It’s been fairly obvious for some time now that the Republican Party needs to move in a new direction, and one effort at figuring out where to go and how to do it starts today:
There is general consensus that the right is at an inflection point. We face a series of unsustainable trends: the aging of our voter base, an ideological cupboard seemingly bare of big ideas, and a leadership class that is at best spinning its wheels. I won’t sugarcoat it: the road ahead could be disastrous.
At the same time, we have advantages none of our forebears could have dreamed of. The ‘net, broadly defined as the breakdown of communications barriers based on status or geography, creates instant self-awareness of our problems and potential solutions. The right resources can be brought to bear in weeks and months, not years and decades as was often the case with past conservative journeys through the political wilderness.
This site is the product of literally hundreds of offline conversations with some of the brightest young minds in the conservative movement. It grows out of a recognition that the road back can’t be about a series of disjointed technologies, blogs, and pundits. It begins with telling a story about why we should lead. With advancing majoritarian ideas with real buy-in from the grassroots, not diktats from Washington policy shops. With revitalizing the Republican Party with real participation from the bottom up. The right needed a place online where these discussions could flourish, where a narrative about revitalizing the movement could congeal, and where smart new voices could assert a leadership role in a party at a crossroads. We hope The Next Right can be a small part of this ongoing dialogue.
Looks good so far, and I particularly like this contribution from one participant:
Republicans have traditionally been the party of fiscal responsibility, but no more. The only options anymore seem to be “tax and spend” with the Democrats or “spend and spend” with the Republicans. These new Republicans like to pretend that the party promotes tax cuts. But with a true tax cut comes a requisite cut in spending. The current Republicans simply ramp up spending while offering us a tax deferral – the opportunity to transfer the tax burden to our kids – and then they advertise the deal as a tax cut.
This new incarnation of the GOP is no longer in any sense conservative on foreign policy. The approach is to bomb now, ask questions later. A true conservative approach is to maintain a capable defense, but reserve its use only for matters of the most urgent national interest, after all other options are exhausted.
The Republicans – once the guardians of civil liberties and personal privacy – no longer even respect the rights of the individual to be free from government encroachment. The party justifies wiretapping, email interception, seizure of library/phone/credit records and any matter of other indiscretions all in the name of homeland security. And worse, these Republicans, the so-called “compassionate conservatives,” condone torture and enhanced interrogation – outright violations of both civil liberty and international law.
And so the Right is wrong. It is wrong in advertising itself as a conservative force. It is wrong in operating under the guise of the Republican Party while supporting policies that run counter to the very essence of the party’s principles.
Yet there is hope. There are those of us who still believe in the heart and soul of the traditional GOP: that government should be limited at the federal level, that it bears the burden of fiscally responsible decision making, that it must respect the rights of the common man, that it does not become unnecessarily involved overseas. There are those of us who remain hopeful that the party will return to its roots, and will free itself from the clutches of the neocon movement. And there are those of us commited to joining forces with likeminded souls to take back our party.
I believe we can do it. I believe we must do it. Because I fear that if this status quo remains much longer, that this new incarnation of the Republican Party will no longer be simply a perversion of the party, it will have become the party. And if that were to happen, it would be to the detriment of not only our party, but also of our nation as a whole.
This is definitely worth keeping an eye on.
H/T: Scott’s Morning Brew
