ehBeth, but what is your take on the piece? This seems to be just another effort by conservatives to try, at this late date, to separate themselves from the monumental failures of the current administration. They were more than willing to attach themselves to Bush and company when it appeared that success may be in the offing. Moreover, there are numerous statements that are self-serving and dead wrong.
advocate - my perception has been for some time that the 'conservatives' have been working on splitting themselves out from The Republicans.
I don't think most U.S. voters understand/care about the language of politics - American media 'explains' it to them.
People in the U.S. who tend to vote Republican still believe they're voting conservative.
I think they're wrong, and the articles from American conservatives (not the U.S. MSM which became too big business and protective of the government) have been saying the same thing for at least the past 4 - 5 years.
I'm very much a traditionalist (conservative) when it comes to political definitions. I'd be glad to see true conservatives and true liberals in discussion.
From my angle the American voter doesn't have much of a choice. Two parties right of centre. What do you have to pick from? Nothing really.
Perhaps the problem is that the so-called true conservatives in the USA have nowhere else to go but to the Republican party. Is it different in the UK, which, I assume, is your home?
Conservatives supported the current administration even though it is fringe-right and dedicated to reckless neo-conservative policies that pretty much benefited only the wealthy, and was dismissive of the interests of the rest of the world.
The USA was strongest when there was little difference between the two parties, with both serving the interests of a broad spectrum of the public. Perhaps we will go back to this.
ehBeth wrote:This is an interesting take on things.
Seems like the Republicans may need to reclaim their party (at least it's the take of this writer for The American Conservative)
IDEOLOGY HAS CONSEQUENCES ... link
Quote:Many Republicans must feel like that legendary man at the bar on the Titanic. Watching the iceberg slide by outside a porthole, he remarked, "I asked for ice. But this is too much." Republicans voted for a Republican and got George W. Bush, but his Republican Party is unrecognizable as the party we have known.
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More on the conservative v Republican issue.
Quote:Conservatives Fear 'Rudy McRomney' Conservatives at Conference Remain Wary of Three GOP Presidential Front-runners
alphabet coverage
Quote:The fight for the right began in earnest Friday as Republican presidential candidates attacked one another before a convention of conservative activists who seemed unsure and unenthusiastic about their three leading contenders.
It all could be summed up by the sticker sported by one businessman in the exhibition hall of the Conservative Political Action Conference, which drew thousands of activists from across the country. "Rudy McRomney," the sticker said, with a red slash crossing out an amalgam of the three GOP presidential front-runners: former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Arizona Sen. John McCain and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
Direct mail consultant Michael Centanni's sticker summed up the views held by many at the CPAC.
"The three front-runners are just not viable conservative choices," Centanni said. "I think what we know about the three front-runners is enough really to doom them."
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Quote:former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, who addresses the gathering Saturday, released a Web video in which he attacked Rudy McRomney.
"The three leading challengers for our party's nomination may be good men," Gilmore says. "But they simply do not share our conservative values. John McCain has fought conservatives time after time, even invoking the rhetoric of class warfare to oppose Bush tax cuts. Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney both repeatedly opposed core conservative values to win elections in New York and Massachusetts."
Invoking former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean's cry to Democrats in 2003, Gilmore said he "will represent the Republican wing of the Republican Party."
"So far, social conservatives have not found a Mr. Right or maybe it's a Mrs. Right," says Focus on the Family's Tom Minnery. "A lot of people are praying about this."
