It's time!

Evan McMullin, who ran as an independent candidate for President in 2016, speaks in great detail about the summit that many former Republicans and current moderate Republicans had recently which focused on creating a possible third party to fight the extremism that currently makes up the bulk of the GOP.

At this summit the idea was floated that a third, center-right, presumably conservative, party could be formed or possibly a faction within the current GOP that would battle the extremist element of the party. McMullin, in the video, goes into great detail about the possibilities of both options.   

 

Not that McMullin is asking, but I am of the opinion that it is indeed time for a Conservative Party. It would be nice to have a center right conservative party that again fights for fiscal conservatism (discipline), free trade, lower taxes when possible, a strong national defense, and limited regulations on business. But also regulate business enough so that they don't run amuck on the environment or on its employees. It needs to resemble more of Dwight Eisenhower, Teddy Roosevelt or Ronald Reagan's GOP. 

This Conservative Party could work assuming it focuses on these core ideologies of the old Republican Party, but ditches the insane culture war aspects of the modern GOP/QAnon cult. There is a real call for a fiscally conservative party that doesn't spend all its time fighting gay rights, scapegoating immigrants for all of America's problems, and bashing science while also promoting conspiracy theories. Finally, this party must focus on equality for all Americans regardless of race, and that means ending this GOP talking point that there is massive election fraud under every rock. This party must also avoid shoving Christianity down everyone's throat. I am all for Christianity, but in accordance with our founding ideals, religion and government should remain separate. Everyone in this country should be free to worship as they see fit regardless of religious affiliation.

The formation of such a party would lead to initial losses for both the current GOP and this Conservative Party, but this is necessary in order to eliminate the craziness that currently dominates the Republican Party. 

This new party would need to focus on getting funding from corporations that have cut their ties with the current tin-foil-hat-wearing members of the Republican Party, and run conservative candidates in the old mold of Reagan, Eisenhower, Roosevelt etc. in all the red states for senate and red congressional districts regardless of state. They should not oppose the Republican candidates in primaries because that is just a waste of time and money, but should instead get on the ballot to divert votes away from these Republican candidates that have lost their minds. This is how you purge the party on insanity. Simply running candidates against these nut jobs in Republican primaries will not work. Bill Weld and others tried that in 2020 when they ran against Trump in the primaries and averaged only 10-15 percent of the Republican vote, and we were still left with Trump as the only conservative choice.

If this conservative party instead helped moderate Democrats win in red states for one cycle, maybe the party could again find its footing. As long as the likes of Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell, Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley keep winning re-election, there is no incentive for them to change or for the Republican Party to change. These candidates must be defeated in order to send the message that this craziness within the party will not be tolerated.

It is time!