GOP Refuses to Learn from History - AGAIN!

The Lincoln County GOP meeting yesterday in New Harbor was interesting, to say the least. Charlie Webster, leader of the Maine Republican Party and, obvious representative of the general thinking of Party officials, presented his vision of how to win Maine back for the GOP.

What he was basically saying was that the future of the Republicans lies in getting Republicans into office. Now, while that may SEEM self evident (for any RINO), he also said very clearly, that the GOP has to pander to the constituents of their individual districts. He said:“In a district up north, that’s really conservative, we have to run with a conservative. In a district with lots of liberal voters, we have to run with a moderate candidate”.

While that might seem straight out of Machiavelli or the playbook of coca cola marketing, he then went on to make the HUGE, the ENORMOUS mistake, that I have seen being made in Europe’s conservative parties over the past 4 decades. Charlie Webster said: “… and once we HAVE a majority in the Senate and the House, then the entire GOP will return to real conservatism.”

THAT is not going to happen, because politics like that end up to be self serving power politics devoid of any philosophical or political meaning.

There is a saying, that he who refuses to learn from history’s mistakes is bound to repeat them. Nothing could be more true or more relevant in this context.

We only have to look at the history of the European christian-democrat parties to see, where this GOP is going. Social democracy and socialism in Europe have been pandering to the unproductive part of society, to illegal immigrants and social parasites and self-victimizing minorities ever since the end of the 1960s, promising them a big, free piece of the national cake in return for votes. As corporate and individual taxes in Europe are generally at double the level they are in the US, all European countries could afford massive social programs and “free” healthcare for everybody. (Un)fortunately, it turned out, that these programs were not sustainable because businesses and productive individuals were taxed to death and leaving the country for greener (tax)-pastures.

The part of this development that is relevant in our context here is, that the conservative parties jumped on that bandwagon of “spreading the wealth around”. They simply noticed, that if they wanted to stand even the slightest chance of winning ANY elections, they would have to start coddling the social parasites with promises of money, government programs, and official victim hood status. So they did! The effect was, that the European conservative parties are only conservative in name. When you look at their programs and actions and listen to their speeches, it becomes evident, that they are pure social-democrats and socialists. This has been going on and getting worse for four decades now!

Only now are there political developments, in Austria for instance, where REAL conservatives have formed new rightist, conservative parties that bring home 30% of the vote regularly. That is a LOT in a multi-party system. More interesting even than that figure is the fact, that these parties have over 50% in the 18 to 35 year old segment of the population. Something that this present GOP can only dream about!

If the GOP were smart, they’d study the history of the European conservatives. Instead, they insist that, as long as the label on the politician says “GOP”, “we the people” have to fold and shut up.

THAT is not going to happen!