Have conservatives lost their way?

Question

There seem to be no true Goldwater conservatives left. Conservatives like Barry Goldwater believed in smaller government, in accountability to the people and honesty.( Karl Rove's thousands of lost e-mails, Alberto Gonzalez can't remember his own name under oath) Goldwater did not believe that social issues had any business in politics. He would not have used gay marriages, abortion or religion as campaign issues. He was a fiscal conservative who believed that if you were in a war such as Vietnam, you fought to win it. Where are these conservatives today?

Answer 1

Funny you should mention Goldwater. Back when I was first paying any attention to politics in1964 I wanted to learn more about how things work. I visited the local headquarters for both President Johnson and Senator Goldwater.

A gentleman at the Goldwater HQ told me some things I will not forget. He said he knew his candidate would lose because the American political mood works like a clock pendulum. It swings left and it swings right. At that time the pendulum was swinging left. We had a period of relative calm and stagnation during the Eisenhower years and now the nation was wanting progress. Changes that would bring us into the space age were needed. Everything in those days was space age. He was right. As I look at how that pendulum has been swinging we are just ending a period of stagnant and backward movement and are looking for forward progress. Thus the next president will be a progressive. No matter who wins a nomination who happens to be conservative they will not win. Just like Sen. Goldwater lost. Had Goldwater ran during the 1980's he probably would have done quite well.

Answer 2

I'd say the Republican Party has lost its way, but lately the Republican Party has not been conservative. This is why there has been so much dissatisfaction with current Republican leadership - including and especially President Bush.

To answer your question directly, I'd suggest that the GOP has lost its way from the Conservative Movement, but conservatism is still alive and well. Case in point: The Republican Party and it's candidates are struggling to raise money while conservative organizations like The Heritage Foundation and CATO and the American Enterprise Institute are raising money very effectively. So are there conservatives on Capitol Hill or in the White House - maybe not. But conservatism is about ideas, and those ideas exist even if there isn't an elected official to carry the banner.

Answer 3

Excellent question and very well written. I don't necessarily disagree with the basic premise but a couple of the items you mention are open to question.

1) Rove's 'lost' EMails - still not resolved in its entirety but I have read that the National Republican Party provides the link to which those messages were attached - they retained the sole right to delete the messages in question. Thus Rove would not be in a position to physically remove them from the PC. If I am incorrect, please excuse me - at least I didn't make it up!

2) The Republicans were out of Congressional power for many, many years. They needed something to jump-start the nation and convince it to vote for them. Additionally, their base voters were clamoring for Congressional action on abortion; gay rights; civil rights and a solidly liberal Supreme Court which had taken the aggressive steps to take charge of these issues - a Republican Congress would allow for Senate approval of less-liberal justices.

These factors combined, along with Democrat backing of the liberal stance on the social issues, and their big-buck spending habits, allowed the Congress to change hands. Now that the 'cat' leaped from the 'bag' it was impossible to put it back.

Answer 4

If I'm not mistaken, I think that the commentator Tucker Carlson once said that Bush isn't a true conservative, because the government has gotten so much bigger during his administration. I'm a liberal Democrat, but I think I could actually stomach someone like Goldwater. It's just too bad that the GOP has been hijacked by religious nuts.

Answer 5

I'd say there are more classically defined conservatives around than there are classically defined democrats. When did the democratic party merge with the socialist party? Where are the John f Kennedy's and the Harry Truman's?

Answer 6

I think alot of people are without morals or grace they have no clue what they even mean-yeah something has been lost and the culture of the world has taken a wrong turn-the wrong road and hey I guess we were too lazy to change or stand up for whats right and wrong. Funny it seems people idolize the evil and rich-and hey you can have it all just make a few million from doing something wrong it doesn't make sense and hey what are you going to do--nothing what can you do?

Answer 7

.....the saying "absolute power corrupts absolutely" applies here all too well,.....the rich, the religious, and the corporate have wallowed in their glee of winning two terms of total control to do anything but profit take and "do as I say - not as I do" from their media spinmasters, without doing anything to advance the country, but instead is trying to drag it back to the dark ages of repressing everything from social issues to trying to put old money back in power..... they are all too busy trying to run each other over to act like they're in control, while hoarding as much money as they can from milking the middle class dry.

Answer 8

We're all at the Libertarian Party. Join us! Don't forget to bring some chips.

Answer 9

No. I think the dems have. They are no where near what the democrat party use to be. Why can't they be more like JFK?

Answer 10

a person who was a goldwater conservative is now called a liberal by the radicals who have taken over the republican party.

the conservatives have strayed far from the herd and will be further culled in 2008...