Is there a new conservative playbook for the 2016 elections? If we follow New Hampshire’s lead, for the first time in many years conservatives may actually have a voice in the presidential nominee.
Sick of the string of centrist GOPers who’ve dominated the primaries in recent years, conservatives and libertarians in New Hampshire are hoping to defy the conventional wisdom that the Granite State is moderate friendly turf between the evangelical dominated Iowa caucuses and socially conservative South Carolina primaries.
In an idea borne from a sense that something needed to be done to take control of the Republican party out of the hands of a few establishment RINOs, and to defeat so-called “moderate” establishment candidates, conservatives and libertarians invited about two dozen right-leaning political groups to help form a coalition, to settle on a minimum threshold for conservative credentials and to agree to rally behind the winner of a caucus-like process tentatively scheduled for October.
The 603 Alliance, named for the state’s only area code, was launched to assemble the coalition and manage its selection process while a sister organization, the Conservative Business League of New Hampshire, will conduct educational outreach and hold events. Full details of the process will be announced April 19. So far, roughly 30 groups have expressed their interest in participating, including pro-gun and pro-life organizations.
Of course, the New Hampshire state Republican establishment have nixed the plan and prophesied its failure. And perhaps it will, who knows? But I’ve always been told its better to go down fighting than just lay down and play dead.
During Mid-March Glenn Beck announced his decision to leave the Republican party and who in their right mind could disagree with his reasons. The Republican Party is owned and operated by RINOs, for RINOs, and conservatives be damned. Why would any conservative want to stay with a Party who demonizes them as kooks, extremists, racists, and bigots? We already have the far-left, progressive Democratics, socialists, marxists, etc. for that!
It is unfortunate that the Republican Party has morphed from a party that supported liberty, freedom, smaller government, and self-reliance to nothing more than progressive Democrats in Republican clothing. While mouthing a conservative agenda, they supporting the murder of innocent babies, population control, global warming, gun control, special gay rights, amnesty, open borders, unions, higher taxes, bigger government, and you name it, anything that keeps them in power.
But what do you do? According to Gary Wills at the New Yorker, Americans must realize that one the most important realities of contemporary American politics is the fact that the man being voted for, no matter what he says, dances with the party that brought him, dependent on its support, resources, and clientele, and the people that voted him into office. That is why one should always vote on the party, instead of the candidate. The party has some continuity of commitment, no matter how compromised. What you are really voting for is the party’s constituency. That will determine priorities when it comes to appointments, legislative pressure, and things like nominating Supreme Court justices.
To a certain extent Wills is right but I’m tired of holding my nose and voting for liberal-lite. The Establishment RINOs want nothing more than conservatives, aka the Tea Party, to abandon the GOP. It’s what they’re hoping for. Let’s not give them the satisfaction.
Let’s hope that New Hampshire’s approach will be a role model for the rest of the country. We’re stuck with a two party system and it’s time that we put some real distance between the parties so that conservatives and libertarians will have a real option when they cast their vote.
It simply boils down to one option: Either we continue to hold our nose and vote liberal-lite or take our party back.
