Why doesn't the Republican Party just split already? It seems pretty clear to me that the conservatism that is supposed to define the current Republican Party has different meanings to different people. Fiscal conservatives may have nothing in common with religious conservatives other than the term conservative which means favoring traditional views and values; tending to oppose change.
A split would not be a bad way to go considering that there are a lot of conservative Democrats who want out of their party as well. Fiscal conservatism linking smaller government, lower taxes, deficit reduction, balanced budgets and rational money-management carries a lot of bootstrap appeal, especially for today's middle class. This platform is worthy without being tied up with religious conservatism and the guise of family values.
The mere speculation that Sarah Palin would run for President, effectively becoming the new face of the Republican Party, even had Karl Rove shaking in his shoes. Party Leaders liked it when she was wing-woman to McCain riling up the "rest of the base" for the sake of winning an election. Unfortunately, the short-sighted fear-mongering that appealed to this base has been continued in earnest by the likes of Rush Limbaugh and other conservative media pundits. The "other" Republicans, the big business, small government, fiscal conservative, white and suited gentlemen who finance the Party have been very quiet lately. Perhaps they cannot admit to us yet that "the base" that has been rallying is no longer a base they wish to defend. Maybe they are still working it out.
The Republicans should get on it with it but first they would have to decide who keeps the Republican Party name and who becomes the newly chartered Conservative Party, a fine name I believe.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment