I’m not sure you realize how alienated the libertarians and Blue Dogs are from the socons.
I understand precisely how fractured we are. It is natural, as we are opposing forces unless bound by the only thing we have in common- That being true Conservatism.
Libertarianism cannot work without social conservatism- It will lead to anarchy as I am sure you understand. Likewise, I recognize that social conservatism cannot survive without libertarian values, lest we stray into theocracy, or simply socialism with a different face.
We must work together or we fail. Always separate, unnatural partners... A symbiosis of necessity.
What is lacking is leadership and a leader able to satisfy the needs of all factions. The fact that we are at each other's throats speaks volumes of how far off the rails this party has gone.
“I’m not sure you realize how alienated the libertarians and Blue Dogs are from the socons.”
Indeed. I know someone whose family all the way back to Roosevelt was pure Republican, including a grandmother who HATED FDR. And in spite of being believers they are not a family of ‘social conservatives’ in that sense.
His problem (and mine) with socons is that they do not propose to merely defend in the social arena decent people from the depredations of immoral or anti-Christian leftists. No, they instead seek to IMPOSE their order on all of us, be us believers or no.
This will shock them but there are a lot of Republicans who feel the Marriage Amendment is a horror because it’s an attempt to modify the Constitution on what is a relatively minor issue in comparison to the growing power of the State (and indeed, this would be an extension of that power and an unnecessary one) and most of them are very much pro-WoD, probably the greatest single contributor to the erosion of our liberties (aside from socialist dogma penetrating the academy, schools and media, of course) in the last 30 years.
They also don’t realize that there are a host of Christian-friendly people who are not Christian (or we try to be until they drive us away) and plenty of libertarian-types who ARE believers but don’t believe every law on this earth should be an attempt to bring Paradise.
Many of them are waaay too supportive of earthly authority and thus they cannot see the myriad ways in which we are descending into tyranny, nor would they care, SO LONG as it’s THEIR brand.
For many of us, abortion and homos are just not the defining issues of our time. Honestly, even a pro-life person can be against legislating the issue (or on limits to such legislation, as I am) because the REAL issue is the mother—NOT the law. Change the society, change mothers and the approach to life, force doctors to disclose alternatives, just as they do for even the most simple procedures (the doctor gave me alternatives to a CORTISONE SHOT!) and defend your beliefs in the arena of ideas, not by doing the same thing the leftists have done—which is legislating freedom of thought away.
It doesn’t help that many of us feel the socons are cut from the same cloth as the people who condemned Elvis and his swaying hips and interracial marriage.