For the GOP, I hope that we are investing time in figuring out how to
hold a coalition of economic conservatives, social moderates and
conservatives, and foreign-policy conservatives under one umbrella. As
Ross implied, we must resist the temptation to form a circular firing
squad that casts blame on one or the other faction within the party. I,
for one, am content to have the GOP wander in the Obama wilderness for
four years if it forces my party to have a serious self-examination.
As both Reagan and Bush Junior have shown, there is NO place in the Republican party for fiscal conservatives. When in power, Republicans invariably expand government, reduce freedoms and the right to privacy. Whitman says she's fine to let the GOP work out what it wants to be for a few years, but she makes very clear that as a fiscal conservative, she doesn't feel she belongs in that party now. So she must hope that either
1. the fiscal conservatives boot the social conservatives and the corporate welfare caucus out of the Republican party
OR
2. the party reverts to the strategic ambiguity, where all constituent groups pretend that their respective goals are not mutually exclusive
If there is no bitter, acrimonious fight that leads to the split between social and fiscal conservatives and the creation of a viable third party, the only possible outcome is the second one. Whitman and other fiscal conservatives will have to suspend their disbelief and again vote for the small government party that at every turn has increased the government's size, budget (at least on the outgoing side) and reach. It beggars belief that anyone would think that this is a solution.
So let's have that circular firing squad. Four years is enough time to create two parties - a socially conservative one and a fiscally conservative one - that together can more than balance the Democratic party and finally bring real choice to US elections. I bet that a breakup of the GOP would not lead to many Blue Dogs crossing the isle, and perhaps a similar breakup of the Democratic party.
