Jun

GOP Internecine Battles

It isn’t much of an exaggeration to say that in the months following Obama’s election and inauguration the Republican party leadership and punditry have been in disarray. Conservatives have realized what they feared most and tried to vocalize during the campaign: Obama’s radicalism is not standard-fare Democrat politics. The speed and aggression with which the administration and Congress have moved to transform our society are unprecedented in modern times, perhaps not since the New Deal. This has made the Republican search (fight?) for identity particularly spirited.

Following the nature of things, the party is having an internal debate on which direction to take. There are two, arguably three, camps in this debate. The traditional (Reagan, Buckley, Goldwater, talk radio et cetera) Conservatives form the first camp. They have not had a significant leader since Newt and are eager to return to a party of limited government, personal responsibility, and winning landslides. Having rejected all attempts to “moderate” during the campaign season and thus portraying the Obama we now know back then , the vindicated Conservatives hold a strong hand. (They also hold the #1 NY Times bestseller for the last 11 of 12 weeks!

http://www.amazon.com/Liberty-Tyranny-Conservative-Mark-Levin/dp/1416562850 )

The second camp might be described as the Colin Powell, John McCain, David Brooks Republicans for lack of a -not better – name. They consider themselves conservative, but are not looked on kindly by movement conservatives. They are more “moderate;” this “moderate” word means, in their context, anything from eschewing most social values from the party, to increasing spending on education, healthcare, and other public programs, to only nationalizing part of the nation’s economy, to accepting immigration amnesty for tens of millions. Most were soft on Obama in the campaign season, with Powell even voting for Obama. They are a mostly unorganized group and have trouble presenting a platform that differs from their Democrat opponents’. In between bashing talk radio and praising Obama for taking the middle ground, this group mostly likes talking to itself. Their hand isn’t very strong and most will likely fall out of favor rather quickly when the part is unified. Likely, some will then join the Democrat party out of what will be called personal courage.

The third camp, which is scarcely much larger than your average summer camp, are the libertarians. They are nearly purists, with an admirable admiration for human liberty. As a group, they tend to be intellectual in the Enlightenment tradition. Unfortunately, too much of their liberty borders on license, and your average voter cannot be expected to understand economic reasoning when it is not widely taught in public schools (there is something tragically ironic in that thought). Libertarians appear to many as focused inordinately on legalizing marijuana and every form of pornography, which does not play well to a country that (until recently anyway) had a healthy view of the nuclear family. Appealing in message as they can be, they are hopelessly fractured themselves into a thousand mini-camps, each with stubbornly irreconcilable differences. With the passing of the great Milton Friedman (himself a supporter of the Republican party, as he said, out of convenience), Libertarians lack a celebrity salesman. Though they won’t win the party, they’ll always be around calling Republicans closer to their roots.

I think it’s reasonable to say that Conservatives will inevitably win this inner party battle and go on to save the country from outright socialism. Talk radio provides the medium for organization and fund raising, as well as a giant and expanding loyal audience. I find this heartening.

In the meantime, every Republican should be concerned with these two stories:

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/06/third-inspector-general-controversy-emerges.html

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=32380

This post and the contents thereof are the views of only the author identified immediately above and do not necessarily represent the views of the New York Young Republican Club, Inc. (the "NYYRC"), its officers or its members. The NYYRC expressly disclaims responsibility for the contents thereof and by its charter documents may not, and does not, endorse any candidate for any office, except in a general election.