Thanks for the post.
I would fall into Group B: I think a new political party is needed.
I would vote for a party that stood on this platform:
On a going-forward basis, we will enforce the Constitution of the United States, as written. Where we oppose the result of enforcing the Constitution as written, we will propose an amendment to the Constitution. We will oppose every effort to undermine the Constution's plain meaning through either legislative subterfuge or judicial reinterpretation.
In the interest of stability, we will accept existing Supreme Court precedent as the binding interpretation of the Constitution, particular as regards the right to an abortion contained in Roe v. Wade, and the right to homosexual sodomy and sexual privacy. We believe that both of these decisions were unconstitutionally decided and a judicial overreach, however we understand that custom and practice are also part of the unwritten constitutional order. Therefore, we will accept the existing interpretations as the existing constitutional law.
However, we will support any judicial override of either decision, if the Supreme Court comes to its senses. We will also propose three Constitutional Amendments:
(1) Establishing that, for the purposes of the US Constitution, life begins at the moment of conception.
(2) Establishing that the right to privacy of intimate sexual relationships is a civil right protected by the Constitution of the United States.
and
(3) Establishing that states shall not be required by the comity clause of the US Constitution to recognize unions other than one man and one woman as legal marriage.
We will take other constitutional stances, and propose amendments where needed.
To wit:
- no more foreign wars without formal declarations of war by the US Congress, as we believe is required by Article I of the Constitution. We recognize NO "necessity" override to the Constitution. If the people do not support war sufficiently to enable Congress to declare war, then the United States is constitutionally obligated to remain at peace.
- the USA will defend its southern border with barriers and force, cutting off the flow of illegal aliens. As to those illegal aliens within the USA, those with a criminal record of violence or property crime shall be deported to their country of origin. Those without such a record shall be regularized and, in time, nationalized.
That's a start.
You are an apparent master of understatement. That is an awesome start. Would you have the time to start a thread specifically tailored to further polish that into a "floor-presentable" advocacy, and could you recruit enough (and I ask this without denigration to anyone) "peanut gallery persons" to run your final, last best argument by... in order to gauge the support you can gather, and , most especially, work up a mechanism to see what percentage of minds you might have changed?
If we all think in terms of re-capturing the dispirited, here on Freerepublic, who may be succumbing to the wormtongues of the press, and buying into the nonsense that what we have seen is all that the conservatives have to offer,- then, we could move on to doing the same with the dispirited Republican base in general. Should we begin to capture their imaginations, the "program" would probably be strong enough to present to the great undecideds of the electorate.
What would be necessary for each group would be twofold;
First to assemble the necessary "technicians" who have the legal background and hard experience to lay out the mechanisms and order of implementation necessary to build a new party from the ground up.
Second would be to assemble the necessary "prose-masters" who can effectively communicate the need, the applicability, and the timeliness of your group.
The prose-masters, the speech writers if you will, cannot function effectively without the iron-hard assurance that all that they are handed in the way of mechanisms and techniques are absolutely screened legally and factually. Without that they will become quickly disillusioned.
The technicians, the theorists and legalists, cannot function effectively without the iron-hard assurance that all of the work that they finally develop to implement the mechanisms, will be cleanly, beautifully,- and as a result, compellingly-, articulated into a "campaign".
I have to believe that the awesome talent that resides here at 1600 Freeper Avenue, will eventually sign on, and perhaps even jump at the chance, to reshape the party message, or failing that, as you posit, to construct anew a party that will present the best advocacy of conservative thought.
Finally, of course, you will recruit the champions,- those Freepers who, (unlike us Michael Moore-ish lookin' love children of Yasser Arafat and Helen Thomas, [wink]), have the stage presence, the eloquence (an absolute necessity now), and the drive to passionately argue your position.
Those whom I hope to recruit in the support department, who stand behind the lines and "handle the telephones", can provide whatever support to all sides in the way of beginning ideas and structures to kick-start the groups.
I firmly believe that in order for the conservative movement to achieve permanent ascendency in American politics, we need to first match the Bill of Rights, with a Bill of Responsibilities, that each American citizen, and critically-, each foreigner who aspires to live in this country as a citizen, must embrace also.
This Bill of Responsibilities must consist of those duties that every American, of whatever creed owes to those who gave their lives in the past to build the foundations of freedom for us all.
And I am sincerely hoping that many minds far more talented than I will sign up for a support group, independant of whatever work they may do to further the "directions" groups, to articulate for the American people a compilation of what holds conservatives together.
To put in a plug for support, and only as a weak start; I believe:
THAT EVERY CITIZEN owes a debt to this nation to support its continuing existence and security against all enemies foreign and domestic, and that this obligation transcends differences over immediate policy. That far from ending at the water's edge, that this policy begins at the waters edge, both physically, electronically, and journalistically.
THAT EVERY CITIZEN must welcome all other citizens, not on the basis of their creed or color, but rather on the effort they bring to the national well being, by the corresponding welcoming they extend and will fight for, so that those of different religions and cultures may enjoy the same freedoms that they enjoy.,p> THAT EVERY CITIZEN must hold his citizenship dearly, in deference to the enormous cost of maintaining our freedoms. That citizenship cannot be held cheaply, nor stolen in the night, nor strong-armed by foreign-directed deconstructionists who hold antagonisms towards the freedoms that our citizens enjoy.
The above rough draft is but a poor start to a polished and powerful articulation of what conservatives will hopefully agree en mass on, that all citizens owe to this country.
Everything has to start somewhere, and my fondest hope is that my poor efforts will be supplanted in favor of a powerful new vision of a responsibility society that will eventually replace our entitlement-centered current mentality.
If we can't articulate a vision, we can't develop a following. If we can't develop a following, we can't advance an agenda.
And if we can't advance an agenda... then we are surely lost.
A plea to all who might feel an obligation to those who died to hand us this opportunity. Improve or replace my feeble beginning efforts and personally participate in a revitalization of the conservative advocacy. Don't just tell me where I am wrong. Show me something better, and I will carry your banner... as long as you agree to carry the banner of the one who comes after you with an even better idea.
Let the democrats languish as a party of personalities, chained to the glamor of a few flawed personalities.
We will know that we have achieved something when any of us could fall to a media-planted improvised explosive device, in the form of a crippling personal attack, and the wagon will continue to be pushed along the road by those who remain standing. If we become a party of ideas, supported by champions, rather than a party of demi-gods, protected by half-baked demands, then we disarm the best weapons that the liberals have... that of misrepresentation, sub-division, and obfuscation.