The conservative era is over. What will replace it?
Today, the conservative movement is not just reeling and dejected after a loss at the polls. It has reached a terminal point, much as American liberalism had in 1980. The dream may never die, as Ted Kennedy said at the Democratic convention in 1980, but the patient has. That’s not to say that Republican candidates can’t win elections, or that some other kind of conservative movement won’t emerge as a potent force in the future. But the revolution is over. Its coalition is fractured, its energy is exhausted, and most of its remaining big ideas—school vouchers, the flat tax, and Social Security privatization—are so unpopular that they’re not even part of the conversation anymore.
So, if I’m correct that the conservative era is kaput, what comes next? No one knows! But perhaps we can speculate about some of the candidates for successor. Here are four possibilities, moving from left to right:
Too bad it can’t just be a smorgasbord, where the voters get to pick and choose positions on issues, regardless of candidate or party. I’ve been pushed toward the left over the last six years, but only in response to the ridiculous take-it-or-leave-it package the republicans have offered.
No single party will EVER reflect my interests.
It might be a little premature to say that the country has swung to the left to stay for a while…if the Rs get their message together again, which they can, this may turn out to simply be a wakeup call to avoid catering to the fringes, and to avoid tolerating idiots like Rove and Bush. All that takes to make that deal work is one of the powerful Ds acting like a nutcake on some social issue, which we’re certain to see at some point in the next several months.
What conservative era? Bigger spending than the Democrats, foreign intervention everywhere, unbridled immigration (legal and illegal).
Good riddance, too bad the alternative is probably just as bad.
George Wallace did get one thing right, there is not a dimes difference between the two parties. That’s the problem, only two parties are governing and always the same two.
What’s next :
(1) Ensure laws are clarified to prohibit religious groups from infiltrating government. Evidently, the constitution was not good enough for the Bush regime and his gang of religious leaders.
(2) Ensure we are able to pay for what we spend. Since Bush and the GOP borrowed and spent, we need to ensure we watch the national credit card and learn to say no to the military. Sorry, can’t afford invading that country – come back next year.
(3) Ensure again that item #1 is done. It’s best to put all the child molester priests and republican senators in jail for about 15 years.
(4) Prosecute Bush and his thugs before he actually pushes a law to pardon himself for taking this country to war with Iraq, plundering the US treasury and looking like a monkey.
#5.4: Too late — Amnesty for Bush?
It hasn’t even been a month since the election and you’re already back to drawing the wrong conclusions.
The Conservative Era is far from over. If it was dying out, then the Democrats wouldn’t have taken the majority in Congress off the victories of conservative democrats.
As #4 correctly pointed out, Bush Sr., Bush Jr., and their clique aren’t conservatives. The Republican part, as a reaction to the elections, will move more to the right to win, not to the center.
Honestly, Dave, I hope you’re just posting this story because of the interesting subject, and don’t actually believe this bullshit.
Well… as a liberal and as a Democrat (two different things), I would like to say that America is neither liberal nor Democrat. We still live in a dangerously conservative nation…
…and what is dangerous about it is that it isn’t so much the fiscally responsible conservatism that we can all agree is healthy… it’s the mean, controlling, judgemental, God-fearing conservatism that makes one want to storm Washington with pitchforks and torches.
My team took over because the red team fucked up so hard that no reasonable person could support them… and when you look at how close the numbers really are, you realize that only about half of those who actually bothered to vote are in fact reasonable. This is only permanant if the blue team can pull a rabbit out of the hat. It’s too bad too, since the blue team has always had the better ideas.
#7: One can only hope.
I’d put my money on comment 7…. except for the knee-jerk part. How come nobody in the Slate article or elsewhere even suggests the emergence of Conservative Democrats? Everyone still seems to want the same corrupt Republicans, out-of-touch Progressive Democrats or neo-Liberals from both sides of the aisle.
Maybe if Democrats had gotten another 20-30 seats or so but once the campaign heated up many GOPers were saved. The Republicans are still in a more powerful position than they were at any time in the 80s or 70s with 200 seats. Republicans used to have just 160 House seats and 35 Senators.
As far as what next?
Ya know, im really sick of politics, can we just get rid of it altogether?
then we can all get drunk.
The democrats are conservative, and have been for years.
It’s just that the republicans have been bat-shit nuts for a long time too – and people can’t cope with having real definitions of conservative used.
I remember in the UK while the last presidential race was going on – they pointed out that the dems were still, on average, as right wing as our conservative party.
As I say often – there is no mainstream party in the US that is left of center…
Actually, what we have is whacked-out looney left that call themselves Democrats and the left that call themselves Republicans.
The two party system is what’s really killing the country. Both parties have an all or nothing mentality that always results in bigger gov’t. If we could fracture into 4 or 5 major parties we might have a chance. There’s nothing in the Constitution that requires 50% to win an election however 50% is required within Congress to pass a bill. This would mean each and every issue would require a coalition get a bill passed. These coalitions would always be shifting depending on the issue. Overall, I think we’d get a more balanced form of representative democracy this way.
On the bright side, we’re all going to be choking from Bird Flu as we fry from Global Warming (TM) soon so we won’t really have to worry about it much longer.
This is hysterical. Now all the conservatives in here are saying Bush is not one of them, ‘not really a conservative’ . Why not have Karl Rove declare Bush is a closet democrat and save the party? That’s it, Bush is a commie, liberal that “sneeked in” and bankrupted the country. That should work, right?
What a bunch of back peddlers now that you lost the confidence of the voting public. Guess what, Bush is like you and you are like him.
OK,
Can we rename these two groups??
What could it be?
Workers and RICH bastards?
War mongers, and Peace nic’s??
#15, Dallas,
hahahaha, You hit the nail solidly on the head. Good post.
***
In other news,…
This is the problem with a Republican form of government. All the politics gravitate to the two extremes which are very similar. Each takes a turn being in control while the other licks its wounds for a decade or so. Currently there are hundreds of “third” parties in the US, but none of them has had any success. Independent candidates have a better chance of being elected to Congress then does a third party member.
The Parliamentary system does allow the formation of smaller parties. Most stable Parliamentary countries, Canada, Britain, and Germany for example, all have small “general interest” parties represented. The main stream parties continue to dominate and lead any coalitions. Generally though, the small parties are heeded and their voices heard.
So, … ya get what ya pay for. You want a stable government and you end up with either the two party Republican system or the multi party Parliamentary system. Any other system is virtually doomed to failure.
“Above all, do no harm” (for physicians) looks like a good signpost of conservatism. Judging from the daily reckless police actions reported in this blog, I’d have to conclude that conservatism has been gravely ill since about 1960. Yesterday: throwing our weight around; today: reaping the whirlwind.
Or how about this one: in what way has the USA been like Switzerland in the last 40 years?
It’s not exactly news that GWB is a big spender, a big-government rightist. He has created wealth for some corporations by increasing the deficit and national debt.
Just my view as an outsider.
Puh-Lease.
All the Republicans have to do is turn a blind eye to a gay marriage and then act like they didn’t know AND vow to ban it if they get elected. Then the democrats will be forced to stand by the gay & lesbian side; as always, the bigot in every football loving person in the USA will surface and will vote against it and thus the Republicans will win again.
It’s a no brainer.
#19 – You may have a point. I never realized my hating footbal had a political relevance.
#20
If there’s one thing Football can bring in any person is homophobia, otherwise how do you call a player from the opposite team who scored points against your team? 😉
#19, Good point. Only I think the anti-gay faction may have burned itself out. Although support for gay marriage / civil unions is only slightly more favorable, the rabid fanaticism against isn’t nearly as loud.
Hey Dallas, people were saying it before the election. Even before the President’s reelection, and even his first year in office when they saw what he passed. They even said it before he was elected. John Dvorak had several posts of Republicans saying it. President Bush is conservative in some respects but not others, and is to the right of center, but not to the right of most Republicans.
As for where things go from here with a narrow Democrat majority, here’s one place they might start:
Meanwhile, Cintas, the nation’s largest uniform supplier, has sent letters to 400 employees telling them that they will be suspended indefinitely if they cannot resolve their mismatched social security number with 60 days.
Enter Rep. Bennie Thompson (D. Miss.) who is in line to become chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. Thompson has warned Cintas that it may face criminal charges if it fires any employee for presenting false social security numbers in order to obtain employment. Thompson says he’s concerned that the immigrant community is the target of “potentially discriminatory actions.”
You know I find it ironic that many neo-libs on this blog are exactly what they accuse republicans to be, Bigots. After reading the posts above, I have seen many references to people who watch football and homophobia. I bet you are the same people who make fun of people in the south as being stupid, and uneducated. This is why you will lose the next election.
That ugly fact that Democrats cannot admit is that they did not beat the republicans in the last election, the Republicans beat themselves. For the last 6 years we have bitten our tongue and voted for bush, and various other senators and representatives, not because we agreed with everything that they said, but because the alternative (i.e. the democrats) were always much worse.
This election the people the republicans had relied on all these years simply had enough. Many simply stayed home. Others like myself, know that the republicans still hold the white house, and maybe Bush can remember how to use the veto pen, and blockade the BS that congress will undoubtedly push out over the next two years. In short I like many other republicans expect gridlock. This is a timeout period for the republicans, they screwed up, and in their quest for power became democrats themselves. Hopefully over the next 2 years the republicans will get the message, though I am afraid they will not.
Bush’s newest family planning appointment has me more than a little worried, and smells of bowing down the ultra right, which is not the majority of their party. The majority of the republican party are people who want to live their life with as little government intervention as possible, and not have the government reach into their pocket to redistribute to someone who refuses to work. Most frankly do not care about Gay Marriage, but we do care about stopping illegal immigration. We want a government that cares more about the students in school and less about the teachers union. That fact is the Republicans (Bush included) violated everything that it means to be republican, and now they paid for it. It remains to be seen if they learn will their lesson or not.
John and a few others noted that many(17 i believe) new House members for the Democrats are that rare breed, Conservative Democrats. The left didn’t win.
With all the problems the Republicans had going into this election, they should have lost 40 seats minimum in the House. And only having a 1 seat majority in the Senate means they can’t pass anything off center or liberal. With the Republicans having over 200 seats in the House, the Democrats can’t override any veto’s.
Several seats went to Democrats that won in districts normally heavy Republican, (like Foley’s seat and DeLays) that will pass back in 2 years when a Republican candidate can actually be on the ballot. Some seats may never go back to the Republicans.
The American voters have split it down the middle again. But they DID NOT vote Liberals or leftist, they still voted bascally Conservative.
This was not in any way a realignment election, it was a status quo election in many ways.
At least we got rid of 4 of the worst Senators in Washington. Burns, Santorium, Allen and Chaffee.
#15…Dallas…..I have been saying since I first came on this site that Bush was NOT a Conservative. And that was well before the election.
True Conservatives(not the Neo-cons or religious right) have said it for years. In the beginning, before he started spouting policy as President, many Conservatives(myself included) believed he was. Well, we got a rude awakening.
I just hope that real Conservatives can take back the Republican party and restore the princibles that makes them different and better than Liberals, and Neo-cons.
There weren’t that many new conservative Democrats elected. However, many talked up a conservative line, either on Iraq or immigration or both.