Monday, October 21, 2013

Issue 188 A New Party? October 21, 2013


With all this government shut down talk, we begin to see the truth behind both political parties. In that I mean, who supports whom, and what ideology. I had previously talked about defunding the GOP, and I do mean that. But could it lead to a new political party, or even the death of the Republican Party?

What has occurred: The leadership in the Republican Party is concerned. They thought they had control over the more Conservative and Libertarian parts of their party. However, the shut down has shown that to be false. Senator Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and others have stood up. These Senators and many in the House of Representatives have begun to speak out for change. Change for them would mean not raising the debt ceiling, but paying the interest on the debt first to prevent a default. Changes that would mean slimming down government. But the leadership does not want that. The Republican leadership wants the big government and has even threatened to pull funding from any member of the Republican Party that gets money from Freedom Works or the Senate Conservatives Fund as they are Libertarian and Conservative organizations respectively. Established members hate these groups because they run counter to the leadership’s agenda and thus want to force them into submission.

Reaction: Many Libertarians and Conservatives see the writing on the wall. People like Glen Beck who runs the Blaze has called for the GOP to be defunded. He has now refused to give any money to any GOP related organization. As he has the third most listened to radio show, the 11th most visited social media site and a constantly growing television network, he has a lot of fans who are going to listen. As such the Libertarians and Conservatives like those in the Tea Party, or in C-pack are also more than likely going to follow suit. Therefore the voices of the Conservative and Libertarian arm of the Republican Party are going to force the issue. Either you stop attacking your own or we are going to just up and leave with all the money.

Possibilities: What could happen is one of two things. Either the Republican Party capitulates and goes in a more Libertarian/ Conservative direction or we get a new political party. The Whig Party destroyed itself by ignoring its anti-slavery arm which would eventually become the Republicans. Now it is happening again to the Republican Party. As to whether the Libertarians/conservatives take over or split off into a new party remains to be seen. However, if either should occur, then the Republican Party as we know it is dead. Also, you will see a mass exodus of the old guard of the Republicans shift to the Democrats. This will moderate the Democrats further as it is felt by even some of its own leadership that it has gone a bit further to the left than it had desired. So which occurs remains to be seen?

Conclusion: I like the idea of multiple parties. It keeps people from reaching a consensus too quickly which could lead to a detrimental result. I would not mind a third or fourth party, but others do mind because they feel chaos may ensue, or coalitions that breaks with values may be formed. If the GOP dies I will not weep. I'm not even a Republican in the first place. I have no party, and I like it that way. I had hoped Occupy Wall Street would become a third party and the Tea party another, but those hopes were dashed as groups attempted to hijack Occupy and the Republicans made every attempt to either eat or snuff out the teas. However, it is revenge time. Time to defund the GOP.

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