[Mobile Vulgus]

Yeah. This guy WISHES the conservative movement were dead before it got started!

What he sees is the same kind of backbiting and infighting that EVERY party has. But there is a difference between conservatives and liberals, granted.

Conservatives WILL often torpedo themselves and force themselves into a losing situation because of principle. Since the left really HAS no principle but winning, they band together a tad easier. So, Sullivan has a small point in his favor in his article.

But what Sullivan is not taking into account is the wide coalition of everyday Americans that are leaning more and more Republican who will be able to see past the far right ideologues. The folks will keep following their internet info sources, their talk radio and Fox news sources and stay the line IF the politicos don’t fall totally apart.

This is where we need to ship extremist righties like Pat Buchanan and his sclerotic pre WWI isolationist foolishness off to nowhere land! If we are to win we need to keep racists like Buchanan as the lone voice crying in the wilderness.

What we DO need is more conservatives elected to Congress so that they can finally get the GOP back on track to fiscal responsibility. Once we get back on that track we will be unable to lose even with guys like Buchanan out there.

[John Jorsett]

Sullivan has a point, only he missed one of the bigger divisions: illegal immigration. Bush is selling us out to Mexico, and a whole lot of Republicans are either too gutless or busy whoring themselves for the Hispanic vote to do anything about it. I'll back Bush for now because he's right on a lot of issues, and who else am I going to get behind anyway, Ted Kennedy? But I'm not going to automatically vote for every Republican who comes along, just because there's an 'R' by his/her name. If I'd just be electing another big-government, big spending, pro-illegal dweeb, I may as well stay home.

[huac]

Andrew Sullivan: "If you fascist bastards don't let me get married, I'm taking my ball and going home!"

[skaterboy]

No republicans anymore

Dems are socialists and pubs are dems nowadays

CUT SPENDING DAMNIT

[MHGinTN]

Taken in its entirety, the article is not one of Andrew's best. But I must admit, he has struck a chord or two of fact regarding the future mantle passing when our President is finished. I smell Hatellary Rodhamster piling up turds of democrap conservatism, in an effort to create a favorable rating for her 2008 run at Empress; apparently, Andy is getting an occasional whiff of same. [Actually, should I convey it that way, what with Andy's rearward leaning?

[FreeReign]

Old school conservatives — or “realists”, as they call themselves — had no time for nation building or for wars of liberation among cultures they viewed as irredeemably undemocratic. Neoconservatives — many of them former Democrats and liberals — saw spreading liberty as integral to a successful foreign policy.

Old school conservatives, Neoconservatives, what a bunch of hosrsesh*t.

I've been a freedom loving conservative for a long time. I think advocating freedom around the world will make our country safer. Many conservatives who have been conservatives for a long time agree with me.

Only liberals use such queer terms as "nonconservative" and "old school conservative" and think it actually correlates with isolationism.

[SunkenCiv]

On foreign and domestic policy alike the American right is splintering. With no obvious successor to George W Bush that splintering will deepen.

Good heavens. If the Demagogic Party were not shredding, due to the radicalization of its leadership (not to mention 9/11) this claim wouldn't be made. The Pubbies have picked up votes, and will continue to, and those voters used to be either non-voters, or voted Dim.

I realize that Diehard Dims think that the RP is some kind of "homophobic", racist, pro-life, imperialist, capitalist, "right-wing", fundamentalist, boys-only clubhouse, so it must be disorienting for them when something appears to contradict that.

The main thing to realize is, more people are out there (and the numbers grow every day) who will never again trust the Demagogic Party to ru(i)n this country.

[lainie]

All bickering aside, I would like to point out you said we folks will keep following our internet info sources, our talk radio and Fox news sources, and stay in line.

[thoughtomator]

Differences of opinion - to an extent - make a successful and agile party. Besides, anything that depends on Democrat haplessness is on pretty solid ground.

[TheForceOfOne]

Once we get back on that track we will be unable to lose even with guys like Buchanan out there.

Did we lose something? I was under the impression we were running everything, except the SCOTUS which we are working on, aka the last liberal outpost. lol

[CyberAnt]

These poor people are beginning to scare me .. or should I be ROTFLOL!! Pitiful!

[risk]

Sullivan misses the forest for the trees. The Republican party is losing its opportunity for leadership over these issues:

• Border security and the invasion from our south, which the RNC is incapable of addressing.
• The importing of temporary foreign workers when Americans are out of work.
• Legal if culturally incompatible permanent immigration.
• Outsourcing. The RNC would never dare to contradict Wall Street.
• Manufacturing overseas what could and should be made here. Global capitalism is fine except when it was no longer of benefit to Americans. Of course the Chinese and the Arabs would sell us out. Why would that surprise anyone? See if you can make the RNC admit it.
• Importing and other revenue streams destined for China -- while it arms against us and our allies. Never mind: the party's leaders will just make it worse by kowtowing to "the status quo" with diplomacy and softness on French arms sales.
• Conducting the war too slowly and while underpaying and under-supporting the troops. Oh yes, you know it's true. We're fighting this war like a hobby instead of a battle for survival. It's a PR campaign as much as anything else.

Meanwhile we're distracted daily in conservative media outlets by the religious right and the free trade lobby. The "moral majority" can talk about the end of the world, but it can't do anything about illegal immigration, outsourcing, and Walmart. Walmart's tentacles are deep, and the RNC simply looks the other way. Wall Street would sell its grandmother to make a buck, but the RNC can't act because laissez faire brings in so many kickbacks.

America is in trouble, and the RNC wraps a flimsy flag around its sold-out, unpatriotic core. Who'll dare to point out that the Emperor has no real clothes? Who will dare to demand that the RNC live up to the real duties of leadership?

The opportunities for real change slip further away each time the RNC does nothing when something absolutely needs to be done on these issues. Why are we supplying arms to Egypt and Saudi Arabia at a time like this? Something stinks in Washington, and it's a bipartisan odor. As VDH says, America was founded by rural people. Wall Street and the Beltway insiders don't really care about that. Can the RNC do more than manipulate them for its short term gains? There's a lot more to rural America than NASCAR and hunting rights.

And there's a lot more at stake than the RNC has been willing to concede. Being "right" is ineffectual if it doesn't solve problems. And not all of the problems we have were created by the left, as much as the RNC and some of the FR faithful would have us believe. We've done it to ourselves for cheap trinkets here and a quick profit there.

[MNJohnnie]

Note to Andrew, After endorsing Kerry, you no longer have the intellectual credibility to advise the Right on anything. You are so over Andrew.

[KeyWest]

Welcome to FR. Your analysis is off as bad as Sullivans'.

[AmericanChef]

Oh Andrew, the bitter taste of defeat still plagues you. As if your crew didn't have enough plagues to deal with.

[attiladhun2]

Buchannan is no longer a Republican, Thank the good Lord. He set our movement back with his "cultural warfare" and isolationist nonsense. He also did all he could to get Gore elected in 2000. Remember him whinning on TV about how he didn't deserve the 3600 votes he got in some precints in Florida. Gave the Gore whores addtional ammo for trying to steal the election. I haven't given him two seconds of my time since then. He rode high for a brief moment in NH, and then fell precipitously. He hasn't forgiven the Republican Party or Dubya since. He ought to just go away.

[FreedomCalls]

This guy is totally full of it, ... BUT

But we ignore the history of the crack-up of the British Conservative Party from the high-water mark of Thatherism through John Major's disastrous steerage through land mine strewn political field. Unless we can understand what happened there we could be on the same course.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

For starters, you're awfully new to be jumping into the fray in this way, Mobile Vulgarious.

Secondly, "the haplessness of the Democrats" is a given. They are in the worst shape they've been in, in decades.

Thirdly...I'll let the Kitties decide your particular fate. :)

[ex-snook]

Conservatives were completely vanquished by the Republicans at the convention in New York. The showcase of future leaders [as well as the current GOP governors] were not conservatives. Just who does anyone think is the conservative choice for the next Presidential nomination?