A Conservative Adjustment
E.J. Dionne writes in Righting the Right that the path of the Conservative movement is in need of a correction.
“There is emerging within the Republican Party a very interesting debate about whether we need to change our approach, or just reassert the policies we already have,” Frum said in an interview.
Frum would like the heretical Republicans to come together to create their own version of the Democratic Leadership Council. The GOP sure could use something. A Pew Research Center survey released last week found that only 27 percent of Americans now identify themselves as Republicans, the lowest percentage in Pew’s 16 years of polling. If ever there was a moment for change agents within the nation’s conservative party, this is it.
There already is a relatively moderate “Republican Leadership Council” and hopefully a GOP thumping will drive many more to its membership.
Almost every public policy issue is a debate about how much or how little to do. It would be nice to have a larger fraction of Republican representatives who are willing and able to debate in that kind of pragmatic environment instead of stonewalling progress in the interest of ideological purity and pandering to the most extreme among their constituents.
And I feel likewise about the Democrats, but I think they are already more open to that message.
4 Responses to “A Conservative Adjustment”
For the Republicans to become Democratic-lite is just the committing suicide instead of waiting to die of the chronic problem of demographics.
If the election is about how the government spends money, there is only need for one party. As long as more than 50% of the population feels that it is getting more from the government than it pays in taxes, there will only be one political party.
Look at how the Democratic party is handling an election when they agree on spending and government largess. It is all about personalities. That is the future of politics in America and no Republican study group is going to stop it.
Name one Republican who has demonstrated the least bit of leadership ability that could ever implement a resurgent Republican Party. That leader does not exist.
McCain has demonstrated the least bit of leadership ability… The GOP will adjust and that has to start somewhere.
There are also several good young Congressmen who are bringing back true fiscal conservatism- like Jeff Flake in the House and Tom Coburn in the Senate. They are true leaders and reformers who could lead the change in the direction that superdestroyer (and I ) would prefer, rather than acquiescing to more growth of government.
But you are, and will remain a minority, CS. Most people aren't in favor of what would be required for Flake and Coburn's ideology to be realized. They don't want Social Security eliminated. They don't think wiping out Medicare is a good idea. And the only honest conservatives are the ones who admit that those are just two of the things that would be required to shrink government enough to make them happy.