Big Fat Story
Wanted: cool-headed, fiscally responsible leadership
The conservative columnist most directly associated with Reagan, Will has grown increasingly critical of a party he believes has drifted from its core message of responsible, efficient government. To Will, the explosive deficits that have occurred under Bush are symptoms of a GOP that has sold out future generations to buy itself another term in power. "Beneath Americans' perfunctory disapproval of government deficits lurks an inconvenient truth: They enjoy deficits, by which they are charged less than a dollar for a dollar's worth of government," Will writes. "Conservatives participate in this, even though deficits fuel government's growth by obscuring its cost." Bush argued for a "compassionate conservatism" that left social programs largely intact—with him gone, will Will and other budget crunchers regain control of the party?
Forget the middle—the base wants an unapologetic and combative tack to the right
Rush Limbaugh, the GOP's most pugnacious voice as the party bounced back from President Clinton's 1992 victory to become the dominant majority party under Bush, criticized McCain on a daily basis during the primaries. McCain was damned for tacking left on immigration, global warming, and campaign finance reform, among many other areas, and the King of Oxycontin continues to hound the Republican candidate for running too conciliatory a campaign. According to Limbaugh, old school Republicans "want country club blue-blood moderates in charge of the party, and if they get that, then it's going to be sewer city for the Republican Party for quite a while." As conservatives seek to redefine themselves if McCain is defeated, expect Limbaugh to be a key figure in fighting off efforts to re-brand the party as more moderate.
Both parties have abandoned the big prize: the bipartisan middle ground
The right wing base's worst enemy, right down to his appearances on the MSM flagship the Lehrer News Hour, the in-house conservative of the New York Times—that liberal rag!—David Brooks is a leading advocate of an intellectual, pragmatic, and centrist conservative movement. To Brooks, McCain and Lieberman's forays across partisan lines are the models for a reformed, electable Republican party. Republicans have drifted too far to the right on economic policy and social policy and have become ideologically rigid, he argues. He has praised the neo-patrician social democracy championed by the Old Etonian toff David Cameron, leader of the post-Thatcher British Conservative Party. Hard to imagine that that would please the GOP faithful.
Vultures circle over McCain
Conservatism’s big dogs are staking out their ground as McCain’s troubles multiply. Our guide to the finger-pointing, posturing, and plans to save the GOP.
Two young Republicans call for mixing social conservatism with populist economic policy.
Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam, two Atlantic Monthly contributors, made a splash this year with Grand New Party calling for a remodeled conservative movement specifically designed to win over middle-class and working-class voters. According to the pair, the GOP's biggest area for growth is among voters who are sympathetic to the party's emphasis on faith and moral values, but remain worried about their family’s financial future. They suggest combining populist economic policies, like wage and healthcare subsidies, with conservative social policy under a "pro-family" umbrella. They consider Huckabee and Palin the most promising candidates to fit their ticket, two figures who have drawn derision from the party's pro-business wing.
Defeating terrorism must still trump all other goals, say the neocons
Of all the groups who will be at the table in crafting a new Republican Party, neoconservatives may be the most threatened should McCain lose the election. With their crowning achievement, the Iraq War, widely reviled, many prominent conservatives have suggested throwing this wing of the party under the bus, especially with the economy—and not terror—in the front of voters' minds. Neocon columnist Charles Krauthammer has steadfastly defended Bush’s dedication to the war on terror, has urged McCain to follow suit, and has derided Palin as unfit to lead in wartime. “McCain must seize the opportunity and, contrary to conventional wisdom, make the Iraq war the central winning plank of his campaign,” he wrote.
Exiled by conservatives, the bear-like Brit calls for a libertarian remake of the Republican party
An early pioneer of the conservative blogosphere, British-born Thatcher-devotee Sullivan became persona non grata to many conservatives after he turned on Bush in 2004 and endorsed Kerry. Sullivan's 2006 tome The Conservative Soul criticized Republicans for allowing religious fundamentalists to take over the party at the expense of fiscal conservatives and civil libertarians. An early supporter of Obama's candidacy, he suggests the Republicans may need to be totally destroyed before they can be redeemed by a platform of social tolerance, fiscal discipline, a rejection of torture, state surveillance, and the restoration of legal rights curtailed under the Patriot Act. "Those of us who consider ourselves conservatives will have a responsibility to try and constructively repair the GOP if they self destruct," Sullivan writes. "And the work has to start at the core level of political philosophy."
Unless McCain does something to change the weather of this campaign, he will continue to fall behind Obama. As Michael Barone explains, "Obama's current leads in several Bush '04 states means that McCain must change the basic tenor of the campaign in order to win; eking out a narrow margin in one or two states won't do it in the current state of opinion. And no one has a clear idea of how McCain can change the dynamic." But it is still far too early to call this election, says Barone. Other races have been decided in the last five days; we are still three weeks out. And maybe pollsters find it hard to detect the full extent of Republican support. And perhaps Obama's electoral machine is not as good as advertised. It's far too early to count out McCain, though exactly how he can squeak in we may discover after November 4.
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