Where Do We Go From Here?

I've been thinking a lot about our devastating losses in the Midterm Election, and trying to ask myself, "Where do we go from here?" In order to properly answer that question, we need to determine HOW we get into this situation where we have lost both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The mainstream media would like you to believe that the 2006 Election signals the end of the so-called "Reagan Coalition" and the beginning of a move to the Left in American politics. I do NOT agree. The Reagan coalition has NOT been destroyed, but I do think it's fair to say that it has been "fractured" somewhat over the last several years, and we witnessed the culmination of that in the 2006 Election. The bottom line is that Conservatives and/or Republicans have engaged in a lot of 'circular firing squad' behavior over the last few years, and that's not good.

I think the first thing we need to do is examine the various factions within our movement and see WHY they are angry or disappointed in the Republican Party at this stage of the game. The groups I list are what I and others consider to be the foundation of the so-called Reagan Coalition that has, for the most part, dominated American Politics between 1980 and 2004:

LIBERTARIAN CONSERVATIVRES--This group has always had an uneasy alliance with the Conservative movement because they do not necessarily agree with some of the moral foundations of our movement. BUT...Reagan was able to bring this group under the Republican tent with his heavy emphasis on Personal Responsibility, and Reagan's foundational ties to the original Barry Goldwater campaign of 1964 that pushed so many Libertarians under the Republican tent. This group has grown increasingly disenchanted with the Republican Party in the post-Reagan era because they feel they have been ignored at the expense of the Social/Christian Conservatives. This group has been drifting away for years, but their departure was exacerbated by the (regrettable but totally necessary) adoption of things like the Patriot Act. To Libertarian Conservatives, things like the Patriot Act merely reinforced their worst fears of Republicans turning into the Big Government types that they once despised. To see CLEAR illustrations of our losses among Libertarian Conservatives, please notice the erosion of Republican support in key states like Montana, Arizona, Colorado and Nevada. This is an example of a General loss of support among Libertarian Republicans. As for a very specific example, please note the loss of Congressman Jim Leach in Iowa, who made his anti-Gambling bill the foundation of his tenure, and Libertarian Republicans totally abandoned him this year and he suffered a stunning upset defeat. This group feels the party has sold out to Christian Conservatives.

BUCHANAN/ISOLATIONIST CONSERVATIVES--This group has been wrongly referred to as 'Paleo-Conservatives' and while they do represent a part of this group, that is not what the foundation of the group is. The true foundation of this group is based on Populism and Isolationism...two of the most dangerous political ideologies to have at least one foot in the Right Wing world. These are the people who jumped off the reservation in 1992 and voted for Ross Perot, thus giving us the Bill Clinton tragedy. Obviously, this group has been slipping away for years, but they really fled after the invasion of Iraq, a war which is not overtly about national interest...even though less Populist Conservatives realize that it is ALL about national interest over the long haul. This group thinks the party has sold out to Wall Street Conservatives.

CHRISTIAN/SOCIAL CONSERVATIVES--This group has truly been the backbone of the Party in the Reagan era and beyond. They have been reliable voters who generally have accepted modest return on their investment in terms of their loyalty...though they do expect SOME return, and their demands have increased in recent years. They have drifted away ever so slightly the past two years, mainly because of their disgust with things like the Abramoff and Foley scandals, as well as some other issues related to Republican corruption. But also, there has been a general feeling pervading this community that perhaps they have not been rewarded enough for their loyalty. Their worst fears seemed to come true when Republicans foolishly compromised on the issue of Judicial Filibusters. When that fool John McCain and his so-called Gang of 14 led Republicans to drop the so-called "nuclear option" that confirmed the worst fears of many Social Conservatives that the Republicans either took them for granted, or they lacked the moral courage to do the right thing in the face of pathetic behavior by the Democrats. This group tends to feel that Wall Street Republicans and Fiscal Conservatives have too much power in the party.

WALL STREET REPUBLICANS--This group is mistakenly referred to as "Rockefeller Republicans" by the media and other Right Wing elements...this is VERY inaccurate. The Rockefeller Republicans of yesteryear are now Democrats or Independents...the last of the Rockefeller Republicans was Lincoln Chafee, and he just lost his Senate seat on Tuesday, so they are ALL gone now. In truth, the Wall Street Republicans are essentially what the media has mislabeled as Paleo Conservatives. They are pure, laissez faire Capitalists, who place the accumulation of Wealth and Material gain as the ultimate extension of pure Democracy. They are what's left of the pre-FDR Republicans, along with the less ugly faction of the Buchanan group. They tend to think that the Social Conservatives have too much power in the party.

FISCAL CONSERVATIVES--They are different from the Wall Street Conservatives in that they tend to be more about Personal Responsibility as the foundation of fiscal discipline rather than the accumulation of wealth. This group has been VERY reliable for the Republican Party for decades, but has shown some signs of slippage in the post-9/11 era as Republicans in Congress have shown less and less fiscal discipline. They tend to think that the Social Conservatives and Neo-Conservatives have too much power.

NEO-CONSERVATIVES--While most of you on this forum will STRONGLY disagree with me on this, this group has been the second most important faction in the growth of the Republican Party in the Reagan years and beyond...only Social Conservatives have been more important. Reagan himself was a former FDR Democrat, and MOST of the really important influential Conservatives of the late 20th Century (Krauthammer, Fukuyama, Kristol, etc...) have been Neo-Conservatives. This group is now a popular target of all other Conservatives as they are being blamed for the Iraq War. Neo-Conservatives, with some exceptions, have remained faithful to their moralistic view of foreign policy despite events in Iraq, and have chosen to focus more on problems involved in the execution of the War rather than any fundamental failure in theory. So Neo-Cons have shown some slippage as they blame President Bush for not prosecuting the War as violently as necessary, nor articulating the reasons for the War as well as he should have. Neo-Conservatives tend to feel that the Wall Street Republicans have too much power.

REALIST CONSERVATIVES--Best represented by people like George Bush's father and James Baker. These are the people who warned the younger Bush about the follies of Neo-Conservatism and the pursuit of an over-aggressive foreign policy. While the problems in Iraq have made this group look smarter by the day, this is VERY misleading. This group is the one that laid the foundation for the absolute MESS that is the Middle East. The so-called Realists had their chance to solve things in the Middle East and elsewhere for over 50 years...and they failed miserably. They were the same people who told Ronald Reagan that his approach to the Soviet Union was too harsh. History has proven their ideology both flawed and immoral...but they are a necessary evil in our movement as they reign in the natural tendency of neo-conservatism to turn into Utopianism, or the Woodrow Wilson view of the world. The Realists tend to think that Neo-Conservatives have far too much power.

So in summary, you can see that all of these groups have major gripes with the direction of the Conservative Movement in America. Reagan was able to bring all of these diverse groups together under the flag of Patriotism and Optimism, and to a lesser extent, Newt Gingrich did the same thing during the Clinton years. George Bush was able to hold this coalition together in the ashes of 9/11, but as things grew more difficult in Iraq, these divisions began to crack the movement at the seams. The Conservative/Reagan coalition is NOT dead and it MUST be salvaged...

I have thoughts on how we can achieve this goal together, but I would like to hear you thoughts on what I've said, and where you think we should go from here. I'll post my thoughts later in the thread after I've seen some (hopefully thoughtful!) responses.

"Social conservatives" need to get over the idea that government is an appropriate tool for advancing their social/religious agenda. Then they can band together with libertarian and fiscal conservatives to get rid of all the government programs that puch ANY social/religious agenda.

Start with the public schools, and on the federal level, the whole behemoth of the Dept. of Education, which collects taxpayer money from all over the country, and then redistributes it to public schools with onerous strings attached, and as college student loan subsidies and grants. The latter have enabled teenagers to bypass their parents' common sense in choosing colleges, majors, and course (and enabled plenty of adults to bypass the concept of financial self-sufficiency and study idiotic things with big taxpayer subsidies). Eliminate all federal student financial aid, and most of the pseudo-academic departments and courses, which are staffed by loony leftist professors, would quickly go out of business for lack of students. The loony leftist professors would find out the hard way what their real value is in the free market.

Let me see if I have this correctly. It's the fault of the Christian Conservatives?

What next....it's the fault of the Neo Cons?

We are at war and the MSM determined that it's not a just war. How to overcome that when most of the country thinks the ecnomy is terrible for the other guy. That the war is not fighting, even tho it's the other guy fighting, that the entire republican party is corrupt, nevermind that Enron began under slick willie, that the dot com bubble ws created during slick willie.

An educated voter is impossible to find in this country.

There were many close races. This election in historical terms was not surprising statistically. I think that common ground must be emphasized between the groups you describe in your well written vanity. A few basic actions may have changed the electoral results dramatically, if for no other reason than to give concrete action(s) as a reason to support the current Congress. I think it would be wise to discuss the common ground shared. Two things that I think would have made a difference are lack of fiscal responsibility and the southern border fence. These are very basic necessities IMO and would have given a physical example of a coordinated agenda moving forward.

What are you talking about??? That's ALL you got out my initial post? Where did I say it was Christian Conservatives fault???????

Then you have the audacity to complain about "educated voters" when all you got out of my long and detailed analysis, which both supports and criticizes ALL conservatives, including the group I consider myself a part of, and you come up with the singular conclusion that I'm blaming everything on Christian Conservatives???

Perhaps YOU are a shining example of why we find ourselves in our current dilemma as the Conservative Movement...

What do we DO? Well, one of the first things we do is watch the congressional Republicans who are now in the minority and see who distinguishes themselves as fighters, and who decide to be collaborators with the Democrats.

When the Democrats start trying to organize committee investigation witchhunts against Bush, I want to see which Republicans start throwing wrenches into the gearbox with filibusters of our own. I want to see who the most ruthless and intractable bastards are, and who the Democrats hate the most.

I want us to learn from what the left wingnuts actually did right and adapt and emulate. Venues such as Youtube, Vidilife, and Google video need to be exploited. Vichy Republicans (rinos) need to be mercilessly hounded at every turn.

We lost a battle, not the war. We lost this battle because our opponents adapted and came up with some effective new stratagies, while our own leadership decided to diss it's own base.
This is just the start of what we need to do.

One way to address the "faultlines" would be to start stressing more federalism and devolving power back down to the states. Then the libertarian and social conserative areas of the US will have more control over thier respective backyards and not feel so immediately threatened by whatever consequences result from the ideology of the other.

"I don't know why the hell everybody always shoots me down when I propose Newt/Ollie '08."

Did I try to shoot you down? I like the sound of that one, actually. At least, we know where they stand on the issues...

WHAT???

This is what I actually said..."CHRISTIAN/SOCIAL CONSERVATIVES--This group has truly been the backbone of the Party in the Reagan era and beyond. They have been reliable voters who generally have accepted modest return on their investment in terms of their loyalty...though they do expect SOME return, and their demands have increased in recent years. They have drifted away ever so slightly the past two years, mainly because of their disgust with things like the Abramoff and Foley scandals, as well as some other issues related to Republican corruption. But also, there has been a general feeling pervading this community that perhaps they have not been rewarded enough for their loyalty. Their worst fears seemed to come true when Republicans foolishly compromised on the issue of Judicial Filibusters. When that fool John McCain and his so-called Gang of 14 led Republicans to drop the so-called "nuclear option" that confirmed the worst fears of many Social Conservatives that the Republicans either took them for granted, or they lacked the moral courage to do the right thing in the face of pathetic behavior by the Democrats."

How in the heck is that laying all the blame on Christian Conservatives??????

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