Right going left?

[Red Lion]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18507722/site/newsweek/

[BenGarrett]

It's nothing more than the political pendulum swinging left, and it happens in cycles in American politics if you look back at its history. As for the insinuation that single-issue voters like pro-life voters are destroying the party, I'd like to let Ms. Eisenhower in on what I thought was a well-known secret: It was single-issue, social conservatives (I group gunowners in with social conservatives) that were responsible for the GOP's most recent reign. It was not fiscal conservatives that vaulted the Republicans to control of Washington. I haven't seen much sign of fiscal conservatism out of the GOP since the days of Reagan, and while Reagan's presidency was good for the economy, even Reagan wasn't true to the fiscal conservatism of the old, dyed-in-the-wool fiscal conservatives.

[Aught Six]

I see it more as a softening than a shifting.

[BenGarrett]

Also, I noticed that one of their offspring of Republican scions who is supposedly thinking about jumping ship is Theodore Roosevelt IV. I admire the life and times of Teddy Roosevelt. He was a good president and a better conservationist. But he defected from the Republican Party when he and Taft had a falling out of their own about the role government should play. So I don't think it's fair to count his great-grandson as the offpsring of a staunch Republican who is thinking about defecting.

Also, Newsweek draws a parallel with 1932, when Franklin D. Roosevelt led a Democratic Party sweep to power in the midst of a Depression and liberalism as an ideology saw its greatest advancement of any time in the 20th Century. I have no doubt that 2008 will see the Democrats strengthen their grip on Congress, but if we're going to use this particular history as our guide, let's also remember that the advancement of liberalism in the '30s led to the formation of the Conservative Coalition, with conservatives reaching across party lines like never before to advance conservatism as an ideology that it itself had not seen until that point, and that it wouldn't see again until the Reagan years.

[Whitehorse]

One of the main reasons the republicans lost control of congress is because many conservative "Faith & Values" voters sat this last one out. They sat out because the republican congressional leadership had gone native & moved away from the base's core conservatism.

I'm sure Newsweek & most of the MSM hope that the republicans nominate a milquetoast moderate in 2008. They realize that a strong conservative, say Fred Thompson, would have a great chance toenergize the base around core conservative principles, & since these in the MSM don't want core conservative principles in power, they want someone wishy-washy. Looks to be wishful writing & trying to write what they want into being...