A Republican Autopsy and the Changing Conservative Media

If anything, the rise of the youthful Ron Paul movement that also includes many old Libertarians has decisively and justifiably harmed the Republican Party by delivering painful ballot box defeats. As one who abandoned the Republican Party after 2004 because I viewed the GOP as statist, interventionist, fascist and and anti-civil liberties, separating myself from the goons and loons comprising conservative mob was a most liberating experience.

Can the Republican Party ever get back to its conservative small government roots?  While the GOP's definition of conservatism has certainly become shamefully twisted over the years and decades, there really is nothing conservative or even constitutional about the Republican Party as it is presently constituted.  The Republican Party is a party that must change or die.  It really is that simple.

The conservative media is taking notice because, well, the painful medicine of GOP election losses has taken effect.  The Washington Examiner, a website I consider a cheerleader for all things statist Republican neocon, is suddenly changing its tune and actually raising the foreign policy issue.

Tim Carney, who has actually done excellent work on the issue of crony capitalism, directly confronted the Iraq War.

The mistake of Iraq and the education of the Right

Then Philip Klein let loose with a piece blaming Republican foreign policy for Obamacare.

Iraq War made Obamacare possible

Both Carney and Klein are right.  Foreign policy is killing the GOP and is directly responsible for back to back presidential election losses.  That said, the Republican Party does indeed have problems besides its non-stop interventionist wars.

Few folks even understand the conservative base, least of all Republicans and the RNC/GOP machine that engineered the disastrous defeat of the Republican Party.  Although liberals and Democrats do indeed plunge themselves into endless tirades on Republicans and the Republican Party, it took a well known liberal election pundit to nail it.  Stu Rothenberg penned an extraordinary piece.

The GOP: A Party Increasingly at Odds With Itself

The Republican Party continues to fracture more seriously than I expected following last year’s re-election of President Barack Obama.....

Earlier this week, the Republican National Committee entered the discussion with a lengthy report that dealt with everything from message to campaign mechanics and the presidential nominating process....

But while the report proposes a big tent strategy, others in the party — Rush Limbaugh, the Club for Growth, Sean Hannity, Tea Party Express and Jim DeMint — have a different agenda. Bliss did not have to deal with similar non-party groups 50 years ago, and their existence today undercuts the authority of the national party.

Allies of Ron Paul and “movement conservatives” have already criticized the RNC report, portraying it as little more than the establishment’s attempt to remake the party in the image of the Democratic Party.

Because the RNC cannot dictate message or mechanics the way it once could...

Since the GOP brand is damaged, it has little credibility with certain voters....

That the Republican brand is badly tarnished is no understatement.  In fact, it's a glaring and bitter truth.  Daniel McCarthy at The American Conservative also nailed it.

The GOP’s Vietnam

How Republican foreign policy lost the culture war—and a generation

America doesn’t really have a two-party system. It has a one-and-a-half-party system, where one party at a time tends to dominate the national agenda while the other becomes a half-party—one that might hold onto the House of Representatives and some state governments, but that isn’t trusted by voters to run the country.....

The root of the GOP’s problem now is the same as that of the Democrats in 1969: the party’s reputation has been ruined by a botched, unnecessary war—Vietnam in the case of the Democrats, Iraq for the GOP. This may sound implausible: every political scientist knows that Americans don’t care about foreign policy; certainly they don’t vote based on it. But foreign policy is not just about foreign policy: it’s also about culture.

The Vietnam War cost the Democrats dearly, just as it is costing the Republicans dearly.  The 'WAR PARTY' label doesn't win elections.  In fact, the 'WAR PARTY' label is a ballot box loser.

As for Republican styled fiscal conservatism, it's a total farce and a joke.

The Tea Party Republicans Spent More Than the Dems They Replaced.

The Republican Party has big problems because it doesn't stand for anything except endless wars, bigger government, more deficits and more debt.  The RNC's pathetic autopsy on itself was one whopper of an exercise in delusion and it's a delusion that can no longer be sold.

Meanwhile, the message of the rising Libertarian/Paulite elements within the GOP actually stand for something that does appeal to voters:  peace, liberty and prosperity.  Will Republicans drink the medicine that is the antidote to the poison they've been ingesting for decades?

Social Conservatives and Libertarian Party Candidates Are Killing the GOP

In 2010, the GOP lost 2 senate seats, Colorado and Nevada, that it should have won. The Republicans lost those crucial races because both candidates, Ken Buck and Sharon Angle, were radical pro-lifers who campaigned on 'human life begins at the precise moment of conception' and all abortion should be outlawed under any circumstances.

In 2012, the Republicans lost senate seats in Missouri and Indiana because of idiotic rape comments made by social conservatives Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock.

It's fair to say that the social conservatives are killing the GOP but it also validates the premise that social conservative GOP power is rapidly dissipating because they keep costing the GOP election after election. From the viewpoint of a constitutional liberty activist, the social conservatives are dubbed theocratic Nazis because they are the biggest cheerleaders for social intolerance, big government, endless wars, the Patriot Act and NDAA. The Patriot Act and NDAA are HUGELY important issues for liberty activists, as is our insane foreign policy.

Besides the social conservatives, there is another block of voters who are killing the GOP. The Libertarian Party vote is raking in enough votes to split conservatives and swing an election to a Democrat.

The clueless GOP elites, meanwhile, opine that it's getting its butt kicked in general elections because conservatives refuse to hold their noses and vote for Romney styled big spending Republicans moderates. The GOP refuses to face the bitter truth that its losing its base because the Republican Party really isn't any different than the big spending Democrats they claim to oppose. Republicans are very much 'the borrow and spend' big government, big spending party.

Let's examine how the Libertarian Party vote smacked the GOP.

A Ron Paul endorsed Montana senate candidate, Denny Rehberg,lost to the Democratic incumbent Jon Tester 48.7% to 44.8% but the Libertarian Party candidate, Dan Cox, got 6.5%, here.  Rehberg's defeat was painful for liberty activists.

In the Indiana senate race where social conservative Richard Mourdock lost to Democrat Joe Donnelly 49.9% to 44.4%, the Libertarian candidate Andy Horning got 5.8%, here.

In Missouri where the now infamous Todd Akin of the 'legitimate rape' fame got walloped by incumbent Claire McCaskill 54.7% to 39.2%, it's important to note that Akin was running about even with McCaskill before his EPIC blunder.  Given that it was going to be a tight race under the best of circumstances, it instructive to note that the Libertarian candidate Jonathan Dine pulled in a very significant 6.1%, here. It's entirely possible that McCaskill would have squeaked by anyway if Akin hadn't blundered and once again the Libertarian vote would have cost the GOP another victory.

The uber liberal Daily Kos literally gloated over how the Libertarian vote delivered 9 victories to the Democrats in tight races that included 2 senate seats, a governorship and 6 house seats.  The Daily Kos was reporting only on its early preliminary calculations and indicated that the Libertarian vote may have been even more decisive.

Libertarians provided the margin for Democrats in at least nine elections

While it's definitely a fact that the Libertarian Party is playing a devastating spoiler role in general elections that result in Republican defeats, I don't necessarily endorse this policy.  In fact, I do believe that it's wrong of the Libertarian Party to run a candidate just to defeat any Republican, as it did in the Montana senate race that resulted in the defeat of a Ron Paul endorsed liberty candidate.  I believe that liberty activists and the Libertarian Party need to work together to elect the most electable liberty candidates and that the Libertarian Party, as a matter of policy, should gracefully bow out of any election where the only possible result is the defeat of a decent liberty candidate and a Democrat victory.

However, I have no problem whatsoever with the Libertarian Party smacking the GOP hard when it runs horrid liberty slashing crazies which, quite frankly, is mostly the norm in the GOP.

Meanwhile, the war for the soul of the GOP continues and liberty activists will continue to indeed wage an epic battle to takeover the GOP from the warmongering, big spending, deficit loving and socially intolerant socialist statists in elephant suits.

If the Libertarian Party truly stands for liberty, sometimes the best option is to just get out of the way and allow liberty to prevail.  I can't think of anything more devastating to liberty than Republican liberty candidates and Libertarian candidates locking horns in mortal combat to deliver perpetual Democrat ballot box victories.





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It's time to FOCUS on Restoring the GOP to the Party of Liberty

The crushing defeat of the Republican Party on election day has obviously unleashed a barrage of questions and commentary. Where did the GOP go wrong? In my humble opinion, the Republican Party failed miserably at distinguishing itself from the Democratic Party. Moreover, the baggage of the intolerant social conservatives, the Republican addiction to spending and the label of being the War Party weighed heavily in the GOP's defeat. The Republican Party is a turn off for voters and the GOP was hit especially hard on demographics by losing the youth vote, the female vote and the minority vote.  In many ways, the GOP is viewed as the party of old, white, gray and dying establishment Republicans as noted in a piece titled GOP Challenge: How to Transcend Aging White Base.

One thing is clear. The GOP has BIG problems that were succinctly and accurately summarized by a Facebook friend.  

The GOP is now made up of 3 factions. The old guard, which I completely reject, the Tea Party, which I almost completely reject due to their batshit crazy tendencies, and the Libertarian wing which I fully endorse.

The war for the soul of the Republican Party has begun. If the Libertarian wing doesn't prevail, the GOP is headed straight to the trash heap of permanent extinction because of a vanishing base. While the Washington Post came out with Republican Party begins election review to find out what went wrong, a far more interesting analysis lays out what needs to be done.

Tea Party: No More Doles, McCains, Romneys

Following President Barack Obama’s re-election victory on Tuesday, one Tea Party group is vowing “no retreat” in its quest to find candidates with “clear conservative records” instead of “weak-kneed” Republicans.

“We’ve had Bob Dole, we’ve had (Gerald) Ford, we had (John) McCain, and now we did (Mitt) Romney, and they lost…because those guys do not necessarily reflect what I think the majority of conservatives, probably the majority of Americans, truly believe,” said Scottie Hughes, news director for the Tea Party News Network.

Hughes added that a desirable conservative candidate is someone who advocates “core principles,” such as liberty, freedom, and limited government, which were so important to the Founding Fathers.

Todd Cefaratti, a TPNN editor, says he knows what conservatives need to do to regain control of the White House: “The Tea Party has not yet begun to fight. It’s time for a wholesale reassessment of the D.C. establishment politicians and party grandees who have no commitment or courage to reduce the size of government,” Cefaratti said.

“[But] unfortunately, time and time again the establishment Republican Party continually keeps putting these candidates [forward], saying, ‘This is who we need to support.’ And most of the time those are usually not the folks who represent true conservative Republican values,” said Hughes.

Hughes said that if conservative and libertarian groups found a way to combine forces, they might be able to settle on a candidate who could win without the need to appeal to moderates.

Bingo!

Therein lies the hope for resurrecting the GOP from the utter destruction wrought upon it by the arrogant party elites who hold the will of the conservative base in the highest contempt.  Also, Republican salvation definitely won't be coming from theocratic candidates like Michelle Bachmann or Rick Santorum.  The Republican Party needs to ditch its 'bat shit crazies' who advocate for theocracy, social intolerance, endless wars and a military empire.  The theocon/neocon axis must be broken and consigned to the trash heap of history.

Conservatives are different than Democrats. A Democrat will vote for any idiot their party runs but conservatives absolutely will not. Conservatives will gleefully and vigorously punish their party for running big government and big spending Republican statists, and that's precisely what happened on election night.

For decades conservatives have been voting for what they perceived as less government but all they ever got was more Republican spending, more deficits and a big pile of debt. The crop of Tea Party Republicans that won big in 2010 ended up spending more than the Democrats they replaced, here.  The decline and fall of the Republican Party dates all the way back to the Reagan era.

What Went Wrong with the Republican Party? Reagan Ruined the Republican Party and Fiscal Conservatism

Lew Rockwell published this gem of a 1992 piece by Murray Rothbard describing the fall of the Republican Party as fiscal conservatives. The article documents the turning point of the Republican Party under Reagan. Frankly, I never understood why Reagan is so revered by Republicans. Reagan massively increased spending and taxes. In many way, the Reagan era paved the way for the Republican Party nightmare that currently exists - nothing but a party of one big socialist spending orgy. As it turns out, the Gipper was one big graft machine who loved big government.

Repudiating the National Debt

In the spring of 1981, conservative Republicans in the House of Representatives cried. They cried because, in the first flush of the Reagan Revolution that was supposed to bring drastic cuts in taxes and government spending, as well as a balanced budget, they were being asked by the White House and their own leadership to vote for an increase in the statutory limit on the federal public debt, which was then scraping the legal ceiling of $1 trillion. They cried because all of their lives they had voted against an increase in public debt, and now they were being asked, by their own party and their own movement, to violate their lifelong principles. The White House and its leadership assured them that this breach in principle would be their last: that it was necessary for one last increase in the debt limit to give President Reagan a chance to bring about a balanced budget and to begin to reduce the debt. Many of these Republicans tearfully announced that they were taking this fateful step because they deeply trusted their president, who would not let them down.

Famous last words. In a sense, the Reagan handlers were right: there were no more tears, no more complaints, because the principles themselves were quickly forgotten, swept into the dustbin of history.

On Tuesday night, November 6, 2012, true conservatives just couldn't take it any longer. They were sick to death of years and decades of lies, spending, deficits and debt. Conservatives finally found the courage to just let the Republican Party loose, something that was long overdue.

Frankly, I'm proud of conservatives for finally doing something they should have done a long time ago. They finally had the testicular fortitude to fire their own damn party because the lesser of the two evils is still evil.

It's time for We the People to take back the Republican Party and toss out the frauds and traitors who betrayed the constitution and the principles of federalism and limited federal powers.