Conservatives vs. Republicans: A History

As a conservative, I'm in a tremendous amount of pain as I watch the Democrats tear down my country. And, like many others, I'm asking how we could have allowed this to happen. It's a long story, actually. I've given some thought to it, and I've come to a startling conclusion. At least it's startling to me. This may come as no suprise to some, but I lay the blame at the feet of the Republican Party itself. I have concluded that Barack Hussien Obama can thank one man for his election. That man is Lee Harvey Oswald. Stay with me here....

In November 1963, it was becoming clear that John Kennedy may be vulnerable to a strong Republican candidate in 1964. That was the reason he went to Dallas in the first place, to shore up support in the south where he was weakest. The Republicans were chomping at the bit to take him on, believing that they could use a growing conservative movement to beat Kennedy. The White House had a long list of southern visits scheduled for the president, and he had just been to Tampa, Florida before visiting cities in Texas. The conventional wisdom was that the November elections would be a re-visit of the close race Kennedy and Nixon ran four years earlier, but the south would come through for a Republican this time.

With Kennedy's assassination at the hands of the "lone nut," Oswald, Lyndon Johnson was poised to pop the Republicans bubble. As a southerner, he took some of the wind out of the
Republican strategy. The party looked to Richard Nixon to run again. Nixon was considered a moderate in the party, and that's what the Republican "establishment" was looking for. Nixon passed on running again, so the party promoted the candidacy of New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, another moderate. But the conservative wing of the party rallied behind Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater, a champion of smaller government, lower taxes, and states rights. The primaries proved that both men had strong support in their respective corners of the party, but it looked like the issue wouldn't be decided until they faced off at the national convention. It was a Rockefeller family matter that decided the race. He had recently married a divorced woman, and there were rumors that he had been having an affair with her, prompting a quick divorce and marriage to Rockefeller. While neck and neck going into the final primary in California, Rockefellers wife gave birth to Nelson Rockefeller Jr. three days before the vote, and that opened the adultry issue all over again. Goldwater won, and went to the convention with the delegates to win the nomination. But the Establishment Republicans were not going down without a fight, and the convention turned nasty. Goldwater survived, only to be crushed by Johnson. He was never able to get the support of his vanquished foes. Rockefeller and his moderates sat silently while Johnson destroyed Goldwaters reputation.

Four years later, Johnson was forced out of running for re-election because he was so unpopular in escalating the war in Viet Nam and having no plan to end it. Richard Nixon returned to the stage in 1968 and was the front runner from the start. With the Democrats in disarray following the assassination of Robert Kennedy during the primaries, and war protesters outside their Chicago convention, Nixon looked like a winner. The opposition came in the person of Vice-President Hubert Humphrey. Nixon was ready this time, and with superior campaign orginization, he narrowly beat Humphrey. Again, Nixon was considered a moderate, and his main rival had been conservative California Gov. Ronald Reagan. Conservatives, not content to sit on their hands, flocked to the cause of Alabama Gov. George Wallace. Wallace was percieved by many to be racist due to his opposition to segregation in public schools. He insisted that this opposition was more about states rights to decide these issues, rather than the federal government forcing the states hand in deciding such things. Nearly ten million voters pulled the lever for Wallace, making him the first third party candidate to win a state in a national election.

The election of 1972 saw Nixon roll over liberal S. Dakota Sen. George McGovern. The Republican Party was riding high, the Establishment had the power to crush any conservative candidate who threatened to challenge the status quo. But things got messy after 1973, when the Watergate burglary took center stage in American politics. Nixon's vice-president, Spiro Agnew resigned amidst charges that he had accepted bribes in excess of $100,000. Nixon, who was already feeling the heat of the Watergate investigation, calculated that if he chose someone that would be unacceptable as president to be his vice-president, he would never be impeached. So he chose a man that he considered dull and "not very smart," Gerald Ford. The Republican Establishment assured him that the people would never get rid of him now. He was safe.

Well, not so much. Nixon is out in disgrace in 1974 and Ford is President. By 1976, the party decides that the moderate Ford should be in good shape for re-election, and works to help him defeat the increasingly popular Ronald Reagan in the primaries. Reagan, again the conservative choice, arrived at the convention within striking distance of Ford. But, in what I consider his biggest gaffe, he chose Pa. Sen. Richard Schweiker, a liberal, as his running mate. Why? To appease the moderates. Bad move for Reagan. It caused the conservatives, who had brought him this far, to bolt and throw their votes behind a New York senator who had not even run. Republican Party 4, Conservatives 0.

Ford was a likable guy, who filled in nicely. He did nothing to help or hurt himself as president. he did get into some trouble by saying silly things during the presidential debate, namely that Eastern Europe was not under Soviet domination at the time. That pretty much wrapped the election. Jimmy Carter dispatched Ford by being a "Washington outsider." Republicans wandered around scratching their heads and wondering how a peanut farmer from Georgia could oust a sitting president. By 1980, Ronald Reagan knew the answer to that, and put together a strategy to build a coalition that the party could not block. He went into the primaries with such momentum that the moderates, who supported George H.W. Bush, found themselves overwhelmed. While Bush won a few primaries, Reagan swept to the nomination. Carter had basically forfeited the office by being inept and allowing the economy to tank, the Iranians to hold Americans hostage at our embassy, watching interest rates climb to over 20%, and blaming all our ills on...us! Reagan gave him an electoral beating, and suddenly the Republican Party was in love with him.

Reagan gave way to his vice-president after eight successful years that saw him win re-election in 1984, this time putting a whipping on the very liberal Walter Mondale. Everybody knew that Bush was going to be "Reagan Lite", but the party gathered behind him and on he went to win the nomination. This time the conservatives had supported N.Y. Congressman Jack Kemp, who they felt would be closer to Reagan in economic policy than Bush. Bush then faced a political light-weight in Massachusetts Gov. Mike Dukakis, and beats him and the democrats senseless. It looks good for the Republicans, and the party is nearly fearless. They have their moderate president and now they go for the congress.

Bush goes back on a campaign promise not to raise taxes, thus ending any chance he has at a second term. The Establishment is scrambling, because they fear that the democrats will be swept into power. After all, they were the ones who insisted that Bush raise those taxes. They got enough moderates to see things their way, and the conservatives were shut out again. Now comes William Jefferson Clinton, and it really looks bleak. He took Bush to task for breaking the tax pledge and being out of touch with average Americans. Conservatives, for some of the same reasons, rally behind political commentator Patrick Buchanan. A surprise entry by third party candidate Ross Perot shook things up considerably. Perot touched on the disappointment members of both parties felt about the choices they had. He argued that it was time to "clean out the barn" in Washington, and millions of Americans agreed. Clinton squeaked out a win and we all thought we'd heard the end of the Bush's.

The election of 1996 was when I personally decided that the Republican Party was a mess. I have been one to say that the voters should have complete control over who a party nominates. During the '96 election, I heard party leaders start saying that Kansas senator and former vice-presidential nominee Bob Dole "deserved" the nomination, and I nearly screamed. It didn't stop there. More and more of the party leadership got behind Dole, with the phrase "he has earned it" being espoused. I don't care who you are, you have earned nothing unless you have fought for it. Bob Dole was a great guy. But we had a very popular and relatively young Clinton in office, and throwing a 70-year old senator who had a reputation for being boring and crotchety was hardly the best we could do. But the Party says Bob deserves it, and throws it's support behind him. There were several other candidates that began to prove themselves capable money raisers and campaigners, but the decision had been made. Dole, a moderate, chose Jack Kemp as his VP, but to no avail. The two were trounced by Clinton.

But a storm had been brewing in the country. While the party had made a poor choice in pushing Dole on the voters, it had cultivated some strong congressional candidates. Republicans had taken over the House of Representitives for the first time in decades, lead by southern conservatives. Just as Clinton was preparing to take the country to the left, Newt Gingrich and his crew put the brakes on and began challenging the presidents agenda. National health insurance, tax hikes, and a larger federal deficit were all put on hold. Conservatives were pretty sure the 2000 election would be their next chance at holding the White House. They were wrong again.

Well, here we are. After that little trip down memery lane, we're back to something most of us remember pretty well. We watched the Republicans lick their chops and set their sights on power. All that stood in the way was Vice-President Al Gore. There was no shortage of republicans standing in line for the race. Once again there would be the Establishment candidate, and in this case it would be George W. Bush, son of the former president. The party leadership got together and made the decision that this would be the nominee before any votes had been cast. All of the old Bush cabinet came out for him, as did much of the GOP congressional leadership. Conservatives were leary, again, and chose to follow Arizona Sen. John McCain, who was then considered to be more conservative than Bush. The primaries got ugly when Bush ran a push poll in South Carolina indicating that the child McCain adopted from Bangladesh was his own, born out of wedlock. The party looked the other way and Bush successfully slowed the McCain surge that had been building. He went on to win the nomination, and then lost to Gore. Or at least 500,000 more people voted for Gore than Bush, but....oh, nevermind.

Bush would have likely been a quiet and slightly liberal president, if not for the attacks of September 11, 2001. But his response to that day gave him unprecidented popularity, and he soon found himself unable to do any wrong. He began hosting Ted Kennedy to talk about education, and other liberals also found the White House door mysteriously open to them. Bush was busy growing the deficit and fighting a war that became increasingly unpopular, but the party was happy to let him go against nearly everything the conservative wing supported. The "No Child Left Behind" bill was written by Kennedy and Bush gladly signed it, snubbing his "base" in the process. A new Medicare prescription bill was passed without conservative support, and the race to explode the budget deficit was on. And explode it did. Let's see, where does that leave the score?
Republicans 8 Conservatives 2

Bush pulled off an upset by beating back challenger John Kerry in 2004. Not by being conservative, but by being less liberal than Kerry. It may have been the party's last hurrah for some time. Now, in 2009, the Republicans are again scratching their collective heads wondering how the election of 2008 could have happened. The moderate Bush hands off to the moderate McCain in 2008. The party decided that McCain had "earned it" and threw their full support behind him, snubbing conservatives Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Ron Paul, Fred Thompson and Duncan Hunter. Liberal candidates Rudy Guliani and Sam Brownback fell off the radar screen after a few primaries. The party got their man the nomination by allowing early primary states to throw open the Republican balloting, thus letting anyone vote in the primary, regardless of party affiliation. Plenty of democrats did just that, and voted for McCain. The republican establishment chuckled and said that the democrats voted for McCain because he was an attractive candidate. The truth was that they were doing whatever they could to have Republicans nominate the weakest candidate possible. And they went ahead and did just that. Obama went on to crush McCain.

So, it really all started on that November day in 1963 when a disgruntled 24 year old punk took history into his own hands. Welcome to the White House, President Obama. The next time you stare at that portrait of JFK, you should thank your lucky stars.