THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume X, Issue # 307, November 20, 2008
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
THE NARROW PATH TO REVIVING CONSERVATISM
By Christopher G. Adamo
REPUBLICAN PARTY "MODERATES" & THE GOP'S DISASTEROUS LOSS IN THE 2008 PRESIDENTIAL & CONGRESSIONAL
ELECTIONS: THE ROLE PLAYED BY THE "MODERATES" IN BRINGING ON THIS LATEST ELECTORAL CATASTROPHE FOR
THE REPUBLICAN PARTY -- THE RINOS POLITICAL MESSAGE -- THEIR CONTINUING PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN AGAINST
CONSERVATISM & REPUBLICAN PARTY CONSERVATIVES -- THE ASSISTANCE THAT REPUBLICAN "MODERATES" RECEIVE
FROM LIBERAL DEMOCRATS -- HOW JOHN MCCAIN & HIS PERSONAL FOLLOWERS UNDERMINED HIS CAMPAIGN FOR THE
PRESIDENCY -- THE REPUBLICAN PARTY'S DIRE NEED FOR STRONG, COURAGEOUS, & PRINCIPLED CONSERVATIVE NATIONAL
LEADERSHIP
FULL STORY:
In their typically duplicitous fashion, the socalled “Moderates” (i.e., Liberals) within the Republican Party, the faction of
RINOs [1] who orchestrated the latest electoral catastrophe for the GOP, are once again blaming the lingering vestige of
Conservatism in the McCain presidential campaign as the factor that ultimately doomed its prospects. This forked-tongue
political ploy is certainly nothing new, but, instead, represents the standard tactics of the Republican "Moderates"
whenever they assert their presence within the Republican Party. Move to the Left, attempt to be as much like the
Democrats as possible (ostensibly at a lower cost), and then blame Conservatism when voters reject the scam.
To nobody’s surprise, Liberal Democrats are always eager to assist in the disinformation campaign, especially since those
perennially gullible “Moderates” are far more willing to embrace the philosophies of the Left than anything from the Right.
Following every election in which RINO thinking dominates, Republican “Moderates” join with the Democrats in pointing
out who among the Republican Party’s “extreme Right” bears responsibility for the loss.
For decades, this pattern has worked well for Liberals, so they have no need to abandon it now. If Republican insiders can
be repeatedly duped into fearing and denying their Party’s strengths, while embracing its liabilities, the Party can be kept
off balance and in minority status, despite a firm resonance of the Conservative message with the American people
whenever it is offered.
Americans clearly expressed their reason for abandoning the senior George Bush in 1992. In reneging on his “Read my lips.
No new taxes.” pledge, he broke faith with the American people, sought instead to pursue “bipartisanship” with Democrats,
and proved himself to not be a man of his word. According to the Democrats, the 1992 campaign was all about “the
economy stupid.” Yet, in the immediate aftermath of Bill Clinton’s victory (with a mere forty-three percent of the vote),
America was informed in no uncertain terms that the entire election was a referendum on abortion, and a clear rejection of
the pro-life message.
Similarly, the insipid campaign of Bob Dole started out on life support, as a result of his abominable capitulation to Clinton
in the 1995 budget deal. Such Washington-Insider thinking from Dole resonated no better with Middle America than had
Bush’s waffling. Moreover, Dole’s attempts to broaden the base by distancing himself from Christian Conservatives only
served to alienate them from banalities of the GOP establishment.
Running against an incumbent president, and carrying a banner of blandness that could make Al Gore look exciting, Dole’s
loss was easily predictable. Yet, just as predictably, upon his defeat, the Republican “Moderates” who had defined the Dole
campaign finally found a voice with which to castigate and criticize the perceived saboteurs, as typified by Conservative
stalwart Phyllis Schlafly.
History has properly characterized the 1960s as the era of traditional America’s cultural downfall and concurrent ascendancy
of the political Left. Yet the modern political class is intent on ignoring the fact that, from that time to the present day,
glaringly obvious and absolutely consistent, a pattern of success and failure has emerged.
Over the past four decades, the political fortunes of Republican presidential candidates can be directly correlated to their
perceived Conservatism. Ronald Reagan, the most Conservative, was without a doubt also the most successful. In contrast,
the Gerald Ford, Bob Dole, and now John McCain entries have been a collective disaster.
George Bush forty-one represented the most ideal test case. Having initially ridden on Reagan’s coattails, he handily
defeated Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis in 1988. Yet upon his inauguration, he immediately signaled his
intention to water down Reagan’s successful, though often controversial, struggle to advance the Conservative agenda. By
late 1991, and despite his successful prosecution of the first Gulf War, George Bush’s political future was in jeopardy. When
perceived as a Conservative, he had triumphed. But upon his disavowal of that perception, the voters abandoned him.
This year, though the stakes are likely to be much higher, the problem and its proper fix remain essentially as they have been.
In a glum Republican political landscape that has demoralized and dispirited Conservative voters by the millions, one bright
spot shone. Alaska Governor Sarah Palin brought the first glimmer of voter enthusiasm to the Republican ticket since its
presidential candidate had been determined. Nevertheless, among "Moderates," she is the face of the real enemy.
Republican strategists had desperately attempted throughout the Spring and Summer to make political hay out of Barack
Obama’s numerous failings. Unfortunately, on virtually every front, John McCain’s own closet was rife with its own
corresponding “skeletons.”
Indeed, Obama would appoint activist judges to the high courts. But McCain had led the “band of seven” Republican Senate
sellouts who had collaborated with Democrats to undermine the judicial confirmation process.
Obama promised to exploit the hoax of “global warming” to hamstring United States industry, while severely curtailing the
nation’s standard of living. Though McCain eventually attempted to distance himself from the dire consequences of a
political agenda founded on radical environmentalism, he accepted the premise of man-made global warming and offered his
own version of an over-reaching governmental response to it.
Obama has repeatedly displayed his complete contempt for the sovereignty and integrity of this nation, while lauding
foreigners and even America’s enemies as “citizens of the world.” Though a flag-waving American, McCain’s plans for
accommodating illegal immigration would have yielded the exact same erosion of the American culture.
Obama built “bridges” with Hamas and other hostile foreign entities, and maintained friendships with the likes of
black-separatist clergyman “Reverend” Jeremiah Wright and terrorist/subversive Bill Ayers. Yet, McCain had made his own
alliances with the Mexican subversive organization “La Raza” (The Race) that severely strained his credibility with Heartland
America.
On the tax issue, Obama’s outlandish plans to implement creeping Socialism could have sunk his campaign, had McCain
remained true to his past proclamations and opposed the “mother of all earmarks” known as the “bailout” of the home
mortgage business. Once again, McCain proved himself to be the candidate of the Washington establishment and “business
as usual.”
So, of course, it was Sarah Palin’s courageous down-to-earth Conservatism that, we are now incessantly being told,
Americans found noxious in the McCain political camp and which they flatly rejected on November 4.
In truth, when Palin and her kind are unleashed, they generate the level of grassroots enthusiasm that won the White House
in 1980 and 1984, and took the Congress by storm in 1994. Meanwhile, the media will howl. The Republican insiders will scoff.
And the Democrats will once again insist that the GOP has embarked on a “suicidal political course.” Nevertheless, the
Conservative leader who displays the real and necessary backbone to brave such an onslaught, while remaining true to
principle, can rally real America and pull it back from the bleak precipice on which it currently totters.
NOTE:
[1] RINOs -- Republicans in Name Only.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
American Politics, Political Competition, & the Control of
Public Policy: Elections, Political Parties, Political Factions,
Ideologies, & Special Interest Groups
American Government & the U.S. Presidency:
Presidential Politics & National Leadership
The American Political System:
Politics & Government in the U.S.A.
The American Political & Cultural Left:
Liberals, Statists, Socialists, Marxists, & Other Leftists:
The Democratic Party, Academia, & the Mainstream Media
-------------------------
POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY & POLITICAL IDEOLOGIES:
COMPETING SYSTEMS OF POLITICAL THOUGHT
Conservatism
Traditional Conservatism: Questions & Answers
Conservatism: Attitudes, Types, & Present Status
Constitutional Conservatism: American & British
Liberalism
Classical Liberalism: Intellectual Foundations
Classical Liberalism: Conservative Liberalism
Manchester Liberalism & Social Darwinism
Modern Social "Liberalism": Statist "Liberalism"
Radical & Totalitarian Ideologies
Radicalism, Utopianism, & Totalitarianism
Christopher G. Adamo is a freelance writer who lives in southeastern Wyoming and works in the field of industrial instrumentation.
He is actively involved in Wyoming's political process, serving as a delegate to successive Wyoming State Republican Conventions
and as a member of the Wyoming State Republican Central Committee. He has assisted Republican candidates for local and state
legislatures and for the United States Congress. His articles, which appear regularly in The Progressive Conservative, U.S.A.,
and on a number of other websites, reflect a major concern with the damage being done to Conservatism and Conservative causes by
the Liberal Leftist faction in the Republican Party as well as by the much larger and more powerful Liberal Leftist faction in the
Democratic Party. During the early and middle 1990s, Adamo was Editor of the Wyoming Christian Coalition's official news organ,
The Wyoming Christian.
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity