Conservatives Deserting the GOP

Rush Limbaugh:

You think I ought to be happy that there's conservatism out there. I'm not happy my own party wants to get rid of it. I'm mad that my own party wants to cast conservatism aside. I know there's plenty of conservatism out there. That's the source of the frustration. But conservatism by itself cannot move things. It needs a political party. In our political structure, it is parties that get things done. The Republican Party was the home of conservatism, and it still is. But the people that run the Republican Party right now are trying to get rid of it. And it's a death wish. It is an absolute death wish.

Rush is not being prophetic, he is just stating the facts on the ground. The current Republican leadership is pushing the panic button because they keep losing fights they shouldn't. Why? Probably because the GOP (at least at the top) no longer stands for conservative values on a whole host of issues, including spending, amnesty for illegal immigrants, punishing American industry for global warming. And today we have corporate welfare for rich farmers.

Rank and file conservatives are fed up, because they know that McCain is at best condescending to them, and at worst, actively conspiring to render them irrelevant to the political process. See this from Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler.

First off, I understand "compromise", I also understand "give and take" and I know full well that sometimes you have to compromise to get some of what you want. But voting for McCain isn't "compromise", its proper name is "abject surrender."

What's in it for me? The answer is "nothing."

At some point, you have to say "stop! No further!" The thing is, we should've done that a long time ago, but instead we kept reinforcing bad behavior by rewarding it. I don't know what kind of magical, wishful thinking it is that makes people think that rewarding scum for drifting to the left is going to one day, miraculously, make them turn around and drift the other way. I don't know what the proper name for it is, but I'm certain that the word "pathological" is part of it.

So what is to be done? I'm not sure, but I've been thinking and one conclusion I know is that conservatives cannot surrender their agenda to McCain. Leadership for conservatives should form from and within the conservative GOP delegation, and they need to do an end run around the GOP leadership.

What they need to do, and do without delay is to form an opposition party to John McCain and declare that they will oppose John McCain where he differs from them on spending, on global warming, on amnesty, on drilling in ANWR, etc. They should also, of course, say that they will work with McCain on judges, on fighting terrorists, etc. But the primary need is to serve as a rallying point to roust and energize the dormant and fleeing conservative base.

McCain won't like it, but phooey on him. Let him triangulate to the center as he so loves to do. The GOP has some congressional delegates to save. I realize that this is drastic and unheard of, to actively campaign against your own presidential nominee, but the GOP is up against a wall. Time for them to act like they understand that. Otherwise they can go back to the minority status they enjoyed so much in the seventies.