The Nextright--Good ideas

Whoever is behind the website www.thenextright.com deserves congratulations. With the right dissolving into paramilitary groups, teabaggers, libertarians and radical right Christianists, someone should be formulating a way that conservatism could regain acceptance and credibility by the mainstream. In a blog submitted by mark_j here are some of the ideas being submitted:
1. Conservatives have to discredit those individuals who are not being helpful to the cause. Here he cites Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee because they are too tied to Christianity. He thinks Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and others should be discredited for esposing hate and anger. Conservative talk radio ,he says, should be more constructive and hopeful and cater to the best, not the worse, in us.

2. Stop catering to the Christian Right. He says that Christianity has nothing to do with conservative ideas and theories on money, foreign policy,etc. He warns that our country was formed partially on freedom of religion and that if our government were run by someone who wants to impose their religion through laws and perspective, we would lose all that. And besides, 20% of the country is not Christian. Amen to that.

3. Stop simply opposing every idea President Obama has and propose alternative solutions. He says the way to gain some credibility is to work honestly with the left to create good policy and to proactively propose laws to solve some of our problems before the left takes up a problem.

4.Stop supporting causes that have nothing to do with Conservative ideology. He says the right should disassociate itself from issues such as abortion and marriage equality for gays;the arguments against which must be made on religious grounds. He thinks this will keep some moderates and probably will upset the Christian right, who could form a third party tightly tied to Christianity.

5.Stop being inconsistent. He blasts those who oppose healthcare that might save lives with taxpayer funds, while the same people support the Iraq War to give people in another country freedom and save lives. Why, he asks, should we spend taxpayer dollars to police the world yet not spend taxpayer dollars to save those within our borders? Either we shouldn't spend money to help others or we should and if we should it should be spent on those within our borders.

6.Stop being hawks. The right has become hawks, which is contrary to conservative ideas on foreign policy. He cites the Cato institute's foreign policy vision. "Cato's foreign policy is guided by the ideas of our national defense and security strategy being appropriate for a constitutional repuplic, not an empire....The use of U.S. military force should be limited to those occasions when the territorial integrity, national sovereignty, or liberty of the United States is at risk." He thinks these are the ideas that are most ethical and that would allow some of the left to consider the rest of conservative ideas.

7. Have a well thought out income tax policy. He thinks the government has taken on too much responsibility, spends too much and grown the debt so it's time to cut spending but increase revenue through a progressive income tax because those in the middle and lower class cannot support any higher tax burden.

8.Start supporting alternative energy and embrace that global warming is real and might be caused by us. He asks whether we can gamble that global warming is not caused by us. He notes that most of the oil is found in countries that don't like us so it is long past time to start looking at energy sources that don't emit CO2.

9. Stop catering to Israel. He believes we have given too much money and support to Israel at the expense of our national interest. He proposes we treat Israel as any other country that is a friend and ally of ours. He believes we should use our financial support of Israel to enhance peace and not use it to support them all the times but be critical.

10. Start rethinking drug policy. The war on drugs does not work and can not work as long as it is punitive rather than based on medicine. He believes it makes organized crime stronger, was originally based on racism and now is based on morality derived from religion. He thinks it's time for the government to take a non-punitive role in drug policy and make drug use safer and less damaging to society, and help those who are ready to reform their lives though the cessation of drug use.

I gather from the writing that the author is younger. The younger generation could care less about gay marriage, drug policy and the prohibition of abortion and does care about global warming and a sound foreign policy, where we are not going off to war at the drop of a hat.

I also detect that the embrace of Israel that characterizes the older generation and my own has not trickled down. For the first time since the founding of the state of Israel, support among the American public has dipped below 50% and I believe will dip further because of our own demographics and also the full court embrace by the Christian Right. Usually in my generation, the issue of Israel is really ground in who one supports there to best preserve the country's integrity and to bring peace to its borders. Only a miniscule number would flatout reject aid to Israel. Even conditioning aid is out of bounds in our present politics.

Mark_j took a good first cut at ideas about restoring conservatism's valid position in our political debate. I shudder to think about the response. We used to encourage people like this but I fear the Republican mindset has embraced a fossilized authoritarianism and that it will be difficult to dislodge. In a time of great uncertainty, they seem to banking on people longing for authoritarianism although their ideas have run out.

I hope we hear more from him. Personally, I'm saddened to see another young person turned off on religion because of our rambunctious culture warriors. I think this is the lasting damage done by Focus on the Family and other religious right-wing groups. It's hard to take religion seriously if all the true believers like Senator Ensign, Vitter and Gov Sanford run on family values but are swamped by their own sexual misconduct. It's hard to see the ethics in all that.