The Fight Conservatism Faces

So, unless you have been living under a rock, been hit by a rock, or have been about to be hit by a rock for the past two months, you are probably fully aware of November's election debacle.  I have discussed that in more than a few blog posts.  It was a painful moment and every moment since has felt equally painful.

So the next question is, "what is the future of conservatism?"  After such a morale-crushing defeat and the recent fiscal cliff "deal" to take the morale nadir and lower it, it is clear that conservatives are in for a rough time in the coming years. So, what are the steps to come back from this?

Disclaimer: I am neither a political strategist nor a professional political pundit.  I don't care, either.  Most of those on the right these days seem to be hilariously incompetent at their jobs.  So I am just going to approach this from the little perch I call "common sense."  At least as far as I see it; feel free to disagree.

I believe that the movement needs to take the next year working out its internal conflicts and differences.  Because the conservative movement is intellectually and (sometimes surprisingly) ideologically diverse, we tend to have internal factions that will disagree on issues and approaches.  We have libertarians, social conservatives, tea party conservatives, general Republicans, the sometimes-nebulous "establishment" Republicans and so on (it may seem redundant to separate some of those categories, but I have my reasons).

Now, I have no idea what the outcome of this internal battle will be.  There are many issues and many opinions on how to handle them.  However, right now, debates on approach seem to be the primary battle happening right now among conservatives.  Do we stubbornly hold the line at all costs or try to be conciliatory for the sake of image?  Do we focus on economics at the expense of social issues?  I'm sure the answer is more complex than my personal opinion on either matter or many others.

These internal battles must be fought, however.  Currently, we are too severely fractured and lash out at each other too frequently for such a status quo to continue.  Differences that must be worked out if were are to counter the moves of progressivism effectively.  Yes, it will be painful.  However, we are the people who believe that pain is required to succeed in life.  I can understand reluctance to face the pain, but it is inevitable.

One thing I do hope for, as these battles rage, is that we can be more respectful to each other.  I have seen far too much mockery and mean-spiritedness between conservatives of late.  That is troubling, not only because it reduces the quality of the debate to do so, but because we're on the same side.  We want the same ends.  We merely disagree on methods.  Turning off our intellectual brothers and sisters will not help us.

I have more to write about, but for the time being this will have to suffice.