Secret Agenda? Another Inane Conspiracy Theory

For years, many of the elite conservatives were happy to harvest the votes of devout Christians and gun owners by waging a phony class war against “liberal elitists” and “leftist intellectuals.” Suddenly, the conservative writers are discovering that the very anti-intellectualism their side courted and encouraged has begun to consume their movement.

I have a hard time believing that conservative intellectuals are surprised that the above situation is happening. This conservative intellectual criticism has been a building trend this election with one after another coming out of the closet to either endorse Obama, criticize Palin, and/or question McCain.

Conspiracy Theory Alert Ahead …

The fear of the Republicans this election year was that the base wouldn’t come out to vote because of their deep suspicion of McCain. I think that was an empty fear when, while they may hate McCain, no way would they stand for an Obama presidency either. So there was no need to pander to the base with the Sarah Palin pick. As long as they stayed away from Lieberman, any of the other picks would have been fine and the social conservatives would have come out in the end.

But the independents had already started turning towards Obama during the Democratic primary season. Conservative intellectuals started to smell defeat. Their candidate was old and had eight years of mucking up his record on the national stage. The social conservatives weren’t playing along but any attempt to oust them from the party at this stage would be too obvious. So throw Palin in the mix and the social conservatives are mollified once again that they’re the true base of the Republican Party.

But what if it was all a trick? A strategy to schism the party and return the GOP to its economic conservative roots?

Like my earlier crackpot theory about Sarah Palin as the tool to discredit women, this one rests on the premise that the Republicans know they are going to lose this election and so decided some good must come of it, for them. By picking a member of the religious right wing as the VP, McCain seems to be acknowledging the religious conservatives’ crucial role in the Republican Party, but perhaps it’s just to set them up as a handy scapegoat when he loses. Was this plan all along?

If McCain loses (and today’s projections are more dismal for him than ever with Obama polling at 354-375—depending on which electoral vote mapping site you use), conservative intellectuals will blame the Palin pick. The social/religious conservatives will blame McCain and the conservatives who tanked Palin in the op-eds and endorsements. With the Democrats in control of the executive and legislative branches of government, the Republicans could actually have the breathing room to fix what’s gone wrong in their party. And they need to.

It’s already happening, the RNC is pulling out of races where hardcore social conservative candidates are having trouble (Bachman and Musgrave—far right conservatives—most notably) and the social conservatives are threatening to pull money from the RNC. They should. The Republican Party has done nothing to reward this group for the 2000 and 2004 elections. If Obama wins, Roe v. Wade will not even be in play for another 30-40 years. What will they run on then? The Republican Party does not need, in a post-Obama administration, the rabble rousing over abortion and gay marriage. They need to hunker down to the ideological roots of their party, fiscal conservative economics.

It does not say good things about our country that the race for the leadership of the free world devolves into such petty attacks as we have seen. We need to expunge the fringe politics from our executive branch and put them where they belong, in the Congress.

Green Party members, Libertarians, and extreme social conservatives take note. You are never going to win the executive branch and actually enact your policies while under the umbrella of a major party (what’s George W. Bush done for you lately?). Far-left liberals, Nader is never going to win the White House. The better bet would be for all these other movements to disengage from the two major parties and start actively supporting candidates for Congress under their own label. Let the two major parties continue to duke it out for Senate and the White House, start infiltrating the House. The House is supposed to be the party of the people and should have all the bickering, fighting, compromise, and deal-making that people do. Start building the foundations of your own parties in the House of Representatives and make the House truly represent the people.

Naturally these smaller parties would caucus with one of the two larger parties. Or even, gasp, with each other on certain issues that they can agree upon from time to time. From that stage, under their own labels, they could have a larger voice than the position they are now in, buried under the umbrella of the major two parties. But these groups must be realistic and know that the White House, or even the Senate, is not in play and won’t be for decades or centuries to come.

In the meantime, I will happily sit back and watch the fighting happen starting November 5. Coming up next, my virtual shopping spree where I try to come up with a $150,000 wish list at Neiman Marcus.