Please spare us from more “compassionate conservatism” which just breaks the bank in a whole other direction from the liberal way.

and with all that, he came within 2 percentage pts of winning. RNC money? FORGET IT. Head start campaigning? naaaah. Republican money advertising AGAINST HIM? check.

the conservative movement almost prevented the republican party from shooting us in the foot, but not quite.

that said, Dede would undoubtedly have either switched cauci or parties as soon as a social issue came up. So, nothing lost, really.

This is great, great news for social conservatives, if we’re willing to listen and get off our high damn horse for a minute. Winning elections requires winning the Independants. Up till now, the debate has been whether to run social moderates to win the Independants. We don’t have to worry about that any more. We can run guys like McDonnell, social conservatives who focus on fiscal issues. They can win.

But they better focus on the fiscal issues, because if they focus on the social issues, those Independants get worried they’ll go the “compassionate conservative” route and spend us into bankruptcy being so compassionate.

This is a golden opportunity to re-establish public trust in the “Conservative” brand. Conservative has to include both fiscal and moral issues though (and honestly, borrowing our grandchildren into economic slavery is hardly a morally upright thing to do). The last decade, we’ve abandoned the fiscal part and lost trust from a significant part of the electorate. Typical Democrat overreach has handed us the chance to make up for that mistake.

On the issue of social conservatism, most people – socially conservative or not – do not put a high priority on these matters. The best strategy for conservatives is to run candidates who are fiscally conservative and favor limited government and a strong defense and run on these issues. They must also be reliable on the issues important to social conservatives. But to run predominantly on cultural issues turns off a large part of the electorate who find the cultural right distasteful and can be paranoid about politicians who seem to be “theocrats”.

Spike: “As a SoCon I resent YOU trying to tell US how WE should think, behave or politically co-mingle. Where you’d get that edict to tell US what YOU THINK we’re doing wrong? Your piety is really laughable all things considered.”

Marc, I appreciate that you got where I was coming from and I agree… if the major issues were being debated from a primarily libertarian vs. conservative point of view, then we’d all be in a better place constitutionally.

So, thank you for taking some of what I said on board.

As to the request to cut the SoCons some slack, may I just point out one gets mighty tired of arguing for focusing on the issues we can all agree on, and getting responses such as Spike’s. At what point does one say “well, clearly there will be no communicating with them” and just back off?

I reached that point with my very small local tea party group. And they wonder why the libertarians don’t want to hang around.

Look, if SoCons have already decided that I’m deluded, unpious (due to my “unchurched” state (yes, that’s been brought to my attention before)), buying into propaganda, and every other unholy “wrong” that they want to label me with… then why exactly should I hang around giving them more rope to hang me with? They’re not even addressing the issues any more… they’re just trying to undo the eternal damnation that they think I’ve brought upon my soul. And if I need saving, I know where my local Catholic Church is very well… it’s very pretty and right there on a road where I pass it frequently.

My point is that with SoCons so often, the discussion veers so far away from political strategy and bringing in more votes, that I begin to wonder what exactly their goals are.

I am not out to Save The World. I do want to Save Our Constitution. If I can’t be worked with, because I am not Holy enough, or because it is arrogant for me to tell SoCons how their message isn’t working to draw others like me toward their goals, then SoCons are building a very small tent indeed.

Directly to Spike and others on that page:

If a libertarian is telling you how you’re chasing him away, it might be a good idea to listen in these perilous times. I am assuming, of course, that your objective ultimately is to get more people voting for constitutional government.

If you just want to preach, judge and tell everyone that they are wrong and you are right, while driving potential voting and/or organizational assistants into the arms of a third party or the enemy… well, then… Carry On! My mistake. I apologize for imposing my interpretation of the libertarian mindset upon you.

Sounds suspiciously like “You lost the 23rd!”

Of guello, how does it feel to be so consistently wrong?