Thursday, September 21, 2006

An 06 loss not zero sum for “Conservatives"

In Jacob Weisberg’s latest piece, May the Best Man Lose, he provides a link to an interesting read, Christopher Buckley’s Let’s quit while we’re behind. Although Buckley left me a bit confused as to why he waited until after he voted for Bush in 2004 to adopt the logic of his article, he also reminded me of Richard A. Viguerie, another conservative who has been advertising the upside of losing.

I personally find this a hopeful sign. Finally, it seems to me, the backbone of the Republican Party, and not the base (Christian Zionists and good old boys), are going to let logic guide their vote. Or more precisely, the third option when it comes to voting, not for or against, but not counted. I suspect real conservatives are few in number, but Republican margins of victory are also often very slim. So Republicans running for office really have no choice but to try and win, and they really have no choice but to pander to their base (because the base is spoiled and uncompromising), but the backbone of the Republican Party, those conservatives who have been willing to give a little in order to achieve victory, may very well let go of the short end of the stick this November.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Either of these must happen for the future of the Republican party to be a happy one:

1) Democrats win, fuck up huge.
2) Democrats win, don't fuck up, so that true Republicans have a case for taking control of the asylum back from the inmates.

If things keep going the way they're going, the efforts of Goldwater Republicanism will die with the rest of the Republican party by 2012, 2016 at the latest.

Anonymous said...

Elbo Ruum, the republican is already a dying concept, just as the democratic party. I'd encourage citizens to seek a third or fourth party and/or revision, but it is too late for that.

We have entered a new era. Better get ready.