The Great Republican Schism

A little political theorizing now, if you'll indulge me. Let's face it; the Democratic Party is a mess of interest groups and victims rights organizations loosely bound by a common sense of entitlement. This confederation is however, currently ascendant. There is an excellent chance that come November, the Democrats will own the White House and both chambers of Congress, poised then to overwhelm the final branch of government in the federal judiciary.

As I look at the Republican Party, there is a great schism at work, and it is one that will relegate the party to the minority for decades unless John McCain can bridge it. I call it "The Great Social/Fiscal Divide". Hat tip to brother Tom with whom this theory has gotten a great deal of sounding out.

I am a fiscal conservative, I am not a social conservative. There are a few issues upon which I agree with social conservatives, but my positions are rarely as strong as theirs, and they are very rarely issues upon which my vote might depend. Folks like me are a bit libertarian when it comes to social issues, and we get uncomfortable talking about late term abortion and gay marriage. We don't like those things, and we like talking about them even less.

Social conservatives make me nervous. They would rather be right than be in charge. I'd rather be in charge and make things right. Yes, I am aware of the great moral issues that social conservatives focus on, but I am also aware that in a democracy great moral issues get to be decided by a greatly fractured electorate and its representatives. And sometimes that decision is not to decide...when consensus is unavailable, a political solution is not warranted.

Until a Republican candidate figures out how to re-unite these wings of the party (a la Reagan), we will be in trouble. Neither wing alone is enough to take on the Dems. It is time to get serious.