Posted on 06/26/2014 9:56:24 PM PDT by vbmoneyspender
Too often, Republican establishment types seem to have an exactly backward assumption about their place in politics. They seem to think that their core voters are the problem – that if only they would sit down and shut up, the leadership could steer the party to victory in November. Wrong. In fact, the establishment’s primary season struggle is a leading indicator of its general election weaknesses. Sure, primary voters are more conservative than general election voters, but both perceive the same malady, which is not reducible to a left-right distinction: the Republican party says one thing to get elected, then does another once elected. It pledges on the campaign trail to reduce the scope of government, but in Washington, D.C. it perpetuates the Leviathan, often in support of well-heeled interest groups.
(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...
This platform affirms that America has always been a place of grand dreams and even grander realities; and so it will be again, if we return government to its proper role, making it smaller and smarter. If we restructure government’s most important domestic programs to avoid their fiscal collapse. If we keep taxation, litigation, and regulation to a minimum. If we celebrate success, entrepreneurship, and innovation. If we lift up the middle class. If we hand over to the next generation a legacy of growth and prosperity, rather than entitlements and indebtedness.
Every Republican candidate can cite a version of this by heart; it has been the gist of the party’s message for nearly 80 years. Yet Cochran is not in D.C. to fulfill these promises. His purpose is to perpetuate what Theodore Lowi once called “interest group liberalism.” He is the modern equivalent of the Gilded Age spoilsman; he parcels federal resources to well-placed factions that, in turn, help secure his reelection. This runs directly contrary to what the Republican party promises to do.
The problem for the Republican party writ large is that the Cochran-type does not seem like an outlier. People do not see the GOP as a party out to make the government “smaller and smarter,” to “celebrate success, entrepreneurship, and innovation.” They certainly do not see think it is trying to “lift up the middle class.” They see a party that perpetuates and expands government as it suits them, often to the benefit of the well-heeled interest groups that have descended upon the nation’s capital.
The party’s leaders need to ask themselves: if their purpose is to perpetuate interest group liberalism, why should anybody vote for them? There is already a party whose central purpose is to carve up the federal pie for its clients/voters. It is called the Democratic party, and nobody does interest group liberalism better than it does.
The GOP has become the “corporate party”.
The only problem is their bullsh** story is no longer working on their constituencies. Hence the pathetic Cochran debacle we all witnessed this past week.
Excellent summation.
The GOP is the Big Government and Big Business party. So are the Dems, but they come at it from a different angle.
Forty years, he has kept his seat through it all, Watergate, Jimmy Carter, the Reagan years, Clinton, the Gingrich revolution, Obama, the tea party, and he has done nothing for us, yet he retains his seat to do the same thing, during the next six years of of our future.
He has manged to take a Senate seat out off the playing field for conservatives, for almost a half a century.
It is a matter of character... The elite power hungry have none
If anyone is adding up the numbers, he wasn’t actually elected to the Senate until 1978, he was a Congressman before that, I should have run the numbers before I posted, but they don’t change much of the meaning of the post.
That’s well said.
Just to be clear Jay Cost from the Weekly Standard wrote all of that and I think you are spot on - it is very well said.
Yes. And know that I really appreciated the second post — saved a click! :^)
wait their place in line? Sheesh these people stil don't get it. We reject the wait- your-turn mentality of the establishment GOP. We want fresh blood and ideas.
He went too long
Very interesting though
In the first of page two he says the 2012 party platform was smaller government. This is where the disconnect started and carries to now. Romney was going to get in and then do what these guys did In miss. and for the same reason- to represent their constituents - the liberals
I saw Dickie Morris on Hannity defending this as “so what”... put on your big boy pants. This is the problem. The Dicks of the GOPe... they do not even see how they are destroying the GOP with their crap... and they never will. They all need to be smacked on the ass with a Karl Rove whiteboard.
“He went too long”
Yeah, way too long. What’s even worse about this primary win is that he won by making a Faustian deal with the Left. Consequently, should he win the general, on some important vote in the future his debt will be called in, screwing Conservatives.
The definitions and action of “Democrat” and “Republican” voters are fluid. If you subscribe to the party platform of the GOP, you are - for the most part - a Republican. I would guess that very few people here at FR would subscribe to the Democratic Party platform.
The problem is that there is no overriding definition of “Conservative” or “Conservatism.” There is not an organized Conservative Party with a platform that voters can judge. I consider myself conservative when it comes to government spending and federal overreach, but I don’t concern myself much with cultural issues like gay rights because they don’t affect my day-to-day life. I’ve been running cows for more than 30 years. Whether two men or two women can get married in Indiana or Utah doesn’t affect my ranch. Federal overreach and a smorgasboard of federal regulations do.
“Conservatives” need to form their own third party with an identifiable platform or align themselves with the party whose platform they agree with most. Politics is the art of compromise. No one - conservatives, moderates, liberals or extremists - can get their way all the time or always elect the candidates they support. And since there is no organized, registered and recognized conservative party, I would hope that most conservatives align with the Republican Party and support those candidates in the general election.
If you like conservative ideas on limited government and economics, but are liberal on social issues and weak on national defense, then you should look at the Libertarian party.
One can’t have social liberalism and limited government and conservative economics, but libertarians can’t figure that out.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.