Republicans, Conservatives and Independents

Since the November loss, not just for the presidency but also regarding seats in the Senate and the House of Representatives, there has been an ongoing debate on how to rebuild the party. The two predominant ideas are either to make the party more appealing to Independents or to return to core principles of conservatives. This competing idea is playing out in the NY23 race where the GOP nominated a moderate candidate Dede Scozzafava (as they called her) with the belief she will be more appealing to independents. In response, conservatives and conservative commentators have come out roaring against a candidate they consider either a RINO at best, or a far left at worse, in favor of a non GOP candidate from the Conservative party of NY, Doug Hoffman.

Conservatives Call On Scozzafava To Withdraw
Conservatives roar; Republicans tremble

I believe the GOP bosses are making several huge mistakes. Firstly, all successful organizations need people to do the work and believe in the work. Without the base, the party is certain to fail.

Rasmussen: 73 percent say GOP leaders have lost touch with Republican base

Secondly, there is also a divergence of the party's goal and the base's goal politically. The party wants to win election. Thus it makes perfect sense for the party to focus on candidates they believe are electable with appeals to the middle. But the base is more concerned with how the party will govern once elected. By having candidates that are far removed from the base's ideology, once elected they don't necessarily vote with the party. See Arlen Specter and Olympia Snowe as examples.

Thirdly, the choice between electability and adherence to party ideology is a false choice because you could have both. Independent voters are frequently not wedded to a particular ideology. They do not have their own party or party platform. They thus choose from what is offered by the current parties come election time. Thus when the choice is between idea X and idea similar to X, the tendency will be to go with idea X itself rather than X-lite. But when the choice is between X and Y, where both are clearly different, Y becomes distinguished and appealing in its own right.

Obviously if an idea is clearly bad, it will not be chosen. I do not believe this is the case with the ideas of Conservatism. I believe the ideas of Conservatism continue to be sound and appealing to most of Americans, not just conservatives. As is, conservative outnumber liberals and twice as many Americans are becoming more conservative than more liberal.

While some politicians focus on winning elections,
On the NY23 Race, We Have A Practical Choice To Make

other remembers why why politicians are elected for office to begin with.

The votes of every member of Congress affect every American, so it's important for all of us to pay attention to this important Congressional campaign in upstate New York. I am very pleased to announce my support for Doug Hoffman in his fight to be the next Representative from New York's 23rd Congressional district. It's my honor to endorse Doug and to do what I can to help him win, including having my political action committee, SarahPAC, donate to his campaign the maximum contribution allowed by law.

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Political parties must stand for something. When Republicans were in the wilderness in the late 1970s, Ronald Reagan knew that the doctrine of "blurring the lines" between parties was not an appropriate way to win elections. Unfortunately, the Republican Party today has decided to choose a candidate who more than blurs the lines, and there is no real difference between the Democrat and the Republican in this race. This is why Doug Hoffman is running on the Conservative Party's ticket.