I have talked about American conservatism…some of its history, its roots…and the direction it appears to be headed.

But it wasn’t until last night that I was finally able to find an answer to a question that had been eluding for the last year.  Let’s see if you know the answer:

If today’s Republicans and conservatives realize that they do not have the public support to win an election…and many acknowledge that the party/movement needs to be more inclusive to women, minorities, and moderate or independent voters…then why do they CONTINUE to perform actions which will CLEARLY and OBVIOUSLY alienate all but the most conservative members of our society?

I mean…I know that some of the Republicans and Conservative figures that I see on television are neither ignorant, nor unintelligent.  I may disagree them on particular issues, but I can plainly see that some conservative voices are reasonably intelligent and educated people…so I am all the more perplexed when I see them continue to take their movement, and their political party, down the cultural equivalent of a dead-end street.

…when an Hispanic Supreme Court Justice is nominated…they chose to attack her ethnicity, and some even went so far as to call her a racist.  They use “illegal immigrants” as the punchlines of jokes and as their rationale for inexcusably xenophobic positions.  So much for bringing Latinos into the fold…and a few women weren’t too happy about the way Sotomayor was treated either…

…first African-American President?  Some make race-based attacked (many posing as something else, but a child could see through the innuendos)…and send emails with racist pictures/cartoons in them.  Many choose to defend wingnuts claiming the President  isn’t an American citizen, and therefore not the President…and yes, he too, they call a “racist.“  Don’t see a lot of African-Americans lining up to be “card-carrying Republicans.”

…both politicians and pundits make comparisons between the administration and “national socialism” (aka Nazism), and direct comparisons to Hitler, the holocaust, and the “Final Solution.”  This…disgusts nearly every Jewish person in the country with any knowledge of history and the events of WWII-era Germany, as these insane references to the worst part of the Jewish peoples’ history are an INSULT to people whose ancestors lived through (or died during) those events.

…some Republicans open advocate people “using their Second Amendment rights” to protect their liberties against a non-existent government effort to thwart them.  Others defend the racists and fanatics, disrupting what should be peaceful town hall gatherings.  Some make jokes, or tongue-in-cheek suggestions that people need to “rise up” and “take back” their country “by any means necessary“…others refuse to condemn the latest inexcusably false, slanderous, or simply un-American statement to issue forth from Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter, or Michelle Malkin.  And moderates and independents…shake their heads and walk away.

…they frequently denounce anybody who is pro-choice, in favor of gay rights, is non-Christian, or who supports any positions of the Democrats and the President, calling these people “amoral,” or “confused,” or “part of the problem with this country.”  And more people walk away…

…they shoot down any program designed to help the lower or middle class…calling it handouts, or moaning about “entitled Americans.”  Simultaneously, the oppose any program that would take one more dollar from the wealthiest one percent, or from any of America’s richest corporations.  There goes the middle class…wave good-bye.

And watching them…it almost looks like a compulsion.  It’s as if they CAN’T HELP but drive these people away.

That’s when I realized.  They can’t help themselves.

I won’t belabor the point, as I have discussed it at length before, but the conservative movement used to be led by FISCAL CONSERVATIVES.  They espoused lower taxes, less government, less government interference in your private life, less government interference in private companies, and more global diplomacy/involvement towards the expansion of the American economic empire.  These conservatives…allowed all other kinds of conservatives to sit at the table.  For example, the fiscal conservatives didn’t agree with the social conservatives that government should control social “values“…they didn’t even agree on what all of the “values” should be…but they welcomed the social conservatives’ support. All the other varieties were also welcomed, along with moderates and independents: “crunchy” conservatives, constitutionalists, libertarians, cultural conservatives, traditionalists.  It was not a requirement that members of this “coalition” agree on all points…just that a person’s leanings were to the right.  This group, with its own norms and hierarchies…was very successful.

Then…the social conservatives took the seat at the head of the table.  This was through a rather Faustian bargain…some realized that there was a massive, previously-untapped voting bloc, and that by catering to the social conservatives who had built-in mobilization apparatus (ie. churches), a wealth of the country’s devoutly religious citizens, many seniors, and others could be brought into the voting booths…many could be swayed by a natural evangelical style of charismatic speaking and the cultivated passions and emotions of their adherents.  Many could be inspired by appeals to faith, and God, and “family values.”  So, the fiscal conservatives, whose principles attracted voters but who couldn’t inspire the same zealousness and energy, ALLOWED the social conservatives to take the lead…

At first…this strategy worked brilliantly, and the numbers of the conservative movement swelled.

But it couldn’t last, and for one simple reason:  while fiscal conservatives could tolerate different kinds of conservatism, different priorities, and those with different levels of commitment to conservative issues…social conservatives CAN NOT.  In the words of one such conservative, they believe “you are either with us, or against us.“  Now in control of the movement, the social conservatives would start to purge all members who would not fall into lock-step with their tenets.  In fact, while the fiscal conservatives were quite adept at foreign policy (which they approached from a business perspective), the social conservatives like to claim the same…but they actually completely inept at it (they, of course approach it from a social perspective), since they despise any country that disagrees with us, and think that people who differ from Americans in any way (culturally, politically, religiously, are even in the way they dress) are “wrong,” and “strange,” and “enemies.”

So in theory…today’s Republicans would love to have what they call a “big tent” with lots of diversity.  But there is a pretty strong caveat: if you don’t agree with them that abortion should be illegal, capital punishment should stay legal, all illegal immigrants should be kicked out of the country, all Americans should be Christians (and all American leaders, too), gays…should choose not to be gay, and that we should use military power to bring Christianity and Democracy to every country in the world…well, then YOU ARE NOT WELCOME.  These are not the only things you must agree with them on…the litmus test is LONG and UNFORGIVING, and those who do not pass it are not counted among their ever-dwindling circle of friends.

It reminds me of when I attended a fundamentalist church for an extended period of time.  I was shocked that they routinely condemned Methodists, Baptists, Catholics, Episcopalians…they would tell crude jokes and make wildly negative (and usually false) assertions about almost EVERY other Christian denomination.  I thought this was so odd.  I had been raised Presbyterian, and didn’t remember anybody ever saying an unkind word about any other Christian church.  But to the fundamentalists…everyone else was “wrong,” “part of what is ruining America,” “evil,” and they should be “taught the truth so that they can be saved.”  I tried mentioning to them that these other denominations had much more in common with them, and that the only differences were mostly matters of “ritual procedure” and nuances of scriptural interpretation…but my words fell on deaf ears, because they could only accept people who COMPLETELY agreed with them, and unquestioningly did so.  And like today’s Republicans…these fundamentalists just couldn’t understand why their numbers kept shrinking.

So the reason for their predicament is clear…but the solution is not easy.  The social conservatives…must be “dethroned” and another group of conservatives who will allow people who differ on points of religion, social values, and individual issues will have to take center stage.  The moderates and independents will only come back…when they are PERMITTED to come back, and to hold onto their own set of values and priorities.  And until that day…we will be forced to continue to watch conservatives and Republicans shrink until all that’s left are its most unreasonable and fanatical members.