I suggest we take a constructive view of this and realize we need to make a tough, honest appraisal of how we need to re-build a viable party (even if it's not the GOP).
I concur with you, and would like to give your idea a nudge forward: to the extent we attempt to breathe new life into the Republican party, we doom our efforts to certain failure.
We need a conservative party. We need to abandon all thought of trying to be the larger of two parties. The Republican party has failed by standing for precisely and exactly nothing.
Sooner or later, it stops making sense to pour money into a car with rust-eaten fenders, rust holes in the floor, cracked glass here and there, an engine that burns a quart of oil every 30 miles, a muffler full of holes, a transmission that works sometimes, seats with split upholstery, and four bald tires and no spare in the trunk. Yes, I know some people continue to pour money into such vehicles, but a.) they're more expensive to keep on the road than new cars, and b.) they still don't even work as basic transportation.
It's time to junk it. It's scrap iron. Just because guys who work in junk yards can salvage some of the parts doesn't mean it's of any value as a car.
Off the top of my head, I'd guess a third of American voters would embrace or largely embrace the principles of a conservative party, but only on two conditions: 1.) it would actually have to
have principles, and 2.) it would actually have to
live those principles.
Remember the famous "Contract with America?" It turned out to be high-sounding empty rhetoric. We, the people saw it and heard about it, liked it a lot, and embraced it with open arms. It was an amazing success; unfortunately, it only
appeared to be real.
To the extent a conservative party attempts to be a large and/or dominant party, it will necessarily fail. Why? Because we have a more than century-old tradition of looterism in the United States. At least a sizeable plurality of Americans have let themselves be turned into wards of the state. Attempting to appeal to those people is moral, intellectual, and political suicide.
A genuine, successful conservative party could, should, and would be the tail that wags the dog: the tail the leftist extremists and semi-independent wards of the state have no choice but to work with. We don't have a multiple-party tradition in the United States. We have an ostensible two-party arrangement under which both parties vie for the purported "center" of the political spectrum while actually advancing leftist so-called "ideas." McCain is no less a looter than Obama: merely a looter with a slightly longer time table. Bush was no less a looter than Gore: merely a looter with a slightly longer time table.
A true conservative party would take a public stand against looterism and actually uphold its stand—live its principles—instead of trying to dress up yet another variety of looterism in slick-sounding new rhetoric. I can be done. It could be done. It should be done.
All that saidâ„¢, I've to confess I doubt it will be done: far, far, far too many of us continue to think in terms of two large parties, and anyway, very few of us are actually willing to live by principles.
