The Future of the GOP
1 February 2008
Limited government conservatives have been in a quandary for years. The party has slowly but steadily moved to the left, apparently because Republicans have come to believe that is necessary to remain viable. Reagan’s limited government conservatism has given way to compassionate conservatism and big government conservatism. Those are, of course, oxymorons at best. By definition conservatism is opposed to bigger government. As much as I’ve been frustrated with Ron Paul, on many domestic issues he really is the only conservative running for President. Like Reagan, he wants to eliminate the Department of Education and a host of other federal departments and agencies. On those issues I think he’s right.
Rank and file limited government conservatives have held their noses, election after election, since Reagan and voted for the GOP candidate they disliked the least. Every new candidate seems worse than the last to us. In 2000 I was not a Bush supporter. I knew then that he did not meet the definition of conservative and his administration has proven my belief correct. But he at least seemed better than Al Gore in 2000 or John Kerry in 2004. Like many other conservatives, I chose the lesser or two evils. I didn’t feel like I had a choice In retrospect I’m not convinced that was the right course.
Now it has reached the point where many of us can no longer hold our noses. The candidates and the party have moved so far to the left that for the party as a whole the very idea of conservatism has been redefined. The party has been in the process of leaving us for some time but now it appears we’ve finally been left. Reagan said he didn’t leave the Democrat Party, it left him. Conservatives find themselves in much the same position with the Republican Party. The GOP has become such a big tent that there is room for virtually everyone but limited government conservatives. We appear to have become a distinct and dwindling minority within the party.
This morning on FOX News John Kasich was seriously arguing that John McCain is a principled conservative. He believes that conservatives will come around and support McCain. Kasich, you may recall, was part of the Republican revolution in 1994 that swept into Congress, taking the majority from the Democrats. To his credit, Kasich and others term limited themselves and honored that promise. But Kasich is representative of the problem. He is not a conservative and to make matters worse, he actively attempts to redefine conservatism to suit his preferences rather than being driven by conservative ideology. There is no other explanation for his claim that John McCain is a solid conservative. The fact is, the Republican Party is full of people just like John Kasich. They’ve successfully taken the party over and they have little patience for limited government conservatives like me.
This being the case, where do we go and what are the implications for the Republican Party if we do go? Indeed, how can we do anything but leave since we are all but being kicked out?
Several people have mentioned a third party to me lately and I’ve basically dismissed the idea. My son brought it up the other day and I explained that because of the way our political system is designed, it really isn’t possible to have more than two viable parties. There are a number of reasons for this. The electoral college (which I support) makes a viable third party extremely unlikely. We also have first past the post voting in this country as opposed to proportional elections in parliamentary systems. Our entire presidential systems makes it extremely difficult to impossible for a third party to gain any sort of prominence. So again the question arises, where do we go?
Jason Lewis was filling in for Rush Limbaugh today and he said something that made me reconsider the third party concept. He talked about how the Republican Party has moved left and is increasingly becoming indistinguishable from the Democrat Party. And then he said that if this continued the GOP could go the way of the Whigs (I don’t mean the band). That throws the concept of a third party into a new light. A third party wouldn’t be in addition to the Democrat and Republican Parties, it would ultimately replace the GOP. And let’s face it, the GOP cannot survive if it continues to move toward the Democrat Party.
So I’m rethinking the whole third party idea. I’ve considered and rejected the notion more than once in the past. I saw no viable third party to start with and believed there was enough good left in the GOP to make it salvageable. I’m now close to believing that the Republican Party cannot be salvaged. If that is the case the challenge will be to either find a third party that is a good candidate to replace the Republican Party or work to create one. Building a party from scratch would be a monumental task but if enough limited government conservatives are disaffected with the GOP it could be doable. An existing third party would be an easier route if one exists that is close enough to limited government conservatism but I doubt such a party yet exists. Clearly the Libertarian Party doesn’t fit the bill. That party borders on anarchist at times. For any readers, if you have suggestions, I’d like to hear them.
I’m not yet sure what course makes the most sense but I’m giving it serious thought. My preference would clearly be to stay in the GOP and help it correct its course and move back to the right. I’m just not convinced any longer that it’s possible to do that and I think more and more limited government conservatives have the same doubts.
I have no idea if anyone with clout in the GOP will read this but if they do, my counsel is to pay attention. The GOP is on the cusp of obliterating itself. It has lost its way. It doesn’t stand for anything any longer. There is no underlying ideology supporting it. It has become a monolithic structure working to perpetuate itself in the most expedient fashion and that is not a winning strategy. If the GOP continues down the road it is on, it has no future.
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