A Radical Thought!
Indeed, while sorting out their errors and considering their options, conservatives of all stripes would be well advised to concentrate their attention on the constitutional order and the principles that undergird it, because maintaining them should be their paramount political priority.
A constitutional conservatism puts liberty first and teaches the indispensableness of moderation in securing, preserving and extending its blessings. The constitution it seeks to conserve carefully defines government's proper responsibilities while providing it with the incentives and tools to perform them effectively; draws legitimacy from democratic consent while protecting individual rights from invasion by popular majorities; assumes the primacy of self-interest but also the capacity on occasion to rise above it through the exercise of virtue; reflects, and at the same time refines, popular will through a complex scheme of representation; and disperses and blends power among three distinct branches of government as well as among federal and state governments the better to check and balance it. The Constitution and the nation that has prospered under it for 220 years demonstrate that conserving and enlarging freedom and democracy depends on weaving together rival interests and competing goods.
A message that focuses on the Constitutional base of this country would resonate with the many factions within the party. Fiscal and social conservatives, Ron Paul libertarians and Moral Majority conservatives can all find common ground within the confines of the Constitution. If the Republican Party can craft and STICK TO a message of Constitutional Conservatism, their years in the wilderness will be brief indeed.
The question is will the RNC listen?
Labels: Republicans, RNC Chairman
posted by The Lady Logician at
9:17 PM
2 Comments:
Sorry, but that answer seems to simple by at least half. When 60% of voters cannot cite a single freedom from the Bill of Rights, and certainly do not know the rest of the Constitution, that's a pretty shaky basis for creating a majority-gaining appeal.
Better to tackle the real problems, as people see them, with sound, common sense and simple solutions that just happen, IF someone asks, to be based on a conservative reading of our founding documents. In other words, it's policies, not principles, that have to be sold. Principles most people have.
J. Ewing
By
Anonymous, at 1:15 PM
I think the party should concentrate on the injustice done to Terry Schiavo. Over and over and over again.
By
Anonymous, at 9:13 AM
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