The Man Who Would Dethrone a Queen: AR Interviews John Dennis, Congressional Candidate, CA-8

America's Right ^

[CJBernard]

AR: Characterize the divide that currently exists between the mainstream Republican Party and the resurgent sense of conservatism that we’re now beginning to experience in this country.

JD: That’s a great question. It seems as though we’re seeing a lot of people in the Republican Party suddenly turning around and labeling each other RINOs [Republicans In Name Only]. The trouble is that the Republican Party wants the proverbial “big tent,” but the question is whether that tent should include big government Republicans. This is another reason why I became involved in politics. I was furious with my own party. We had a great opportunity during the first part of the last decade to truly reduce the size of the federal government. It was an opportunity that we hadn’t had in a long time.

The Republicans also blew it in the early 1950’s, when the Eisenhower administration had both the Congress and the Senate. I think that we have to find a home in the party for these big government types, but they can’t have a central role. We can’t have these kinds of mistakes again.

AR: It would seem to me that a “big government Republican” would have to be, to some extent, a sell-out — a person who is ultimately more concerned with his own interests rather than the country’s.

JD: Well, yes, there is that element. The problem is that conservatism is too often confused with ‘neo-conservatism’. But neo-conservatism is not about limited government. That’s what we’re up against in the party as a whole. Neo-conservatism is not based on traditional conservative principles to which true conservatives adhere.

[nolongerademocrat]

That’s hilarious!