I strongly disagree with this piece. The GOP and the Democratic Party have entrenched themselves in a despicable duopoly in US Politics. It is precisely this kind of petty partisan thinking that has made GOP politicians believe that they can afford to continuously lower standards “because the Democrats are worse, so you better side with me or you got nothing.”
The GOP has historically been the underdog in American politics. It hadn’t mustered a majority position in Congress for over 50 years until the 90s. The Reagan wave of politicians represented a revolution: they approached the electorate with conservative principles and inspiration, and got close to passing the constitutional amendment for a balanced budget (which Bill Clinton vetoed, of course).
But Washington corrupted them too soon. They had the votes to pass the same amendment again with Bush, but they lacked the will. They forgot what people voted them in power for to begin with.
They got punished in the last Congressional elections, but it doesn’t seem like they learned anything.
The GOP needs to be punished again, explicitly, for its lack of moral leadership, for its inner corruption, for its fall from grace. It needs a reality check before it understands that it can’t keep conservatives loyal on simplistic partisan grounds, while dragging its principles to the mud.
Not only I wouldn’t vote Republican, I wouldn’t stay at home in apathy either. I would be proactive and vote for Hillary/Obama any day over McCain. Partially out of spite, but mostly because someone like McCain is a lose-lose Candidate. First of all, he has no chance of winning the general election as it is, second, if he won, how would he be a good conservative president? Third, he would actually tarnish the Republican Party’s reputation, by indulging in the same big government filth Conservatives blame Democrats for. If such evil is to be committed, I’d rather it was the Democrats to have to take credit for it.
But your logic completely escapes me. I sense some contempt for the conservative electorate, telling them they ought to be satisfied with scraps and left-overs, and don’t deserve to put their foot down for the real deal. If Republicans took your advise seriously, it would mean the ultimate demise of conservative ideals.
And for anyone who is as frustrated as I am by the abuse of the term Conservatism, and its reinvention in the lips of anyone who uses it, by Conservative I mean Classical Liberal. True Liberalism is the core of America and the single thing worth Conserving. The GOP is sliding toward the worst of both worlds lately, socially conservative and fiscally liberal…
