The key issue that will determine the future of the Republican Party leadership is whether it will revert to the control of the old-style conservatives that can reclaim the support of numerically large social values base, or whether leadership of the party will remain with the new alliance of Christianists and neoconservatives, united under the …
Category Archive: Future of the Republican Party
Dec 04 2008
The future of the Republican Party-11: The last straw
As this series has tried to show, there was an increasing divergence between the vision of the Republican party as seen by the old-style conservatives and that seen by the new alliance of Christianists and neoconservatives. Looking back, it seems inevitable that the tension would become too great and the party finally snap. It was …
Dec 03 2008
The future of the Republican Party-10: The rise of neoconservative influence
The neoconservatives reached their pinnacle of influence with the election of George W. Bush in 2000. The neoconservatives succeeded in planting key people in important positions. To the extent that we can discern any coherent political philosophy, Bush seems to be not a neoconservative himself, but through Dick Cheney and other key people in the …
Dec 02 2008
The future of the Republican Party-9: The neoconservative problem
The struggle for the future of the Republican party has four groups vying for dominance. One group consists of the old-style conservatives, people who want smaller government and fiscal restraint, balanced budgets, rule of law, respect for personal liberties, and a non-interventionist foreign policy. The second group is the rank-and-file social values base for whom …
Dec 01 2008
The future of the Republican Party-8: Compassionate conservatism versus brutal conservatism
(For the previous posts in this series, see here.) If you look at his Wikipedia page, it becomes clear that Mike Huckabee is too pragmatic on economic issues for the Christianists. He is someone who as governor of Arkansas sought to find ways to solve the social problems that he faced, even to the extent …
Nov 26 2008
The future of the Republican Party-7: Why don’t the Christianists ♥ Huckabee?
Mike Huckabee, who saw himself as the real deal, is understandably peeved at the way he was treated by the very people who should have embraced his candidacy and been his most ardent supporters. A review of his just released memoir shows that he is willing to name names: Many conservative Christian leaders — who …
Nov 25 2008
The future of the Republican Party-6: The Huckabee puzzle
The clue to the real problem facing the Republican party lies in what happened to Mike Huckabee’s candidacy when he ran for the Republican nomination in the last election. I thought that he had the perfect credentials for the party and was surprised that he did not do much better. He is a former two-term …
Nov 21 2008
The future of the Republican Party-5: McCain opens the Pandora’s box
One of Al Gore’s biggest sins for which I will never forgive him is his putting into the spotlight the insufferable Joe Lieberman by selecting him as his running mate in 2000. Lieberman has milked his gift of prominence to the maximum so that it is now hard to avoid his smug, sanctimonious, and unctuous …
Nov 20 2008
The future of the Republican Party-4: Palin’s appeal
The radio show This American Life once had an amusing episode about how Americans of Canadian origin somehow immediately know if any person or thing is also Canadian, even if that fact is not at all obvious to anyone else. David Rakoff . . . claims that there must be a chip in his head …
Nov 19 2008
The future of the Republican Party-3: The social values bloc gets a top spot
There may be a little truth in the belief that culture war issues are losing some of their appeal, and that is a good thing. Looking back, we can see that the Southern strategy based on those culture wars was already losing some steam before the current election. In both the 2000 and 2004 elections …
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