The Conservative Political Action Conference is a three day gathering of thousands of conservatives from quite a few groups including GOProud, a two year old gay Republican group. I saw this article yesterday, the first day of the conference, that to be honest didn’t surprise me.
Here’s an excerpt about the conservative fracturing:
The group’s [GOProud] presence prompted a handful of socially conservative organizations to opt out of participating in this year’s event, including Concerned Women for America and the American Principles Project.
The Family Research Council, led by Tony Perkins, is another organization that will not be attending the conference. (Perkins notes that the group has not attended CPAC for the past several years because of what he perceives as its “leftward drift” — including its tolerance of lawmakers that support online gambling or legalized marijuana. FRC sponsors its own annual conference — the Values Voter Summit — which attracts conservative organizations and presidential hopefuls each year.)
Debate over gay rights, Perkins says, can certainly take place in the public sphere, but he contends that a Reagan-inspired event for Republican activists isn’t the right setting.
“This is not a conference in which people on the left and right come together,” he said on MSNBC Wednesday. “This is where conservatives come together.”
A group called the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property distributed flyers at the conference urging attendees not to “betray principles” and allow “the liberal media’s … homosexual agenda” to be forced upon conservatives.
Conservatives play an important role in politics, by slowing progress they can help keep things from going to far. For example, a fiscal conservative can help slow the growth of government spending which can allow for prioritizing expenses, cutting useless programs, and avoiding horrific deficits. Sadly we haven’t seen many of those in quite some time.
Social conservatives, on the other hand, always lose. While they claim the moral high ground, in the eyes of history they will be viewed as despicable. It was the social conservatives in the 1770s who supported King George. It was the social conservatives in the 1860s who supported slavery. It was the social conservatives in the 1950s and 1960s who supported segregation. Each group lost and each group has been viewed as having been on the wrong side of the fight by almost everyone almost as soon as they lose it.
It is the social conservatives of today who support the maintenance of the establishment of religious beliefs that include the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, having “In God We Trust” as the national motto, prayers in government meetings, and the teaching of Creationism in schools. It is these same social conservatives who want to maintain (or restore) the denial of equality for the GLBT community. The social conservatives are in the wrong and they will lose. It wont be next year and it may not be in this decade, but they will lose and they will vilified in the annals of history.
Between I know that many fiscal conservative/social liberals have left the Republican Party. It’s very rare that you find an atheist who will admit to being a Republican. Libertarian, independent, or even moderate, but not Republican.
The polarization that has occurred in the party has left the radical right wing segment of the party as the only voice. I’ll admit that I am part of the problem. The GOP’s alliance with the religious right, their abandonment of personal liberty, limited government, and fiscal conservatism drove me away. Most atheists I know identify as Democrats, the rest will refuse to identify as Republican, preferring libertarian, independent, moderate, or some other moniker so as to avoid being lumped in with the mess that is the modern Republican Party. But when you’re young and just starting a career you’re not really in a position to move the party and when the party won’t run a candidate that you can vote for in good conscience…that’s a tough spot to be in.
I applaud GOProud for staying in and engaging with the party and I hope they can help bring it back to reason. Maybe its time for a Free-GOP (Freethinkers of the GOP). Just imagine going to something like CPAC and having a large enough presence to be able to boo the likes of Time Pawlenty off the stage for remarks like saying that we need to “turn towards God, not away from him”, or at least throw him off a bit.
Let’s take back our party! Any body else interested?