Like many others here and in blogland, I have enjoyed reading and hearing the dancing circular firing squad that is the conservative movement analyze the meaning of an Obama presidency and issue lofty calls for how to restructure the GOP and by extension the meaning of conservatism in America.
The conservative movement is by no means dead, it has a nasty ailment and in the long run it will survive. As has been repeated elsewhere Obama is not symbolic figurehead for progressive ideals and there is no reason to feel cocky, just a touch relieved.
I happened to stumble upon a post by a self described social conservative who sounded almost rational. He projects like a man with whom I would have quite a range of disagreements with. However, he also writes in a coherent rational manner that suggests his ideology is not rooted in fanatical hatred. I am not going to suggest that I am now worshiping at the tarnished shrine of bipartisanship. What he represents to me is a group of people who I think were largely silenced by extremists in his own party. I happen to know an awful lot of social conservatives who are decent people who might be puzzled by those who are different but harbor no specific grudge or anger.
You can read his whole post here and I will excerpt the parts I found interesting.
He isn’t very impressed by those who suggest the cure is move further right….
In any event, we are yet again treated to the insane concept that in order to regain our national footing, all we have to do is get more socially conservative. Apparently, the fact that we have lost young people, college educated voters, moderates, city dwellers, middle class suburbanites – this has everything to do with the fact that somehow we’ve been less socially conservative than we should have been.
Please, ladies and gentlemen, pardon my French, but are you fucking kidding me?
I have had enough of this garbage, absolutely enough. There are two reasons republicans have lost all of those groups, who should naturally be aligned to them. The first is they have betrayed what they said they were about – which is small government, spending restraint, government reform, ethical power, lower taxes and balanced budgets – and the second is that they have branded themselves as a regional party of southern religious demagogues who do not care about good government, but are instead only interested in fighting the culture war.
It turns out that despite being a republican and believing in what he thinks are the ideals of his party ( and this is one of many place where I disagree), the party is not exactly winning him over right now…