Posted on 07/20/2008 1:02:47 PM PDT by The_Republican
ALMOST anything can happen in an election year, but among conservatives, almost everyone seems to agree that no matter who captures the White House in November, the movement that has ruled the Republican Party since the 1960s and mostly dominated American politics since 1980 has lost its way. Across the spectrum of the right, writers and thinkers have turned their relentless analysis inward, a kind of political EST seminar aimed at self-transformation.
Consider the case of the AEI, which last week announced that Arthur C. Brooks, a business and government professor would succeed its president, Christopher DeMuth, who is stepping down after 22 years. Under Mr. DeMuth, A.E.I. became the most influential of Washington think tanks during the Bush years. Its wood-paneled offices on 17th Street — in the same building that houses The Weekly Standard — attracted former administration officials like Paul D. Wolfowitz, John Bolton and David Frum, not to mention advisers and allies like Richard Perle (one of the most conspicuous supporters of the Iraq war) and Fred Kagan (who helped develop the strategy to deal with problems that war caused).
Today, all of these policy cooks — as well as others who sit in nearby offices — are pushing wildly different ideas about which direction the party should take. A.E.I., like so many other bastions of the intellectual right, has returned to the kitchen to whip up a fresh menu of possibilities for disaffected conservatives looking for solutions to emerging problems like energy, the environment and immigration, as well as a way to comfortably fit these new ideas into a conservative ideological framework.
“We’ve been extremely discouraged by the policy trajectory of the Bush administration, with big increases in unfunded entitlements, big increases in deficit spending, considerable growth in government regulation,” said Mr. DeMuth.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Patricia Cohen
After graduating, she became an editorial writer for New York Newsday and then held editorial posts at Rolling Stone and the Washington Post. In 1997, she went to the New York Times and launched Arts & Ideas, a Saturday section covering the intellectual scene.
Reagan conservatism is the only brand that’s worth following. Low taxes, anti-abortion, strong defense, self-reliance instead of welfare, pro 2nd-amendment, enforcement of all laws (immigration included).
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Ahh, but the NYT -- their "Editorializing-As-News" policy is working wonders.
We each had to have our own POTUS candidate and now we have one none of are really excited about.
Now for the VP: we still can't reach a "consensus." We demand that the GOP follow our line, but we don't offer viable candidates to lead the way.
IMHO, we conservatives are spoiled spoilers.
The GOP had both houses of Congress after The Contract With America election......and......they......blew it big time.
Instead of abolishing the executive washroom in Washington, they changed the lock on the door.
They/We blew it.
I would only add on to your list—strong enforcement of laws especially immigration. We conservatives need to own the fact that as much as Reagan did right he set us down the wrong path with how we deal with illegals and the border issue. But hey who's perfect. If he knew what we all know today about how illegals were going to slowly help destroy part of the fabric that makes our country great (good to excellent public schools, middle class neighborhoods that are safe, pride of citizenship for new immigrants etc.) he would have most likely done it differently--especially knowing his love for California and the United States—their great beauty and promise.
Reagan's Conservatism will never go out of style. This is just a lame attempt by the Neo-Cons to hijack the brand. They are nothing but big government liberals in the mold of FDR.
I agree the conservative and the conservative electorate both are equally to blame, however, eventhough it is really no excuse, there's one caveat to this whole indictment, and that is Bush. The moderate that he is almost forced a conservative republican congress to go along with him on almost every issue because we were defeating DBM/dems. Obviously, the conservatives thought they were doing the right thing, but got snookered by Bush's Kennedy kissing butt! This moderate lean showed America conservative's lost their principles especially in the fiscal realm out spending previous dem congresses and growing gov't. Something which was antithetical to the "Contract With America."
Newt said, if we don't do what we should do as conservatives then fire us and that's exactly what we did! 10 years later real conservatism hasn't lost it's way, the republican (stupid) party has!
That must be NY Slimes speak for "we spoke with our friends".
BUMP!
The Republican, "go along to get along" mindset has GOT to stop. But I'm not sure what changes are needed to stop it.
The Second American Revolution (and all that implies) would do it. But, IMHO, that's an overreaction at this point.
Agreed.....I’m voting Constitution Party....if Obama wins I doubt he and Pelosi can socialize the entire economy in four years.....but they will try.
After fours years of Obama.....the Democrat party will be finished.
I know your point, I understand your maneuver. However, I think it would be much better if you voted for a conservative to put in the Repub party to help win back control for conservatives in the party. Checking the ballot for CST party is just completely useless on all sides no matter how principled the vote would be.
No matter what happens, we conservatives are in trouble. With all of the illegals that will shortly be getting their amnesty, and with the blacks realizing that it does “pay” to vote, it will increasingly be more and more difficult for a conservative to win at the national level. We will always have a shot at the local levels, but with all the free cheese the Rats are giving out to those who can’t or won’t work in the bigger cities, I’m afraid the day of the national republican party may be ending. And once they tax all of us locals out of work, it may end republicans as we know them forever!!
Reagan was a true conservative. The current Republican leadership is made up of fake capitalists. Instead of making government smaller and less involved in our lives, they have vastly expanded government and federal spending. They have tried so hard to please the left, that they have lost the right.
Meanwhile, the Democrat Party is actually the Socialist Party, the party of Marx, Lenin, Stalin, the former USSR, Mao, and Communist China. And there can be no doubt that the terrorists hope Obama wins.
I almost switched my registration to independent (no party), but that might help the socialists. So I try not to gag while remaining a registered Republican. McCain may not understand the First Amendment (McCain-Feingold), and he may feel it is necessary to talk about global warming as if it were a real man-made problem (which it isn’t), and he may be weak in economics, but at least he will be effective on national defense.
As an idea, what we call ‘conservatism’ is not homogenous, and some parts may actually conflict with each other. Take the free-market idea, for instance. When the prices of production factors in the home country increase, the economics say either move the production to other places where the prices are cheap, or import the production factors that are cheaper. This lead to what some Freepers call the ‘globalist view’: rellocate the productions to China, and import (legal and also illegal) labor from abroad. This idea, of course, doesn’t take into account American patriotism.
Not hardly.
The ignorance of the people, who write for the New York Times is astounding. She's slamming conservatives, but the idea that conservatives ruled the GOP or dominated American politics is insane.
Just one example; since 1960, the GOP has supplied 5 Presidents: Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush I and Bush II. Only one was a conservative. That's rule? That's domination? Of course, arguably the only successful President of the bunch was the one conservative.
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