Exactly true of the past coalition prior to 2000. I don't understand why we threw all this away like so much garbage. I have been trying hard to pinpoint the change in behavior, and to understand why.
Of course, each time I point a finger it gets bit off, or I am in danger of losing my entire hand.
It's a sad state of affairs non the less, and we cannot repair this without leadership. As we speak, whats left of the coalition is like a rudderless ship, steaming in slow circles, only because of the magic of rotating torque, and occasionally lurching side to side, but there is a distinct sound of water pouring in now, and I don't plan to go down with the ship.
I have spent the better part of the forty years since becoming politically aware, trying to build party unity and take the congress. Once that was achieved, something happened.
I don't have another forty years, and I don't have the answer in any case. I can only watch as everything hoped for sinks beneath the surface.
Damn shame.....Really is...A damn shame.
Power corrupted. It always does. Electoral success should not have been our goal; at least not high on the list. All that elective office does is make us the bad guys of the world and twist our souls into the bargain. As Nock put it, who appointed us to play the role of Deputy Providence?
Conservatives believe not in governmental power but in a good society... harmonious, civilized, morally uplifting life. That is an end achieved by private effort and, as nearly as possible, private institutions; what Russell Kirk called the "permanent things" -- family, church, schools that pass our best values from one generation to the next. Private ownership (termed the "last transcendant right" by Richard Weaver) and free markets. These are the tools of free men.
Conservatives believe in the principle of subsidiarity -- do whatever needs doing at the lowest level of coercion possible. Do things privately if you can (and that is most of the time). Failing that, call on local government and no further, for local officials are the most responsive to the public. Only if local government fails can we go to the state government. If that's not enough, call last on the federal government, but with greatest misgivings -- for the bureaucrats and politicians in Washington are far removed from the people and unresponsive to our needs.
Leave it to the liberals to put all that in reverse gear and go straight for control of the federal government. Power is their god. It's a disease and a corruption.
I agree, and I don't think we will get it from a candidate who says that we can take him or leave him, and it's fine with him either way.
I can't imagine Mitt Romney, or Fred Thompson, giving up on putting the republican coalition together.