Dionne: The End Of the Right?

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/03/AR2006080301259.html

Is conservatism finished?

What might have seemed an absurd question less than two years ago is now one of the most important issues in American politics. The question is being asked -- mostly quietly but occasionally publicly -- by conservatives themselves as they survey the wreckage of their hopes, and as their champions in the Republican Party use any means necessary to survive this fall's elections.

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Political movements lose power when they lose their self-confidence and sense of mission. Liberalism went into a long decline after 1968 when liberals clawed at each other more than they battled conservatives -- and when they began to wonder whether their project was worth salvaging.

Between now and November, conservative leaders will dutifully try to rally the troops to stave off a Democratic victory. But their hearts won't be in the fight. The decline of conservatism leaves a vacuum in American politics. An unhappy electorate is waiting to see who will fill it.

[Erika]

1. The GOP went wild -Fiscal irresponsible & Social conservative

They in no way are fit to govern.

[rodeodance]

3. they do not 'govern'---Just take and take seems to me.

[rodeodance]

2. "utrageous and unprincipled spasm occurred last night"--the estate bill

.....The most obvious, outrageous and unprincipled spasm occurred last night when the Senate voted on a bill that would have simultaneously raised the minimum wage and slashed taxes on inherited wealth.

Rarely has our system produced a more naked exercise in opportunism than this measure. Most conservatives oppose the minimum wage on principle as a form of government meddling in the marketplace. But moderate Republicans in jeopardy this fall desperately wanted an increase in the minimum wage.

So the seemingly ingenious Republican leadership, which dearly wants deep cuts in the estate tax, proposed offering nickels and dimes to the working class to secure billions for the rich. Fortunately, though not surprisingly, the bill failed.

The episode was significant because it meant Republicans were acknowledging that they would not hold congressional power without the help of moderates. That is because there is nothing close to a conservative majority in the United States.

[kurth]

4. True goal: "To give away as much as possible to the wealthy"

Generations will pay for the treason committed by these greedy corrupt swines.

[katty]

7. yup, blatant, unabashed criminal stealing and destruction

[yurbud]

5. let's hope for a civil war between the taliban and the plutocrats.

because on some issues, we can make common cause with the taliban whereas the plutocrats are essentially Hannibal Lector waiting to eat our livers with a nice quianti and some favah beans.

[Demeter]

6. The MOST Important Issue in American Politics Is ENDING Conservatism

through prosecutions for election fraud, corporate fraud, war crimes, treason, and crimes against humanity.

[Oak2004]

8. I would argue that it is not in our best interest to eliminate

conservativism -- as in traditional American conservativism. Without a "loyal opposition" any movement, however well intentioned, will go astray. The catch here is that what has been trumpeted as "conservativism" for the last 20 years (at least) is not conservativism at all, but protofascism all decorated up to look like conservativism.

(Note the timeline here: I am not making the Johnny-come-lately argument that "Bush is not conservative" but an argument that pretty much no current Republicans, and very few from the recent past, are. I mean, really, could you imagine Eisenhower, or even Goldwater, siding with this crowd?)

Traditional conservatives, however, shouldn't be let off the hook. With few exceptions, they did exactly what Von Papen and his ilk of the late Weimar Republic did: they tried to use the fascists to their own ends, and then watched as the fascists swallowed their movement whole. If they expect to be acknowledged again as legitimate voices within the democratic (small-d) dialogue, they need to both re-establish their bona fide commitment to democracy and do some serious soul searching as to how they could have been so opportunistic, stupid, and complicit.