"The GOP, the 'party of torture' is over" Patrick Hines, former McCain advisor

[Hamlette]

First, let’s be clear, American conservatism has devolved from a movement into an identity group. After my client Sen. John McCain decided not to attend this year Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) a great many of my friends demanded to know why. Now, these were my friends and I knew which of them did and did not support Sen. McCain (or were ever even likely to support Sen. McCain), so I countered their demands with a simple question: But you don’t like Sen. McCain and you have said you would never vote for him under any circumstances; why would you even want him here? Without exception the reply came back as some variation of the following: Because he needs us and if he expects us to support him he needs to come to us, we’re not going to go to him.

Identity-group conservatives have shown a shocking lack of respect for fellow conservatives who stray on a particular issue or two. I have personally had my patriotism questioned by (ex-) friends because I believe in a comprehensive approach to immigration reform. National Review infamously lambasted non-Iraq War supporting conservatives as “Unpatriotic” http://www.nationalreview.com/frum/frum031903.asp in 2003. A healthy movement can withstand the occasional division on key issues; a chauvinistic identity group cannot.

And so the upshot is that we have reverted back to type: A Republican Party and a conservative movement that really doesn’t give a shit about ordinary people.

Of course, winning the War on Terror - whether in Iraq, Afghanistan, Boston, New York or wherever — is vitally important. I’m not warning my conservative friends off the idea of furthering the cause of global freedom; but we need to acknowledge that the public is simply not with us on the Iraq War and growing more distrustful of us by the day on the broader conflict against radical Islamism. If we are going to insist that national security is one of our two signature issues, we ought to, at the very least, have credibility on it... When it comes to our issues matrix in the present political environment, I have to be the bearer of bad news to my rightwing friends: The party of torture and immigration restriction is not a majority party and doesn’t have much of a future

http://www.anklebitingpundits.com/content/index.php?p=2496

This is a very interesting post, sort of reminds me of the GOP of my youth, a tad nutty in a dottering old man sort of way but not bat shit crazy like today's GOP. He's lamenting the recent polls which show a trend toward dems and calls Tancredo bat shit crazy (sort of)

Also read the link to the Frum piece. If anyone DARES tell you the GOP didn't call dems unpatriotic or if you forget what the political climate was in March 2003, reread that article. We knew it was nasty and mean at the time but they should be forced to face and eat those words every day for the rest of their lives now that the war turned out exactly like we warned them. And Frum's piece is on republicans who dissent.

[C_U_L8R]

1. Chauvinistic

Now that's a perfect word to describe Republicans... in every respect