Balkanisation of Conservatives: Can the GOP select a standard by 2016?

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   Credence2posted 11 years ago

   So what about the future of the conservatives as currently represented by the GOP?
   
   I see three factions from among the conservatives right now, Can they coalesce around one standard bearer by 2016?
   
   1. The pragmatists, represented by people like Governor Christie of New Jersey.
   
   2. The social conservatives, and I include the Tea Party in this, I think that Rick Santorum is a good rep for this group.
   
   3. The libertarians, a fast growing constituency, represented by Senator Paul of Tennessee.
   
   What do you think?

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      tirelesstravelerposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      There is no fraction among conservatives.  The fraction is with the Repubics are acting like Democrats.

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         Credence2posted 11 years agoin reply to this

         I dunno about that, thanks for weighin in.

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2. 38

   Borsiaposted 11 years ago

   The biggest problem with the American 2 party system is that the GOP primaries are controlled by a small minority of religious zealots and corporate extremists. And the Democrats are controlled by an equally corrupt group of unionists and lawyers.
   Because of this only the worst candidates can get past the primaries and into the final elections.
   They basically go door to door until they find someone that is virtually unelectable unless the country is in such bad shape that, like in 2008, people vote for them simply because they aren't Democrats. (Of course in 2008 the opposite was the case, Obama basically ran on, and was elected because, "I'm not George Bush" and nothing more. He was a second rate junior senator with one of the worst spending records behind only Feinstein and Boxer and is the prodigy of the most corrupt political machine in US history.)
   Each party stays in power until things are so bad the pendulum swings to the opposite side. But due to the corrupt primary system the pendulum can never stop in the middle, where the true majority of Americans are.
   
   You can't really lump Libertarians in the same camp with the GOP. While Ron Paul was a true Libertarian Rand is more of a sell out kowtowing to the religious right, though he sounds far more Libertarian than the rest of the GOP true Libertarians don't want government involved in things like abortion, where the government has no business. True Libertarians want government slashed by 50-60% or more. We realize that government does nothing well and should be cut back to what is actually in the Constitution.
   The complete removal of the Federal Reserve and withdrawal from the WMF the UN and NATO and a host of other truly American things.
   
   As to the future of the GOP it will follow the past with little if any change.
   Likewise the Democrats will follow the exact same opposite just as they have in the past.
   America will continue to slide down the slope until it collapses under its own crushing debt just as the USSR did in the early 90s.
   What Phoenix will rise from the flames is impossible to say but it will probably not be a single country but a number of country states, again like the USSR.

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      gmwilliamsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Borsia, you have presented an insightful premise.  How do you feel this to be?  In your estimation, besides the impending collapse of the current American socioeconomic system, what other sociosystems will collapse in America?  Do you believe that there will be an even greater divide among sociocultural groups in this country? Why? Why not?  This is a great discussion, I might add!

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      Credence2posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Do you really think that the vast majority of Americans are of libertarian sentiment?
      
      The outcome that you anticipate is interesting, we will all have to stay tuned
      
      You stay well, nice to hear from you.

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         Borsiaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Credence; I don't think that the majority are Libertarian I think they are far more centrist  than either parties end candidates, which are always extremist to the right or left.
         Libertarians like myself would probably be considered extremists by many or at the least radicals because of the depth to which we want to cut government. I don't think the majority would want to see a 60-70% cut in military and defense. Most think that the UN serves a purpose that is beneficial to the US, though I have no idea why. Few understand that NATO is just a scam or even that the Federal Reserve is a private corporation with nothing to do with the Federal Government, at least no more than Fed-x.
         As for my anticipated outcome the writing is on the wall. The US has been is steep decline for a very long time regardless of which party has held power. The only upshots have come from cooking the books not from any real improvements in the nations fiscal health.

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            Credence2posted 11 years agoin reply to this

            I hear you, Borsia,
            
            Nothing short of a revolution and what would be considered almost starting over will wean people away from Government as it presently is.

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3. 55

   Education Answerposted 11 years ago

   It's my belief that the entire country has shifted to the left in recent decades.  What we now consider Tea Party ideals seem to be what Barry Goldwater or William Buckley would have considered merely conservative.  The average republican seems to be more liberal than in previous decades.  It's merely an observation, and I have no supporting evidence for that belief.  Still, I can't help but feel that what would have been considered mainstream conservative thirty or forty years ago is now considered tea-party radical now.  As a conservative, it's quite frustrating.

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