The Next Right has posted a thoughtful essay that seeks to put the current intra-conservative debates into perspective. The whole thing is a worthwhile read, but the conclusion especially is interesting:Conservatives, thankfully, are nowhere near as afflicted by tunnel-vision, as the current debates on the Right show. However, it is essential that, being conservative, we remember that these debates were not settled in 1964 or 1980 and are not going to be settled in 2008, 2012 or any other year. These debates are timeless elements of the American conservative tradition, and will probably never be resolved completely. However, another timeless element which we must also be careful not to forget is the fact that these debates have always ended … [Read more...]
Do Social Cons and Libertarians Have More in Common Politically?
Lately I feel like I've been doing a lot of refereeing and discussion about the libertarian-social conservative debate. Along those lines, I believe my readers would gain a lot of insights from this American Thinker essay by libertarian Randall Hoven:Social conservatism is taking a beating lately. Not only did it lose in the recent elections, it is being blamed for the Republican losses. If only the religious right would get off the Republican Party's back, the GOP could win like it is supposed to again. I beg to differ. I'm anything but a social conservative. In nine presidential elections, I voted Libertarian in six. I am a hard core "limited government" conservative/libertarian; I want government out of my pocket-book and out of … [Read more...]
Colorado GOP Should Heed Kafer and Hillman, Not Parker and Huckabee
This week's two prime examples of self-serving guns on the Right pointing inward? On the one hand, Kathleen Parker caricaturing and lambasting me and millions of evangelical Christians:To be more specific, the evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch of the GOP is what ails the erstwhile conservative party and will continue to afflict and marginalize its constituents if reckoning doesn't soon cometh. Simply put: Armband religion is killing the Republican Party.... It isn't that culture doesn't matter. It does. But preaching to the choir produces no converts. And shifting demographics suggest that the Republican Party -- and conservatism with it -- eventually will die out unless religion is returned to the privacy of one's heart … [Read more...]