The End of the Right?

E.J. Dionne writes in the Washington Post about the end of conservatism. He relates that many conservatives do not believe anymore that the Republican Majority is worth saving, since it seems to now care more about keeping its majority than accomplishing its, or any, agenda.

Turnabout is fair play.

It wasn't long ago that people were wondering at the death of liberalism. While some folks are still unabashed liberals, there are many more who don't use the L word to describe themselves.

The truth of the matter is that one cannot exist without the other. When conservative hacks, Ann Coulter comes to mind, get personal in their attacks on liberalism they sign their own political death warrants. If you utterly destroy the legitimacy of your opponents argument, you have no position to stand on yourself. There remains only personal aggrandize, which is what the conservative movement has been reduced to.

The bill in question, which prompted E.J.'s article, was an attempt to raise the minimum wage and reform the estate tax. The Republicans realized that many of their culturally conservative voters would benefit from raising the minimum wage while the Democrats blocked the bill because it would benefit the wealthiest families (although this is debatable, since enough options exist that only those who plan badly end up paying the tax). There was also the spectacle of the Unions and Democrats not wanting the bill to pass as a Republican measure.

One can only wonder what the reaction in the nation will be, especially among minimum wage workers. I don't for a second believe that they will flock to the Republican Party. The sad fact of the matter is, most low wage voters don't vote. Many aren't old enough, educated enough or able to because of citizenship or felony issues. Others are just plain turned off by the process.

Some do vote, however. Others, who are part of the dwindling middle class, must be scratching their heads in wonder. A decade or so ago, the Pew Research Institute and the Washington Post both did studies on how the electorate was broken down ideologically. It found that most people were neither hard core liberals nor hard core conservatives. Most voters are a mix. The escalation of rhetoric is going to turn off more and more of these people in the center. We may be faced with the lowest turnout election in history this fall. Of course, there may be enough dissatisfaction with the party in power to boost turnout, although the way the House is gerrymandering, there is still the question of whether the Republicans can lose. If they end up winning in the face of voter disgust the entire system could implode.

In American history, this happens every so often. The past is littered with parties that lost their way. The original Republicans of Jefferson and Madison. The which, the Federalists. It is past time for another corpse for the pile. When this happens, I am betting that a new consensus will emerge. Many Americans are both libertarian and Christian with a healthy streak of egalitarianism, as odd as this seems to many liberal activists who think I am on a fools errand. (They want to return to the glory days which never existed when there was a Democratic majority, even though that majority always featured southern racists).

To this majority, I offer a solution. Partisans on either side won't understand, but I think what is proposed on this bloc and in the associated book and discussion list will strike exactly the chord they are listening for.