Should the GOP Double Down on Social Conservatism? Politics

Little Green Footballs ^ | November 5 2008 | Charles Johnson

[Presbyterian Reporter]

Some interesting comments from David Frum, as the GOP soul-searching and finger-pointing begins: Republicans face fraught choice between two roads to revival.

A generation ago, Republicans dominated among college graduates. In 1984 and 1988, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush won states like California, Pennsylvania and Connecticut – states that have been “blue” for a generation. (America’s least educated state, West Virginia, went for Michael Dukakis in 1988.)

Those days are long gone. Since 1988, Democrats have become more conservative on economics – and Republicans have become more conservative on social issues.

College-educated Americans have come to believe that their money is safe with Democrats – but that their values are under threat from Republicans. And there are more and more of these college-educated Americans all the time.

So the question for the GOP is: Will it pursue them? To do so will involve painful change, on issues ranging from the environment to abortion. And it will involve potentially even more painful changes of style and tone: toward a future that is less overtly religious, less negligent with policy, and less polarizing on social issues. That’s a future that leaves little room for Sarah Palin – but the only hope for a Republican recovery.

This argument makes sense to us, and we’ve been holding forth in our comments on this very topic. If the GOP decides to go in the Bobby Jindal direction (fundamental Christianity, creationism, hard-line anti-abortionism, aggressively anti-gay rights), it will be committing political suicide. As much as anything else, this election was a referendum on the social conservative agenda, and the social conservatives did not win.

[Mr. Silverback]

No I think we should double-down on being spineless, Country-Club, DC cocktail creates of Washington DC. WHO IS WITH ME!?!? Let’s all get invited on Rachel Maddow and trash conservatism woohoo!

Um, not me. Good luck with that. :-)

[Mr. Silverback]

To answer the question, we should do the following:

1. Act like Reagan, who offered social conservatism, fiscal conservatism and strong foreign policy.

2. Stop giving the time of day to twits who think you can build a winning coalition by throwing one or two thirds of the Reagan coalition under the bus. Let’s start with Mr. Johnson.

3. Follow the lead of John Bergstrom at attackcartoons.com and add any GOP moron who blames Palin for this loss to our enemies list.

[Mr. Silverback]

I think Evangelicals would have figured that out, eventually

This evangelical figured it out before the Iowa vote.

[Mr. Silverback]

I guess in their mind it is OK to be religious, just as long as you don’t get too carried away with actually believing the stuff you hear in church.

It was once said that if the most religious nation on Earth is India and the least is Sweden, Americans are a nation of Indians governed by Swedes.

And the country club Episcopalian types are scred to death that it might change.

[Mr. Silverback]

Evolutionism isn’t a policy or governing philosophy.

Evolutionism doesn’t increase wealth and opportunity, or protect our liberties.

Evolutionism doesn’t keep government accountable to the people.

Trying (as Johnson appears to be doing) to turn the conservative movement into a giant crevo thread is about as smart as making UFO reasearch a major conservative priority. Talk about losing focus...and I say that as a six day creationist.

[Mr. Silverback]

Social conservatives can be boiled down to two issues: Gay marriage Abortion That’s it. Nothing else.

Well, seeing as one would lead to a loss of freedoms and our society coming apart, and the other has killed 50 million innocent Americans, can you blame us?

[Mr. Silverback]

Huckabee would have set up a network that would have put Obama to shame. The Broken Glass Republicans would have turned out in droves.

I am a Pentecostal who is a six day Creationist and pro-life activist, and I would have seriously considered staying home if Huckabee had been the nominee. He sells snake oil, and anyone who has his eyes open can see it. Those of my evangelical brothers who were taken in by Huckabee showed to vote for McCain in droves yesterday because of Obama's abortion positions and gun grabbing.

Yeah, we lost this because of the country clubbers, but if Huckabee is the answer, we might as well pack up the tent.

[Mr. Silverback]

In general I like the federalist direcion but let’s not forget that gay marriage and other homonormative efforts lead to suppression of basic rights, such as the rights of these folks:

Leo Childs
http://www.amnation.com/vfr/archives/005774.html

Scott Brockie
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/apr/04041604.html

Ake Green
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ake_Green

Scott Savage
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49761

Crystal Dixon
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,355507,00.html

Ene Kiildi
http://people.maine.com/paula/pph/pph-2.9b.98.html

The Mennonites of Roxton Falls, Quebec
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/aug/07081701.html

Christian (and Mormon, Jewish and Muslim) business owners in Colorado
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=68060

Guy Earle
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=7096c4b6-e48c-46ea-9aeb-7a075a3766e2

Christian youth in Australia
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jun/08062406.html

Christian civil servants
http://www.10news.com/news/16663610/detail.html

The Philadelphia 11
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=41705

The Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association
Yeshiva University
California Lutheran High School
A psychologist at North Mississippi Health Services
A Vermont civil servant
Elane Photography
A Christian doctor
A private adoption agency
The Boy Scouts
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91486340

[Mr. Silverback]

I get so tired of these disgusting RINO, country club wimps who pushed McCain on us as the only candidate who could win and now blame us for the choice. Or they attribute the loss to Palin who actually helped the ticket far more than she hurt it. Until she came on to the scene, there was no energy or enthusiasm for the maverick.

I'm with John Bergstrom at attackcartoons.com. Any GOP dipstick who blames Palin for this loss, even a little bit, goes on the enemies list. No one can be so blind they think she lost this for us, so saying she did is a tactic, and not a tactic meant to help Reagan conservatism.

[Mr. Jeeves]

I’m OK with social conservatives being a solid core of the GOP as long as they are firm believers in limited government as well.

But they just...aren't.

[Kevmo]

Does Palin have a website up yet, where we can donate money for 2012?

[counterpunch]

I agree. Neither creationism nor evolution is a governing philosophy.
That’s my point. Look at the post I was responding to.

The GOP should remain proud social conservatives, but Republicans are going to have to start running on something else.
Republicans are going to have to start doing some heavy lifting, educating the public about economics and wealth creation, about the source and nature of our liberties, about what Big Government statism means to their lives. Republicans are again going to have to make the case that more often than not, the government solution is worse than the problem.

Instead Republicans have become knee-jerk and intellectually lazy, the way Democrats used to be. It’s a sad day when it is the Democrats who have all the ideas and present a thoughtful case for them and the Republicans are the ones whose first and only instinct is to resort to fear tactics and wedge issues. This is what the Democrats did for 40 years while Republicans like William F. Buckley and later Rush Limbaugh were developing intellectual arguments for conservatism. Where did the conservative braintrust go? As Rush says, the blueprint is there. But it seems the GOP leadership doesn’t have the courage or wisdom to follow it. They may not even be aware it exists, or perhaps they just don’t believe in it. This is why it is time for new leadership in the GOP.

[Mr. Silverback]

I wasn't arguing with you, so much as agreeing with you from another direction.

The GOP should remain proud social conservatives, but Republicans are going to have to start running on something else.

You see, that's the problem. They have been running on fiscal conservatism and wealth creation, but no one believes them anymore after a spending spree that goes back deep into the Clinton Administration.

[Mr. Silverback]

But they just...aren't.

Really?

Is engaging in sterotypes what serves as conservatism these days?

[Antoninus]

The sorting out process has begun. Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs is advocating the social fundamentalists like Sarah Palin or Bobby Jindal need to be thrown underneath the bus.

I hope they try it. If they do, they can enjoy watching the formation of a social AND fiscally conservative 3rd party that will eventually become the 2nd party.

[counterpunch]

You see, that's the problem. They have been running on fiscal conservatism and wealth creation

But they really haven't been.
They've paid the ideas a little bit of lipservice, but they haven't explained why it is important. They haven't raised warnings that we are bankrupting our nation. They haven't explained what bankruptcy means for funding all these programs the people demand, that loading up on every little spending project on a whim means eventually there will be no money available to the programs that actually matter. they haven't explained that wealth comes from the people to the government, not the other way around. A lot was made about 0bama being a socialist who is weak on defense, but no one ever laid out what the real world results this will be with him in the White House. Republicans seemed to just go through the motions, trot out Ayers, trot out Wright, trot out the tax boogeyman. But what does any of this mean to people in their everyday lives? The GOP failed to adequately warn Americans of what they have in store for them over the next 4 years.
 

[WildcatClan]

I was just using Huckabee as an exemplar to make a point about the importance of Social Conservatives and the effective as well as dependable ground game they bring with them.

Not big on the Huckster at all but he was the one that came to mind first. I am not from the school of thought that provides for compartmentalized Conservatism. My thinking is you are a Conservative or you are not. Socially and fiscally all go together to my way of thinking. I discern the many differences in a Conservative and a Republican while also recognizing the many similarities.

[Mr. Silverback]

I agree. There are three legs to the stool, and though some folks might be a bit wobbly on some areas, you really are either a conservative or not.

[GonzoII]

“As the Founders knew, government works best when you take care of things at as local a level as possible.”

—

Well said, I would add that the “local levelites” must be morally fit or else you will have a mess there too.

I'd like to look at your web-page?