A couple of years ago, when people started mentioning the idea of the Tea Party becoming its own stand-alone political party, I immediately thought it was a bad idea, one that would guarantee victory to the Democrats. But lately, thanks to the establishment trying to ram Democrat-lite Mitt Romney down our throats, I've started thinking it might not actually be a bad idea and might actually increase the chance of a conservative taking the White House. Right now, the establishment of the GOP has a laser focus on appealing to moderates, the thought being that the base of the party is going to fall in line and then with independents, they can win the election, their sole ultimate goal (it's pretty clear now they don't actually care what the GOP candidate actually believes in just as long as he wins the election and then repays them with favors, political appointments, access etc.). Unfortunately, this religious belief in "moderation" is making many conservatives feel a bit disenfrachised, so much so that many are talking about staying home in November despite their hatred for Barack Obama. And if the GOP loses its base, it really has no chance of winning, neither the Presidency nor the Congress.
Now imagine if their were also a Conservative Party in the mix (or a Tea Party or an American Freedom Party, the name doesn't really matter, just the principles behind the name), one that could either choose to back the GOP nominee or field their own candidate in an election. Suddenly, the establishment would have to start actually appealing to the conservative movement with a candidate who actually believes in conservatism and doesn't just pay lip service occasionally. In such a system, people like Mitt Romney, George H.W. Bush and Bob Dole would have zero chance of getting the support of both the rump GOP AND the new Conservative Party at the same time, which they will need to have for any hope of winning the Presidency. In the end, we will start getting actual conservatives who believe in conservative principles as the nominee, exciting the base and giving voters a real choice.
I realize that forming another political party is a drastic and potentially risky move (the Conservative Party will have to be prepared to field a third party candidate for any chance of the establishment taking the threat seriously). But given the GOP's poor history of nominating candidates who believe in small government and conservative principles (there was a 52 year gap between Calvin Coolidge and Ronald Reagan!) and the dangerous times that we live in, I think it is time to start thinking about doing something drastic.
Mechanically, both Dem and GOP have advantages in infrastructure, money, name recognition and more. It is never easy to push away a big tree, especially one with roots.
ReplyDeleteBut the biggest problem is likely VOTES. It seems that currently you could only get less than 20% of the GOP voters to embrace a 3rd party. Likely, Libertarians wouldn't join ours - so while it would further weaken the GOP by 10% - it still leaves a base 70% to loose primaries.
As a popular and successful former President even Teddy R failed at the Bull Moose party. And we have no similarly attractive leader to pave the way - let alone one that could get above 15% of GOP voters to follow.
So why not use their infrastructure in an overt move to take over all of the millions of little decision makers until Tea Party people control the body - if not the head?
In some ways, I think it's already happening.
I think the death knell of 3rd Parties has always been that they try to actually have their own nominee and then take them to the finish line. What I envision is slightly different. In New York State, you can have one candidate representing multiple parties, often the Republican candidate is also the Conservative party candidate, though not always. So why not do that on a national level? Make the GOP nominate someone who will also receive the endorsement/nomination of the conservative party, making them move to the right instead of to the left?
DeleteI do realize this is probably a pipe dream but right now I think enough conservatives are pissed off that it could work. If you get people like Sarah Palin and Mark Levin to jump ship, you could get to a meaningful threshold. Who knows, maybe we can all just become registered Libertarians and get revenge on Ron Paul by taking over his party. Make the Libertarian Party, a pro-Life small government, strong defense party instead of a party that seems to focus on pot smoking and ending the war (whichever one it is). I think they have quite a bit of ballot access already.
In terms of taking over the GOP, even Reagan wasnt able to alter the party for very long. The machine is very strong and resistant to change. Even people who are principled like Marco Rubio and Rick Santorum end up being corrupted by it in the end. Just as the longer Republicans govern the more they start acting like Democrats, the longer a tea partier is in the halls of power the more they start acting like the establishment. Newt is proof that even if you are effective, if you don't go along with the establishment, it will destroy you.
www.lp.org The Libertarian Party is The Party To Restore Our Republic & Our Liberty!!! The Two Headed Serpent of the One Party System of the R's and D's Must go the way of the Federalist and Whig parties before Them !!!
ReplyDeleteI'm seriously considering going back to the LP. I still hate the foreign policy but the rest looks great.
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