Is it time for a new party?

Is it time for a new ‘conservative’ party?

Herman Cain recently said that he thinks so, and I find it hard to argue with him. Herman is right when he alleges that “neither party is going to fix the problems we face” and agreed with American Family Radio host Bryan Fischer that conservatives are growing tired of being ignored by Republican Party leadership and that many conservatives believe that the GOP no longer speaks for them. I’ve felt that way for a very long time and my conviction has only grown stronger over the past few years.

2012 Republican Presidential candidate Herman Cain

The need for a third party isn’t based on the damage the progressives in government, the Democratic Party, and the media managed to do to the Republican ‘brand’, so to speak. The issue I have with the Republican Party, and have always had with the Republican Party, is that the leadership of the party is so ensconced within the ‘inside the beltway’ political culture that when it comes to leading and governing based upon ideology and principle they suddenly find themselves at odds with their own professional and financial interests and nothing ever changes.

Most likely, close to 80% of the rank-and-file of the Republican Party are ideological conservatives, but when the rank-and-file try to hold the leadership to account for leading and governing by that standard, we’re told that it’s just not possible to lead or govern that way, that in order to lead and govern compromises and sacrifices must be made, that accommodations and appeasement are the pragmatic and responsible way forward. Furthermore, we’re told that to insist upon conservative ideals in matters of legislation and policy is naïve and foolish; that government ‘just doesn’t work that way.’

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, House Speaker John Boehner, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell are perfect examples of this flawed thinking, but they hold the reins of power in the party very tightly and they have placed people in support roles who agree with them, creating an entrenched power base that refuses to budge or be swayed. As long as that remains the case, the Republican Party will continue to lose national races, and this GOP leadership has gone to great lengths to see to its perpetuation.

Tea party folks have been trying to make headway against this ever since we got involved with the party, but it just won’t crack. And while we have made significant strides in spreading the message that conservatism and returning to the constitutional limits placed upon the federal government are key principles in finding the best answers to our nation’s present problems, no amount of public opinion, popular support, or grassroots political action has done a thing to create the slightest dent in this cabal who are determined to go against the rank-and-file’s wishes and march the GOP off into the political wilderness.

The leadership of the party are even now trying to blame Mitt Romney’s loss on the tea party movement and using that as an excuse to discredit ideological conservatives and eliminate us as a threat to their precious political power. As a result, the GOP is now about to move even farther to the political left which will lead to their complete undoing.

I really don’t think the answer is to keep trying to bail out the rapidly sinking ship that the Republican Party has allowed itself to become. I agree with Herman Cain, and I started thinking along the lines of a third party from the time it became clear that the GOP leadership were doing their best to force their choice for the nomination upon the rest of the party. Now that we’ve all done our best with what we were handed by the Republican leadership to try to stop the progressive agenda I think it’s time to form a genuinely conservative political party; a party independent of that nest of politicos. A party that can verbally articulate conservative solutions comprised of people who know conservatism because they live and breathe conservatism every day of their lives rather than be misled again and again by GOP political hacks who’ve learned how and when to deliver focus group-tested conservative-sounding sound bites whenever election season rolls around.

In politics, ideology is everything – but timing is critical. The time may never be more ripe than now to mount a conservative challenge to the GOP. If all the genuine conservatives in the Republican Party were to leave the party for a better alternative, the GOP leadership would find itself in command of an empty, sinking boat. Let them own their message of accommodation and appeasement and all it has gotten them – and us. Conservatism deserves better spokesmen than a bunch of witless sycophants inside the Washington Beltway trying to speak conservatism as a second language. We need a party whose leadership won’t garble the message or drop the ball when principled push comes to ideological shove.

Conservatism needs a new home and America needs a conservative party that will speak with a genuine voice and act with conviction and determination, leading by principled example. I believe the time is now for those whose reverence is for Washington, Madison, and Jefferson; for Davy Crockett, Daniel Webster, and Abraham Lincoln; for Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Barry Goldwater, and Ronald Reagan, for those who have seen to the birth and perpetuation of liberty as mankind’s greatest gift and its ultimate material salvation, to form a party reflective of those ideals led by principled men and women who are ready to take up the torch and be an effective force in government. We need a new ‘conservative’ party.