We conservatives have spent at least two decades chortling over how the Democrats have got to change to better relate to the American people, and exulting over how the Dems, at least at the leadership level, are for the most part so fixated on their orthodoxies that they can't bring themselves to reinvent themselves for changed circumstances.
Well, what about us now? You may not agree that what Huck represents is the future of the GOP and the conservative movement, but this fixation the GOP establishment (a term I use to include conservative media) has on winning one more with the Gipper is the road to oblivion. Ronald Reagan was elected to office almost 30 years ago. Can you imagine how bizarre it would have been had Republicans and other conservatives that year been talking about resurrecting Eisenhowerism as the path to political success? He left office 20 years ago -- the same distance in time between Reagan's 1980 race and Nixon's 1960 race against JFK.
Times change. The Republican Party had better do so too.
UPDATE: Read Patrick Deneen on this subject today. Smokin' hot. Excerpt:
It's clear that [Jonah] Goldberg and the mainstream of the Republican party were content all along to encourage the support of social conservatives so long as their votes, and not their views, were all that mattered. Now that social conservatism and economic libertarianism have begun to uncouple (an inevitable development in the aftermath of the fall of communism, which is all that kept this ungainly couple in the same political bed; the worst loser last night was not Hillary!, but the Republicans who hoped she would win and would replace communism as the glue that kept them together), the mainstream Republicans are desperate to ditch that part of the coalition and pick up whatever they can, including their desperate hope that a pro-choice candidate become the eventual nominee of the party. It turns out that Thomas Frank was at least half right: the social conservatives were being used throughout the Reagan and Bush eras (bought off by the promise of conservative judges, as if that is all it would take to change the culture), and now that their support is no longer so tractable, they're desperate to cut them loose. Change is in the air - let's hope it continues to smoke out the faux conservatives.Let the realignment begin!
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A bit of the Python (Monty) seems in order:
"Well, she turned me into a newt!"
"A newt?"
Pause. "I got better!"
I shoulda known, found the whole scene here: http://www.mwscomp.com/movies/grail/grail-05.htm
Enjoy.
Simon
Assuming this thesis were true, could not the exact same thing be said about African Americans and the Democratic Party?
Except African-Americans actually get what they want from the party, or at least did, 30 years ago. And they aren't organized enough to do anything now, although it would be nice to see them stand up and actually demand the Democrats do something about what I think is probably the biggest issue for black Americans: The way the drug war is tearing their families and communities apart. (I am not black, though and have no idea if that is actually the biggest issue or not, I'm just guessing.)
African-Americans are, indeed, mostly overlooked, but overlooked and 'dismissed as crazy lunatics you can get to vote for you by saying the right words' is not the same thing. They get elected to office all the time.
Anyway, the religious right gets nothing from the Republicans, which is something I'm been talking about the entire time I was here, suggesting they suck it up and head over to the Democratic side. The Repubs give them a lot of anti-gay and anti-abortion talk, but the anti-gay talk is a losing battle and the anti-abortion talk is a losing battle that's not even being fought. The GOP thinks they're idiots.
Meanwhile, by supporting the Repubs, they're continuing to harm all sorts of middle and lower class families. They'll never make the GOP actually do what they said, and they'd never wrestle control away from the party enough to actually do anything, they should move to the Democratic side and try to affect social change over there.
...or, at least, that was what I was saying until Huckabee got all that support. So I freely admit I was wrong about their inability to redirect the party. But I was right about the need to essentially hijack the party, and I think the establishment's reaction to that hijacking actually sorta proves my point in that the party was, in fact, using them with no intention of ever actually doing anything they wanted.
Probably because they realize what I've been saying, the American people don't want those policies, and the Republican party actually attempting to actually do them, instead of just yammering about doing them, would seriously harm it.
I guess this was sorta foreshadowed by the local government takeovers of the religious right in places like Kansas and whatnot. Which somewhat proves my point about Americans hating those policies, as such takeovers usually resulted in the near immediately defeat of those people.
quote: "Anyway, the religious right gets nothing from the Republicans, which is something I'm been talking about the entire time I was here, suggesting they suck it up and head over to the Democratic side. The Repubs give them a lot of anti-gay and anti-abortion talk, but the anti-gay talk is a losing battle and the anti-abortion talk is a losing battle that's not even being fought. The GOP thinks they're idiots."
DavidTC,
I think you are right about the drug war and the African-American communities and families. I'd add the huge problem of illegitimacy and absent fathers, which is a major contributor of poverty and youth problems. The government could do something about the drug war, but I'm not sure if reversing illegitimacy and absent fathers is something the government can or should do.
As for the "religious right," part of the problem with them heading over to the Democrats is that secular liberals absolutely loathe Evangelicals. I'm in academia, and some of the ignorant sterotypes I've heard liberals spout about Evangelicals is mind-boggling. Of course, Evangelicals sometimes do stupid things to reinforce said sterotypes, but still from my experience secular liberals are terribly ignorant about Evangelicals and aren't exactly rolling out the red carpet for them. They seem to have forgotten that socially conservative Evangelicals and Catholics were once part of the New Deal coalition.
One thing I like about Obama is that although he is a liberal, he seems to respect Evangelicals and other religious conservatives. Unlike Clinton, Obama seems to want to change the tone, which would be a good place for Democrats to start with religious conservatives.
rr
DavidTC, Abortion and Gay marriage are corrupt insititutions and behaviors that spread other corruption. Mike Huckabee has the right stand on moral soundness. The Godless socialism that Democrats worship is a fact that Christians do not want to support. Those misguided and deluded Christians that vote for Democrats will see the folly of their ignorance come to fruition in the near future when marriage is altered for reprobate behavior. It is bad enough what has happened to "the family" by Progressive and Liberal politics. The Black community is violence laden because the family is shattered. Re-defining marriage will only perpetuate further evil. It is why the GOP gets so many Christians to vote for their candidates. And, the socialism inherent in all things Democrat strike the Godless Government control chord in every Christian that listens to "The Left." Democrats have openly supported and encouraged social horrors and lascivious licentiousness as a civl rights issue. Whatever gains are made "politically" for Democrats in the next few years, will not come with the support and encouragement of Christians that value the testimony of Christ Jesus and the Apostles. Jesus taught that children were extremely valuabloe and that marriage is exclusively a man and a woman. Marriage IS the family foundation. That is to say, the war on Christians being waged by the Secularists and Humanists (anti-Christians one and all) that dominate the Democrat party, will succeed only in destroying America. That will hurt their social dependence programs and all of the inner-city dwellers that depend on their pitiless taxation (of decent families) programs to further enslave the poor in social programs. Christians will rise like they did from the Revolution that created a country worth living in and rebuild this continent into a place worth living. America is only an experiment on the stage of history. Decent people will always rise to overcome people like Progressives and Liberals that literally are the Democrats now.
Donny,
"The Godless socialism that Democrats worship is a fact that Christians do not want to support.'
Secularism is NOT the same thing as "Godless socialism" and nobody believes you when you type such nonsense. It is hardly a "fact".
"Those misguided and deluded Christians that vote for Democrats will see the folly of their ignorance come to fruition in the near future when marriage is altered for reprobate behavior."
Loving someone is NOT "reprobate behavior".
"Re-defining marriage will only perpetuate further evil."
In your mind maybe, but certainly not in reality.
"social horrors and lascivious licentiousness"
Fear-monger much? Great alliteration though.
"It is bad enough what has happened to "the family" by Progressive and Liberal politics."
You know perfectly well that it is what heterosexuals themselves have done to marriage and the family that has caused its 'downfall', and by no means is it limited to progressives of liberals. Cases in point: Britney Spears' 55 hour "marriage; Darve Conger & Rick Rockwell turned "marriage" into a TV game show prize; Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles - admitted adulterers, divorced, and incapable of reproducing.
Etc.
Fulminate away (though I'm not sure why Rod continues to allow your continued bearing of false witness). You are simply WRONG.
As Rod points out, times change. Maybe you should too.
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