Political success is about addition, not subtraction. Clearly, the GOP cannot win with only the social conservatives. That is why coalitions are a necessary part of political life. This is equally true for economic and national defense conservatives. Indeed, one could argue that the apparent singularity of social conservative support for the GOP ticket this past election was due, at least in part, to the failure of conservative economic or neoconservative foreign policies, many of which were radical departures from the Reaganite model.
This internecine battle has got to stop if there is to be any chance of regrouping for the off-year elections in 2010 and beyond.
One might view the tripartite Reagan coalition as a portfolio approach to political risk management, appealing to diverse constituencies, programs and messages across a wide and varied society. Viewed this way, social conservatives, free-market economic and national security advocates need to cling to each other while remaining open to the concerns of new emerging constituencies such as Hispanics who, by the way, are pro-family and not normally categorized as social liberals.
Does he mean the same Hispanics who overwhelmingly voted for Obama? Does he mean the same Hispanics who overwhelmingly support the invasion and their race? Does he mean the same Hispanics who overwhelmingly support LaRaza, MEChA, LULAC and the Hispanic Caucus?
This is not to diminish substantive disagreements on serious questions of policy. Indeed, conservative, paleo-conservative and simple plain-vanilla conservatives have real differences on preventive war, nation building, civil liberties and the like. Many will dissent from the GOP's pronounced tilt in favor of the humanity of the unborn in public policy. With only two political parties to choose from, such skirmishes are inevitable. Moreover, there are new issues that need to be analyzed and addressed creatively. For instance, entitlement reform may rival tax cutting as a concern for the long haul. Health care is another matter crying for creative solutions in an age of economic uncertainty and personal mobility in the market place.
Disagreements? What about immigration and race replacement? I guess those are issues we should not concern ourselves with?
Translation: "Indeed, Nanny-State Neocon, Conservative, and Center-Right have real differences [...]"
Trying to portray paleo-conservative as anything other than "conservative" is to distort conservatism.