It looks to me more and more that the situation in NY-23 is a lose-lose-lose for conservatives. I just don’t see the likely election of Doug Hoffman as some great victory for conservatism and conservative principles.
1. There’s nothing conservative about reducing some 700,000 American citizens to the role of mere extras in some grand ideological battle and deriding their vital concerns as “parochial”. The U.S. Constitution (which conservatives hold so dear) entitles those people to effective representation in Congress. But the fact that Hoffman keeps talking about conservative principles yet did not bother to learn about local issues before parachuting into a district in which he does not live suggests that he may be more interesting in representing the Club for Growth and other ideological interests than in representing his actual constituents. In quite a few European countries with proportional representation individual members of parliament do not represent any specific constituency but rather get their seats by virtue of being relatively high on the party list of candidates, and that favorable placement is often a reward for ideological purity and/or loyalty to national party leaders. It beats me why American conservatives would want to imitate such a system.
2. Second-guessing decisions of local GOP organizations is not very consistent with conservative principles of state’s rights, federalism, subsidiarity etc.
3. Conservatives are not revolutionaries, they almost always work within the system. They actually want to conserve things. Such as the American political system (which has been phenomenally successful in promoting freedom and prosperity). One of its important features is a two-party system, which promotes consensus building, stability and predictability and reduces volatility (precisely of the kind that we have observed in NY-23 over the past couple of weeks). Unlike, say libertarians, conservatives also have a lot of appreciation for traditions and institutions. One of the most important American institutions is the Grand Old Party – the party that vanquished the great evils of slavery at home and Communism abroad and that has been a natural home for conservatives over the past several decades. The GOP actually has a mechanism for settling disputes over what candidates should run on the party ticket – primaries. Yes, there was no actual primary in this special election, but due process was still followed and the next primary in NY-23 is just several months away. Conservatives should not circumvent the Republican Party and its rules without truly compelling reasons, and the prospect of a not particularly conservative Republican serving in Congress for a year does not look like a very compelling reason to me – certainly not compelling enough to start moving towards the
multiparty politics of Italy and Israel.
4. The conservative cause will not be well served by the lessons many conservatives will draw from Hoffman’s victory. Conservatives all over the country will be encouraged to go after Republicans incumbents and candidates perceived to be insufficiently conservative.
5. The conservative cause will also not be well served by the lessons that moderate Republicans will draw from the whole NY-23 spectacle. For a couple decades now the GOP has had a glass ceiling: ideologically impure Republicans were told not to bother applying for positions at the top of the ticket (not even Vice President). Perhaps not entirely coincidentally Republican presidential candidates (barely) won the popular vote only once in the last 20 years, and the only spectacular Republican victory over that period was the takeover of Congress in 1994. Well, it appears that the glass ceiling is now being lowered to bar impure congressional candidates as well. Not only will the GOP have trouble next year recruiting moderate candidates in swing districts, but the influx of new young talent into the party will get reduced for years and years, since the unmistakable message to moderate Republicans is that they are not welcome in the party at the federal level and that their career opportunities are thus severely limited.
6. Finally, the conservative cause will not be well served by the lessons that the Democrats will draw from these events. With many potentially strong moderate Republican candidates not even bothering to run and others being relentlessly hounded by conservatives, the Democrats are not in much danger of losing a catastrophically large number of seats next year (they may even increase their majority). That will probably encourage them to pursue their (very unconservative) agenda more aggressively.
9 responses so far
1 joemarier // Nov 3, 2009 at 6:52 pm
It’s unfair to say Hoffman “parachuted in” to the district. He lived in the district as a kid, he moved to another area within the district, he got gerrymandered out of the district. Otherwise, some valid points.
2 prm79 // Nov 3, 2009 at 6:57 pm
Conservatives know who they are. They don’t need a liberal hack to define them.
In order to win NY 23, Conservatives need to win moderates. When Conservatives win NY 23, it will render you irrelavent. I look forward to you announcing a change of party on your next MSNBC appearance.
3 JaneG // Nov 3, 2009 at 7:13 pm
I see it differently, Andrew.
It occurs to me that we’re coalescing at last around a platform of limited central government and fiscal sanity.
It’s a winning message.
And America will be better for it.
4 Reason60 // Nov 3, 2009 at 7:29 pm
” Conservatives are not revolutionaries, they almost always work within the system.”
An excellent point! I made a similar thought over at Rick Moran’s blog, wherein I wrote:
My complaint[with the Tea Party] is that “ideological purity” is and should be, the province of conformists, “engineers of the human soul” (note I did not say Stalinists!) and authoritarians; moderation and compromise should be the property of conservative thought.
Conservatism is NOT about worshipping the cult of the free market,treating it as a religion, not to be questioned or sullied by compromise; All the greatest onservative minds- Burke, Hayek, Buckley- and the greatest conservative leaders- Eisenhower, Goldwater, Reagan to name a few- accepted that some efforts in society are properly done as government run enterprises; that any society would reach a compromised balance between individual freedom and social responsibility.
Emphasising a purity of thought, a desire to impose a single mode of acceptable thought upon a diverse nation of 300 million is frightening even in its most idealistic concept; ironically, dreaming of a purely conservative party where people in NY-23 have exactly the same viewpoint as CA-10 is the epitome of Ayn Rand’s “common yoke for a common neck”.
Compromise, reasonable accomodation of opposition, and balancing of powers is the conservatism that I can support. The language of Party purges, “enemies who must be vanquished” is insulting to the concept of freedom and liberty.
5 Reason60 // Nov 3, 2009 at 7:33 pm
JaneG-” a message of limited central government and fiscal sanity”
How I wish it were true!
But the main message of the Tea Party- pro-war, anti-tax; is madness personified, because it leads to where we are now- stupendous military spending, increasing power by the central government (via the Patriot Act) and no revenue to pay for any of it.
Deficit hawks and defense hawks are irevocably at war; war always, always enlarges government and increases spending; one cannot be simultaneously pro-war and against a large government.
6 Socrates // Nov 4, 2009 at 8:31 am
Huffman’s lost is a victory for the people of NY23. In fact, all four elections (NJ, VA, NY23, CA10) have one thing in common: local issues. People live in the real world and they want to know who can help them with their problems, not who is the most “pure” ideologically. That should be one of the lessons for those who are planning to run in 2010: what are you going to do for the people, especially in this difficult time?
As some wise man once told me: people vote with their tummy, stupid!
7 franco 2 // Nov 4, 2009 at 3:49 pm
I’m confused. How is it that Democrats are un-conservative and this is supposed to be a bad thing yet being conservative is also a bad thing? Oh yeah you need to be somewhere in the middle. That is the ideological purity that you want. Don’t believe in anything in particular just be somewhere in the middle. Brilliant!
8 The Scozzafava Meme | Republicans United. // Nov 11, 2009 at 10:56 pm
[...] in a smoky room in Upstate New York as the party bosses annointed her the leader. But as Andrew Pavelyev noted, Scozzafava was picked through a fair process, not by some backroom deal. It might not been [...]
9 The Scozzafava Meme - Hip Hop Republican // Nov 12, 2009 at 9:26 am
[...] in a smoky room in Upstate New York as the party bosses annointed her the leader. But as Andrew Pavelyev noted, Scozzafava was picked through a fair process, not by some backroom deal. It might not been [...]
You must log in to post a comment.