How come every time Republicans lose an election and are banished to the wilderness; instead of gathering together, the Republican Party starts acting like the Donner party. Well, the GOP is in full cannibal mode now and us social conservatives are looking an awful lot like T-Bones to our fiscal conservative friends.
The funny thing is that I’ve never once heard social conservatives say after an election, we’ve got to lose these fiscal conservatives. Here’s the thing -Barack Obama promised 95% of the people tax cuts. He was feigning a measure of fiscal conservatism. Was he lying? Probably. But enough people bought the rhetoric to get him elected.
Like Dale, over at Dyspeptic Mutterings says I’m not sure how any sane person could see McCain’s loss as evidence that social conservatives are a drain on the party. It seems to me that the fiscal conservatives were the ones who pushed McCain on us and were the first to abandon the USS McCain when it started taking on water. While we were working the buckets Christopher Buckley and Kathleen Parker and their fiscal friends rowed away and called us names.
I think the biggest message of 2008 is don’t make anyone from the cast of Grumpy Old Men your standard bearer. Or how about we actually nominate someone who can deliver a message.
I don’t know how social conservatives are getting pinned with this loss. This is McCain, guys! The McCain who labeled some leading Christians “agents of intolerance.” The McCain who courted and wooed the New York Times. McCain was not our guy. He was theirs. He was Mr. Moderate. And he lost. He lost bad.
Agghh. I just get tired of half the party looking down on the half I’m in. Don’t worry. Before the fiscals made their getaway I put holes in all their lifeboats. They’ll be back come election time. And if they’re wet, I’ve got a some T-Bone clothes for them to wear.
November 18, 2008 at 4:00 am
So the fiscal conservatives want to cannabalize the social conservatives?
Well, they can just EAT ME!!
November 18, 2008 at 4:07 am
I’m a little sad I didn’t think of that line.
November 18, 2008 at 4:10 am
Leave it to Subvet to say it like it is. I’m ready to find a “new” party and leave the Republicans aboard the USS McCain.
November 18, 2008 at 4:49 am
I’m tempted to say something crude to the fiscal conservatives, but I’m unable to make it to the Sacrament of Penance anytime soon, so I’ll bite my tongue and wait for another time to tell the FC’s to go choke on a bone.
November 18, 2008 at 11:19 am
I’m proud of you for your restraint. We try to keep the conversation extremely elevated over here;)
November 18, 2008 at 12:57 pm
I’ve been watching the election from across the pond and i must say I think the republican loss has been somewhat blown out of proportion by everyone who hoped he would win. I find it astonishing that someone with almost the entire Main stream media in the pocket of Obama could manage to retain 46% of the popular vote. He barely lost, almost everywhere he lost. He lost bad in the electoral college, but only barely in each of the states where he lost, even with an entirely uphill battle–less money because he kept a promise, less slick advertising, no objective reporting, and with an economic crisis that now seems (?) to have been engineered…and completely spun as a result of failed Bush policies by the MSM, aka obama propaganda machine
Go over to Rush and look at the map of the breakdown by counties where McCain won. It’s a red sea with several large blue islands.
46% of the popular vote is not a bad loss.
November 18, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Cb,
Agreed. But winner takes all the marbles. And the MSM isn’t going to get friendlier any time in the near future.
November 18, 2008 at 2:03 pm
“I find it astonishing that someone with almost the entire Main stream media in the pocket of Obama could manage to retain 46% of the popular vote.”
If you look at the breakdown of voting by COUNTY, over the years 2000, 2004, and 2008, you will find that the change is not that dramatic nationwide, except in the urban areas. This country didn’t wake up one morning and become socialist. It was peruaded by techniques of hypnotic suggestion similar to those used in advertising and marketing, specifically where television is concerned. Most people who voted for Obama haven’t the slightest idea why they did. The “HowObamaGotElected.com” site and clip is very telling. So is this:
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/red_election_map/2008/11/11/150126.html?s=al&promo_code=7108-1
November 18, 2008 at 2:53 pm
If fiscal conservatives ditch the social conservatives, they may regret it. There are a lot of pro-life people who jump ship to the democratic party if there were no pro-life party. What fiscal conservatives need to do is be real fiscal conservatives, not run up massive deficits and start cutting unnecessary programs. Quite frankly, I’d like to see someone like Pat Buchanan run. Both the fiscal conservatives and social conservatives should ditch the hawkish members of the party.
Matt O.
November 18, 2008 at 3:21 pm
“What fiscal conservatives need to do is be real fiscal conservatives, not run up massive deficits…”
I suppose this is what is most disingenuous about complaints against the “conservative base.” Republicans who thought social issues were a burden on the platform, were among the big spenders on the Hill, right along with the Democrats. Face it, they just don’t have the numbers to back up any of their claims.
November 18, 2008 at 4:27 pm
But oddly that doesn’t stop them from saying it over and over on every single cable news station.
November 18, 2008 at 4:31 pm
See “techniques of hypnotic suggestion similar to those used in advertising and marketing,” above.
November 18, 2008 at 6:03 pm
I agree witha lot of what you say here but I disagree with you on McCain
Well it is true many Fiscal conservatives might have jumped ship I am not sure this is a correct version of history. It seemed that McCain was utterly abandoned by many leaders of the FIscal conservatives and they were all in the Romney camp. In fact is it fair to say that during the primary they were actually opposing both Huckabee and McCain with all guns blasting.
What happened was that Huckabee sucked enough from Romeny for McCain to win. At least this is how i recall it. That is one reason why McCain supporters and Huckabee supporters felt a kinship during the primary. The major Conservative ORgans and CLub for Growth types were backing Romney and we could not get our message a fair hearing.
That is why you saw sort of an alliance in those early priamries. Like in WV where McCain instructed his people to vote for Huckabee so Romney could not win
November 18, 2008 at 8:32 pm
I agree. I believe Huckabee stayed in the race with the intent of splitting the pro-life conservative vote so as to give McCain a clear path to the nomination. No doubt.
McCain got all the squishies while Huck and Romney split conservatives.
November 18, 2008 at 9:21 pm
I hate to keep saying it here, but welcome to my world. Here in CA, “fiscally conservative, socially progressive” is the mantra of the Republican Party.
November 18, 2008 at 10:56 pm
My advice to you is to move 😉 At some point we’re just gonna push Cali out to sea and hope it bumps into Russia or something. That’ll teach ’em.
November 18, 2008 at 11:06 pm
Evidence? Who are the financial conservatives saying ditch the socons? Cavuto? Nope. Club for Growth? Nope. Norquist? Nope. Wall Street Journal? Nope.
I am closely embedded in the fiscal conservative wing of the party and I don’t see anyone, ANYONE who is actually working (not some foolish David Frum talking head–who is calling for tax hikes by the way) talking about throwing SoCons overboard. In my experience, so-called “fiscal conservatives/ social moderates” have just caved on the first item the enemy pressured them on.
The people calling for ditching socons are the squishes, not so-called fiscal conservatives.
Secondly, fiscal conservatives can’t stand McCain. We never could.(He voted against the Bush tax cuts! He is pro-Kyoto and cap and trade! He is against drilling in ANWR!) All wings of the movement were united in their tepid embrace of McCain, from Guns to Pro-lifers to tax-cutters.
Finally, to correct an earlier post, the Club for Growth was primarily lined up behind Giuliani.
November 18, 2008 at 11:37 pm
Well, I’m dying to hear how he got the nomination to begin with. Was he really the least offensive alternative?
November 19, 2008 at 6:34 pm
DB, check out Kathleen Parker’s column today and you’ll see it clearly. It’s in our Reader at the top of the page.