The Great Divide
One of the narratives being pushed in the aftermath of this election is it was the social conservatives that cost us this election.
An event from 2006 extends itself to this cycle in 2008 making it a trend. That trend is the passage of socially conservative measures with support that cuts across the partisan divides, that is the measures pass with a lot of support from those voting for Democrats as well as support of Republican voters.
A lot of this discussions focus on the idea that we have to expel the socially conservative activist from the conservative movement and retain only the fiscal conservative. First off, this violates in a big way the big-tent ideal. Secondly, the problem is the myth of a divide between social and fiscal values. This is a false divide, there is no opposition between social values and fiscal values.
The idea should be how to merge the two concepts in people's minds and bury that divide.
An event from 2006 extends itself to this cycle in 2008 making it a trend. That trend is the passage of socially conservative measures with support that cuts across the partisan divides, that is the measures pass with a lot of support from those voting for Democrats as well as support of Republican voters.
A lot of this discussions focus on the idea that we have to expel the socially conservative activist from the conservative movement and retain only the fiscal conservative. First off, this violates in a big way the big-tent ideal. Secondly, the problem is the myth of a divide between social and fiscal values. This is a false divide, there is no opposition between social values and fiscal values.
The idea should be how to merge the two concepts in people's minds and bury that divide.
posted by Marcus Aurelius at 12:47 PM
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