Conservative Disillusionment with today's Republican Party

As the ruthless campaign manager and GOP chairman of the 70's and 80's, Lee Atwater did for Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan's and George Bush Sr's what Karl Rove did for George W. Bush. When he was stricken with brain cancer in 1991, however, he had a deathbed conversion and said :         "My illness helped me to see that what was missing in society is what was missing in me: a little heart, a lot of brotherhood. The '80s were about acquiring — acquiring wealth, power, prestige. I know. I acquired more wealth, power, and prestige than most. But you can acquire all you want and still feel empty. What power wouldn't I trade for a little more time with my family? What price wouldn't I pay for an evening with friends? It took a deadly illness to put me eye to eye with that truth, but it is a truth that the country, caught up in its ruthless ambitions and moral decay, can learn on my dime. I don't know who will lead us through the '90s, but they must be made to speak to this spiritual vacuum at the heart of American society, this tumor of the soul." (in a February 1991 article for Life Magazine )         "I was wrong to follow the meanness of Conservatism. I should have been trying to help people instead of take advantage of them. I don't hate anyone anymore. For the first time in my life I don't hate somebody. I have nothing but good feelings toward people. I've found Jesus Christ - It's that simple. He's made a difference."         How long will it take for the Conservative sheep, and for the "Christian evangelicals" in particular, to wake up to the fact that they've been had.? There are signs that the sun is dawning, as several "leading lights" of the Conservative movement have seen the light and are now doing their best to share that light with their followers, who surely number in the millions. Richard Viguerie has been one of the architects of the Conservative movement for some 40 years or more and he is so disgusted with the current Republican White House and Republican-ruled Congress that he has published a book that urges Conservatives like himself to turn their backs on the Republican Party in the upcoming elections. David Kuo served as special assistant to the president from 2001 to 2003. A self-described conservative Christian, Kuo’s previous experience includes work for prominent conservatives including former Education Secretary and federal drug czar Bill Bennett and former Attorney General John Ashcroft.   David was so disillusioned with the Bush administration's behind the scenes contempt for the religious community that he wrote a book published in Oct., 2006 to expose the hypocrisy of Bush and company. The book is called "Tempting Faith" and there is a long review of the book as well as a lengthy video of the MSNBC journalist Keith Olbermann commenting on the book, at www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15228489/. Pat Buchanan has recently published this new book Where the Right Went Wrong: How Neoconservatives Subverted the Reagan Revolution and Hijacked the Bush Presidency. Andrew Sullivan is another disillusioned Conservative, usually Republican, spokesman who has just published a book on the topic, called "The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It, How to Get It Back". Barry Goldwater was one of the most famous leaders of the Conservative movement in the United States. And his book "Conscience of a Conservative" has been the bible of American Conservatism. According to John Dean, (the one Republican in the Nixon administration who demonstrated that he had a conscience), had he lived, his close friend Barry Goldwater would have co-authored this latest book published by Dean, in Sept. of 2006, "Conservatives Without Conscience" .  "John Dean takes a sobering look at how radical elements are destroying the Republican Party along with the very foundations of American democracy." "The Bush administration's drive to politicize the Justice Department reached a new low with the wrongful firing of seven U.S. Attorneys in late 2006. Their action has ignited public outrage on a scale that far surpassed the reaction to any of the Bush administration's other political debacles. David Iglesias was one of those federal prosecutors, and now he tells his story." [ from : amazon.com/Justice-Inside-Scandal-Rocked-Administration/dp/0470261978] In an important article, in The Washington Monthly, October 2006 Christopher Buckley, the son of William F. Buckley, argued in "Let’s quit while we’re behind" that Conservatives should replace the current crop of "incontinent Conservatives" with Liberal Democrats in the November elections of 2006. When White House attorney Egil "Bud" Krogh was just 31 years old, he directed President Richard Nixon's "Plumbers" unit, a group charged with preventing the "leaking" of classified government information which was embarrassing to the Nixon administration.   Krogh authorized the infamous 1971 break-in that spiraled into the Watergate scandal that put Krogh in jail and decimated the careers of countless others, not the least of which was Nixon's.         After pleading guilty of Watergate crimes, Krogh served a brief prison sentence, was disbarred for a time, but has since returned to honorable service as a lawyer and in he plans to publish a book entitled, "On Integrity: Lessons of a Nixon White House Lawyer," in early 2007. The son of Dr. Francis Schaeffer, one of the leading lights of Conservative Christianity in America has been a lifelong Republican, but explains here why "I am leaving the GOP" November 1, 2006         I'm a Christian, a writer, a military parent and a registered Republican.         On all those counts, I was disgusted by an e-mail I just received that's being circulated by campaign supporters of Republican George Allen, who's trying to retain his Senate seat in Virginia.         The message goes like this: "First, it was the Catholic priests, then it was Mark Foley, and now Jim Webb, whose sleazy novels discuss sex between very young teenagers. ... Hmmm, sounds like a perverted pedophile to me! Pass the word that we do not need any more pedophiles in office."         Democrat James Webb is a war hero and former Marine, wounded in Vietnam and winner of the Navy Cross. He was writing about class and military issues long before me and has articulated the issue of how the elites have dropped the ball on military service in his classic novel Fields of Fire. By the way, that's a book Tom Wolfe calls "the greatest of the Vietnam novels."         Mr. Webb's son is a Marine in Iraq. That's an uncommon fact in this era in which most political leaders' children act as if it is only right and proper that it's someone else's war to fight.         Mr. Webb also happens to be running against a desperate opponent supported by people who circulated the stupid e-mail, something that reminds me of a 2000 smear campaign aimed at another war hero, John McCain.         I never served in the military. It was my son's unexpected volunteering that connects me to the military family and to my country. And I've been voting Republican for years. My late father Dr. Francis Schaeffer was an evangelical theologian, friend to Jerry Falwell and White House guest of Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford and the first President Bush.         I have nice handwritten letters from various members of the Bush family, including Barbara, thanking me for my books on military service. So I have every reason to stay in the Republicans' good graces. (It's nice to be complimented on television by the First Lady.)         But enough is enough. I've had it with Republican smears.         The Webb e-mail is the embodiment of the cynical Republican strategists, some of whom must know the difference between fiction and nonfiction. Was Agatha Christie a murderer because she wrote about murder?         According to the Allen camp's logic, God would be a pedophile, too. After all, we Christians believe God inspired the Bible. And God-the-author chose to include the "sleazy" story about Lot offering to send out his young virgin daughters to be raped by the men of Sodom.         The Bible has masturbation scenes, rape, pedophilia and God's favorite man King David warming himself with a young virgin in his old age. He's the same man God tells us committed murder after he indulged his peeping Tom fantasies.         Lucky for God-the-author that He's not running against George Allen.         I just got back from a visit to Parris Island and was struck again as I was on the proud day of my son's boot camp graduation there as a Marine in 1999 by the moral credibility of the drill instructors and selflessness of the recruits.         Our political leaders should learn from them. In fact, our future leaders should be them. We need to compare today's leaders to those of the past, who earned credibility beyond the reach of cynicism and irony and cheap smear tactics.         People like Mr. McCain who is "for" the war in Iraq and Mr. Webb who is "against" the war should be respected no matter one's politics or ideas about the war. Why? Because they paid their dues.         My wife and I have reached the tipping point. We plan to go to town hall to dump our Republican voter registration and re-register as independents. I don't care anymore what party someone is in. These days, what I care about is what they're made of. Wartime demands leaders with character and moral authority. The political party smearing Mr. Webb proves it has neither."         In 2007 Francis Schaeffer published his autobiographical book Crazy for God in which he distanced himself from "the Religious Right" and express remorse for some of the things he and his father had done to promote the fortunes of that misguided movement.

The Washington Monthly magazine devoted its entire October, 2006 issue to the topic:"  Time For Us To Go" and featured seven prominent conservative spokesmen explaining why they all agreed that :"the GOP should lose in 2006."         "With Republicans controlling Congress and the White House, conservatives these days ought to be happy, but most aren't. They see expanding government, runaway spending, Middle East entanglements, and government corruption, and they wonder why, exactly, the country should be grateful for Republican dominance. Some accuse Bush and the Republicans today of not being true conservatives. Others see a grab bag of stated policies and wonder how they cohere. Everyone thinks something's got to change.         Now seven prominent conservatives dare to speak the unspeakable: They hope the Republicans lose in 2006. Well, let's be diplomatic and say they'd prefer divided government — soon. Of course, all of them wish for the long-term health of conservatism, and most are loyal to the GOP. What they also believe, however, is that even if a Speaker Pelosi looms in the wings, sometimes the best remedy for a party gone astray is to give it a session in the time-out chair." Let's quit while we're behind, by Christopher Buckley Bring on Pelosi, by Bruce Bartlett And we thought Clinton had no self-control, by Joe Scarborough Give divided government a chance, by William A. Niskanen Restrain this White House, by Bruce Fein Idéologie has taken over, by Jeffrey Hart The show must not go on, by Richard A. Viguerie Pastor Joel Hunter who wrote the book, “Right Wing, Wrong Bird: Why the Tactics of the Religious Right Won’t Fly With Most Conservative Christians,” was scheduled to become the President of the Christian Coalition on Jan. 1, 2007, but when he made clear his intention to broaden the scope of the organization to emphasize the environment and the plight of the poor, he and the Coalition had a parting of the ways. Why Economic Conservatives May Stay Home on Election Day, 2008 (rather than vote Republican) by Michael Tanner, a Fox News web site editorial, Nov. 20, 2007 After serving a prison sentence for using illegal means to get his Republican friends elected in 2004, Allen Raymond has now published a book called “How to Rig an Election: Confessions of a Republican Operative.” In it, he paints a picture of the corruption of modern politics that should leave no doubt about the creativity and cynicism of operatives like Mr. Raymond or the need for tough new election-reform legislation. [ www.nytimes.com/2008/01/01/opinion/01tue3.html? _r=2&ref=opinion&oref=slogin&oref=slogin ]         If you know of similar books, speeches or articles, please email me so that I can keep this the best such list on the www.