Restructuring of the U.S. political right

Restructuring of the U.S. political right is a broad category that variously tries to regain the political success of the coalition under Ronald Reagan, or, alternatively, tries to redefine the right, which may or may not mean the Republican Party, in purer ideological terms. Under Reagan, the center-right identified Republican Party had a peak of success, which built an effective coalition of fiscal, social and national security conservatism that both appealed to traditional Republicans but also brought in significant numbers of Democrats, especially fiscal conservatives.

That coalition has fractured, and the various approaches to restructuring include Republican party reorganization to make it a more bottom-up movement that remains inclusive, or alternatives that make it more ideologically pure, such as the Christian Right's emphasis on social conservatism, or the libertarian-influenced government minimization. It is not a given that a resurgent right will bear the Republican name, although most serious political analysts recognize the historic difficulty of creating a third party in the United States. Nevertheless, a number of theoreticians of reform define the change in terms of enlightened conservatism, although there is no consensus on the nature of enlightenment; groups such as The NextRight are trying to define it. Other reformers, such as David Frum, believe that the Republican Party lost its focus on governance, overly emphasizing short-term electoral victories.

As the more strategic thinkers focus on the long-term goals, current elections show some of the conflict. In the upcoming March 2010 Texas gubernatorial primary, for example, incumbent Governor Rick Perry emphasizes social conservatism; his criticism of opponent Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is more reminscent of Republican criticism of Democrats than of other Republicans. Even more significant is positioning for the 2010 Congressional elections.

Governance

David Frum believes the George W. Bush Administration lost focus, especially due to Karl Rove's emphasis on doing what was needed for "...Republicans win elections after Bill Clinton steered the Democrats to the center?" but not "What does the nation need — and how can conservatives achieve it?" Frum said Rove targeted specific constituencies with often-inconsistent promises, emphasizing party-building over governance. The problems of governance this created hurt, he says, the Republicans in the 2006 Congressional elections.

Litmus tests

Opposition to abortion, to many social conservatives, is the core issue facing the right. To a different constituency, gun control is the key issue.

Discussing issues going into the 2008 United States presidential election, Soren Dayton quoted one formulation from David Freddoso,

There is a long philosophical debate to be had over what makes a conservative, but conservatives in Washington have a rule of thumb for awarding the label to actual politicians: It’s the trinity of conservative issues: "Guns, Babies, and Taxes." My own minimum definition of a conservative officeholder or candidate is someone who is "good" on at least two of the three, and one of them has to be "Babies."

Dayton continued, however, that Freddoso's definition excluded such things as national defense, crime, spending and immigration, the latter excluding generally recognized conservatives as Rep. Jeff Flake and Chris Cannon "because they support a path to citizenship and a free market in labor, in addition to goods .... John McCain’s first real apostasy was campaign finance reform. Most of his other major sins occurred after that. Fred Thompson is a liberal because he extends federalism (a conservative principle) to gay marriage. And Ramesh points out that, on the original 3 principles, Reagan was 0-3 for quite a while."

This pattern, according to Dayton, led to "the transformation from the conservative movement from an organization around core of principles to a bunch of interest groups. This is the critical problem...Because conservatism lost its coherence, it has also lost its brand.

Political opinion broadcasting

To an unprecedented extent, broadcasters, some with no direct political experience such as Rush Limbaugh, and others primarily known as commentators such as Laura Ingraham, are variously claiming leadership of the right, or making policy proposals such as Ingraham's Ten for Ten.

Frum has accused media of distorting the process.

There's the perfect culmination of the outlook Rush Limbaugh has taught his fans and followers: we want to transform the party of Lincoln, Eisenhower and Reagan into a party of unanimous dittoheads—and we don't care how much the party has to shrink to do it. That's not the language of politics. It's the language of a cult.

I doubt Limbaugh and I even disagree very much. But the issues on which we do disagree are maybe the most important to the future of the conservative movement and the Republican Party: Should conservatives be trying to provoke or persuade? To narrow our coalition or enlarge it? To enflame or govern? And finally (and above all): to profit—or to serve?