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What we have here is a failure to communicate…

Jim Antle and Dan Larison both are right in their discussion of the alternative right and relation to the Republicans base and members of Congress. Larison is right that the GOP’s remaining rump of politicians and activists and those members of Conservative Inc. remain pig-headed about their party’s current status and what needs to be […]

Jim Antle and Dan Larison both are right in their discussion of the alternative right and relation to the Republicans base and members of Congress. Larison is right that the GOP’s remaining rump of politicians and activists and those members of Conservative Inc. remain pig-headed about their party’s current status and what needs to be done to change it and any honest critique about themselves or the party from those on the outside looking in.

But Antle is right that attempts to approach that base with an air of contempt goes nowhere. The Frum article he refers to is nothing but dreck. He points out all the past sins of Arlen Specter in the eyes of conservatives and them blames them for not putting up with him.  No wonder they’ve stopped listening if they’re getting this kind of advice.

Is there a reason conservatives should be any more tolerant of Specter as liberals were of, say, Joe Lieberman? Maybe if this was a red state it would be easier to target a moderate like Specter but then again such states would not elect Specter in the first place. Perhaps it is inevitable that such splits occur within parties. No doubt Democratic liberals complain about their “conservative” wing and yet without it they cannot rule so they must put up with it gritting their teeth (and a good thing too because without them, the Obama Administration truly would be Thermidor. Perhaps conservatives outside the South would be better served to run as Democrats in order to have some kind of influence politically. We should encourage such broad wings in our political parties.  After all, we’re not Europe, yet.) Republicans for years have complained about Specter, especially over the Bork nomination and the Clinton impeachment. The 2004 Pennsylvania GOP primary was a way to fix this problem and still have a reasonable chance to win in the fall. Thanks to party apparatchik Rick Santorum and Bush II, the problem went unsolved and eventually broke down anyway.

So here’s where the communication breaks down: the remaining conservative rump refuses listen to outsiders because outsiders like to scold them. Well, the only way I think I can think of to reestablish the phone lines is for the outsiders to completely ignore the politicians and pundits, bloggers and talk show hosts who only say “more green eggs and more ham” and speak directly to the base, the listeners, the readers and watchers and hope your arguments resonate with them first which will then resonate with those inside the redoubt.

In fact, let us let Ronald Reagan sum up the situation, as he did in 1976 GOP Convention speech:

This is our challenge; and this is why here in this hall tonight, better than we have ever done before, we have got to quit talking to each other and about each other and go out and communicate to the world that we may be fewer in numbers than we have ever been, but we carry the message they are waiting for.”

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