The Problem is not conservatism, but conservatives who aren’t conservative

PajamasMedia ^ | 5/16/08 | Victor Davis Hanson

[donna]

The governor of CA, for example.

[DLfromthedesert]

I used to be on his e-mail list, but they were filled with so much vitriol for the president; he practically called him the anti-Christ.

I’m not thrilled with Bush all the time, but you would think a Christian pastor would not be filled with such overwhelming negativity, so I asked to be removed from his list.

[WOSG]

PING for later analysis.

There is a lot of soul-searching going on in GOP-land. This looks like a good analysis.

[WOSG]

That is NOT the root problem. The root problem is the voters. It's true that effective leadership can convert voters but that cannot be relied upon unless you have an army of "Reagans" and we don't and never will. Also - personalities and people come and go. So the problem is not solely with "them" but also with "us" - the voters. We have to find ways to educate the voters on the merits of conservatism so that a majority of voters themselves want to elect more conservatives.

BRILLIANT POINT! All these stamp-your-feet protestations to move the party right dont do a lick of good if *there are not enough voters there*. There is a 3-fold issue: Conservative values among voters, conservative agenda and , and three - the marketing and articulate rigorous expression of that agenda. ALL THREE NEED TO BE THERE. - some demand the agenda, not enough - some realize that we fail to *articulate* the conservative agenda and without that, we are lost from the start - the third element is key; we need engaged, patriotic *citizens* who are turned on to conservative agenda, values and ideas.

A forth element is a proven track record of success. success that ideas worked, and didnt fail. somehow the liberals can have a program X that fails to fix a problem and they get re-elected on it. Conservatives get no such break. We only win if our ideas succeed, so it is dreadful to push half-baked or wrong reforms.

[WOSG]

Naive foolishness. The rules are such that delegates are *bound* to vote for the chosen nominee on the first ballot.
McCain is our nominee.
Take such harebrained fantasies from your mind.

The next president will be Obama or McCain, nobody else.
Who is your preferred choice?

[WOSG]

but those who make the argument to vote for McCain are not undermining conservative principles, they are simply using a different calculus and trying to solve a different problem.

I bet Duncan Hunter is not writing in Duncan Hunter.”

Well said. Writing a 3rd party candidate is useless. Vote the major party guy closest to your views.

Look, even the Communists have it figured out ... kill the right-wing conservatives off by getting obama elected ...

http://travismonitor.blogspot.com/2008/05/obama-naive-and-wrong-on-military.html

Another endorsement for Obama: Young Communists for Obama - “As Communists, we have to finish the task of isolating the ultra-right and completely removing them from power—using the Democrats to finish the job. ... In Chicago YCL members were very active in the Youth for Obama efforts.”

[Just A Nobody]

The voters handed it all to the Republicans in 1994:

The only problem was that immediately following that success a group of republicans got together to undermine the legitimately elected majority. These shadow groups have undermining the Republican agenda and President Bush ever since.

The November 1994 mid-term elections were commonly referred to as the "Republican Revolution." Given the great gains made by Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate, a group of moderate House Republicans began informal meetings to discuss ways to further a centrist, pragmatic Republican agenda -- one that could accommodate bipartisan legislative results. At that time, there was great concern that a dramatic shift to the right was quickly approaching, given the new congressional leadership. The discussion group began to craft a moderate Republican agenda with a fiscally conservative background.

They became The Republican Main Street Partnership which was founded in 1998 to promote thoughtful leadership in the Republican Party, and to partner with individuals, organizations and institutions that share centrist values.

Be sure to examine the drop down menus on the "About Us" and "What We Stand For" tabs. Most interesting reading. Also note, John Mccain has always been a prominent member.

There is also the Senate Centrist Coalition:

In a March 3, 2005, press release, Antonia Ferrier, Senator Snowe's press secretary said that "'The coalition was started after partisan conflicts between a Republican Congress and President Bill Clinton over balancing the federal budget briefly shut down the government in 1995. Since then, the group has generally met weekly to 'exchange ideas' and have 'open and frank conversations' in a civil manner about complicated issues ... The group does not have an official membership, but a core group of about 15 senators usually attends,... In past years, the coalition has come up with alternative budget programs,' Ferrier said.

Once again, John Mccain is not only a member, but also spoke at the Third Way/Force Shadow Party convention.

Then there is McCain's Reform Institute that is funded by George Soros.

[WOSG]

“I refuse to vote for “Democrat Lite”. I’ll stay home. “

And let the Marxist-lite candidate win. Brilliant plan, way to save America. (/sarc)

[WOSG]

donna
“The voters handed it all to the Republicans in 1994”

NO THEY DIDNT. Clinton had the White House, and he vetoed tight budgets and 2 welfare reform bills and tort reform and other conservative stuff besides.

The GOP had effective majority control only from 2003 to end of 2006.

The point on the moderates is well-taken. Even when we had a Republican majority, we did not have a conservative majority.

[WOSG]

“What we can do - get involved locally first. A school lien “for the children” that contains funding for environmental hokum and multicultural mind control needs to be defeated.”

We have to fight multi-culturalism and eco-fascism.

[Solitar]

I would put conservatives at about 30% with another 10% right-leaning moderates. The problem is that 40 years ago, it was more like 50% conservative with another 20% leaning right. I would guess that liberals are currently 25% with another 25% leaning left. And demography is not in our favor—even old people go left due to their obsession with entitlements. Just think, the West (including CA) was reliably Republican until 1992. Once CA went blue, I knew it was just a matter of time.

I'm afraid you're right. It is discouraging to realize that any candidate more conservative than McCain would not get elected this time. The sad reality of this coming election is that there are just not enough real conservatives to nominate, let alone elect a real conservative. We can complain about the RINOs, but we need their moderate to left of center ten to twenty percent in order to elect even a token Republican as President. We could hold out for ideals, but we would lose this time. Maybe in four years we can do better -- but as you noted in the quote above, the demographic trends are against us. I apologize for being so pessimistic tonight.

[donna]

When the voters had conservatives to vote for, they did.

[JoJo Gunn]

Even if they swore on their childrens lives to do all those things, it’d fall on my deaf ears. Anything said in the next few months is out of desperation.

The S.O.B.’s have had umpteen years to fix these messes.

[bushfamfan]

Your post nails it. Like I say, the only opportunity for conservatives(Republicans?) to make a comeback would be to not obstruct the Demonrats from passing all their destructive policies. Clintoon I was really in trouble until the GOP took over Congress and saved this country(and Clintoon). That is if a comeback is even possible. A lot of the illegals coming to this country are the same people who put destructive leaders in control of their home countries and kept electing such incompetents. So, naturally they are Demonrat when they come here. Just like Demonrats like to destroy a state and then ironically move to conservative states with good governing and destroy them. And how ironic as this country is heading off the cliff with liberalism all the other major countries have started trending conservative with leadership and FRANCE(FRANCE!) of all places!

[CharacterCounts]

Who is "they"? They are the Republican congress who completely abdicated the position handed to them by conservative voters.

You say that voters need to be educated. Well, those congress critters who are about to lose their jobs did a mighty poor job of educating.

[mad_as_he$$]

I respect VDH a lot but he is wrong about Afcrapistan.

[TSchmereL]

I think that the decline towards socialism is the result of a vicious cycle (a situation in which the apparent solution of one problem in a chain of circumstances creates a new problem and increases the difficulty of solving the original problem.)

Leaders have to lead by creating a virtuous cycle (creating conditions in which a favorable circumstance or result gives rise to another that subsequently supports the first.)

The root problem is an ignorant electorate. But people would learn if shown examples of actual solutions by leaders.

I think we can all be a part of the solution, at least a small part, by being leaders ourselves in our daily lives.

I am trying to be positive. But it is difficult when those in positions of real leadership are being such poor examples.

[Warhammer]

I think that it, at the root, is a leadership problem. Harry Truman has a couple of quotes from "Where The Buck Stops" that I think are appropriate here:

"My definition of a leader in a free country is a man who can persuade people to do what they don't want to do, or to do what they're too lazy to do, and like it."

If the president can do this, he educates the voters.

And a large failure of that leadership has to do with communication, which is where the Bush has failed miserably. Again, from Truman

"That's why I've always felt that a good president has to be the greatest public relations man in the world: because he's got to make the country believe that what he wants to do is the right thing."

I also think that the Republican congresscritters have some blame for this, but I think that strong leadership, leadership that could communicate well, would have convinced the public and kept the critters from committing some of their most egregious offenses.

[Tolik]

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[Tolik]

Nailed It!

Thank you, FRiend!