Why the Neocon Movement Is Dead

In one of the largest, "throw the bums out" elections, ever, Republicans have lost control of the House & Senate. Harper's Conservatives need to reinvent themselves or they too, will get a thumpin. If they don't change the playbook their message will fall on deaf ears.

For the last 30 years the staple of conservative attacks has been "they will tax & spend". In the last 15 years or so they added "they are morally corrupt". A heap of scandals and shocking revelations later, it becomes clear that no political party can claim to be morally superior and the Liberals have a better track record over the last 20 years of running the economy.

People won't believe the same lines anymore. Not unless there's substance to it.

If neocons want to survive they have to make a few changes that can best be summed up as: become libertarians. At least it's a consistent fluid belief system. Not what they have now: an unholy alliance of economic conservatives, libertarians, & the religious right. First thing: drop the religious right. Religion and politics don't mix. People increasingly regard their religious belief system as deeply personal and not public. Too many issues religion interjects into politics are wedge issues. I don't buy that you are more moral than me because you go to Church. And with all the sex scandals that have taken the high and mighty down from their towers, the public's not willing to trust someone who makes a point of showing how holy they are.

If Stephen Harper doesn't accept gay marriage he will not win. The public doesn't want to go over the issue because frankly, there are more important issues out there, so accept that gays can marry and move on. And don't try to make it into some kind of "civil union" - gays want the same rights and the majority of the public agrees.

But the achilles heel for conservatives has to be the environment. Conservatives are in danger of being seen as backwards buffoons for denying the overwhelming science surrounding climate change. Harper: the science is in. We must reduce human carbon emissions, develop an energy strategy, decrease our consumption of fossil fuels now. The weather is fucked up and anyone can tell you that. More people have asthma & weird breathing disorders than ever. Commercial fisheries will collapse in 50 years or less and your government people know it. You need to have a real policy. Like what you did with the GST. You lowered the tax. Now all you gotta do is lower the pollution.

What you need to do is make a Madonna esque transformation. Drop the ideologue. Don the pragmatist. All the great leaders in history knew about that. The only bad thing they can call you for that is a waffler but these days that gets a lot more cred, than staying the course, which sounds a lot like how Einstein defined insanity.

Maybe the Conservatives can develop a policy that harnesses the power of the profit motive, like the suggestion in the US to take impoverished areas and designate them "enterprise zones", tax havens to seek investment for development & employment. (If only someone ever enacted this idea we might know if it can succeed but alas, just another platitude). Environmentalists will support a clear plan to hit specific goals (short term & long term, like in... Kyoto, for example).

Support Kyoto and get the US to do the same. The economy won't collapse. In fact, it will be saved from an impending global depression if we don't get off fossil fuels that are running out, killing our air & water, & fuelling wars & regimes all over the place.

If the conservatives can find a way to address these key issues, they might have a future. There's a guy in Canadian politics who has at times demonstrated the right balance of pragmatism and principle, and whether you like him or not, he's someone the conservatives can learn the most from. His name: Jack Layton.
Too bad he can't get elected.
More on this later.