They are not failed ideas. They are simply ideas you do not like.

They may indeed be cynical boilerplate to many of the elected officials who are primarily concerned with feathering their own nests, staying in power, and enjoying the perks of office. To all of the principled conservative citizens whom I know, they are another matter entirely.

You’re right, a “renewal” of conservative thought is unlikely. What Rich and other accursed liberals are suggesting is that to function properly US democracy needs a credible opposition that proposed legitimate alternatives to the governing policies. The Democrats failed to do this when Bush was in power and thus they were complicit into getting us into the monstrous mess we now find ourselves in. It may be impossible for Republican ideologues to believe, but some liberals recognize that unfettered power is bad, no matter who wields it. We don’t need conservatives to think like liberals, we just need them to think. “Small government,” “family values”? These are failed ideas, to the extent that they were ever anything but cynical boilerplate. What are you offering in their stead?

It never ceases to amaze me that the GOP is *still* under the impression that what went wrong in 2006 and 2008 was that they weren’t right-wing enough. In the middle of an economic catastrophe brought on by right-wing policies and following the most unpopular president in the history of the Republic, moderate Republican John McCain still managed to get 47% of the vote. How can anyone be so blinded as to imagine that someone further right would have done better?

I appreciate your wariness of concern trolls, especially since the Dems had to deal with an unending parade of Republicans pretending to be concerned about the viability of the Dems in 2002-2005.

Of course, I predicted the current GOP civil war immediately after the election right here on your blog. The GOP is painfully predictable at this point. The relative moderates who run the actual political apparatus (the RNC etc) try to do what will improve their election chances while the far right media opinion makers(Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter etc) call for the heads of any party member who dares to step out of line. The only thing I didn’t anticipate was that the RNC would elect Michael Steele, who was doomed to fail before even taking the chairman’s gavel. Even the RNC doesn’t take him seriously and as a result he has no real pull within the party and as a result, when he took Limbaugh to task for one of the typically stupid things Limbaugh says on a daily basis, he ultimately had to publicly beg Rush for forgiveness.

The GOP normally keeps the horse in front of the cart. Right now they have the whip before the horse and the cart is missing a wheel.

On Spector, the thing that I don’t like about this matter is his bold-face lies about the root cause. He doesn’t want to lose his job – and he may well lose it anyway – and that was the simple math. He should just have said he would retire. The GOP has not always been happy with him but it has not gone after him, as a team, the way the Democrats did with Joe Lieberman for voting his conscience. I donated to the limit to his campaign when that happened and I don’t even live in his state.

With Obama having all this power, I wouldn’t invest in the dollar any time soon. Buy Sterling. I pains me more than I can say to have to say THAT.

p.s. I think it is ridiculous for someone to imply that you plagiarized. I have been to many blogs and yours is always good for the fact that you actually cite (via link) those who works you are referencing.

Your articles and blog posts, even where I don’t agree with you, are very well done and well reasoned and your opinions are worth knowing. I can’t compliment a blogger more than that. Even Dan apparently finds them interesting.

When liberals call for “a renewal of conservative thinking” they generally mean abandoning conservative principles and adopting liberal ones. Taunt, mock and name-call (yes, I get it, you think I’m a scold) all you want, but I will not be abandoning my principles in order to get you to like me better. If you find my blog boring, lacking in originality and hate-filled, you are certainly free not to read it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/03/opinion/03rich.html

He’s quite right that we need a functioning opposition rather than the pathetic bunch of “aging, rural Dixiecrats and intrusive scolds”. Unfortunately, as other commenters have observed, on blogs like this there is little sign of a renewal of conservative thinking, just paranoia, fear, hate, and parroting of cynical Republican talking points. Oh, and Ms Moralia, if you’re not an aging dixiecrat, what must you be?

As far as Specter goes, do you really think there will be a lot of Democrats arguing with you that he is an unpleasant power-hungry opportunist? So unusual for a politician….. The thing is, he is ours now, not yours, and the incredible shrinking Republican Party looks even more pathetic than it did last week! Fantastic to see the people who ran this country into the ground so thoroughly marginalized and demoralized!

As far as the 60-vote margin in the Senate goes, it is a beat-up by the media. If they were smart, Republicans would bid Specter farewell and good riddance and realize that not much has changed in terms of the balance of power. Unless Democrats vote in lock-step, which is very rare, the difference between 59 and 60 is negligible. I’m sure Specter, Snowe, Bayh et al–the usual collection of “moderate” Republican and right-wing Dem senators–will still be the decisive bloc on much legislation. More’s the pity….

Hey, tell me more about how George W. Bush was a great president and Obama is a socialist!

Actually, Dan, I haven’t been to Malkin’s website much lately. Busy with the kids and all that. I’ve been having trouble keeping up with the blogosphere in general. If I appear to be “parroting” her, it’s because we think alike, I guess.

Pretty funny that you accuse me of parroting Dem talking points when your opinions of late appear to be whatever Michelle Malkin says.