GOP Conservatives already planning for "The Day After"

[MattusMaximus]

It seems as if many conservatives feel the Republican party is adrift. They are planning a post-election meeting to plan strategy...

Conservatives plan secret post-election strategy session

Two days after next week's election, top conservatives will gather at the Virginia weekend home of one of the movement's most prominent members to begin a conversation about their role in the GOP and how best to revive a party that may be out of power at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue next year.

The meeting will include a "who's who of conservative leaders -- economic, national security and social," said one attendee, who shared initial word of the secret session only on the basis of anonymity and with some details about the host and location redacted.

The decision to waste no time in plotting their moves in the post-Bush era reflects the widely-held view among many on the right, and elsewhere, that the GOP is heading toward major losses next week. ...

And it seems, as I have been predicting, that win or lose Sarah Palin (not McCain) is going to factor in heavily at these meetings.

... But, this source emphasized, the meeting will be held regardless of the outcome of the presidential race. "This is going on if McCain wins, loses or has a recount -- we're not planning for the loss of John McCain."

Either way, Sarah Palin will be a central part of discussion. ...

In addition, it seems that the GOP will not be coming to its senses and moving towards the political center, at least on social & religious issues.

... Few believe that the Republican party will respond to another brutal election by following a path of moderation, but conservatives are deeply dispirited and anxious to reassert the core values they believe have not always been followed by Bush, congressional leaders and their party’s presidential nominee . Many on the right, both elites and the rank-and-file, see a rudderless party that is in dire need of new blood and old principles: small government, a robust national security and unapologetic social conservatism. ...

So, based upon this news, it looks like the crazy, religious right wingnuts who control much of the agenda of the GOP are going to take the attitude that they simply haven't been crazy enough to win.

 

[NotJesus]

The big tent is collapsing. If the hard right gets its way, their new tent is going to be a lot smaller.

 

[geni]

I'm sure their are plans being quitely made for much the same thing on the dem side although there may be less preplanning of topics (other than perhaps what to do with Hillery).

 

[bozothedeathmachine]

So what. 5 dudes (and Palin) in a room talking about how awesome they are. Reminds me of high school.

What about the rest of (rational) GOP who say "now that those people are gone, let's get down to it"?

 

[Augustine]

I think Michael Steele states more accurately what the intelligent conservatives will be doing, also regardless of results.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/new...-warns-party-could-lose-power-until-2020.html

Mr Steele said the first challenge for the Republicans was to admit that their demise was all of their own making.
Like Margaret Thatcher and the Tories, Republicans dominated Congress (though not always the White House) through the 1980s and 1990s, running as the party of low taxes, fiscal control and small government.
But after too long in power the party lost its way. "After George W Bush was elected we became the party of big government," said Mr Steele.
"It's anathema to grow government by 40 per cent, as we have, and to grow a $10 trillion deficit, as we have. No wonder people look at us cockeyed now when we talk about lower taxes and small government."
He said that the key reason for the Tories' progress under Mr Cameron was learning to be as relevant to as much of the electorate as possible.
"There is going to be a lot of soul searching about how we go about re-engaging with the American people," said Mr Steele, who is 50 and grew up in Washington with his mother, who worked in a launderette, and stepfather.

 

[NotJesus]

I think Michael Steele states more accurately what the intelligent conservatives will be doing, also regardless of results.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/new...-warns-party-could-lose-power-until-2020.html

That's not the point. The question is whether the "intelligent conservatives" and the religious wingnuts can continue to coexist in the same party. Pace Mr. bozothedeathmachine, those wingnuts are a very sizeable group.

 

[skeptical]

That's not the point. The question is whether the "intelligent conservatives" and the religious wingnuts can continue to coexist in the same party. Pace Mr. bozothedeathmachine, those wingnuts are a very sizeable group.

And that is what happened to the GOP: the crazies are running the asylum.

I recall not long ago talk of the religious right breaking from the GOP to start their own party. We should be that lucky.

 

[leftysergeant]

To survive, the GOP is going to have to be more centrist and less obstructionist and less aggressive on foreign policy and free trade. People have begun to figure out that all these imports and factory closings are connected.

The GOP, in falling in behind Palin, would send a message that they are still more concerned with regulating our bedrooms than the boardrooms, and that does not play well with a worker laid off because some rich guy just ran everybody's job into the ditch.

The GOP wingnuts are killing their party, and everybody is begining to get the message that Palin is nutty as squirrel droppings.

Please make her the head of the party.

 

[dudalb]

I see Lefty's desire to basically destroy all oppostion to the left in the US is becoming more apparent each day.

 

[maxpower1227]

I see Lefty's desire to basically destroy all oppostion to the left in the US is becoming more apparent each day.

Yeah, I'd rather the rational members of the GOP wrest control from the fringe and kick Palin and her supporters to the curb. I'd prefer to have two choices to consider the next time an election rolls around, rather than one.

 

[leftysergeant]

I see Lefty's desire to basically destroy all oppostion to the left in the US is becoming more apparent each day.

No. I just want the lunatic fringe to marginalize itself, split up into smaller parties and cease to be a threat to world peace and stability.

Even the Democrats might split into the old Dems and Greens. This rush toi the center over the last 28 years has just strengthened the greedy right, to the hurt of working people.

The current GOP would be more appropriately divided between Libertarians and a Christofascist party.

 

[Tony]

Many on the right, both elites and the rank-and-file, see a rudderless party that is in dire need of new blood and old principles: small government, a robust national security and unapologetic social conservatism. ...

Does it escape these morons that "small government" and "social conservatism" are conflicting ideas? How else would you enforce your "social conservatism" without a government large enough to go to someone's house and check to see if any anal sex is happening?

 

[leftysergeant]

Does it escape these morons that "small government" and "social conservatism" are conflicting ideas?

Not that big a conflict, really. By "small government," they mean do away with regulatory bodies and let corporations police themselves, the way God intended, and let the local law enforcement people do their job to protect public decency, just like they did in the deep south before the 1960s.

 

[Nursefoxfire]

Yeah, I'd rather the rational members of the GOP wrest control from the fringe and kick Palin and her supporters to the curb. I'd prefer to have two choices to consider the next time an election rolls around, rather than one.

I'm sorry, that just reminded me of a Futurama episode:

Morbo will now introduce the candidates - Puny Human Number One, Puny Human Number Two, and Morbo's good friend Richard Nixon.

 

[leftysergeant]

Yeah, I'd rather the rational members of the GOP wrest control from the fringe and kick Palin and her supporters to the curb. I'd prefer to have two choices to consider the next time an election rolls around, rather than one.

With four theoreticly viable choices, everyone would have to come up with a rational candidate or wither away.If we wound up with a fractured Republican party, Libertarians and what ever Christofascist party would be vying for the conservative vote, and the Libertarians would actually have a chance to prove themselves. Dems who do not think the party is doing all it should for the environment could go Green without handing the country to a whacko right winger as in 2000.

I do not see a dominant Democratic Party as a likely re-run of Nazi or Communist one-party rule. We ain't that well organized. (Have you ever seen a Democratic caucus? It's a bloody cat roundup.)