Every time the elections roll around, yet another disillusioned Republican comes along bemoaning loss of the old, small government, fiscal conservative roots of the party and the rise of the neo-cons and extreme social conservatives who hijacked the organization some years back. This season is no different, and Radley Balko comes along to fill the bill.
The truth is, unless you vote for a third-party candidate (which really isn’t a bad idea), you don’t have much of a choice this November. You can either endorse the idea of a massive, invasive, ever-encroaching federal government that’s used to promote center-left ideology, or you can endorse the idea of a massive, invasive, ever-encroaching federal government that’s used to promote center-right ideology.
Sadly, if the GOP does lose, it’s likely to be interpreted not as a repudiation of the GOP’s excesses, but as an endorsement of the Democrats’. When the only two parties who have a chance at winning both have a track record of expanding the size and scope of government, every election is likely to be interpreted as a win for big government—only the brand changes.
Ah, Radley, I feel your pain, my friend, but I harbor no such illusions. There was a time when I felt that a sufficiently severe session in the woodshed and a long trek through the wilderness would turn the Republican Party around and possibly even convince me to come back to the fold. However, political beasts have a more urgent sense of self-preservation than mortal man. The GOP seems to now be wedded terminally to the evangelical Christian Right and the “Projection of American Power” heroes who think we can turn the entire planet into a global Disneyland if we can simply crank out enough smart bombs and stealth planes.
His column points out the very desirable roots of the party which were near and dear to the oft-maligned RINOs before so many of us were finally driven out of the party in recent years. Will such principles suddenly show up in the 2010 platform, driving out a lot of the social conservative clutter that now occupies it? Unlikely, as I see it. I don’t know who these people will vote for, but I don’t see them coming back in droves to the Republicans either.
We’ll discuss this topic and others on a special early edition of Mid Stream Radio today at noon eastern time.