The Brutal Truth:
The Conservative Movement
Is Leaderless
There Will Be No National Gains For Conservatism In America Until This Changes
Conservatism has many pundits, but no real leaders. That's how as a movement it gets taken to the cleaners over and over again. Until this changes the movement will continue to see little/no progress nationally.
For many years now, I have asked people 'who are the *national* Conservative leaders in this country?', and they have inevitably responded by naming somebody in the E! Wing of Conservative media: talk radio, TV, columnists, etc.
Why no, in fact, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Mark Levin, Charles Krauthammer, etc. are not Conservative leaders. They are pundits. Pundits are people who make their living commenting on things the nation's leaders and political class do. They don't lead anything.
A Conservative leader would be someone who holds real power or is running for an office to hold real power or organizing people for such an effort.
Conservatism hasn't had a real leader of this kind since Reagan retired from public life. And because Conservatism hasn't had any real leaders for the last 30 years, it's an amorphous movement without clear, well defined goals/agenda.
This is how the GOP establishment has been able to take advantage of the Conservative movement for it's votes while giving it no real say in how the party is run.
Conservatives Make Up Most Of The Republican Party
According to every pollster that's looked into it, the GOP has been comprised of more than 60% Conservatives for decades. In recent years that trend climbed as high as 70%.
Gallup Poll Shows Conservatives Dominate The Republican Party
A Conservative leader would be someone who holds real power or is running for an office to hold real power or organizing people for such an effort.
Conservatism hasn't had a real leader of this kind since Reagan retired from public life. And because Conservatism hasn't had any real leaders for the last 30 years, it's an amorphous movement without clear, well defined goals/agenda.
This is how the GOP establishment has been able to take advantage of the Conservative movement for it's votes while giving it no real say in how the party is run.
Conservatives Make Up Most Of The Republican Party
According to every pollster that's looked into it, the GOP has been comprised of more than 60% Conservatives for decades. In recent years that trend climbed as high as 70%.
Gallup Poll Shows Conservatives Dominate The Republican Party
Conservatives make up around 40% of the country nationally and more than 70% of the Republican party since 2010.
So, you'd think, Conservatives should have gotten a seat in the GOP party leadership a long time ago, right? Well you would be wrong then.
Conservatives Should Have Gained Control Of The GOP Long Ago
"Thanks for voting us into power again, you Conservative suckers!"
Conservatives are now, and always have been, insurgents in the GOP party. We're revolutionaries. Or as Senator John McCain says, 'whacko birds'.
Conservatives are an insurgency inside the GOP that makes up 70% of the party yet has always been frozen out of the leadership. We've had the NUMBERS and the actual POWER to take this goddamn party over for decades, but we haven't had the WILL or the LEADERSHIP.
If Conservatives can demonstrate they have the WILL to take this party over, or to make a new party, a change will come.
The GOP leadership has used our Conservative votes to once again attain power & then shun us. They need us for elections, then ignore us.
"If only my party didn't have so many whacko birds in it..."
Critics of Conservatism such as the recently emerging 'Alt Right' are correct about 1 thing. Conservatives haven't gotten it done. We HAVE failed. At the national level, Conservatives are STILL on the outside looking in. If Conservatives had focus & real leadership, they'd have taken this GOP party over LONG ago. This criticism is, in fact, quite true.
For over a decade I've been saying Conservatism does not make real, concrete advances at the national level in D.C. until the GOP Party leadership is REPLACED. The strategy of sending a few more Conservatives to Congress WITHIN the GOP has not worked because the present leadership freezes them out.
For over a decade I've been saying Conservatism does not make real, concrete advances at the national level in D.C. until the GOP Party leadership is REPLACED. The strategy of sending a few more Conservatives to Congress WITHIN the GOP has not worked because the present leadership freezes them out.
"Whew! Another election gone by and our strategy to keep Conservatives out of Party leadership positions continues to pay off! But it's getting harder!"
And if you needed more proof replacing this leadership is the ONLY option if Conservatives are staying in this party, you saw it recently when GOP establishment types like Dole, Hatch & McConnell made it clear they preferred Trump to Ted Cruz. Rather than let a Conservative get anywhere NEAR actual power at the federal level in D.C., the GOP leadership would embrace President Donald Trump.
The Moderates who have always run the GOP Party & would burn D.C. to the ground before they'd help put 1 of the 3 federal branches of the government in the hands of a real Conservative.
We've Arrived At A Time For Choosing. But There's No Leadership Helping The Movement To Make The Necessary Choice
The Conservative movement has only 2 options here at this stage. And it's time for real leadership to emerge to help it CHOOSE one.
1. We take the GOP over in a revolt and throw out the present leadership. Will take another 2-3 elections, lots of investment of time & $.
2. Conservatives leave the GOP en masse & form a third Conservative party where it can support Cons & set a Con agenda without interference.
We'd need a person or persons to clearly spell out the choices, canvas the movement, then LEAD it towards a consensus & follow through on it. And no, some TV pundit talking head or opinion columnist won't provide that kind of leadership. Or a guy yelling on the radio.
Some of the most visible people in the Entertainment Wing of New Media have embraced Populism & abandoned Conservative principles. So I don't think any real Conservative leadership will emerge from Talk/TV Land to take the reins & guide the movement where it needs to go.
Right now Conservatives are at the point where they can force GOP leadership to vacate a post, as with Boehner being replaced by Ryan. But until Conservatives are powerful enough in the party they can force a vacancy AND ALSO determine who FILLS that vacancy, we're not there
I'm on the record which option I want to pursue. I want to throw this present GOP leadership out & take the party over. With real focused leadership, drive and commitment, this could be done by 2020 *if* most of the movement is energized to seek it. Conservatives have sent enough new members to Congress since 2010 to force a leadership shakeup, but still don't have enough to wrest control away from the establishment clique. That's going to take 1-2 more elections where enough Conservatives are in Congress to actually turn the tide.
1. We take the GOP over in a revolt and throw out the present leadership. Will take another 2-3 elections, lots of investment of time & $.
2. Conservatives leave the GOP en masse & form a third Conservative party where it can support Cons & set a Con agenda without interference.
We'd need a person or persons to clearly spell out the choices, canvas the movement, then LEAD it towards a consensus & follow through on it. And no, some TV pundit talking head or opinion columnist won't provide that kind of leadership. Or a guy yelling on the radio.
Some of the most visible people in the Entertainment Wing of New Media have embraced Populism & abandoned Conservative principles. So I don't think any real Conservative leadership will emerge from Talk/TV Land to take the reins & guide the movement where it needs to go.
Right now Conservatives are at the point where they can force GOP leadership to vacate a post, as with Boehner being replaced by Ryan. But until Conservatives are powerful enough in the party they can force a vacancy AND ALSO determine who FILLS that vacancy, we're not there
I'm on the record which option I want to pursue. I want to throw this present GOP leadership out & take the party over. With real focused leadership, drive and commitment, this could be done by 2020 *if* most of the movement is energized to seek it. Conservatives have sent enough new members to Congress since 2010 to force a leadership shakeup, but still don't have enough to wrest control away from the establishment clique. That's going to take 1-2 more elections where enough Conservatives are in Congress to actually turn the tide.
The 3rd party option, though, will take far longer, be far more difficult to do, building a new national political party from the ground up. If we opt for the 3rd Party route & leave the GOP en masse, it'd take us around a decade to become competitive with Democrats/GOP. And a decade is being optimistic, assuming everything in the building up of the new party goes well.
Reagan Understood The Moment, Led A Movement To Make A Choice, And Followed Through On It
Reagan emerged at the right time & told Americans this was a time for choosing. He clearly spelled out the options. He spent over 30 years giving speeches, organizing and then leading people to take action. He was functioning as a leader for the Conservative movement long before he entered the White House in 1980.
The Speech Ronald Reagan gave in 1964 that defined Conservatism for the next 5 decades.
The Conservative movement needs a Reagan right now, somebody who can explain where we're at, what choices we face, and then call for a decision. Do we take over the GOP? Or do we make a 3rd Party? It's time to decide.
In the 27 years since Regan left office, no real leadership emerged to take the reins. We've been looking for the 'new Reagan' for decades.
We need to remember, Reagan had to fight his OWN party, not just the Democrats, to get a shot at the White House. GOP didn't want him.
Reagan accomplished so much while in office, we tend to forget it wasn't just Dems screaming in his ear for him to stop what he was doing. He had plenty of GOP party people screaming for him stop, to change direction, stop being crazy, etc. If the GOP establishment had had it's way, the Reagan presidency would have never happened.
Because Reagan was an effective leader who organized the movement to resist the Establishment's efforts to shut him out, they didn't get their way.
Why Conservatives Must Stop Looking To Pundits For Leadership
In the absence of real committed Conservative leadership, our movement has fallen prey to populists, hucksters & opportunists. Many of the E! Wing pundits have geared their populism around selling constant outrage, not leading or organizing for real change. This is why looking to Radio & TV & Book media personalities/celebrities for 'leadership' is such a huge mistake.
When he's asked, Rush Limbaugh will tell you he's an ENTERTAINER. He might SELL Conservatism on his show, but he's not LEADING the movement. Same with Palin. She long ago traded in any political leadership in the movement for TV celebrity.She now embraces populism & Trump.
If you've been looking to E! Wing people for Conservative leadership, I don't blame you, though. You did that because right now there isn't any. If we had real effective, focused Conservative leadership in this country, the GOP would've had Conservatives running it long ago
So many have been looking for Conservative leadership in all the wrong places, from a cacophony of Populists out to drive ratings and sell books
Stoking constant outrage might feel good, but what it ALSO does is hide the fact you're still on the outside looking in. Powerless. It's time to reject the outrage mongers if all they're doing is stoking the outrage to hide the fact we're not getting anywhere.
Actually taking over the GOP & running it would be far harder than sitting outside looking in & raging at how we've been betrayed again. Maybe this is why some prefer the Never Ending Populist Outrage Circus and have joined Trump's traveling road show. Stoking outrage isn't hard. Actually organizing and fighting to accomplish an actual agenda is far harder.
We're actually encouraged by the Never Ending Populist Outrage Circus to remain passive, watching what the GOP leadership does. The Never Ending Drama of waiting to see if at last these goons in DC are going to do right by us.
Here's a tip: I think most of the people employed in the Never Ending Outrage Circus & Traveling Road Show™ know what the answer is to that. And the answer is no, as long as this present leadership is in charge, no they're NOT going to do right by us Conservatives. The E! Wing pundit class has already figured this out. They know the GOP leadership is never going to change how it does business.
If you're raking in the $ and the attention by selling outrage, why would you EVER want to provide an actual solution to the problem?
Let's see a show of hands: how many in the E! Wing's Never Ending Outrage Circus & Traveling Road Show™ spend any real time at all talking about Conservatives doing either course of action facing us? How often do Rush, Mark, Ann, Sarah, Laura, et. al., talk about Conservatives throwing out the present GOP leadership or leaving to make a 3rd party? And if they ever DO get around to talking about it, how many have an actual plan or strategy for making it happen?
Outrage & anger are not a platform for building anything. It can start a revolution, but once the current regime is gone, you need planning. And no, the most visible Conservatives in America, the E! Wing people, aren't interested in leading a revolt to take the GOP over. Neither are they interested in starting a 3rd party.
Because either option would mean hard work, careful planning and years of sustained effort.
In other words, both options would require real LEADERSHIP, which the E! Wing isn't interested at all in providing. So not only are many Conservatives looking to the wrong places for leadership, they end up looking at E! Wing celebrities who don't even want that job. The E! Wing has found it's niche selling outrage & anger and are ill prepared or suited to move beyond that to providing leadership.
One valuable thing this last election cycle has brought into stark contrast: the difference between Populism & Conservatism. It's fun to join the Never Ending Outrage Circus & Traveling Roadshow™ until you realize it's not going anywhere and doesn't have any vision beyond telling you what you want hear at any given moment.
