Conservatives didn't exist during the New Deal. It was created more or less by the intellectuals led by Bill Buckley (RIP) in the 1950s, and became a coherent and consistent set of beliefs, a philosophy of government. They had to fight a battle out on the wilderness of thought, scratching and clawing, gaining converts in small increments. But they had Reagan, and Reagan was the Great Convincer. He brought the party around, the voters, not the elites, and then he stormed into the White House, and then he proved that Conservatism had been right all those years.
What has happened since then? The counter-attack of the elites. They couldn't just dump Reaganism altogether right off the bat, they had to take it in stages. They made damn sure the process was set up such that they could have a great say in the result. Liberal, northern states starting out. Dems voting in GOP primaries. Always being nice to RINOs, even Specter, Chafee and Hagel.
So, Bush I starts right off saying he would give us a "kinder, gentler nation". Why not just turn and spit in Reagan's eye? Then they raised taxes. Perot, a Dem ploy, paid off and we got Clinton. Party elites responded with Bob Dole, who NEVER bought off on Reagan, fought him all the way. Bob Dole personally, by himself, killed the Gingrich revolution, when he caved on the "train wreck". He was a DC product, and it was killing him that the Government was shut down. He cut Newt's balls off, and forced the GOP to cave with that move. Then what happens? He gets rewarded with the nomination! He campaigned like he had made a deal to lose. Maybe he had.
Then we get Bush II, the "compassionate Conservatism" guy. What a joke! As if conservatism doesn't care about people. What he meant by compassion is our tax money going to stupid causes that perpetuate problems, from social welfare programs to foreign aid, to education. He campaigned for every RINO he could find, in each case undercutting the conservative alternative. He brings in guys like Martinez (who he made Senator in Fla. instead of the conservative) and pushes things like amnesty for illegals.
Where I differ with Michael Reagan is that after his father, the party's faithful were conservative and deserved conservative leadership. We have some moderates in the party, sure, and if a good one once in a while rose to the top on the strength of leadership qualities, we could take that. What I cannot countenance is that the "moderate" (read: liberal) wing controls everything in the party, and their motto is "the alternative is worse". We thought it was a conservative party with room for some people who are moderate on some things. Instead, it appears it is a liberal party, accepting the socialist premise of the Democrats, that barely tolerates US.
Well, I say, like Reagan did, that my party has left me. We showed it the way and it showed us the door. To stick around any longer would be to, in the manner of Huckabee, wear out our welcome.
“Conservatives didn’t exist during the New Deal. “
Not true. Understandable since liberal history books whitewash it, but they were fighting the rising tide of socialism:
http://www.redstate.com/stories/miscellanea/earning_the_true_conservative_vote
In 1937, “US Senator Josiah Bailey of North Carolina was concerned that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his New Deal programs were leading America and North Carolina down the road to collectivism. Although he did not oppose every attempt at government intervention, Senator Bailey believed that limitations should be placed on government growth.” He is credited with being part of a group that drafted the Conservative Manifesto which offered 10 “practical solutions” for the problems of the times:
1. Immediate revision of taxes on capital gains and undistributed profits in order to free investment funds.
2. Reduced expenditures to achieve a balanced budget, and thus, to still fears deterring business expansion.
3. An end to coercion and violence in relations between capital and labor.
4. Opposition to “unnecessary” government competition with private enterprise.
5. Recognition that private investment and enterprise require a reasonable profit.
6. Safeguarding the collateral upon which credit rests.
7. Reduction of taxes, or if this proved impossible at the moment, firm assurance of no further increases.
8. Maintenance of state rights, home rule, and local self-government, except where proved definitely inadequate.
9. Economical and non-political relief to unemployed with maximum local responsibility.
10. Reliance upon the American form of government and the American system of enterprise.