expect to ever see another honest presidential election in my lifetime. Between the 47 percenters who are very happy with the current arrangment, those who commit fraud and those who are willing to ignore it and those who believe they are too moral to vote for someone they consider too flawed, we are doomed. I have no illusions of any of this ever mattering again.
We could have lived to fight another day but our side is too fractured to even try.
Those are the people who are so wedded to GOP that they can't imagine a world without it.
In that case, stick with the GOP. I'm not trying to be rude, but you don't appear to be the kind of person I would want to attract.
If we can't, we won't be any worse off than we are now.
It's not a matter of whether or not I'm willing. I wasn't WILLING for Romney to lose. I wasn't WILLING for McCain to lose. I wasn't even WILLING for GWB to be nominated, for heaven's sake.
The issue is gaining understanding of our present circumstances (bad and getting worse), their causes, and where they will inevitably lead.
We (or our children) have to be ready when the end of the present era comes.
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Do you think Karl Rove, to use just one example, would be a part of this party -- or any third party that espouses actual conservatism?
The point of a third party would be to do one of two things:
1. Bring the Republican Party to a position where it would actually have to listen to its base due to loss of national influence. We now know the the party is incapable of winning a national election due to its failure to beat the worst President in American history thanks to its insistence on a left-of-center candidate who ranked as among the worst the party has ever fielded.
2. Kill the Republican Party and replace it with a party structure that is closer to that of the Reagan coalition.
Either way, I don't see a downside. We aren't electing a Republican President any time soon because you can't out-liberal the liberals. Yet the left wing of the Republican Party is in charge and intends to stay there.
Some of us were unwilling to surrender in the election just past and are now being joined by people who have rediscovered their conservatism since the election. Either way, a split is likely inevitable.
The purpose of this website is to advance conservatism. Not the Republican Party. It has never been more clear that the two terms are now mutually exclusive.
First, if you want your ideas to be discussed here, post them here. Don’t just drive us over to your blog site.
Second, unless you have a plan to raise hundreds of millions of dollars, please don’t expect any intelligent person to take a third party seriously. It’s not that I and many others don’t agree with the underlying goal - but goals without plans to turn them into reality are just dreams.
Focus on the “how” and if you can show any semblance of how a third party can become a practical “real” solution, then we’ll all chip in to craft the platform. But you’ve got it ass-backwards. And as Rush claims to be the Mayor of Realville, many FReepers will claim to be residents, and we’ll let you if your plan passes the “reality check”.
We need a period of extensive soul searching on how each of us can be better at countering the gross misconceptions that have been employed to mislead even many intelligent voters, over the past two decades. Since truth--reality--is on our side, it can be done. But it is going to take a major coordinated effort to overcome the tremendous ideological fire power of the mass media, and the Leftists in academia, who have indoctrinated them. William Flax
With 8 years of Obamanomics under our belt, I suspect people will be ready for some soul searching and eager to listen to sound common sense. I could be wrong, but what we're doing now isn't working. One of the arguments we made in the last election was that Obama had failed to lead and had accomplished nothing in his first term, and therefore deserved to be replaced. Does that same argument not fit just as well with the GOP? Do they not deserve to be replaced as well?
I kinda expected that.
Conservatism must have a vehicle with which to advance it’s agenda and like it or not, there are only two vehicles. Take your pick.
First of all, they’re not mine to post here, they belong to the author of the website.
Two, you don’t have to go to the site unless you want to, nor do you have to take part in the discussion.
“I could be wrong, but what we’re doing now isn’t working.”
You’re correct!
(notice I did not say ‘right’.)
The right way to go about it is to build a party that will attract people such as those you listed. We have to have something to offer them before they will come onboard.
Exactly the same argument that got the Republican Party defeated earlier this month.
Come up with something different, please.
Sorry, I thought you were the author.
And my contribution is, as stated: the problem with a 3rd party is money. I’d love to see Adelson, Koch bros, et al come together and say to the RNC, “screw you guys, we’re going our own way” and hire the kind of people it would take to start a new party from scratch. But we’re talking a billion dollars, probably, and it won’t happen overnight so there’s the time factor as well — can we afford to wait 5, 10, 15 years?
The alternative is to take control of the RNC platform - yet we have no clue as to how to do that. When the likes of Newt and Santorum are considered “too extreme” - what are the odds the RNC would suppor much of what is outlined in this platform? How could we displace those who are calling the shots at the RNC and replace them? I don’t mean to be negative, but it just feels like we’re in a car careening out of control down a mountain road and someone has locked the doors and welded ‘em shut. Even if we could get the keys, how could we escape? How much longer can we even keep the car on the road?
How about this...let’s have better candidates.
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