The Week: Pascal Emmanuel Gobry: Hey, Liberals: Conservatives Don't Have to be Moderate to be Smart

Source:The New Democrat 

Back in the mid and late 1980s as the Democratic Party had just lost its second straight presidential election a landslide and third landslide lost in twelve years and about to lose their fourth landslide in 1988 a new democratic coalition emerged in the Democratic Party. And essentially took over the party by the early 1990s. And was made of governors for the most part and Washington outsiders in general. Bill Clinton is the most famous member of this group, but add Governor Mike Dukakis, when Governor Bob Kerry, Senate John Kerry, Senator Gary Hart, Senator Al Gore, Representative Dick Gephardt and many others.

These New Democrats ideologically formed the Democratic Leadership Council, The New Democratic Coalition and The New Democratic Network which is still in business today. The New Democrat would be the Democratic version of the Reform Conservative. Smart Liberal vs. Smart Conservative. The Republican Party has been going through an adjustment really since 2007 and haven’t recovered yet politically from the Iraq War, Great Recession and other mistakes both politically and on policy grounds from the Bush Administration. And looking for ways to comeback and broaden their coalition to become a governing party again which means having the White House.

But what the Republican Party is going through now is very similar to what the Democratic Party went through in the 1980s. As their far flank meaning the Far-Left if not took over their party at least was viewed that way by too many Americans that it not only cost them one presidential election after another, but they lost four landslides within a sixteen-year period from 1972-88. Because Democrats were seen as Far-Left. Anti-business, anti-military, anti-American, anti-Christian, anti-success, anti-wealth, pro-tax and spend, pro-big government as it related both to the economy but personal health as well. They were seen as anti-law enforcement and pro-convicted criminal and anti-victim.

What the Republican Party is going through now happened to the Democratic Party forty-five fifty-years ago when the New-Left from the 1960s became a big part of the Democratic Party. Except the GOP doesn’t have a Far-Left and is seen as their Far-Right taking over their party. To the point they are seen as anti-women, anti-minority, anti-secular, anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant, anti-Latino in general, anti-science, anti-intelligence, anti-education and I’m sure several other things that I can’t think of right now that Americans tend to support. And now you have so-called Reform Conservatives who are trying to change the image of the GOP so they don’t scare so many Americans. Especially people who would be willing to vote Republican if they don’t scare them.

The New Democrats didn’t move the Democratic Party to the middle, as much as the mainstream media wants to portray that. They moved the party back to the Center-Left where John F. Kennedy had it and where Lyndon Johnson wanted to leave it and Jimmy Carter wanted to bring the party back to. And say Democrats are also pro-military, but don’t think we should try to govern the world. We are pro-business, but don’t believe business’s should go unregulated or untaxed and believe their workers should have a right to organize if they choose to. We believe in law enforcement, but we also believe in civil liberties and being smart on crime. And not arresting people who didn’t hurt anyone. We believe in government and freedom and that government when used in a limited way and empower those who need it to also live in freedom.

And hopefully what the Reform Conservatives are saying is that Republicans are still conservative, but we aren’t the Far-Right and we are not haters. They believe in the American melting pot and liberal democracy and that conservative values based on freedom from both an economic and personal perspective can benefit everyone. And if they are successful in doing that as the New Democrats were successful in the Democratic Party, they’ll save the Republican Party and save the center in American politics. Where a center-left Democratic Party and a center-right Republican Party can both equally compete for the votes of Americans who don’t see themselves a pure Democrats or pure Republicans.

The Federalist: Scott Lincicome: A Free Market Guide to Assessing Reform Conservative Policies

The Federalist: Opinion: Scott Lincicome: A Free Market Guide To Assessing Reform Conservative Policies

Hum 'reform conservative', that almost sounds like an Oxymoron if you take the official definition of conservative seriously which I do. Because reform means to change and generally improve something whatever something is. A conservative is supposed to be someone who believes in the status-quo. That is keep as is. To put it simply and risk stating the obvious a conservative believes in conserving. Its the progressive who is supposed to believe in changing and moving forward, adapting with the times.

But having gotten past that and lets say reform minded Republicans are only throwing out terms like 'reform conservative' because they grasp the obvious of the current state of the Republican Party. Which is a party that simply doesn't appeal to enough Americans to be a governing party. A party that can run more than just the lower chamber of Congress the House of Representatives with a tight divided majority. But could also run a united Congress that includes the upper chamber the Senate and win back the White House as well.

And for the Republican Party to be able to achieve these goals they are going to have to appeal to more than just their business lobby, libertarian anti-government right and the religious-right. As well as Americans besides their Anglo-Saxon Protestant base. And however they label an agenda that can do that 'reform conservative' or whatever it is going to have to bring in non-traditional (going back forty-five years) Republicans for them to be a true national governing party again.

The Federalist: David Harsanyi- Rand Paul is Right, Social Conservatives Should Embrace Libertarianism

The Federalist: Opinion- David Harsanyi- Rand Paul is Right, Social Conservatives Should Embrace Libertarianism

I don't want to sound overly technical here but it all depends on what you mean by a social conservative. If you are talking about conservative, which means to conserve, then from a political standpoint that means being in favor of conserving social freedom, which is the ability of people to manage their own own lives without big government interfering. If this is what a social conservative is, then great, I give you Rand Paul, and conservatives and libertarians should be able to work well together.

Conservatives like to talk about the dangers of big government, and if you are a conservative, at least in the American sense, then you are opposed to big government interference in our economic and personal lives. If you are worried about government interference and you want to conserve your freedom, meaning to limit the size of government, then you should not be in favor of a Federal marriage amendment because you believe marriage is a State issue, to use one example. Why? Because conservatives are also Federalists, who believe in States' rights and local control.

But if we are talking about religious conservatives and how they relate to libertarians, then we are talking about a whole new ballgame because what is conservative politically is not always conservative religiously. Yes, if you are a conservative, political or religious, you believe in conserving life, and I know of some religious conservatives who are opposed to the death penalty as well as abortion, for example.

But with issues like marriage, privacy, pornography, women's place in the world, if you are a religious conservative, you are interested in conserving how society as it was previously and seriously putting limits on these areas to preserve our moral health. However, if you are a political conservative you probably believe this is not the business of government, especially the Federal government, to oversee what free adults do in the privacy of their own homes.

The Republican Party at its best going forward, if it wants to remain a major party, will be conservative libertarian with the potential for growth because it then would be able to compete with the Democratic Party throughout the country and probably continue to have a strong base in the South, with religious conservatives who will have nowhere else to go and with young people who are managing and running businesses including their own and do not want big government interfering in their economic or personal lives.  With a coalition like this, the GOP would do very well in the future.

There should be no friction between conservatives and libertarians because they tend to believe in the same things although differ when it comes to national security and foreign policy. However, the real friction will continue to be between libertarians and the Christian right, who for obvious reasons will never get along very well because libertarians see government at all levels as too big and the Religious right sees government as too small as it relates to our personal lives.

National Affairs: Henry Olsen: Conservativsm For The People

National Affairs: Opinion: Henry Olsen: Conservatism For The People

“Conservatism For The People”, with all due respect what the hell does that mean? I mean if that is the 2014 Republican campaign slogan, you might as well run on American guns and Jesus and see how well you do outside of the Bible Belt. For conservatism to have meaning for American voters than Conservatives need an agenda with some slogan. That makes it clear what that conservative agenda is about and what Conservative Republicans are trying to accomplish. You don’t even need a slogan, but certainly an agenda about “this is what conservatism is and what we are trying to accomplish as Conservative Republicans.”

The changing demographics right now are a political nightmare waiting to happen for the Republican Party at least at the national level. And if they do not change course, they will get wiped out by them as a governing or even as a strong opposition party. Meaning controlling at least one chamber of Congress. Generation X, my generation and Generation Y are pretty liberal and even libertarian on social issues. And we are not crazy about big government either as it relates to economic policy.

Which is an opening for Republicans if they move away from their big government social agenda that is about forcing Americans to live the way they want them to and pretend it is still 1955 or something. By the way if you were born in 1955, you’ll be fifty-nine years old at some point this year. And probably have a kid or kids in the X or Y generations. This is a long time ago, but you wouldn’t know that if you follow the religious and neo-right of the Republican Party.

I’ve blogged about this before, but the path back to power for the Republican Party is back to the future. Not just speak highly of Barry Goldwater and Ron Reagan, but embrace their politics. Embrace Ron Paul as well and this doesn’t mean you have to embrace his foreign policy and what he wants to do with the Fed and gold and silver and so-forth. But tell him “we are with you on economic and fiscal policy for the most part and we should work together.”

Time for Republicans to move past the religious-right and their big government social agenda and bring the Rand Paul supporters with them. Doesn’t mean they have to go libertarian on social policy. But stop trying to nationalize social issues and making your campaigns about Jesus, Gays and guns. Meaning trying to put Jesus in every Americans life and trying to kick Gays out of the country. And just running on guns when it comes to personal freedom, but saying “we believe in economic freedom and we aren’t interested in running people’s personal lives, at least at the federal level either.”

Maybe the Republican campaign slogan should be Back to the Future. Or its Morning in America again in the Republican Party. Meaning the GOP has woken up from their twenty-year dream or nightmare for a lot of other Americans. And they are embracing the 21st Century and are going to now adapt it. And they are still that fiscally and economically conservative party, that a lot of Americans use to love. Who perhaps grew up supporting Barry Goldwater or Ron Reagan, but now they are also that socially conservative party, but in a classical sense. That doesn’t embrace all social change, but is also not afraid of it. And won’t try to stop Americans from living their own lives.