GOP Newtered

State Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava (R), who dropped from the special election in Upstate New York yesterday, has now thrown her support to Democrat Bill Owens. (WaPo)

Back to you, Newt...

Does God Hate the GOP?

For a party that is supposed to be the American Hizballah (Party of God) the GOP sure seems to be incurring his wrath.

Is Sarah Palin a lightweight, politically inept, or crazy like a fox? Only her hairdresser knows...

Mark Sanford? Is that bum still around? Don't cry for me Argentina...

Papa Bush wasted a 92% approval rating, falling victim to the Clinton smear machine. All George W wasted was a once-in-a-century opportunity and trillions of dollars. Of course, it was the Bush-Cheney gang versus the entire MSM smear machine by that point...

Show me a conservative Democrat, and I'll show you a liberal enabler...

Say what you want about President Obama, but he's never been accused of having a "wide stance," chasing after male pages, or cheating on his wife. While the party of family values leaves a lustful path of destruction, a liberal family man has won the White House.

Are Republicans capable of understanding that the press hates them, and then adjusting their behavior appropriately?

The News: Making us Dumber by the Day

I'm tired of this "GOP in Disarray" crap. Republican infighting and policy incoherence is a side show at best. They have no power so they don't matter right now, so why even waste ink on them?

Daniel Drezner says the GOP is adrift on foreign policy. My immediate response was, "So is Obama." Anyway, so what? Republicans don't control anything! And unlike Democrats, they still believe in the quaint notion of ending politics at the waters edge.

I'm also tired of people who aren't Republican or even Conservative trying to drive the party off a cliff with stupid advice about becoming more like the Democrats. God save us from that. One Democratic party is more than enough. The press and the commentariate should be driving a national debate over what is happening in this country and the world.

We are all stupider for listening to our national news media.

When they refuse to report on the flailing failures of their heroes in the Democratic party, I guess criticizing hapless Republicans is the only amusement they have left.

RCP - Navarette
National Interest - Drezner

William F. Buckley's Impure Conservatism

William F. Buckley's success in building modern conservatism had nothing to do with ideological purity

Ramesh Ponnuru writes an article that looks to the past to give conservatives hope for the future. He talks about the modern conservative movement Buckley fathered. He shows us that

... the coalition Buckley assembled ... seemed to be a ramshackle affair. It included anti-Communists (who were frequently ex-Communists), libertarians, traditionalists, and even the odd — very odd — monarchist. They disagreed with each other on everything from the existence of God to the necessity of government-run lighthouses. Conservatives and liberals said this coalition made no intellectual sense and could not possibly hang together politically, let alone succeed. But common interests, chiefly in resisting liberalism, kept Buckley’s movement in one piece.

The free-market Catholic Buckley collaborated with Sidney Hook, an atheist and socialist, on anti-Communist projects. The conservatives of today have smaller bridges to build. If Buckley could work with Hook, surely we can make the effort to reach out to environmentally conscious suburbanites and new Hispanic citizens.

A similar conservative collection of disagreeing odd-balls can work today. President Obama and his radical confreres in Congress have provided a cause evangelicals, irreligious moderates, libertarian constitutionalists, agnostic free marketeers, and cultural conservatives can all rally around:

Defeat Liberalism

Cultural and religious conservatives do not need to drop their beliefs, they just need to stop card checking others at the door. Non-believers need not bow before God to enter, they must merely acknowledge the constitutional right of believers to openly practice their faith.

Troy Senik, writing at RCP sums it up:

...effective political coalitions are built by addition, not subtraction. The notion that social conservatives, libertarian free-market types, or hawkish neoconservatives can be profitably removed from the party is usually an exercise in wishful thinking on behalf of their ideological adversaries.

William F. Buckley worked with atheists and others who did not share his cultural views. Can you?

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MzgzZThlOGJiZTRkZmQxODcxNWIyYzIwMWRlMjM4YzU=
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/016/450mnzei.asp?pg=2

Resuscitating Republicanism

Conservatism is dead in New England. There are no GOP congressmen left, and only a few Rockefeller Republican senators. The GOP is barely limping along in all other areas of the country outside of the South. Obviously, what they've been doing hasn't been working. Not so obvious is what to do about it.

James Peyser, Republican and former Chairman of the Massachusetts Board of Education, has written a really good article on the Death of Republicanism in New England. His lessons and suggestions could apply to other areas of the country as well. Here are his main points:

In the post-Reagan GOP, any viable governing philosophy has to be grounded in the basic tenets of conservatism: limited and accountable government, individual liberty and responsibility, and free markets.

... a reformed Republicanism should embrace the rising cadre of social entrepreneurs who are redefining what it means to be an active citizen and who are taking initiative to solve big problems, without first asking permission from the political class.

Similarly, pushing for broader school choice places the interests of parents above those of educational bureaucracies and introduces healthy competition into a marketplace that has long suffered under a de facto monopoly.

Unfortunately, the loudest voices of conservatism on the national stage today are more likely to bemoan America's decline than to praise its potential. They are also increasingly known for their resistance to science, technology, and change. This rejection of hope and progress runs against the grain of the American spirit and is a formula for even more electoral defeats.

Instead of investing their limited political capital in opposing or nitpicking the budget-cutting proposals that the Democrats will have to put forward, Republicans should concentrate their energy on developing bold proposals for transforming the state's bloated and costly bureaucracy, not only to save money, but also to deliver better performance.

His prescriptions are for Bay State Republicans, but they fit just as well to the national party.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/11/09/republicans_rebranded/?page=full

Dr Coburn Knows What Ails GOP

Dr. Tom Coburn is my favorite senator. He's a no nonsense MD who has remained true to fiscal conservatism. His diagnosis: Republicans are in denial. His prescription:

"Behave like Republicans. ...compassionate conservatism convinced the American people to elect the party that was truly skilled at activist government: the Democrats."

"Common sense and the Scriptures show that true giving and compassion require sacrifice by the giver. This is why Jesus told the rich young ruler to sell his possessions, not his neighbor's possessions. Spending other people's money is not compassionate."

"Regaining our brand as the party of fiscal discipline will require us to rejoin Americans in the real world of budget choices and priorities, and to leave behind the fantasyland of borrowing without limits. Instead of adopting earmarks, each Republican can adopt examples of government waste, largess and fraud, and restart the permanent campaign against big government."

Please drop a note to this good man. He is doing the Lord's work up on the hill. Unfortunately, even surrounded by Republicans, he is still virtually alone.

GOP: Two Views (One Liberal, One Conservative) One Conclusion (Ozymandius)

Peggy Noonan, a stalwart Republican, wistfully, sadly, comments on the party’s woes. Here’s the money quote from her discussion with a GOP official:

"We can't let them (Democrats) pretend to be conservatives," he continued. Why not? Republicans pretend to be conservative every day.

E.J. Dionne tells a similar tale from his perch on the left side of the political scene. Although I don’t share his politics, I like him because his logic is always clear and his comments are rarely nasty or derisive. If you must hear bad news from an ideological opponent, he’s the one you want delivering it. He talks with Bob Corker, Republican senator from Tennessee. It’s a good read.

Although approaching this self-made disaster from opposite sides, both Noonan and Dionne come to a similar conclusion: The GOP National Committee is out of touch, plastering every Democratic opponent as a big spending liberal. The label doesn’t always fit, and voters at the local level know it and have rejected it. The President’s mishandling the war and immigration added to people’s disenchantment with the party.

I can’t help but recall the poem Ozymandius by Percy Shelley. It speaks of a traveler to a distant land who encounters the ruins of a once-fearsome monument to a long-forgotten ruler:

My name is Ozymandius, King of Kings,
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Look upon your works, ye cowering and craven Republican politicians, and despair!

Bad News for GOP, Good News for Conservative America

So the Republicans lost another house seat... To a conservative Democrat. Blue Dog Democrats moderate the heated passions of their colleagues to the left, which is a good thing. And their ranks are increasing, which is good news for conservatives who pine for a real choice at the voting booth.

The truth is, very liberal politicians only get elected in safe seats (think progressive urban enclaves like Seattle, LA, or San Francisco; or liberal meccas like Boulder or Vermont). Out in the sticks, Democrats come in the more moderate variety, where they must garner votes from Obama's gun totin,' Bible thumpin' hicks. These Democrats, not the Republicans, are the congressmen and senators that keep Speaker Pelosi and her radical friends from tipping it all over.

Jim Wooten sums it up nicely in the Atlanta Journal Constitution:
Childers won 51-49 in a district Republicans have held since 1994. He won the way Democrats win statewide in the South: As a pro-life conservative who appeals on gun rights and social issues. Republican may be a tarnished brand this election cycle but in the South at least, Conservative is not. The message for the general election: Think Right, Move Right.

This may be bad news for the GOP, but it's good news for conservatives, and good news for America.