What Next For The GOP?
I’ve involved myself in more “what’s a lefty and what’s a righty” discussions at SA than I can remember and it seems like the Republican party will be going through its own debate as the Obama years commence. Most of us seem comfortable identifying recent Republican governance as something other than traditional conservatism…it’s really “conservative” only in a relative sense compared to the “liberal” opposition which is now assuming government.
There are, generally speaking, two ways to view the conservative/liberal dichotomy: in terms relative to each other and as abiding organising and philosophical principles. In the case of the former, the entire political spectrum can shift right or left but we’ll still have conservatives and liberals. In the latter, conservatives still emphasise individual self reliance while the liberals emphasise an interventionist State. There can be no doubt that the political spectrum has moved left over time as “conservative” and “liberal” governments both use the State in a manner undreamed of in the 18th century. Differences today are really matters of degree and thus the terms “conservative” and “liberal” truly have become relative.
Will this be the case forever? Probably not but likely until society passes through the next transformation and upheaval which history shows to be the rule. This leaves the Republican party in a bit of a quandry, as Sean Scallon illustrates in a thoughtful article at The American Conservative. His concluding paragraph:
The way to recovery for the Grand Old Party lies down one of two paths: 1). They can start honestly saying they are right-socialists and govern like an old European Christian Democratic Party or Tory Party and drop any pretensions they are “conservative” so they can be truer to themselves or 2). They can reject socialism altogether steer back to a traditional, honest, conservatism and hope to find a politician and the wonks that can make both the politics and the policy work for them instead retreating to right-wing socialism for electoral survival. Of all the discussions and debates going on now as to what future course the GOP may take, this fork in the road, more than better organization or better tactics or upping their count of the white vote to 70 percent, is more relevant to their future course.
The tension between political principle and electoral politics has been with us for a long time and it won’t disappear any time soon.
