A conservative, but not a Republican

Alvaro Vargas Llosa, a writer I admire greatly, wrote an interesting piece in The New Republic on the GOP's depature from conservative principles and how that may shake out following this election. As Vargas Llosa notes, a rebellion among conservative columnists is already under way:

More poignantly, they all decry what they perceive as a betrayal of conservative principles. Buckley put it succinctly when he wrote that George Bush's government has brought America "a doubled national debt, ruinous expansion of entitlement programs, bridges to nowhere, poster boy Jack Abramoff and an ill-premised, ill-waged war conducted by politicians of breathtaking arrogance." Brooks thinks the problem goes beyond the Bush years, stating that "modern conservatism began as a movement of dissident intellectuals" against the liberal domination of the academic world, but "what had been a disdain for liberal intellectuals slipped into a disdain "for the educated class as a whole." Parker is even more forceful: "The well-fed right now cultivates ignorance as a political strategy. ... Years of pandering to the extreme wing ... have created a party no longer attentive to its principles."

Of those opinions, I identify most with Buckley's sweeping condemnation and fail to understand how conservatives aren't overwhelmingly livid over the party's direction during the past eight years (although I could make a case that this has been going on since Nixon, at least). If losing this election helps the GOP reassess its direction and issue appropriate course correctives, then bring on defeat! Our nation will survive a liberal populist this time as surely as we survived a fake conservative-totalitarian the past eight years and a philandering moderate the eight years before that.

Vargas Llosa notes that soul-searching can be just what the doctor ordered:

These fundamental deviations from conservatism crystallized in the Bush administration. The result was the biggest growth in government since the presidency of Lyndon Johnson, a loss of international prestige and, in purely political terms, the alienation of millions of people who could have been attracted to the Republican Party had its libertarian roots been preserved in dealing with social issues. Thus, the party that styles itself the champion of individual liberty has come to be seen by many in the United States and around the world as a special-interest group driven by factions and devoid of principle.

For all these reasons, my support will go to Chuck Baldwin and the Constitution Party. I like Bob Barr and certainly have common ground with the Libertarian Party, but Baldwin comes closest to embracing and upholding the principles I hold dear.